The Strange Springfield Class Starship
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- čas přidán 14. 06. 2024
- The Springfield Class Starship was created for the Star Trek battle of Wolf 359 and is a mixture of galaxy and other parts. In the lore of Starfleet however, it was created earlier than this to serve as the Federation's light cruiser and transportation vessel amid other duties.
Chapters
00:00 Real Origins
01:17 Starfleet Origins
03:29 Specifications
04:13 Design Flaws
06:50 Summary
Springfield Class model images from ex-astris-scientia
Star Trek Online developed by Cryptic Studios and Perfect World.
Star Trek Picard/Strange New Worlds/Lower Decks/Enterprise/Voyager/Deep Space Nine/Discovery and The Next Generation are all owned by Paramount Pictures/CBS and distributed by CBS.
This Video is for critical purposes with commentary. - Hry
Strikes me as one of those projects used to help bring new member world's technology base up to being on par with the rest of the Federation. I.E. "You have ship yards. Excellent we have these smaller ships that are easier to construct that are good for learning new technology on. Sure we have other ships to fill those rolls but we can always use more yards."
I don't really see it with ship, but I like your idea.
I think every member species should have a ship yard or at least manufacture parts to contribute to starship construction that way everyone can feel like they are contributing to the federation
In my headcanon, Starfleet has a similar project but in reverse: they give obsolete but functional ships to new members so they can study their technology. Its engineers are also encouraged to modify the ships with their own technology, which could lead to new classes of ships for Starfleet.
Obviously, old ships would have their most dangerous components removed. They won't give quantum torpedoes to a species with Warp 3 capability.
@@Nx57ytre obviously but yeah I like that idea alot
Judging from what nation's did historically, this is not a stretch by any means. Well done
Star Fleet engineers probably all shouted "doh!" in unison
Or they spent years trying to tell Command that this was a bad design, then eventually shrugged and built it anyway. Kind of like the US Navy and the Zumwalt-class destroyer, with guns whose ammo wasn't even being made yet.
That massive Pod, if it was all Shuttlebay, would make a great example of a in universe carrier for the fighters. Pack it full of fighters, carry them to within range of the combat area, drop them off the get the heck out of there. With the huge door, it could deploy the fighters extremely quickly.
Or mass evacuation of places one can't use conventional trasporters for.
Need I remind you that fighter craft are not only stupid in Star Trek, but getting into one and going into battle against an enemy Starship is probably used as an example in the definition of suicide. Starship weapons do not miss unless something fucks with targeting in this setting, fancy maneuvers will not break lock.
Still as a 'dedicated shuttlebay', it would serve that purpose rather well thanks to its size. It could house the usual transport-type shuttles, but at the same time shuttles equipped with compact and specialized sensor systems, or even shuttles capable of planetary surveys could be in there as well.
I like this. Go full Sabaton
@@patrickmccurry1563 Also good idea
"Wuhuuu, Springfield!" - A Crewmember of a Springfield-Class Ship with a remarkable yellow skin
"Mr Moe, steady as she goes"
"The engine room has sprung a leak! It's filling up with a clear, non-alcoholic liquid!"
@@The_Str4nger You just lifted that quote directly from Scotty.
@@roberthoward9500I didn't know that Barney is a Scotsman
@@The_Str4nger He is, he just hides the accent well. He and Groundskeeper Willie go way back.
Feeling spoiled with all these ship breakdowns
This genuinely feels like a ship that was designed to be created by lesser-known Federation Member fleet yards and then used to patrol around those same fleet yards since sending Excelsiors or other existing vessels out to patrol those areas was too expensive.
Now this was a 359 kitbash that I really liked. Really matched the era aesthetic but also a real place in a TNG era fleet (if Mirandas weren't still being reused so much in VFX shots). And I guess retroactively even more relevant with Enterprise and that era ships (especially fun if you inlude the NX-refit) making this overall layout a centuries old mainstay for Starfleet.
He's Rick... commenting on the Springfield Class...
Nice
😊
this is why starfleet design grinds my gears.
Look at that space between the saucer and the engineering bay. That space could have been the shuttle bay.
And that pod could have been whatever else is modular.
Kit bashes by people are aren't naval architects aren't designs. *Right???*
Honestly during the period of the peaceful golden age. I think Starfleet was willing to try all sorts of ship types and small runs of them just to experiment. I think that is why there such a diversity of types vs other eras. They without a major ongoing war or issue going on, were willing to try lots of experimental or one off types of ships. Cause hey if it does not work out they were still making Miranda and Excelsior types.
There is even a chance that they sent these types of things off to smaller ship yards just to get them used to making things that had the new tech in them. Like a test of can you make this wonky thing work.
Probably, but a lot of these designs turned out to be dead ends when the Borg attacked and were quickly retired after Wolf 359. They went back to the drawing board for redesigns that wouldn't come until, much much later. While Miranda's Excelsiors and Nebulas proved themselves as reliable designs to fill the gap until new constructions were ready.
Yeah, never seen this class before, so thanks for the exposé. Design flaws aside, I really like the basic look of this class, there's something hiding in that kitbashed hull waiting to show off a stunning ship.
It could be excellent with some tweaks. LIke connecting the primary hull to the sensors. Rework the mission pods, include an in disk small shuttlebay (The big one being evac/cargo section. Impulse on the engineering section. All it needs is some tweaks to the design to look cool.
Yeah, I agree somewhere deep inside is a pretty cool ship waiting to be set free. 🤔 IF you could connect Engineering to the pylons/nacelles, you might have a winner here.
"Springfield, Springfield is a hell of a town, the school yard is up and the shopping mall is down, the stray dog goes to the city pound"...couldnt resist😅😅😅
This is exactly why I preferred the other highlighter ship design over this one. Thank you
I recently commented on your New Orleans Class video how much I love vessels that share a common design language. The project Galaxy ships are unmistakable. I like the design but see its in-universe flaws. It has a traditional silhouette, if you can call it that, but there are some experimental design elements.
One small correction regarding the saucer separation. You wouldn't need to jettison the nacelles and cargo pod in the event of a warp core breach. Only the engineering hull that contains the warp core and the anti-matter containment pods would need to be jettisoned. The only drawback is that now you are dragging around unpowered and useless nacelles with only 2 impulse engines. Anti-matter doesn't go into the warp nacelles. Just the warp plasma created by the matter/anti-matter reaction in the warp core. Once the engineering hull is jettisoned, the warp plasma would be cut off.
Could even solve that problem by building in a Storage of sorts for the Warp Plasma in the main haul before the nacelles. That way if they jettison the core, you would have say 10mins of warp plasma as back up to stay at warp.
Basically just like any towns water supply. Water is constantly coming in and going out but towns have Water towers/tanks that maintain the pressure in the pipes. If water stopped coming in, then the tank is used as a short term backup.
@@jacara1981 Yeah, kinda like a warp plasma capacitor/battery. Enough for an emergency warp jump to get out of range of a core breach. Though after that, you still have the problem of the impulse engines having to drag around all that dead weight mass of the nacelles and pylons. Though one advantage is using the Bussard ram scoop collectors to draw in fuel for the impulse fusion reactors. Normally they would run out if only the saucer is there, since they are used to collect interstellar hydrogen for the fusion reactors fuel when in normal operation. But using some of the power from the impulse fusion reactors to power the Bussard ram scoops, you can augment your fuel reserves as long as you are in an area with interstellar hydrogen gases.
Seriously, it might make a decent enough medical frigate, being armed adequately enough to repel hostile ships until help arrives, or modifying the pods to contain dangerous bacteria or viruses, or perform remote surgery (you say he found an egg? It hatched? Now he has something attached to his face?) under dangerous circumstances. That would explain or justify the ability to jettison the pods, as they would be self-contained for this type of.. situation.
i like this "negatives being pointed out" bit.
"to avoid being overly fanservice-y"
Wow, Star Trek had some brilliant minds back then.
In-universe this feels like a ship design that suffered from setbacks and sunk-cost fallacy.
First the saucer/nacelle configuration was finalized, including the separation. Then someone noticed that if they wanted to use the new Cheyenne-style nacelles, the old design for the secondary hull wouldn't work - so they had to add a separate, under-slung element, because anything else would have meant even more re-designing. And since the saucer separation systems already existed, the engineering hull had to be made detachable to be left behind, despite now being attached to the saucer directly...
Turns out all these changes required a restructuring of some of the internals. And the space that ended up on the chopping block was the spot where the shuttle bay was supposed to be. So they came up with yet another attachment in order to add back the shuttle bay without having to make even more changes to the ever more patchwork design.
It's the corporate frankenstein ship of Starfleet, suffering from "can't we just?" and "no, don't throw out work that's already done!" - the exact process that creates technically functional but utterly unusable products irl too.
If you drop the engineering hull, move the deflector to the front of the saucer, and lower the pod to be generally level with the saucer, it could look like a TNG-era version of the NX-class.
Yes, this is exactly what I thought when I first saw it.
thank you for those! I always had a soft spot for the 359 kitbash designs
Yeah, it's a damned weird ship, but in STO, it's pretty solid.
Rick, do Design Flaws more often. 🖖🏻
Does the Springfield class have a U.S.S. Homer?
Such a great idea for power decks!
USS Float and Shoot
A U.S.S. Simpson would also be worth a chuckle.
Uss burns
Now I need a USS Sideshow Bob .
Not seen this before but really like the look of it. Helps alot if you just decide it isn't a module at thr back but permanent shuttlebay and warp core
I want to see a slightly retooled version of this to be almost a continuation of the nx/nx refit form factor. Especially the side angle makes it really look like a tng era nx, so either taking out the engineering hull and moving the deflector to the front of the saucer or connecting the engineering hull more similarly to the nx refit would be really cool I think.
Being from a city named Springfield, i was really excited to see a ship with the same name sake... that excitement was short-lived.
I agree, it does look pretty cool.
A permanent shuttle bay could have been the mounting point of the pod, meaning this pod includes an EXPANDED bay, and other pods simply allow access to the regular bay.
Right off the bat, a nice little picture of the miniture.
This is actually one of my favorite designs from Wolf 359 (the others being the New Orleans and Niagara), but I do agree with the design flaws you pointed out. That being said, this is the first I've ever heard of the Springfield having saucer separation and the dorsal pod being a detachable mission pod.
If you were to nix the separation and make the pod a permanent, internally reconfigurable mission pod (which could work really well being right next to the shuttle bay), that would probably go a long way towards making the design much more feasible.
Why does the warp core have to be in the lower pod? The Nacelle Pylons suggest the Engineering Section is located under that large shuttlebay that doesn't look detachable at all, showing that it might not be a mission pod at all. The pylons from the lower pod don't even connect to the same part of the ship! I see the same crazy idea with the Oberth - That's a Sensor Pod - not an Engineering Hull. The Saucer looks too integrated into the rest of the ship to be separable. Such a small ship wouldn't need to separate its saucer anyway. I actually like this design as a potential replacement for the Oberth.
Never have romulan ale on tap in the design team office. I think starfleet leaned this with this design
A better design for this would be connecting the engineering section to the bottom rear of the primary hull like usual and moving the nacelles underneath the primary hull and pylon them to the secondary/engineering section.
Swapping the pod and engineering section round makes perfect sense and a better ship.
6:29 "There are no impulse engines on the drive section."
*glares at the supposedly separation-capable Sovereign*
A lesson Starfleet still hadn't taken to heart in later years, apparently.
I really like the Springfield. I thought that Miarecki did a really great job of creating those ships, and that they have a great aesthetic.
I had thought about this
The Springfield class is the 24th-century version of the Oberth class.. A pure science vessel. Nothing more and nothing less.
Another great video, excellent work!
Without the pod and the secondary hull, it's actually a pretty slick "proto-galaxy class" design
Thanks for sharing 👍
Despite its design flaws I actually quite like it, it’s got a certain charm to it……I just wouldn’t use the saucer separation if it was my ship 😂😂
Another good video , cheers Rick 👍
🖖😎👍Very cool and very nicely well done and executed and very well informatively explained in every detail way shape and form provided on this format and subject matter on the Springfield class starship's and all of its functions and abilities and so forth, And it sort of reminds of a much larger better armed variation of the Oberth class with the way the engineering pod and main deflector dish hangs off the bottom, And I myself do own the Eaglemoss model of this ship as named the U.S.S. CHEKOV NCC-57302 that was one of the main reasons why I bought it at the time, Any ways a job very greatly well done indeed Sir!👌.
Love your videos! This class has grown on me. Always saw it has a replacement for the Miranda and Oberth but failing to live up to expectations. Then to make matters worse a few years later the Intrepid and Nova classes come along which are much better designs. My view on the Galaxy class cousin designs is that Starfleet wanted a variety of smaller multi mission classes to modernise the fleet and replace the Excelsior, Miranda, Ambassador, Oberth, Constellation and Sydney classes but scaling down the Galaxy class technology proved troublesome. Then by the time issues were resolved Starfleet decided to focus on a variety of limited role classes like the Sabre, Norway, Steamrunner, Intrepid, Nova, Akira and Sovereign
This is the first I have heard of it... and I kinda like it
I really feel like the Springfield could get some new life as a modular mission frigate if it connected the Secondary Hull to the same frame that the mission pod attaches to with a more conventional neck (skip the Oberth-style pylons, please dear god), and altered its saucer separation system to keep the warp nacelles and primary engineering decks attached to the secondary hull while the saucer pisses off. Mount a tertiary impulse engine on the new neck, since it'd have the bulk to mount it, and give the ass-end of the ship some sub-warp maneuverability so it's not just some dead pieces floating around generating wasted power. Battle Bridge in the Secondary Hull, maybe.
I almost like it, it's almost there. It looks cool from the top, but the bottom view just makes it all fall apart. The grandson of whichever Starfleet Engineer designed the Oberth wanted to make the same mark on history that Pappy did, and... oh boy did he.
In my head-cannon the awkwardness of the Springfield's design is easily explained by giving it a design history similar to the NX/Columbia class. The hull plan originated as a simple prototype intended to test the warp dynamics of the oblong primary hull. This would have consisted only of the saucer section and drive assembly. Once this testing proved successful the underslung secondary hull would be added to provide a housing for a main deflector assembly, along with extra cargo space and power generation (note: the warp core would remain in the aft of the primary hull). The mission configurable superstructure would then be added on the aft to enhance the vessel's utility.
In this version the initial prototype would have preceded the Cheyenne class in the design lineage, but the final design would come later. Perhaps as a response to a lack of flexibility in the Cheyenne's capabilities given it's more restrictive design.
I like your idea of swapping the Engineering section and the mission pod. Just need an artist to commission it. 😀
Me and a few other people's headcanon is that the pod for both the Oberth and Springfield is just one big sensor unit and isn't habitable. There is probably a hatch somewhere for the crew in Eva suits to do maintenance in it or life support can be turned on for that area and the crew beam over.
Ejecting the warp core away from the nacelles help secure some protection away from possibly damaging things contained within the mission pod. It doesn't need to turn into a tactical secondary haul. This minimizes losses by having all of your antimatter ejected away from everything else.
The Chekov design takes care of a lot of this.
I have to while not having seeing this class i love these designs getting some attention.
One of the things that always bugged me about some of these kit bashes is how parts of the ship, like the nacelles and the struts for the engineering hull, are within the firing arcs of the phaser strips. This thing looks like it could literally slice itself to pieces with its own phasers.
6:49 But they did include a warp ejection system. It shoots out the top. That's why they had to add in an engineering hull ejection system, to keep the ejecting warp core from smacking the underside of the saucer.
Thanks for the breakdown, go figure when I told you it's my Favorite design you apologize 😂 and the "design flaw" addition to videos start with this 1 is also funny asf😂
Good video.
Bizarrely, I kind of like it.
I feel like if it weren’t just a kitbash for background shots and a little more effort was put into it you could make a really neat frigate design that would work well with ships like the Parliaments.
this looks nice
Not that I had ever given this class much attention, but now that I look at it from the side, if you remove the dorsal and hanging pods it looks remarkably like a TNG NX class ship, especially in that schematic graphic
I saw that too. I can imagine the Springfield being originally conceived in universe as a kind of homage to the NX but ironically encountering similar design issues which necessitated adding the engineering hull and mission pod.
Imagine her with the pod and engineering hull gone and add a deflector to the front of the saucer. Now she's gorgeous.
Lose the mission pod and engineering hull and it kinda has an NX vibe sorta, nice work as always.
Still looks better than anything we’ve got since 2009.
ur tripping on ox balls if u think that.
a thing a like about the Enterprise-D Kitbash Models compared to the Nebula: they are really smaller while the Nebula only was planed to be smaller, which somewhat makes more sense as "just a conpact Galaxy"
I didn't know this ship existed. I think I may pick up some Galaxy Class models and do some actual kitbashing of starships on my channel
Salt detected indeed! Lol! She very much seems to be a throw together both in universe and out, and I like the idea she came about through necessity rather than planning; perhaps there was an oversight or a setback with a technology and a new ship was needed under extreme time constraints... Perhaps it was for the new navigational deflector and/or M/ARA assembly, even. That would give the a-typical secondary hull a reason for being so unusual: if something went wrong, they could just dump the whole section without risking the rest of the vessel.
Despite the goofy design flaws, I do like the look of the ship. It'd definitely be a top pick if I was running a Star Trek RPG for the look alone, although I'd definitely swap around the suspended engineering deck and the mission pod around.
5:31 I think that it wouldn’t make sense to swap the cargo pod and engineering hull around. It makes swapping out the cargo pod more difficult due to it being attached on spindly pylons, and transferring the cargo or crew for the shuttle from the main hull to the cargo pod would be more difficult (although in the current configuration the engineering hull suffers from similar issues).
The Springfield is great and I shall brook no derision of its magnificence!
Maybe the underslung pod is just the sensor suite (like on the Oberth Class), while the warp core is in the rear of the primary hull, with it’s plasma conduits leading out to the warp nacelles through the upper pod and pylons?
Man I love this goofy ‘lil thing.
putting the deflector dish on top would have at least given the ship a very unique look compared to all others that have it underslung. That might work out pretty good (off to the drawing board...)
The Nebula's auxiliary warp nacelle mission pod uses the same real world item to construct as the Springfield's shuttle bay mission pod.
Which Springfield? As a running simpsons gag it’s hard to tell? Is this the time in Star Trek history when someone in the office ordered too many office supplies and the model makers had to use up all the excess markers, pens etc to free up space.
Thinking this thing was just made to be a damage sponge in the W359 battle.
The predecessor of the Kirk class.
I actually have to agree with those design flaws being a huge issue in making the Springfield class a practical vessel, even if it does look kinda cool. The flaws in its design kinda limit its usability
I like the look of the Springfield , but I think the second hail should be fused together with the ship and the mission pod redesigned.
A song parody from *that* episode of *that* show, as sung by crews assigned to this ship:
Ensigns Mart & Bilhouse:
Springfield, Springfield,
It's a helluva starship!
The bridge's up
And the turbolifts are down
The stray tribbles go
To the replicator's buffer!
Mart:
Springfield, Springfield...
Bilhouse:
Springfield, Springfield...
Other Starfleet Officer:
Get me off this ship, off this ship...
Mart:
Transporter 2 is thataway, man!
Other Starfleet OfficersSailor:
Thanks, kid!
Mart & Bilhouse:
It's a helluva ship!
It would look less weird if it had an Intrepid Class primary hull. The arrowhead shape would fit better with that pod.
I kind of like the idea of nonsensical designs coming out of Starfleet. Its a huge organization and you just know a ship like the Springfield class was the result of multiple member species wanting their input. I can imagine Starfleet fleet R&D nodding and building something like the Springfield class knowing it was a dog from the outset. They'd build a few hulls, man them and gather data. Meanwhile Utopia Planatia would crank out another dozen or so technologically uprated Mirandas to fill in the gaps in the fleet roster that the Springfields would have filled before it became clear the project was basically another failure.
You should check out the Checkov - it looks like a direct adaptation of this design in STO.
I literally just picked this up through Amazon like a month ago
Here's another potential flaw. It looks like it has a Captain's Yacht, much like the Galaxy Class, on the underside of the saucer section. However I don't think that could deploy unless that engineering section was jettisoned first. So it's not something you could use until after saucer separation.
Fingers crossed for an Atlantis Class Science Ship or a Grissom Light Science Ship from Star Trek Online, please😎
i am wondering if the Springfield being built by other/newer member worlds was a way for them to get their tech up to Federation standard and to replace their own patrol/cargo/Rescue ships with something more standardized.
Surprisingly I actually really like this ship its a bit of a change from starfleets normal style
I always hated this ship until I looked at it more closely and fiddled with the new 25th century parts. As much as I didn't like it, it gave me a lot of good ideas for how I'd design my own unique ship. I'd already been toying with ideas, and they mostly had a similar twist. The .. unique features of this ship gave me some great ideas on ship designs that are definitely Star Trek, yet definitely unique. So... not so cool as is, but a lot of interesting shapes and concepts to pilfer for other ship designs... just in a better configuration.
With its fiddly, kitbashed bits, the Springfield sure does look like a testbed design to me. It's an early scaleup of Galaxy-like designs, using some transitional technologies, some of which won't survive to be used on the Galaxy itself. On the other hand, with that tenuously connected secondary hull, that sure reminds me of the California Class, for better or worse. So, the Springfield might well have been design evolutionary link that would culminate in the Galaxy about twelve years later, but also a separate branch leading to the California. If that last represents an achievement or not, mileage will vary.
But if multiple design developments came out of the Springfield, that might explain why it was a Jack of all Trades and a Master of None. If it was an experimental ship, it wouldn't be surprising if it wasn't optimized, Starfleet would seem to have not just science ships, and transport ships, but starships that were more about utility in this era. I would guess that the Springfield wasn't just a testbed, but also meant for utility, most often in friendly space.
In-universe, the ships utilized in the Battle of Wolf 359 demonstrate how unprepared and complacent the Federation was during this time.
My problem with design are nacelle struts look like they may interfere with impulse thruster output. Probably should've spread the impulse engines out more to give them more clearance. I don't see the underslung portion a problem if it was like the underslung module on oberth, but if it does contain main engineering, then it should've been connected by single neck to primary hull, rather than the struts.
Somehow I doubt engineering is in the lower pod or "secondary hull". Like the Oberth (which also has plenty of design flaws despite NOT being a kitbash) this area of the ship is clearly not inhabitable, or even reachable via turbolift. There are no windows and the pylons are too thin and oddly shaped to be used as a means for transporting the crew down there. Again, the Oberth has the same issues.
My best guess is the lower pod contains nothing but sensor equipment and the deflector. Maybe torpedo launchers as well.
The location of the shuttlebay in the upper pod (which was not on the original model, btw) doesn't seem too odd when you consider that the Nebula shuttlebay is completely blocked off by its own mission pod.
Maybe this was the "let's see if you can build this thing, THEN we'll start giving your docks some real ship designs"???
I love this ship, but yeah like the oberth, there’s a lot of issues if you wanted to figure out how it should work.
Here me thinks the WOLF 359 ships (Springfield, Freedom, Niagara) were designs of simple designs to replace the aging miranda/constitutions and early excelsiors older and creeping designs in Fleet.
Oberth: I'm the worst ship in the fleet
Springfield: hold my earl grey.
Looking at it, I'd say that the hanging secondary hull would remain attached to the saucer after separation, leaving it looking like a gigantic Oberth. The drive section would still become completely useless with no impulse engines and the warp core staying with the saucer though... unless you opened the hangar door and used a docked shuttle's engines to move the thing?
This is not logical.
this seems like the kind of ship, that Tom Paris would have designed, with looks over function, example, the fins on the delta flyer that Tuvok shot down
I'm gonna say it - it looks like a re-engineered Oberth class, with a bigger war canoe.
In wars a lot of weird tanks etc were also created. It might seem like a flawed design but maybe it's realistic that they get it wrong sometimes.
It was Leah Brahms' day off when they designed this one.
Yeah this is probably the only Wolf 359 ship that I don't really like to much. The saucer separation....yeah...
You: "Or I could just yell at the Starfleet designers"
-I admitted I probably laughed at that more than I should have lol.
So the funny thing is I like the look of the ship profile and then I realized from the front it is literally an upside down MIRANDA class