Niagara Class

Niagara Class Starship

The Niagara-class was a type of Starfleet vessel in service in the late 24th century. This class of starship had the unusual distinction of having three warp nacelles.

The Niagara Class starship was an attempt to create a strong Cruiser class vessel without completely re-engineering the entire design. To that end, the ship designers at Utopia Planatia decided to look to proven component designs for the bulk of the Niagara class structures and worked from them.

The first component that they selected was the Secondary Hull from the Ambassador Class starship. To this they added the Main Saucer section from the Galaxy Class as well as the Pylon and Nacelle designs.

The work to mesh the components was easy going since the designers had already done similar starship modification studies prior to the actual implementation of the Niagara project.

The addition of a third nacelle was decided upon after it was realized that they had a unique opportunity to study the advanced warp dynamics of a triple nacelle system.

The decision to add the third nacelle beneath the secondary engineering hull was a unique decision, since all other studies had been done with the third nacelle above the center line of the starship projects design.

Unforeseen design difficulties, however, forced the design team to reconsider the placement of the third nacelle and they therefore settled upon the 'slung' third nacelle design.

To their surprise the designed proved easy to implement and maintain. The calibration of the warp fields proved simple and the usual side-effects of warp vibration, seemed to be minor. Further calibration and a shifting of the third nacelle slightly rearward, solved the latter problem and the vessel proved to be stable, maneuverable and without the usual plaguing problems that had followed previous three- nacelle designs.

The additional power provided by the third nacelle allowed for a greater weapons and shield package for the ship. The latest Deflector Shields and Phasers strips were installed (those same that were found aboard the Galaxy Class) and proved to be effective in shakedown tests.

The vessel was so much more powerful than other vessels of the Cruiser classification, that there was talk of changing her designation to that of a Battleship. In the end, however, it was decided that she would retain her Cruiser classification and be placed into production.

There were two vessels of the class manufactured, the USS Princeton and the USS Wellington. Both vessels served with distinction during the battle of Wolf 359 although neither vessel was recoverable. They have since been towed to a salvage and supply depot to await their final fate.

In the meantime, with the Focus on the construction of the Sovereign Class starships, the Niagara class production has been suspended.