Guide:DY warp series

DY series (warp)
Class Overview
Category	transports/system patrol vessels
Operational	Wheeler: 2069-2168 Hawke: 2087-2131 Dare: 2089-2156
Constructed	87 total: 15 Hawke (DY-1100) patrol cruisers 50 Dare (DY-1250) patrol corvettes 22 Wheeler (DY-500 B/C) transports
Dimensions
Length	167.1m Hawke 90.0m Dare 169.5m Wheeler
Beam	90.4m Hawke 37.2m Dare 32.0m Wheeler
Height	24.0m Hawke 37.2m Dare 52.8m Wheeler
Mass	49,000 tons Hawke 45,000 tons Dare 33,400 tons Wheeler
Performance
Cruise Speed	w 2.5 Hawke w 2.0 Dare w 1.4 Wheeler
Max Speed	w 2.7 Hawke w 2.5 Dare w 1.4 Wheeler
Endurance	2.5 years Hawke 1 year Dare 2 years Wheeler
Complement
Officers	11 Hawke 8 Dare 3 Wheeler
Crew	72 Hawke 51 Dare 8 Wheeler (typical)
Tactical Systems
Beam Weapons	2x Sorac 1.8 Plus class lasers, wings (Hawke) upgraded to Brenkai 1.93 Plus class (2111) 4x Brenkai class lasers, midhull (Dare) replaced by 4x TDM-8 plasma cannons (2106) 1x Sorac 1.8 Plus class lasers, ventral bow (Dare) upgraded to Brenkai 1.93 Plus class (2111) 1x TDM-8 plasma cannon, ventral bow (2111) (select Wheelers)
Missile Weapons	2x nuclear missile launcher (50 missiles/sublight probes), fwd hull (Hawke) 3x nuclear missile launcher (12 missiles), dorsal bow (Dare)
Other Weapons	1x mine tube (120 mines) (Dare)
Shields	electromagnetic shield (10 T) anti-laser glass-cloud dispensers (Hawke, Dare)
Laboratories	1x GP, 1x planetary sciences (Hawke) none (Dare, Wheeler)
Auxiliary Craft	various (Wheeler) 1 atmospheric scoutcraft & 2 shuttlepods (Hawke) 2 shuttlepods (Dare)
Canonicity
Design	Matt Jeffries, Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle, et al.
Name	TNG (Lawrence Miller, own)
History	TNG (AMT)

Background: The Hobbyist's Guide

The Conestoga project had been lavishly supported by the rapidly solidifying alliance of major Earth governments. Yet individual nations and corporations had at least equal interstellar ambitions as of the second half of the 21st century. To meet the needs of the fantastic new market, Dinyan-Yoyodyne quickly expanded its range of products to include warp-capable colonization, transportation and exploration vessels. While few of these designs ever entered Earth government service, let alone joined the UE or UFP fleets, a collective look at the design family reveals their significance to Earth’s interstellar expansion as a whole.

DY-500 vessel Mariposa in launch configuration, 2123. Note scabbed-on modern navigational sensors on command tower, the increased diameter of the central hull as compared with DY-100, as well as the ventrally mounted hull extension that housed colonization gear and consumables. Low-warp colonization vessels of this or derived types were produced until 2188, and some are still believed to be in transit. Surprisingly few disasters befell these extremely primitive vessels – a colonization mission success rate of 58% is reported.

As soon as the secrets of warp technology entered public domain, a number of DY-100, -130 and -140 series sublight transports were quickly, even hastily, upgraded with warp propulsion, to yield the equivalent “200 family” of vessels. These almost distressingly slow warpships originally served as in-system rather than interstellar transports, but several eventually found a deep space niche in corporate or private hands. Numerous 230 and 240 series vessels performed adequately as explorers and merchantmen in sectors close to Earth until the mid-23rd century.

The organizations in original possession of the converted sublight vessels were quick to dispense with the upgraded versions when the newbuilt DY-500 colonization vessels entered the market. Based on the general design of the DY-100 series, yet enlarged and equipped with a new propulsion section featuring a single inboard warp coil set, these still relatively small and affordable vessels could span the 50 lightyears needed for the average colonization expedition in a couple of years. Closer to a hundred such vessels were built, accompanied by the stretched 700 and 900 series and several dozen examples of the 550, 750 and 950 transport variants. The largest vessels had the capacity to establish a fully functional 500-person colony across distances of up to 100 lightyears. Before, during and following the Romulan War, these ships formed the second major ‘Gold Rush’ of Earth colonists, carrying hopeful settlers to Gourami and Nebed sectors and pushing Earth zone of influence far antispinwards.

A typical colonization mission would involve a promising star system being picked from the accumulating database; a DY series vessel being stocked with the gear needed for settling on a class M planet, in the hopes that one would exist in the target system; the colonists being loaded aboard mostly under stasis, with a small operating crew awake; the ship being launched, and spending years or decades in transit; and finally, a planetfall being made, a colony founded, and a transmitter built for sending back to Earth a triumphant message of success (unless the colonists aimed for complete isolation and independence, a goal of some 20% of the missions).

Having delivered their payload, the ships were generally left idle until the colony would start producing a commodity that needed to be shipped back to Earth. When the time came, the old colonizer would be the ideal first choice for cargo carrier – automated operations would negate the need to maintain the often finicky life support systems, and the sturdy propulsion machinery could well remain operational for centuries. It would only be in the early 23rd century that faster commercial vessels would finally take over the cargo carrier role from the old colonizers.

The newly formed United Earth Defense Pact made purchase of four vessels of DY-500 type early on, and had boosted its fleet of warp transports to 22 by 2075. A far more involved variant family was already under development at Dinyan-Yoyodyne’s new Wellington headquarters, however. The ships in the 1000 series were to feature significantly extended midhulls for housing warp engines of greater performance. Their intended primary market was not in interstellar settlement itself, but rather in the exploration and prospecting enterprises that were mushrooming to support the lucrative colonization businesses. Such trailblazer vessels would need greater speed and operational flexibility than the colonizers that were to follow, and DY took pains to equip the “Millenium Series” for demanding transatmospheric operations as well as for sustained warp 2.5 flight.

The greatest hour of corporate exploration vessel Leif Eirickson: her scoutcraft Vega begins the journey towards the northern continent of 61 Cygni V by separating from the mothership in the protective shadow of the outer moon. The Tellarite first contact remains the only exploratory achievement of note for the DY-500 series, highlighting the fact that, unlike the simpler sailing days of Lucky Leif, the late 21st century required the utmost of ship technology to yield even minor discoveries of commercial or scientific worth.

Arguably the most successful design in the series was DY-1100, featuring twin lateral cowlings for high performance warp engines and broad delta wings for maneuvering in atmospheres. A variable geometry nose cone gently eased the vessel bow first into the shockwave of atmospheric entry, and an incredibly robust three-point landing gear could take the combined weight of the vessel and her warp coils in gravities up to 1.6 Earth standards. Some surfaces would still remain inaccessible for the type, so the broad aft hull of oval cross section also housed a vast hangar for auxiliary craft, with 20 m x 30 m dorsal doors.

Lacking in range, the 1100 series did not sell as well as expected once it was established that there were few planets of interest in the immediate vicinity of Earth. DY tried to recoup on its losses by pushing the vessels to government work within the Sol system, but competition was fierce. The 1100 series was slightly too large and clumsy for combat maneuvers, fragile in basic construction, and relatively underpowered at impulse. The capacious interiors, originally optimized for long interstellar journeys, were the primary asset in securing a 2087 deal for fifteen DY-1100 hulls to serve in the Strategic Space Command of the newly founded UESF. Further transports based on the Rigelian monohull would also see UFP Star Fleet service and even conversion to Bedford and Portsmith destroyer escorts; despite the historical roots, there would be virtually no DY involvement in these projects.

Squeezed out of the exploration market, DY concentrated on providing for the fledging space navy of the United Earth. A modified DY-200 design served as the basis for DY-1200, a warp corvette for system defense needs. Instead of a cluster of containers, the central spine was surrounded by a bulbous mission hull that served the three roles familiar from DY-1100: providing atmospheric lift, internal volume for mission gear, and a dorsal hangar for auxiliaries. The ring shape around the central body was not a Vulcan drive, as none were available to Earth at the time; its role was purely aerodynamic, and the actual Cochrane warp coils were housed beneath lateral cowlings that slid close for atmospheric flight. To appeal to UESF, DY also provided full structural support, power trunks and dataways for four equidistantly positioned heavy plasma cannon on the ring wing perimeter. The command sail was doubled in width and covered with platforms capable of receiving military C³I gear, and a trainable weapon mount was provided on the opposite side of the forward hull. The nose cone area was reserved for military gear that was expected to include missile launchers and sensors.

After initial tests, the UESF specified the need for mine tubes and decided to mount a railgun in the ventral turret, resulting in the DY-1250 standard, or Dare class. Up to fifty vessels of this type were procured to replace the aging Liberty sublight defenders, a major coup for the company. Yet a surprising demand also arose for using the original, unarmed DY-1200 in the exploratory role; the Leningrad Institute of Interstellar Studies was the first to procure vessels of this type, boosting its fleet of DY-700 explorer-transports. The subsequent development of the stretched 1300 and 1400 series was a misinvestment for DY, resulting in only a handful of sales, but the 1200 series explorers continued service until well into the 22nd century.

File:DY warp corvette.png

USS Douglas MacArthur, a warp corvette of DY manufacture, rides shotgun to VK Lenin, a DY-700 colonizer headed for the Coalsack nebula. Such years-long colonization sorties would dilute Starfleet strength outside Sol to virtual zero until the introduction of much faster types in the mid-22nd century.

The role of Dinyan-Yoyodyne spacecraft in UESF service did not extend much beyond the mid- 22nd century. Even as third-rate support assets, these vessels were deemed increasingly frail and slow. Yet while government and commercial spacecraft contracts slipped from DY hands, the propulsion section of the company increased its market share and emerged as one of the strongest providers for the late 23rd century Star Fleet. Although it remained one of the last vestiges of the corporate concept amidst the economic turmoil of the following century, its impact on the ascent of Earth as an interstellar power must be seen in a wider context than the mere commercial one.

Gallery

200 "family"

• 
  An example DY-200 class variant of the DY-100
• 
  An example DY-230 class variant of the DY-130
• 
  An example DY-240 class variant of the DY-140

DY-500 Wheeler and "family"

• 
  DY-500 Wheeler class
• 
  DY-550 class, a -500 variant
• 
  DY-700 class, a -500 variant
• DY-750 class
  DY-750 class
• 
  DY-900 class
• 
  DY-950 class

DY-1100 Hawke

• 
  DY-1100 Hawke (starboard)
• 
  Hawke bow
• 
  Hawke dorsal
• 
  Hawke stern
• 
  Hawke ventral
• 
  Vega class scoutship, disembarking a DY-1100
• 
  Forward port aspect
• 
  Port aspect
• 
  Forward ventral view
• 
  In Earth orbit
• 
  Departing Earth orbit
• 
  Departing Jupiter orbit
• 
  Test of the forward section escape function
• 
  Forward port view
• 
  Dorsal view
• 
  Bow view
• 
  Departing space station
• 
  Hawke (port bow)
• 
  Hawke (starboard)
• 
  Hawke (stern dorsal)
• 
  Hawke (stern)

Additional images

• 
  Leif Ericson (starboard)
• 
  Leif Ericson (bow).png
• 
  Leif Ericson (dorsal)
• 
  Leif Ericson (forward dorsal)
• 
  Leif Ericson (stern)
• 
  Leif Ericson (ventral starboard).png
• 
  Leif Ericson (ventral)

Options Gallery

• 
  DY-300 in launch configuration
• 
  DY-350 destroyer
• 
  DY-1000
• 
  by admiral horton

Notes

• The SS Leif Eirickson would have to have been constructed well before her 2073 first contact with the Tellerites, which means she could not have been part of this Hawke subclass. Instead, the decision as to what class of ship Leif Eirickson belongs to will be put off until later. It may be of the Wheeler subclass (which means the graphic text is not correct), which may allow for both corporate/private ownership and transit of the 11.12 lightyears between the two systems.

See Also

• DY sublight series

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• Back to the Table of Contents
• Back to "The Incredible Expansion"
• Appendix A: Of Ship Statistics
• Appendix B: Glossary
• Appendix C: Star Fleet Organization - General Outline
• Appendix D: Abbreviations From Outside