Excelsior-class

From Hidden Frontier

The USS Kennedy, an Excelsior-class Federation starship (far), flying in formation with the New Orleans-class USS Sadat (near).

[edit]

The Excelsior-class Starship

The Excelsior-class is a Federation starship class that was in service from the late 23rd Century through the late 24th Century. They have been used for a variety of mission profiles, including deep space exploration, terraforming, patrol duty, and courier and transport runs. The class is also frequently used by the Starfleet admiralty for use as a personal flagship.

The Excelsior-class features the saucer section-engineering section-warp nacelle layout common to most Starfleet vessels. However, it features a more streamlined design than was seen in previous classes when it was first introduced.

Less than a decade after its introduction, the Excelsior design underwent a significant overhaul, as introduced with the launch of the USS Enterprise-B. While remaining true to the original configuration, a second pair of impulse engines was added, the scoop surrounding the deflector dish was expanded, and the design was "cleaned" of unnecessary fins. As this class has aged well past its original design life, Starfleet has executed a series of retrofits to keep the class up-to-date with the latest in starship technology.