Engineering 102A: Starship Recognition Protocols

Prerequisite: None. (1 credit)

An informational course in the basic methods of identifying the starships of Federation, friendly, hostile, and unknown powers. Key characteristics of all Starfleet and Federation vessels currently in use are discussed, along with the general design features of known friendly and hostile forces. Basic hull designs and configurations, propulsion systems, and weapons emplacements are also considered.

Offered First and Second Terms.

(From the Starfleet Academy catalog, 2377-2378)

Charts by Dan Carlson

There are plenty of fans out there who have worked up all kinds of comparison charts on their own. From Jeff Russell's fantastic interactive comparison chart and Graham Kennedy's venerable configurable comparison list to Bernd Schneider's definitive size reference table and annotated list (which most others — including myself — cite as the primary source), there's no shortage of choices out there.

But the one thing that very few of those charts has ever done is to include non-canon fan designs alongside the original canon starships. I decided to create one all-encompassing chart that would include most (if not quite all) of the ships that are out there. The charts available below include those created by the Advanced Starship Design Bureau, Masao Okazaki at the Starfleet Museum, and Star Trek: Renaissance, the fan fiction series of which I was once a part.

Beware! These images are incredibly huge! I've provided compressed GIF images for easy viewing inside your browser window, TIFF images for better resolution and color, and finally the original PNG file. The PNG file may be opened with any compatible image editor, but you'll get the best results in editing it yourself if you use Macromedia Fireworks, the application with which it was made. (I will not guarantee any results if you use a different program.)

Enjoy! I hope these charts are informative. I am also working on alien starships... but knowing me, these won't be out for a while. ;-)

Federation and Pre-Federation Starships

View Chart 1 (GIF image, 345 KB) | Download Chart 1 (TIF image, 1.36 MB)
View Chart 2 (GIF image, 370 KB) | Download Chart 2 (TIF image, 1.90 MB)
Download the Original File (PNG image, 6.6 MB)
Last Updated Friday, 27-Jul-2007 00:42:38 EDT

Alien Starships & Large Starships

View Chart 1 (GIF image, 275 KB) | Download Chart 1 (TIF image, 1.52 MB)
Unavailable (PNG image, xxx KB)
View Chart 2 (GIF image, 322 KB) | Download Chart 2 (TIF image, 1.77 MB)
Download the Original File (PNG image, 2.06 MB)
Last Updated Friday, 27-Jul-2007 00:37:13 EDT