Guide:Shuttlecraft

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Shuttlecraft

Until the Romulan wars, most Earth starship auxiliaries were simple surface-to-orbit craft with atmospheric maneuvering capacity but virtually no interplanetary, let alone interstellar capabilities. With the founding of the UFP Star Fleet, the situation changed, and a classification system for various shuttle types was adopted. In its final form, it encompassed the following classes, not all of which are necessarily logically classifiable as shuttlecraft:

Class A: light intership/transatmospheric craft
Class B: heavy intership/transatmospheric craft
Class C: special environment craft
Class D: light interplanetary craft
Class E: heavy interplanetary craft
Class F: light interstellar craft
Class G: heavy interstellar craft
Class H: independent interstellar craft

Note that Class C should not be confused with the contemporary starship designation pertaining to unmanned cargo pods, nor Classes F and G with those of manned freighters and droneships, respectively. The classification scheme for shuttles was a separate construct from the starship classification and registration system. Nevertheless, the starship designations Class S (technology testbed) and Class T (training) have been applied to shuttlecraft as well.

The system was sometimes of rather limited use, since advances in technology soon elevated most shuttles first to categories D and E, then to F and G. Within each class, there were various ‘types’, ‘marks’ or ‘makes’ of shuttles, which made identification by class designation rather imprecise. Classification of this kind was finally abandoned in the 2270s, as the proliferation of compact warp drives and weaponry made it possible to equip craft of virtually any size with ‘Class A to G’ capabilities. In this chapter, shuttles will be listed in chronological order, but the classification in the old system will be included in the data charts of older shuttlecraft. In addition, a selection of alternate and colloquial names will be provided, since the reader is just as likely to encounter some of these names as the ‘official’ designations in reference materials.

Current classification simply divides the craft into light, medium and heavy shuttles, gives a unique type number to each design, a chronologically sequential mark number to each sub-design within the type, and shunts many previous light shuttlecraft to the category of shuttlepods. Even this is by no means an intuitively clear system, however, since the type numbers aren’t necessarily chronologically arranged.

Despite the extensive standardization of Star Fleet shuttle maintenance and replenishment gear, it is still common to design specific auxiliary types for each starship class or grouping. Small ships tend to receive multi-purpose, somewhat compromise-ridden designs, often utilizing the kind of hardware solutions typical of the mothership. Larger starships carry a wider variety of more specialized types, ranging from light ‘flying boxcars’ like the current Type 6 and 8 light shuttles to complex high speed craft like the Type 12 light shuttle, or huge landers like the Type 27 atmospheric barge.

The Craft

Updated to December 2016 version
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