| Constitution |
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| Constitution-class |
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| Constitution-class (refit) |
| The Constitution-class was introduced around 2240. At that time the Constitution-class was the fastest and most poweful ship type of the fleet and the only one officially designated as starship. 12 ships of this class were in service by the year 2267. Starting with the USS Enterprise in 2271, a number of Constitution-class ships have undergone a complete reconstruction that included new warp nacelles, modification of the engineering hull and "neck" enlargement of the saucer section and a new bridge module. The shipsmay have been decommissioned at the end of the 23rd century, one of them is displayed in the Starfleet Museum. There were several slight modifications to the Enterprise model after the first pilot and after the second pilot. Most notably, the version in "The Cage" had a somewhat taller bridge dome. The nacelle end caps changed from a flat surface over a hold pattern to the most familiar "white ball". These may be taken as signs that the ship had been refitted a couple of times even before 2270. The Enterprise and Enterprise-A are the only reconstructed Constitution-class ships that have been shown. Gene Roddenberry suggested that the latter was first designated as USS Yorktwon and later recommissioned as Enterprise 1701-A. It is a reasonable assumption that most of the other ships besides the USS Eagle were refitted likewise in the 2270's. A schematic of the refitted USS Constitution NCC-1700 is seen in TNG""Datalore". Although the actual number of Constitution ships is at least 17, Kirk's statement that there are 12 of them as of 2267 (TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday") can be maintained taking into account that some of them (namely Constellation, Defiant, Excalibur, Intrepid) were lost, while more ships might have been commissioned in the 2260's. The dedication plaque ("Starship-class") of the original Enterprise and a not in The Making of Star Trek suggest that "starship" was no generic term at that time, but was specifically used for ships akin to the Enterprise. The tradition to name a ship class for the prototype ship might have been introduced later. The designation "Enterprise-class" for the Constitution refit is quite common in fandom, considering that the refit hardly has anything in common with the original Constitution. This (sub-) class name may be maintained since we know that Enterprise NX-01 is of the NX class. The engineering hull at Wolf 359, which is unmistakably from a Constitution refit, suggests that these ships may have been still in service or at least served as reserve ships in 2366. Some of the names and registries never appeared on screen together. Many of the registries were listed on a wall chart on Starbase 11 in TOS: "Court Martial", but without names. Names from the episodes and from The Making of Star Trek were sorrelated with the registries by Mike Okuda and Greg Jein already for the first Encyclopedia, but strictly speaking they are conjecture. In some case it is not even clear if the ships belong to the Constitution class at all. |