NX & Rockwell: "This is a ship of exploration, it is meant to explore strange new worlds." NX-refit & Yorktown: "This is a ship of war, it is meant to kill your enemy." The Yorktown in the Earth-Romulan War is a lot like the M26 Pershing in WW2. Late to the war so few in number & it peak renovation of existing technology without completely revolutionizing it. I do hope one day the Yorktown-class makes it to Trek alpha canon.
I was going to comment something similar, but your comment here is far better. I was going to say a bit about a scout-class vehicle vs. an armed version because of wartime then a tank version upgrade to that tank version. So, here's your 👍
An old Sergeant of mine liked to categorize troops in two groups: Einstein or Hercules. Need both to get stuff done. Starfleet has a bad history of being too precious about that fact.
Starfleet always had its hawks and doves. The issue is by TNG the Federation has enjoyed 80years of complete dominance over the Alpha Quadrant. There hadnt been a real war in a lifetime. Starfleet became overconfident, sure they’d never be seriously challenged again. It’s comparable to the Royal Navy in 1914, unable to understand its superiority had eroded to nothing.
Personally the Yorktown is a “Don’t mess with me“ ship, the first real warship built to fight and destroy, like the Proxima where that was a literally took it to the next level as “Leave or get Squashed!” Interestingly this stopped once the Constitution classes came out, but the battleships came back with a vengeance with the Excelsior and being a real game changer, really made the Klingons and Romulans pause, until the Borg and Dominion decided to test the Federation and then the real those warships were back again! Once again great video!
The Yorktown like the Sovereign-class, she's a warship built by taking an exploration ship and up gunning her to hell and a handbasket. You can even see it in hpe she shares the same sleek profile as the Sovereign.
This is why everyone hates fighting Starfleet. They fly about in some wimpy little exploration cruisers, but as soon as war breaks out they pull out some Uber-savage war machine from nowhere and the obliterate everything in their path. Quark said it best, “These humans are wonderful enlightened people so long as their replicators and showers work. But take away their comfort, put them in danger and they’re suddenly as savage as the most bloodthirsty Klingon.”
I don't know about the Xbox 360 achievement, but I do know that in the PC version of Legacy, there is an achievement for making it all the way to the TNG era with a ship from the NX era. As a result, the best option for getting the achievement was to keep a Yorktown class ship in your fleet until you got to TNG era.
Interesting parallel drawn with the Conqueror and the M103. However I would point out that those tanks were not a response to the King Tiger. But rather they were a response to Soviet heavies and super heavies like the IS-3. The Yorktown appears to be a response, by Starfleet, as you mentioned. To the Romulan battleships. Which prior to the war, Starfleet did not have.
You made the statement that the NX class was never intended to have a secondary hall. The man who originally designed the ship for enterprise. I think his name is Drexler. He said, in an interview that in season five, the enterprise was going to be dry docked and was going to receive a secondary haul. This upgrade was planned but the series ended so that is not so just a fellow Star Trek fan. He made the statement on trek yards. season five was going to begin with most likely the earth Romulan war if CBS picks up season five for enterprise that’s probably where it’s going to start and Drexler said the ship was designed from the very beginning to eventually receive a secondary hall, although in the first season of enterprise, it hadn’t been designed yet.
And one more thing the enterprise upon its upgrade would receive a warp seven engine, the original engine the warp five engine was still in the saucer as a back up according to Drexler, so between the two engines, the enterprise NX had a greater sustainability during a fire fight during the earth Romulan war if the primary engine failed, then the fire engine provided an emergency get away during bottles
Good Video. Solid Arguments. I think of Yorktown as having a bit of a Centurion/Pershing vibe to it. I always held, and still do, that it was the intended successor to the NX-Class, made from lessons learned from that class. But not a total replacement that might imply. It was meant to take over as the Premier Starfleet vessel, at some point. The War likely accelerated its development out of theoretical and into production, as the answer to those bigger Romulan vessels as you mentioned. But the Big nail in the Yorktown's Coffin was the formation of the Federation, when that happened, the Influx of alien technologies and design styles, meant that the Purely Human tech Yorktown had its place questioned as the true 'successor' to NX. Eventually it got supplanted in that concept by the Rockwell, A "gound-up" Federation design.
Yeah I'd say more pershing than centurion. Given how quickly it was outmoded. It also has a lot of Intrepid DNA with that tight geometry. But yeah I think the influx of federation tech is what did for it.
@@venomgeekmedia9886 Pershing is pretty spot on to compare with the yorktown the only other tank that would come close to it would be the panther but in lesser numbers.
Slight correction, the Yorktown game from the game Legacy, which is where AOTF crew got it from. That being said I need to drastically disagree that the ship wasn't the end point of the Romulan War. In the canon, it was literally the only ship able to take the fight to the Romulan heavies. It formed the center of several UEF fleets allowing them to advance on objectives in a way they hadn't be able to prior. Its also important to remember that this was an Earth ship, not a Federation one. Comparing it to the later era joint built ships from some 40+ years in the future doesn't really explain the build or usage of the ship. It would be like comparing a pre-dreadnaught to an Iowa. For its time it was monster of the Earth fleets, which is why it was so massive, it was the fleet command ship of its day. Scaling it down is pointless as rescaling is for something that you want more of, but that's now what Yorktown was. She was rare, she was expensive and she was horrifying.
I really like that Design! It looks comparably crude, but it has the right proportions imo. I like the lack of a neck which makes the ship look way more sturdy and practical so to say. Overall a nice design imo.
In a light sense, I think that the Yorktown is generally meant as the successor to the NX, but it is more complex than it should be: - The Yorktown was just one of many new ships being pushed out by the new United Federation of Planets. - The NX was never meant to have a successor, as it was just a cruiser built to operate the Warp 5 engine. Only 4 ships were built (unless other sources disagree with that concept) to make way for other ships with better technology. - Season 3 of Picard has made the NX Refit canon. The refit is generally concluded by fans as a necessity to get every ship ready for war against the Romulans. - I agree that the Yorktown is a little too big to make valid sense, but it's still a heavy hitter. It was expensive to build, so not many were made. - The Daedalus class is often looked at as one of the common starships mentioned in TNG of the early Federation days (or at least heavily implied).
Nop! Yorktown was Battleship build purely for purpose of the war and immediately demobilized after, due to crippling costs. It probably never was officially part of UFP. Though they sturdy hulls were revisited later in the Einstein, Walker and especially Phase II ships (aka Disco). Class what was true NX successor was Bonaventure class, named after lost Ceres class ship (canceled class what was culmination of Archer Drive and its tendency of causing subspace incidents). All ships in original Kelvin scale in STO (based on size of Koyabashi Maru, not the current nonsense) fit speculated size of this class of around 300 meters. Yorktown is not too big. Vulcan D'kyr has something like 700 meters and I think some Tellarite ships also were larger. But it was too big for Earth, what at the time could afford only 100 to 140 meter ships in larger number. In Beta canon Starfleet didn't become fleet of Federation until 23'th century. NX was meant to be mass produced, but when war started all hulls in construction were turned into Poseidon class. So only few surviving NX Explorers get the refit, to bring them up to standard. I personally believe that Dedalus was meant to be mass produced, but Freedom class NX fall apart during the tests, what delayed program with need of designing NX sturdy enough to survive vibration. But after mission of Enterprise was concluded they could be re-engineered to fit warp 4, just in time for the war. And later they were so common and cheap that they stay in service. I do believe that Minuteman class was special military version of Dedalus introduced later in the war. Though most of Poseidons (what basically superseded NX) were decommissioned after the war. Some number was refitted into Loknar Destroyer and possibly Strider and Marklin class. Some rumors even mention possibility that they hulls could be used in apocrypha Ares Program.
I dont see a issue with the yorktown being big at all we have seen this in real life we are moving away from battleships and big heavy hitters to smaller ships that still pack a punch. Maybe thats what starfleet was doing. Or maybe for all the tech to fit into the yorktown maybe to fit a new engine 12 phasers and 8 torpedo launchers they needed to build the biggest ship starfleet had built to that point. And as the kelvin timeline has proven the constitution class is not the biggest starship starfleet can offer maybe one of the strongest but theres plenty of bigger ships and the yorktown being one of them even tho its 90ish years older than it is not a issue for me.
@@olaminabryan8026 There is misconception that ships were smaller during NX era, then they actually were (they were for political reasons). But until TNG revolution, size of Starfleet in Beta canon was rather consistent. People forget that Vulcans already operated 700 meter ships in the Enterprise TV show.
@@olaminabryan8026 Kelvan timeline is not prime timeline, therefore it has no bearing on this discussion. Stop insisting it does. That said, Yorktown was likely only 250 meters, and was purpose built for war.
@@stagalgiz1097 You do know... that the uss kelvin.. is prime timeline right? its canon. And its several hundred meters bigger then the tos enterprise. So uh your confidently wrong. And no the yorktown WAS 400 meters. Theres no issue with that.
I love the original STL version of the Yorktown most. Played it so much in ENT battles I could've been considered the caption of the Washington 403 haha I think the Yorktown was made as a scare tactic that could back up what it was trying to get across. It was made to make the Romulans pause, and to boost morale in the Federation. I mean, there's really no good reason for it to have the vast amount of weapons it had from a practical standpoint but it was a scary prospect for any unwanted presence if they crossed the Yorktown's path.
I believe your analogy regarding Marriage and Hen night is Deeply Flawed the analogy would be More Accurate to say one is a Only Son and the other a Only Daughter!!! 🤠👍
Just an opinion but I'd say slinging a secondary hull under the NX was a testament to engineering ingenuity. It extended the service time of the NX series, and introduced the idea of having secondary and primary hulls with specified equipment, which clearly began to influence all subsequent starship designs. The argument about ship lineage seems more like matters of pride and prestige more than practicality. I think someone actually (I cannot recall the website, but it had some cool ship designs between the beginning of the UFP StarFleet and TOS but I credit it them) indicated one of the reasons for building starships with secondary and primary hulls was due to the warp technology and that warp core designs at the time were tricky temperamental, or prone to exploding after being hit in combat. The idea being that most of the crew is in the primary hull where the impulse engines were also installed and that the two hulls could be separated with minimal loss to crews. It also makes sense if warp dynamics were improving because of or leading to the reconfiguration of the overall ship design into what we often see in the television and movie series.
Thinking about it from a 24th century ship design perspective I can see the Yorktown being a divergent evolution of the NX class. Think about how many dominion war and first contact era ships are deviations on or kit bashes of other federation ship designs but up gunned and armoured for the big fight.
I feel as though the Yorktown was a separate project that started immediately after the Klingons jumped Enterprise in the Sol System, and so Starfleet wanted a ship that could stomp out a Klingon cruiser in a one on one fight, against the Vulcans’ advice and without their support. It had DNA of the NX-Class but was meant for a different role, it was upscaled to be able to have the mass to sustain damage and hoist a bunch of armor and be able to give room for larger but less efficient power generation systems and warp systems to brute force their way into high warp speeds and hard-hitting weapons systems. But, Starfleet had competing programs and interests leading into the Romulan War and so it was not able to be pushed into production as quickly as it needed to be. It competed directly with the NX-Class for resources and for trained crews and officers and so hurt both, and then the available pool of resources and crew began to grow and by the time both ships were able to make it into service in numbers the war was over.
My preferred idea for the Yorktown is something like the 23rd Century Miranda: A modular design that was originally designed as a heavy cruiser but could be upgunned (with a cost to agiliy) into a full-scale battleship but could also be turned into an explorer/survey ship, carrier or logistical vessel.
I feel like the Yorktown was the original intended successor, but when war was imminent they retooled it for a battleship, probably scribbling out sensor packages and installing more armor and torpedos. It was probably a way of making a more heavy cruiser based on the missions and damage reports of the Enterprise, and iteratively redesign the NX into a more durable platform. That platform just also kinda looked like a Battlecruiser. Then the war came along and they dropped cruiser from its mission profile entirely and unarmed and up armored it into a full battleship. Because in this era the NX is a bit of a light cruiser, I can see them wanting to have a proper heavy cruiser or Battlecruiser, but the war changed priorities and the intended successor role never came to really pass, being relegated to system defense battleships.
Someone had two loves FASA/Starfleet Battles and The JJ Movies and wanted them to both be friends. The Double Hull design "TOSified" is fun though. Over all though I will say it's really difficult to nail down something like the Romulan Wars to to the sheer amount of temporal changes at play.
Need to remember that the Romulan War was the First War in Space that Humans had ever experienced. The war upgrades to the NX series and eventual successors were learned during something Humanity had never experienced before. You can actually see historical equivalents in technological hodge-podge and new creation.
The Yorktown to me is the stepping stone, the missing link, between the NX and the Constitution. Probably the first ship using the tech from Earth’s allies, was pushing towards Warp 6 and thus needed all the resources for a long term space campaign away from Earth. Hence its 400m length. You have to remember supply lines would have been more a nightmare in this era. How many ships did Starfleet have that could deliver resources to the front in less than a year? I think the Yorktown was the solution to a logistical problem as much as a tactical one.
I've been asking cryptic to bring this and the other ST Legacy ships of early starfleet in. the Yorktown could have also been refitted to the Bonaventure type seen in TAS episode Time Trap. In side canon the Yorktowns were also used for orientation and compatibility tests for new member species and powers, the yorktown would be retired from that duty by the time of the Connie block 3 refits.
I think most likely scenario is that Old Bonaventure was Ceres class ship designed at the same time as Poseidon class NX refit. It was attempt to introduce imported alien tech to Archer Drive ships. Project was delayed due to Earth-Romulan War and then canceled by Archer, due to large number of subspace accidents it cause (Archer was aware of time travel). It make sense that Archer would call new Warp 7 Bonaventure class ship with name of missing SS Bonaventure, same as he attempted to call NX with missing SS Columbia. Last known case is famous Franklin Incident. But what interesting Conies also have this tendency and smaller saucers then common ships of the time. BTW NX was famous from its sturdy hull, so it could be possibly be reused during Ares Project. Yorktown is not Bonaventure class. Yorktown class has around 400 meters (it is fallow up by Einstein and Walker class), Bonaventure class around 300 meters when Old Bonaventure from TOS was only slightly shorter then NX.
Ahh a classic starship! A workhorse of a ship, might not look the most elegant but it's like the Ambassador class; does it's job and does it well, and can take a pounding and keep on going!
Hrm, you know, though, upon seeing the lovely NX-refit I actually really had the impression they'd planned for that kind of expansion, at least as an option, all along. All the lines and everything just match up like they'd always been there. I could see them keeping em simple on introduction, but leaving room for future-proofing expansion.
In my opinion the construction of the Yorktown was the result of needing a ship that could handle threats that the NX or other vessels couldn’t. In particular I believe that the vessel was designed as much as a proof of concept and from lessons learned from the Xindi, the Klingons as well as other hostile encounters. While the NX was rugged the Yorktown was built to be hardy and was developed as a deterrent against other powers from getting funny ideas.
It seems likely to me that the Yorktown Class was in early development when the war started to seem likely thus using the idea of an engineering section to upgrade Starfleet's existing ships would be something that was relatively easy to steal from these early designs.
Just found your channel. I love the look of the Yorktown and have ever since i saw it in StarTrek: Legacy for the xbox 360. I personally dont know too much about lore for most ships but I feel like this was just meant as we (starfleet) need more firepower.
The Rockwell looks from the side an kitbash of the ring class hull, an abandoned class. Rings technology was discarded and a saucer was added to the hull...
I think the Yorktown exemplifies the motto you can never have too much DACA. Shes big shes kinda purdy but she has a lot of punch with the promise to add more
I like an agreement with everything that you said about the Yorktown class in the video. Also the 1st time I saw the Yorktown class was in the Star Trek Legacy video game that came out a few years after enterprise ended and used the same model that you've shown in The photos of this video. Is the campaign of that game called Ages of the Federation? And I was wondering, you said starfleet's refit of the NX class was to the Galaxy and her Venture refited sisters. So wood, you agree that the Sovereign class failed a similar trend as the Yorktown class as well?
In my mind, the Yorktown is the great great grandfather of the Sovereign-class. She's a the ship that shows up on the field that causes her enemies to go "oh crap, /she's/ here, the Federation has gotten serious."
It is the same point as with the Ares-class: Starfleet doesn't accept, it is a military force with an explorational dedication, much like the early European navies. Instead, and here the USS is quite fitting, like the US, they say: "Yes, we do know, we have to cover three coasts and a Variety of outposts, far away, but that amount of money? Are you kidding?
Have you ever seen the minuteman class? Its another enterprise era design from star trek legacy like the yorktown here. looks like a potential design evolution from those starfleet museum designs into what became the star trek enterprise esthetic. it also uses a pair of heavy plasma cannons as primary weapons instead of phase cannons. I think it would fit quite nicely into your venomvers, as a heavy close range brawler to go toe to toe with romulan ships at plasma canon range, wile other ships like the daedalus lob long range missiles. There's quite a few more decent romulan and klingon original designs from that game you could make use of, if you have never booted up legacy yourself and had a look at them.
If the "official" size for the Yorktown were accurate, I suspect it would be the kind of industrial-style monsters we see in the Kelvin Timeline. An oversized primary hull built not to be efficiently filled with various quarters and work stations, but a massive arsenal magazine to feed those torpedo tubes. Meanwhile the secondary hull might be primarily fuel storage, in order to get around the range issues a battleship-type vessel normally deals with. Is it too big? Probably, since shipyard facilities would be scaled for the ships then-in-service, meaning new facilities would have needed to be constructed just to build them. That said, this might be another reason why they only showed up at the end of the war - the shipyards had to be built first.
I doubt it. I bet it was pretty efficiently designed with the official size. You forgetting most ships that that Earth build where ocean going and they were all warships. I can see this being being constructed in a dry dock in Newport News where aircraft carriers used to be built and since anti-craft exists it lifted off so is probably efficiently designed just like a modern-day warship
I don't know that it would be the successor in that sense, but certainly it was built for the war. A ship of combat, where the NX had to make due with its muddled middle of the road design ideas that may have hampered its tactical abilities.
I actually like the 400 meter scale of the Yorktown-class for Planetary Expeditionary role. Like Starfleet developed the class before the war to complement the NX to engage in long term study of planets or whatever. This battleship lore could easily fit into this. As the Yorktown project was reworked into combat role and down scaled to fit certain requirements. Kinda in the sense of the AR-10 being down-scaled to the AR-15 and the concept of a .22 caliber intermediate cartridge firing weapon. Though, how much can you compare rifles to starships....🤔
Except that's substantially larger than the Constitution class which is only 288 meters long. I just don't see Earth in that period having the technical expertise or the industrial capability to build ships of that size. The bigger a ship gets the more complex it is to develop and more resources it takes to build.
@@0utc4st1985 Isn't the Burj Khalifa twice that length? It's an entire planet's industry capabilities that was only a few years later shifted to push out a new war fleet. I mean, there's a lot of truth in what you're bringing up. I was thinking they were gearing up to build some big ship with initial plans saying 400 meters. Then there was the Xindi crisis and then the Romulan War. The big ship plan fell through and then they down scaled the layout and repurposed NX parts to build what became the Yorktown-class.
@@andrwblood9162 Well looking at today the latest and greatest supercarrier, the Gerald R. Ford class is 333 meters long and costs almost $13 billion each to build. The Burj Khalifa only cost $1.5 billion. Even considering that's a lowball because of their exploitative slave labor system it would still be considerably less than an aircraft carrier half its size. Office towers just sit there and look pretty for the most part and provide a comfortable space, but a carrier or a starship has to do other things which makes them much more expensive to build.
@@0utc4st1985 This is what refering to, the resources necessary to achieve this predessor to the Yorktown no long existed because of circumstances. Or the plans were re-evaluated and it was canceled because Starfleet thought it was waste. In R&D, that happens a lot. The ability to do mega-projects isn't governing factor, there requires the will to do so. The will of Earth to build singular large starships shifted to building multiple smaller ones, in part at least. In Beta canon, Starfleet choice to build up Daedalus-classes at the expanse of NXs because they could build three of those for one NX. Like the King Tiger tank was a stupid idea for German at that time, despite a couple decades later Warsaw and Western tanks matching King Tiger characteristics. The circumstances were different making the value of the tanks different, but the ability to produce them were obviously there.
I prefer the rescaled Yorktown over the official and its size would allow more ships to be produced, which is especially helpful in times of war... They could produce a larger variant more in-line with the official scaling, as a command vessel and have it equipped with fighter-style shuttles. I'm not a fan of the bulky secondary hull, I'd prefer an elongated NX refit style, but for the command vessel a bulkier secondary hull would be good for power generation, docking for fighter-style shuttles and perhaps an impulse engine for increased speed/maneuverability.
I have to respectfully disagree with your choice of the Rockwell as the obvious child to the NX. I feel the design of the Yorktown makes more sense, 1 : Using pre existing tech would reduce cost while still providing the desired effect in an overall improved ship. 2: If put to use after the war would have enough fire power return to exploration with greater protection for crews encountering unknowns.3: Rockwell design doesn't fit ship design evolution, don't see any reason secondary Hull would be on top of this ship but not in any future vessels we are familiar with. Thanks again for everything you do!!
for whether it's a successor or not, I'd say this it's a successor in the way of a heavy combat ship rather than the explorer type of ship, it'll fight through hell but it won't be great for first contact or smthn like that
As a modeler/3D Modeler/ 3D Model Printer/ 3D Star Trek Model Printer I would have to say I do and do not like this ship at the same time. I like the idea of the ship, but I think I could make it more of a TOS flavor and just a tad less Kelvin looking. I somewhat liked Enterprise the series, but I did not like the oversized Romulan Warbird that looked like it came back from the 24th century. I think that NX should have been just a tad smaller, but I can live with it. I did think it was a little over greebled. I played Star Trek Armada, and they had a ship that looked something like the Yorktown that we have here. The 2 things I don't care for on the design is the Kelvin timeline secondary hull, and the kind of pylon/engine pylon design all intersecting to be more practical than the TOS Constitution later. I think you are right on with the size dimensions. 400M is to damn large unless you are progressing into the Strange New World/Disco Enterprise, and then it could be considered a pre TOS Dreadnought, but I like the idea of the 246 better. I also don't care for the TMP bridge which again is 100 years ahead of its time, and would rather see the more TOS looking bridge.
The M103 heavy tank did not have a name assigned. "Patton" referred to M46/47/48 only. Just FYI. It's an interesting design, though I'd quibble about Starfleet and battleships. Then again, there's already fun over what Starfleet calls something and what it properly is, so likely just semantics. I feel it's a wash between the Rockwell and Yorktown. The Rockwell seems more a testbed that worked out well enough it went into wider production, while the Yorktown was more an iterative evolution intended for wider production from the start.
if we're going by the romulan war fan film description of the yorktown, it was built with warp 7 capability to enable "first strike capability" vs the romulans so idk why you're saying that yorktown doesn't have range or speed because it's a "battleship".
I'm not sure what the purpose of this video is but Yorktown is incredibly well designed. The ship looks great and pretty close in design to the NH class. It would have been great if they had continued the Star Trek Enterprise and seen him in some season in action and in battle alongside the Enterprise on Cap. Archer.
Sounds like the Yorktown class is your version of the Columbia class vessels of the birth of the federation novel series, that was born out of refitted nx class vessels and turned into a successor class all on its own.
I feel there can be at least three “successors” to the NX class than can bridge the gap between NX and constitution, much in the same way the two different versions of the Ambassador classes can bridge the gap between the galaxy class and the connie refit and excelsiors 1 the NX refit which creates a secondary hull to create an NX style but with the layout of the Constitution 2 the Bonadventure class seen in the ships of the line calendar and art book. In this we see what appears to be an NX design but scaled up and skinned like a TOS connie. The saucer has a tubular center running fore and aft which houses all the components of the TOS secondary hull. Because of this the saucer section is really only the port and starboard sides possibly with cross corridors that bisect engineering 3 reverse layout constitution: english narrowboat fans with appreciate the reference but a reverse layout means all systems required for propulsion are installed in the saucer section while the space in the secondary hull normally reserved for engineering (aft of the deflector dish, forward of the shuttlebay) is now the crew accommodation and laboratories normally found in the saucer sections. Because of the different geometry of the structure this structure is set up more like a metropolitan district with the appearance of buildings lining to intersecting thoroughfares with balconies and cross bridges. The for and aft walkway has a clear skylight to let in either the natural light from space, or can simulate a normal sky With the the port to starboard walkway ending in terraced viewing lounges surrounding a shuttle docking port on either side
If the Yorktown-class did exist in cannon, it'd be a good explanation why the four NX-class starships (Enterprise NX-01, Columbia NX-02, NX-03 and NX-04) were given an early retirement despite being in service for less than 10-years.
I view the Yorktown as a literal successor to the NX. It was literally the next class of ship Earth built. But the Rockwell, as my headcanon wasnt that fleshed out so ill borrow yours, was the spiritual successor. It filled the role of exploration. The Yorktown could, but it was built with the ever fluid landscape of the mid-22nd century in mind (aka combat and exploration).
History proves that a big stick has plenty of uses. While Starfleet is an "exploration focused navy" any navy needs a "big stick" especially in an universe where klingons have an empire and their idea of diplomacy is shooting a glancing torpedo that pummels half of your shields as a hailing signal (the klingons really are the most fun race in trek :)) ). So at the end of the day the Yorktown doesn't really need to be cutting edge to do it's job as a stick, it just needs to be big and sturdy enough to survive a klingon hello.
I like the Yorktown design, I remember being rather wowed when I first encountered it in the Star Trek: Legacy game. However, I don't like the Rockwell design, I don't think it fits the lineage of Star Fleet. As an experimental design, I have no issue with it, but the Yorktown feels the more natural progression; you have the NX design, which shows clear progression from the Intrepid class. The Yorktown, designed as a larger, more combat capable vessel, shows the same design philosophy from the NX (even the nacelle pylons are snug to the saucer much like the Intrepid and NX's), which then feeds back and informs the NX-refit, which to me is why such a rapid "Oh sh*t" refit worked. It also demonstrated to Starfleet designers that the separate saucer/engineering hull was the optimal, which then informs design for the next few hundred years. So for me, the marriage analogy is the other way around; the Yorktown is the legitimate child of the NX, the Rockwell is the one-night-stand child.
I can see the Yorktown class as what was needed without at the time being state of the art. Something functional and tough. If you think about it, at Pearl Harbor the US lost most of it's battleships. Those though we're from the previous war. What took it's place temporarily was the new innovation of the aircraft carrier. Still there was a valid need to project power and a new generation of battleship was made with at the time existing technology. By today's standard it would be slow and primitive in many ways. Now even after the war though there would be need of them. Heck 40 Plus years later they were renovated with new weapons and technology and put back into service. This is how i see the Yorktown class evolving. Yes there are newer better ships. That said when you need to make a statement and project power. You pull this out and bring it up to spec as much as possible. And have it at the center of a battle group.
It's thr best Early Game ship in Star Trek Legacy, but when role playing I like to use only one of them in my fleet for the final Battle in the Romulan Earth war mission
Wasn’t there a Yorktown class in that old PC game that had all the captains come back to voice their characters and the story was about a Vulcan that created the borg and somehow involved V’Ger?
Some idea here, but the Yorktown class and the NX refit are closely related both for pratical and political reasons. Possibly Starfleet had to scale back on new ship hulls, especially large ships to be used out of the solar system because the isolationist sentiment of Terra Prime was still strong. So Starfleet took the designs that were intended for the NX successor and modified the existing NX hulls closer to what the Yorktown was supposed to be and only much later under the pressure of the Romulan War production of the Yorktown began in earnest while the NX was being phased out?
🖖😎👍Very cool and very nicely well done and very well informatively explained and executed in every detail way shape and form possibly provided indeed, And very much enjoyed seeing all the various upgrades and various new Starship designs on moving into the way that all future Starship's would come to be in looks and stature leading up to the Constitution class and so forth indeed!,👌.
Incorrect on the NX Never meant to have that refit, the refit NX is seen multiple times through multiple star trek series, most recently in the museum in Picard - NX was always meant to have that refit, Star Trek: Enterprise was killed off before it could get a hero ship version of it.
The Rockwell looks both odd and cool! It's like a marriage between Star Trek and sleek rocket ships. One of my issues with this era is that there seems to be too much of a desire to have advanced (TOS seeming) ships show up too early. The Rockwell is great for me, because it solves the riddle of looking advanced relative to the NX while still looking primitive. In ENTERPRISE, the NX was the biggest and best human ship bar none. Which made things humbling for earth when the NX was so often outclassed by various alien ships. The NX's premier position among earth ship classes might change given enough motivation and help, but really, the NX was going nowhere soon. It makes sense to me that the Yorktown wouldn't be so much larger and would be scaled up tech. I do like how the Yorktown evokes a Connie while being very different and more primitive under close examination.
I liked your video, but I believe that this ship is the result of the sum of technologies from other Earth ships such as the use of the Horizon-class force shields, the large amount of Marshall-class cannons and the NX technologies . What I didn't like was this reduction in the size of this ship, it is big due to the attack that Earth suffered from the Xindis, I believe that if humanity had this ship in large quantities it would have been much safer for us to prevent the destruction of the Earth.
If the yorktown was 400 meters i could imagine that it was like a big battleship for the time. But i dont really see a issue with it being 400 meters its really simple just to say older tech was bigger and clunkier and as star fleet went on ships got smaller bc they could put all the tech into smaller cases and that made the ships smaller.
I think the Yorktown was a "lets make the toughest ship with technology we have now", they weren't trying to make a super innovative, experimental, or trailblazing ship. They just wanted something that would get the job done and impress everyone.
The secondary hull on the NX never made sense and seemed out of place, particularly considering the Yorktowns and later JJ-verse ship’s secondary hulls. If anything, the NX hull should have shared the same basic cylindrical design.
Well near the end of Star Trek Enterprise, we see the Andorians come into the picture. They begin offering their influence in Starfleet ship design. Before, it had mainly been human ship design, the Vulcans certainly weren't sharing much. The humans certainly weren't going to openly COPY the Vulcan designs. Not with the way those relations were looking. But the Andorians show up as a real ally, offer shield technology and probably had more than a few things to offer in the ship building department. When we look at early Andorian ships, what do we see? I see a long, bulbous primary hull. Once these influences began to meld, we ended up with saucers with large central sections. There was a big advantage of having a saucer and there were advantages of having a sizeable engineering section. It must have made sense because that is the direction they went for most of their designs.
NX & Rockwell: "This is a ship of exploration, it is meant to explore strange new worlds."
NX-refit & Yorktown: "This is a ship of war, it is meant to kill your enemy."
The Yorktown in the Earth-Romulan War is a lot like the M26 Pershing in WW2. Late to the war so few in number & it peak renovation of existing technology without completely revolutionizing it. I do hope one day the Yorktown-class makes it to Trek alpha canon.
That is a rather apt metaphor.
was that a stargate metaphor adapted for star trek XD ? "this is a weapon of fear.... this is a weapon of war" -jack o'neil
@heypeopleitsmatt yup. Its such a versatile quote
I was going to comment something similar, but your comment here is far better. I was going to say a bit about a scout-class vehicle vs. an armed version because of wartime then a tank version upgrade to that tank version.
So, here's your 👍
@@heypeopleitsmatt ; *Indeed.*
An old Sergeant of mine liked to categorize troops in two groups: Einstein or Hercules. Need both to get stuff done. Starfleet has a bad history of being too precious about that fact.
Starfleet always had its hawks and doves. The issue is by TNG the Federation has enjoyed 80years of complete dominance over the Alpha Quadrant. There hadnt been a real war in a lifetime. Starfleet became overconfident, sure they’d never be seriously challenged again. It’s comparable to the Royal Navy in 1914, unable to understand its superiority had eroded to nothing.
Personally the Yorktown is a “Don’t mess with me“ ship, the first real warship built to fight and destroy, like the Proxima where that was a literally took it to the next level as “Leave or get Squashed!” Interestingly this stopped once the Constitution classes came out, but the battleships came back with a vengeance with the Excelsior and being a real game changer, really made the Klingons and Romulans pause, until the Borg and Dominion decided to test the Federation and then the real those warships were back again! Once again great video!
The Yorktown like the Sovereign-class, she's a warship built by taking an exploration ship and up gunning her to hell and a handbasket. You can even see it in hpe she shares the same sleek profile as the Sovereign.
I remember the Yorktown from Star Trek Legacy. Packed a punch.
Loved that game.
You get the achievement for taking one to the TNG era?
Yup
I like the Yorktown Class. In the game
@@ericjustasinner5695 heck yeah
This is why everyone hates fighting Starfleet. They fly about in some wimpy little exploration cruisers, but as soon as war breaks out they pull out some Uber-savage war machine from nowhere and the obliterate everything in their path. Quark said it best, “These humans are wonderful enlightened people so long as their replicators and showers work. But take away their comfort, put them in danger and they’re suddenly as savage as the most bloodthirsty Klingon.”
This is a great class of starship! I love playing it in Star Trek: Legacy. Thanks for another fantastic video!
Loved that game do you know where I can get a copy
@@james8449100 I'm not sure. I can only play it on my older desk top. It won't play on Windows 10.
@@troyspencer753 I'll keep my fingers crossed for GOG
Hmm, what's the source of the Rockwell-class, by the way?
And several other late 22nd century, ones?
@@james8449100 oh sorry I was thinking Xbox 360 sorry.
I always enjoyed the Yorktown from Legacy. I remember there being an Xbox 360 Achievement for taking a Yorktown through the entire campaign.
I don't know about the Xbox 360 achievement, but I do know that in the PC version of Legacy, there is an achievement for making it all the way to the TNG era with a ship from the NX era. As a result, the best option for getting the achievement was to keep a Yorktown class ship in your fleet until you got to TNG era.
While the Yorktown looks like the result of a one-night-stand with a biker, the Rockwell looks like the result of a drunken night between siblings.
Interesting parallel drawn with the Conqueror and the M103. However I would point out that those tanks were not a response to the King Tiger. But rather they were a response to Soviet heavies and super heavies like the IS-3.
The Yorktown appears to be a response, by Starfleet, as you mentioned. To the Romulan battleships. Which prior to the war, Starfleet did not have.
The Rockwell looks like it took design cues from the Andorians with that impulse drive and engineering section.
You made the statement that the NX class was never intended to have a secondary hall. The man who originally designed the ship for enterprise. I think his name is Drexler. He said, in an interview that in season five, the enterprise was going to be dry docked and was going to receive a secondary haul. This upgrade was planned but the series ended so that is not so just a fellow Star Trek fan. He made the statement on trek yards. season five was going to begin with most likely the earth Romulan war if CBS picks up season five for enterprise that’s probably where it’s going to start and Drexler said the ship was designed from the very beginning to eventually receive a secondary hall, although in the first season of enterprise, it hadn’t been designed yet.
@@vickid9035 are you replying to the correct comment?
And one more thing the enterprise upon its upgrade would receive a warp seven engine, the original engine the warp five engine was still in the saucer as a back up according to Drexler, so between the two engines, the enterprise NX had a greater sustainability during a fire fight during the earth Romulan war if the primary engine failed, then the fire engine provided an emergency get away during bottles
@@vickid9035 again...are you replying to the correct comment?
I LOVE the association of heavy tanks to these Starships.
Great vid Mike.
Thanks!
Well done.
Good Video. Solid Arguments.
I think of Yorktown as having a bit of a Centurion/Pershing vibe to it.
I always held, and still do, that it was the intended successor to the NX-Class, made from lessons learned from that class. But not a total replacement that might imply. It was meant to take over as the Premier Starfleet vessel, at some point. The War likely accelerated its development out of theoretical and into production, as the answer to those bigger Romulan vessels as you mentioned.
But the Big nail in the Yorktown's Coffin was the formation of the Federation, when that happened, the Influx of alien technologies and design styles, meant that the Purely Human tech Yorktown had its place questioned as the true 'successor' to NX. Eventually it got supplanted in that concept by the Rockwell, A "gound-up" Federation design.
Yeah I'd say more pershing than centurion. Given how quickly it was outmoded. It also has a lot of Intrepid DNA with that tight geometry. But yeah I think the influx of federation tech is what did for it.
@@venomgeekmedia9886 Pershing is pretty spot on to compare with the yorktown the only other tank that would come close to it would be the panther but in lesser numbers.
Starfleet's Big Bad Battleship Blastin' Romulans while Banging their heads to some Beethoven.
Slight correction, the Yorktown game from the game Legacy, which is where AOTF crew got it from.
That being said I need to drastically disagree that the ship wasn't the end point of the Romulan War. In the canon, it was literally the only ship able to take the fight to the Romulan heavies. It formed the center of several UEF fleets allowing them to advance on objectives in a way they hadn't be able to prior. Its also important to remember that this was an Earth ship, not a Federation one. Comparing it to the later era joint built ships from some 40+ years in the future doesn't really explain the build or usage of the ship. It would be like comparing a pre-dreadnaught to an Iowa. For its time it was monster of the Earth fleets, which is why it was so massive, it was the fleet command ship of its day. Scaling it down is pointless as rescaling is for something that you want more of, but that's now what Yorktown was. She was rare, she was expensive and she was horrifying.
I really like that Design!
It looks comparably crude, but it has the right proportions imo. I like the lack of a neck which makes the ship look way more sturdy and practical so to say. Overall a nice design imo.
In a light sense, I think that the Yorktown is generally meant as the successor to the NX, but it is more complex than it should be:
- The Yorktown was just one of many new ships being pushed out by the new United Federation of Planets.
- The NX was never meant to have a successor, as it was just a cruiser built to operate the Warp 5 engine. Only 4 ships were built (unless other sources disagree with that concept) to make way for other ships with better technology.
- Season 3 of Picard has made the NX Refit canon. The refit is generally concluded by fans as a necessity to get every ship ready for war against the Romulans.
- I agree that the Yorktown is a little too big to make valid sense, but it's still a heavy hitter. It was expensive to build, so not many were made.
- The Daedalus class is often looked at as one of the common starships mentioned in TNG of the early Federation days (or at least heavily implied).
Nop! Yorktown was Battleship build purely for purpose of the war and immediately demobilized after, due to crippling costs. It probably never was officially part of UFP. Though they sturdy hulls were revisited later in the Einstein, Walker and especially Phase II ships (aka Disco). Class what was true NX successor was Bonaventure class, named after lost Ceres class ship (canceled class what was culmination of Archer Drive and its tendency of causing subspace incidents).
All ships in original Kelvin scale in STO (based on size of Koyabashi Maru, not the current nonsense) fit speculated size of this class of around 300 meters. Yorktown is not too big. Vulcan D'kyr has something like 700 meters and I think some Tellarite ships also were larger. But it was too big for Earth, what at the time could afford only 100 to 140 meter ships in larger number. In Beta canon Starfleet didn't become fleet of Federation until 23'th century.
NX was meant to be mass produced, but when war started all hulls in construction were turned into Poseidon class. So only few surviving NX Explorers get the refit, to bring them up to standard. I personally believe that Dedalus was meant to be mass produced, but Freedom class NX fall apart during the tests, what delayed program with need of designing NX sturdy enough to survive vibration. But after mission of Enterprise was concluded they could be re-engineered to fit warp 4, just in time for the war. And later they were so common and cheap that they stay in service.
I do believe that Minuteman class was special military version of Dedalus introduced later in the war. Though most of Poseidons (what basically superseded NX) were decommissioned after the war. Some number was refitted into Loknar Destroyer and possibly Strider and Marklin class. Some rumors even mention possibility that they hulls could be used in apocrypha Ares Program.
I dont see a issue with the yorktown being big at all we have seen this in real life we are moving away from battleships and big heavy hitters to smaller ships that still pack a punch. Maybe thats what starfleet was doing. Or maybe for all the tech to fit into the yorktown maybe to fit a new engine 12 phasers and 8 torpedo launchers they needed to build the biggest ship starfleet had built to that point. And as the kelvin timeline has proven the constitution class is not the biggest starship starfleet can offer maybe one of the strongest but theres plenty of bigger ships and the yorktown being one of them even tho its 90ish years older than it is not a issue for me.
@@olaminabryan8026 There is misconception that ships were smaller during NX era, then they actually were (they were for political reasons). But until TNG revolution, size of Starfleet in Beta canon was rather consistent. People forget that Vulcans already operated 700 meter ships in the Enterprise TV show.
@@olaminabryan8026 Kelvan timeline is not prime timeline, therefore it has no bearing on this discussion. Stop insisting it does. That said, Yorktown was likely only 250 meters, and was purpose built for war.
@@stagalgiz1097 You do know... that the uss kelvin.. is prime timeline right? its canon. And its several hundred meters bigger then the tos enterprise. So uh your confidently wrong. And no the yorktown WAS 400 meters. Theres no issue with that.
I love the original STL version of the Yorktown most. Played it so much in ENT battles I could've been considered the caption of the Washington 403 haha
I think the Yorktown was made as a scare tactic that could back up what it was trying to get across. It was made to make the Romulans pause, and to boost morale in the Federation. I mean, there's really no good reason for it to have the vast amount of weapons it had from a practical standpoint but it was a scary prospect for any unwanted presence if they crossed the Yorktown's path.
Considering how exposed/vulnerable early phase cannons were, it makes sense to have some redundancy on a warship
Thanx to the shoutout for the mod, I loved making that model for AOTF :)
I believe your analogy regarding Marriage and Hen night is Deeply Flawed the analogy would be More Accurate to say one is a Only Son and the other a Only Daughter!!! 🤠👍
Just an opinion but I'd say slinging a secondary hull under the NX was a testament to engineering ingenuity. It extended the service time of the NX series, and introduced the idea of having secondary and primary hulls with specified equipment, which clearly began to influence all subsequent starship designs. The argument about ship lineage seems more like matters of pride and prestige more than practicality.
I think someone actually (I cannot recall the website, but it had some cool ship designs between the beginning of the UFP StarFleet and TOS but I credit it them) indicated one of the reasons for building starships with secondary and primary hulls was due to the warp technology and that warp core designs at the time were tricky temperamental, or prone to exploding after being hit in combat. The idea being that most of the crew is in the primary hull where the impulse engines were also installed and that the two hulls could be separated with minimal loss to crews.
It also makes sense if warp dynamics were improving because of or leading to the reconfiguration of the overall ship design into what we often see in the television and movie series.
Thinking about it from a 24th century ship design perspective I can see the Yorktown being a divergent evolution of the NX class. Think about how many dominion war and first contact era ships are deviations on or kit bashes of other federation ship designs but up gunned and armoured for the big fight.
Rockwell: "Do YoU LoVe mE bRoThEr?!"
Yorktown: "Be strong Yorktown...be strong for mother..."
I feel as though the Yorktown was a separate project that started immediately after the Klingons jumped Enterprise in the Sol System, and so Starfleet wanted a ship that could stomp out a Klingon cruiser in a one on one fight, against the Vulcans’ advice and without their support. It had DNA of the NX-Class but was meant for a different role, it was upscaled to be able to have the mass to sustain damage and hoist a bunch of armor and be able to give room for larger but less efficient power generation systems and warp systems to brute force their way into high warp speeds and hard-hitting weapons systems. But, Starfleet had competing programs and interests leading into the Romulan War and so it was not able to be pushed into production as quickly as it needed to be. It competed directly with the NX-Class for resources and for trained crews and officers and so hurt both, and then the available pool of resources and crew began to grow and by the time both ships were able to make it into service in numbers the war was over.
My preferred idea for the Yorktown is something like the 23rd Century Miranda: A modular design that was originally designed as a heavy cruiser but could be upgunned (with a cost to agiliy) into a full-scale battleship but could also be turned into an explorer/survey ship, carrier or logistical vessel.
there is a good call for both the Rockwell and Yorktown classes, and also, we need a space frame, and they can be equipped with scince or battle.
I feel like the Yorktown was the original intended successor, but when war was imminent they retooled it for a battleship, probably scribbling out sensor packages and installing more armor and torpedos.
It was probably a way of making a more heavy cruiser based on the missions and damage reports of the Enterprise, and iteratively redesign the NX into a more durable platform. That platform just also kinda looked like a Battlecruiser. Then the war came along and they dropped cruiser from its mission profile entirely and unarmed and up armored it into a full battleship. Because in this era the NX is a bit of a light cruiser, I can see them wanting to have a proper heavy cruiser or Battlecruiser, but the war changed priorities and the intended successor role never came to really pass, being relegated to system defense battleships.
Someone had two loves FASA/Starfleet Battles and The JJ Movies and wanted them to both be friends.
The Double Hull design "TOSified" is fun though.
Over all though I will say it's really difficult to nail down something like the Romulan Wars to to the sheer amount of temporal changes at play.
Just wanted to say how much enjoyment you have given me with your channel. Sending a Thanks$
Need to remember that the Romulan War was the First War in Space that Humans had ever experienced. The war upgrades to the NX series and eventual successors were learned during something Humanity had never experienced before. You can actually see historical equivalents in technological hodge-podge and new creation.
The Yorktown to me is the stepping stone, the missing link, between the NX and the Constitution.
Probably the first ship using the tech from Earth’s allies, was pushing towards Warp 6 and thus needed all the resources for a long term space campaign away from Earth. Hence its 400m length.
You have to remember supply lines would have been more a nightmare in this era. How many ships did Starfleet have that could deliver resources to the front in less than a year?
I think the Yorktown was the solution to a logistical problem as much as a tactical one.
I've been asking cryptic to bring this and the other ST Legacy ships of early starfleet in. the Yorktown could have also been refitted to the Bonaventure type seen in TAS episode Time Trap. In side canon the Yorktowns were also used for orientation and compatibility tests for new member species and powers, the yorktown would be retired from that duty by the time of the Connie block 3 refits.
I think most likely scenario is that Old Bonaventure was Ceres class ship designed at the same time as Poseidon class NX refit. It was attempt to introduce imported alien tech to Archer Drive ships. Project was delayed due to Earth-Romulan War and then canceled by Archer, due to large number of subspace accidents it cause (Archer was aware of time travel). It make sense that Archer would call new Warp 7 Bonaventure class ship with name of missing SS Bonaventure, same as he attempted to call NX with missing SS Columbia. Last known case is famous Franklin Incident. But what interesting Conies also have this tendency and smaller saucers then common ships of the time. BTW NX was famous from its sturdy hull, so it could be possibly be reused during Ares Project.
Yorktown is not Bonaventure class. Yorktown class has around 400 meters (it is fallow up by Einstein and Walker class), Bonaventure class around 300 meters when Old Bonaventure from TOS was only slightly shorter then NX.
the rockwell and yorktown are step siblings and the NX is their shared mother
Ahh a classic starship! A workhorse of a ship, might not look the most elegant but it's like the Ambassador class; does it's job and does it well, and can take a pounding and keep on going!
Hrm, you know, though, upon seeing the lovely NX-refit I actually really had the impression they'd planned for that kind of expansion, at least as an option, all along. All the lines and everything just match up like they'd always been there. I could see them keeping em simple on introduction, but leaving room for future-proofing expansion.
In my opinion the construction of the Yorktown was the result of needing a ship that could handle threats that the NX or other vessels couldn’t. In particular I believe that the vessel was designed as much as a proof of concept and from lessons learned from the Xindi, the Klingons as well as other hostile encounters. While the NX was rugged the Yorktown was built to be hardy and was developed as a deterrent against other powers from getting funny ideas.
And as a middle finger to the Klingons and Romulans.
Golly, those Romulan ships looked so goofy in that era.
It seems likely to me that the Yorktown Class was in early development when the war started to seem likely thus using the idea of an engineering section to upgrade Starfleet's existing ships would be something that was relatively easy to steal from these early designs.
Just found your channel. I love the look of the Yorktown and have ever since i saw it in StarTrek: Legacy for the xbox 360. I personally dont know too much about lore for most ships but I feel like this was just meant as we (starfleet) need more firepower.
The Rockwell looks from the side an kitbash of the ring class hull, an abandoned class. Rings technology was discarded and a saucer was added to the hull...
I think the Yorktown exemplifies the motto you can never have too much DACA. Shes big shes kinda purdy but she has a lot of punch with the promise to add more
Best video I been watching you for years
I like an agreement with everything that you said about the Yorktown class in the video.
Also the 1st time I saw the Yorktown class was in the Star Trek Legacy video game that came out a few years after enterprise ended and used the same model that you've shown in The photos of this video. Is the campaign of that game called Ages of the Federation?
And I was wondering, you said starfleet's refit of the NX class was to the Galaxy and her Venture refited sisters.
So wood, you agree that the Sovereign class failed a similar trend as the Yorktown class as well?
In my mind, the Yorktown is the great great grandfather of the Sovereign-class. She's a the ship that shows up on the field that causes her enemies to go "oh crap, /she's/ here, the Federation has gotten serious."
She's similar in terms of being low profile. But I don't think it's a direct descendent
It is the same point as with the Ares-class:
Starfleet doesn't accept, it is a military force with an explorational dedication, much like the early European navies.
Instead, and here the USS is quite fitting, like the US, they say: "Yes, we do know, we have to cover three coasts and a Variety of outposts, far away, but that amount of money?
Are you kidding?
Have you ever seen the minuteman class? Its another enterprise era design from star trek legacy like the yorktown here. looks like a potential design evolution from those starfleet museum designs into what became the star trek enterprise esthetic. it also uses a pair of heavy plasma cannons as primary weapons instead of phase cannons. I think it would fit quite nicely into your venomvers, as a heavy close range brawler to go toe to toe with romulan ships at plasma canon range, wile other ships like the daedalus lob long range missiles.
There's quite a few more decent romulan and klingon original designs from that game you could make use of, if you have never booted up legacy yourself and had a look at them.
"bigger ships, bigger guns"...said every high ranking office ever...these larger ship hulls were inevitable.
If the "official" size for the Yorktown were accurate, I suspect it would be the kind of industrial-style monsters we see in the Kelvin Timeline. An oversized primary hull built not to be efficiently filled with various quarters and work stations, but a massive arsenal magazine to feed those torpedo tubes. Meanwhile the secondary hull might be primarily fuel storage, in order to get around the range issues a battleship-type vessel normally deals with. Is it too big? Probably, since shipyard facilities would be scaled for the ships then-in-service, meaning new facilities would have needed to be constructed just to build them. That said, this might be another reason why they only showed up at the end of the war - the shipyards had to be built first.
I doubt it. I bet it was pretty efficiently designed with the official size. You forgetting most ships that that Earth build where ocean going and they were all warships. I can see this being being constructed in a dry dock in Newport News where aircraft carriers used to be built and since anti-craft exists it lifted off so is probably efficiently designed just like a modern-day warship
I don't know that it would be the successor in that sense, but certainly it was built for the war. A ship of combat, where the NX had to make due with its muddled middle of the road design ideas that may have hampered its tactical abilities.
I actually like the 400 meter scale of the Yorktown-class for Planetary Expeditionary role. Like Starfleet developed the class before the war to complement the NX to engage in long term study of planets or whatever.
This battleship lore could easily fit into this. As the Yorktown project was reworked into combat role and down scaled to fit certain requirements. Kinda in the sense of the AR-10 being down-scaled to the AR-15 and the concept of a .22 caliber intermediate cartridge firing weapon. Though, how much can you compare rifles to starships....🤔
Except that's substantially larger than the Constitution class which is only 288 meters long. I just don't see Earth in that period having the technical expertise or the industrial capability to build ships of that size. The bigger a ship gets the more complex it is to develop and more resources it takes to build.
@@0utc4st1985 Isn't the Burj Khalifa twice that length? It's an entire planet's industry capabilities that was only a few years later shifted to push out a new war fleet.
I mean, there's a lot of truth in what you're bringing up. I was thinking they were gearing up to build some big ship with initial plans saying 400 meters. Then there was the Xindi crisis and then the Romulan War. The big ship plan fell through and then they down scaled the layout and repurposed NX parts to build what became the Yorktown-class.
@@andrwblood9162 Well looking at today the latest and greatest supercarrier, the Gerald R. Ford class is 333 meters long and costs almost $13 billion each to build. The Burj Khalifa only cost $1.5 billion. Even considering that's a lowball because of their exploitative slave labor system it would still be considerably less than an aircraft carrier half its size. Office towers just sit there and look pretty for the most part and provide a comfortable space, but a carrier or a starship has to do other things which makes them much more expensive to build.
@@0utc4st1985 This is what refering to, the resources necessary to achieve this predessor to the Yorktown no long existed because of circumstances. Or the plans were re-evaluated and it was canceled because Starfleet thought it was waste. In R&D, that happens a lot. The ability to do mega-projects isn't governing factor, there requires the will to do so. The will of Earth to build singular large starships shifted to building multiple smaller ones, in part at least. In Beta canon, Starfleet choice to build up Daedalus-classes at the expanse of NXs because they could build three of those for one NX.
Like the King Tiger tank was a stupid idea for German at that time, despite a couple decades later Warsaw and Western tanks matching King Tiger characteristics. The circumstances were different making the value of the tanks different, but the ability to produce them were obviously there.
I prefer the rescaled Yorktown over the official and its size would allow more ships to be produced, which is especially helpful in times of war... They could produce a larger variant more in-line with the official scaling, as a command vessel and have it equipped with fighter-style shuttles. I'm not a fan of the bulky secondary hull, I'd prefer an elongated NX refit style, but for the command vessel a bulkier secondary hull would be good for power generation, docking for fighter-style shuttles and perhaps an impulse engine for increased speed/maneuverability.
I have to respectfully disagree with your choice of the Rockwell as the obvious child to the NX. I feel the design of the Yorktown makes more sense, 1 : Using pre existing tech would reduce cost while still providing the desired effect in an overall improved ship. 2: If put to use after the war would have enough fire power return to exploration with greater protection for crews encountering unknowns.3: Rockwell design doesn't fit ship design evolution, don't see any reason secondary Hull would be on top of this ship but not in any future vessels we are familiar with. Thanks again for everything you do!!
I'm very happy (and a bit surprised) to see Cmdr. Rockwell honored with a Class of Starship. Does my heart good.
i kinda want to view that ship flow chart in its entirety
for whether it's a successor or not, I'd say this
it's a successor in the way of a heavy combat ship rather than the explorer type of ship, it'll fight through hell but it won't be great for first contact or smthn like that
First time I've seen the Yorktown was in the game ST:Legacy, was my favourite ship.
As a modeler/3D Modeler/ 3D Model Printer/ 3D Star Trek Model Printer I would have to say I do and do not like this ship at the same time.
I like the idea of the ship, but I think I could make it more of a TOS flavor and just a tad less Kelvin looking.
I somewhat liked Enterprise the series, but I did not like the oversized Romulan Warbird that looked like it came back from the 24th century. I think that NX should have been just a tad smaller, but I can live with it. I did think it was a little over greebled. I played Star Trek Armada, and they had a ship that looked something like the Yorktown that we have here.
The 2 things I don't care for on the design is the Kelvin timeline secondary hull, and the kind of pylon/engine pylon design all intersecting to be more practical than the TOS Constitution later.
I think you are right on with the size dimensions. 400M is to damn large unless you are progressing into the Strange New World/Disco Enterprise, and then it could be considered a pre TOS Dreadnought, but I like the idea of the 246 better.
I also don't care for the TMP bridge which again is 100 years ahead of its time, and would rather see the more TOS looking bridge.
I remember the yorktown in the game star trek legacy, where it was more of a TOS ship. Maybe the one in the game was a refit or updated design.
Very happy to get a closer look at this lovely ship I saw in another recent ST video!
The Yorktown is a beautiful ship but i love the lines on the intrepid class of the era. Beasty nacelles
The M103 heavy tank did not have a name assigned. "Patton" referred to M46/47/48 only. Just FYI.
It's an interesting design, though I'd quibble about Starfleet and battleships. Then again, there's already fun over what Starfleet calls something and what it properly is, so likely just semantics. I feel it's a wash between the Rockwell and Yorktown. The Rockwell seems more a testbed that worked out well enough it went into wider production, while the Yorktown was more an iterative evolution intended for wider production from the start.
The M60 might not have been officially a Patton, but it was called Patton in allot of places.
I prefer the Columbia Class (NX-Refit)
Seems like you are building up to a Romulan War series to follow the Vulcan/Andorian conflict.
Funny how it all came back to a big battleship.
We're humans, it always comes back to More Dakka!
Wow, these are some wild conclusions/speculations!
if we're going by the romulan war fan film description of the yorktown, it was built with warp 7 capability to enable "first strike capability" vs the romulans so idk why you're saying that yorktown doesn't have range or speed because it's a "battleship".
5:12 Oh wow! The green 'fusion torpedoes' have aerodynamic control surfaces. I guess you can hear the pew-pews in space after all😊
I'm not sure what the purpose of this video is but Yorktown is incredibly well designed. The ship looks great and pretty close in design to the NH class. It would have been great if they had continued the Star Trek Enterprise and seen him in some season in action and in battle alongside the Enterprise on Cap. Archer.
Sounds like the Yorktown class is your version of the Columbia class vessels of the birth of the federation novel series, that was born out of refitted nx class vessels and turned into a successor class all on its own.
I feel there can be at least three “successors” to the NX class than can bridge the gap between NX and constitution, much in the same way the two different versions of the Ambassador classes can bridge the gap between the galaxy class and the connie refit and excelsiors
1 the NX refit which creates a secondary hull to create an NX style but with the layout of the Constitution
2 the Bonadventure class seen in the ships of the line calendar and art book. In this we see what appears to be an NX design but scaled up and skinned like a TOS connie. The saucer has a tubular center running fore and aft which houses all the components of the TOS secondary hull. Because of this the saucer section is really only the port and starboard sides possibly with cross corridors that bisect engineering
3 reverse layout constitution: english narrowboat fans with appreciate the reference but a reverse layout means all systems required for propulsion are installed in the saucer section while the space in the secondary hull normally reserved for engineering (aft of the deflector dish, forward of the shuttlebay) is now the crew accommodation and laboratories normally found in the saucer sections. Because of the different geometry of the structure this structure is set up more like a metropolitan district with the appearance of buildings lining to intersecting thoroughfares with balconies and cross bridges. The for and aft walkway has a clear skylight to let in either the natural light from space, or can simulate a normal sky
With the the port to starboard walkway ending in terraced viewing lounges surrounding a shuttle docking port on either side
If the Yorktown-class did exist in cannon, it'd be a good explanation why the four NX-class starships (Enterprise NX-01, Columbia NX-02, NX-03 and NX-04) were given an early retirement despite being in service for less than 10-years.
I view the Yorktown as a literal successor to the NX. It was literally the next class of ship Earth built. But the Rockwell, as my headcanon wasnt that fleshed out so ill borrow yours, was the spiritual successor. It filled the role of exploration. The Yorktown could, but it was built with the ever fluid landscape of the mid-22nd century in mind (aka combat and exploration).
History proves that a big stick has plenty of uses. While Starfleet is an "exploration focused navy" any navy needs a "big stick" especially in an universe where klingons have an empire and their idea of diplomacy is shooting a glancing torpedo that pummels half of your shields as a hailing signal (the klingons really are the most fun race in trek :)) ).
So at the end of the day the Yorktown doesn't really need to be cutting edge to do it's job as a stick, it just needs to be big and sturdy enough to survive a klingon hello.
And dish the klingon hello in return.
I love Yorktown in Star Trek legacies felt like a steamboat in space
I like the Yorktown design, I remember being rather wowed when I first encountered it in the Star Trek: Legacy game.
However, I don't like the Rockwell design, I don't think it fits the lineage of Star Fleet. As an experimental design, I have no issue with it, but the Yorktown feels the more natural progression; you have the NX design, which shows clear progression from the Intrepid class.
The Yorktown, designed as a larger, more combat capable vessel, shows the same design philosophy from the NX (even the nacelle pylons are snug to the saucer much like the Intrepid and NX's), which then feeds back and informs the NX-refit, which to me is why such a rapid "Oh sh*t" refit worked. It also demonstrated to Starfleet designers that the separate saucer/engineering hull was the optimal, which then informs design for the next few hundred years.
So for me, the marriage analogy is the other way around; the Yorktown is the legitimate child of the NX, the Rockwell is the one-night-stand child.
a great ship class would love to have seen on screen
I can see the Yorktown class as what was needed without at the time being state of the art. Something functional and tough. If you think about it, at Pearl Harbor the US lost most of it's battleships. Those though we're from the previous war. What took it's place temporarily was the new innovation of the aircraft carrier. Still there was a valid need to project power and a new generation of battleship was made with at the time existing technology. By today's standard it would be slow and primitive in many ways. Now even after the war though there would be need of them. Heck 40 Plus years later they were renovated with new weapons and technology and put back into service. This is how i see the Yorktown class evolving. Yes there are newer better ships. That said when you need to make a statement and project power. You pull this out and bring it up to spec as much as possible. And have it at the center of a battle group.
It's thr best Early Game ship in Star Trek Legacy, but when role playing I like to use only one of them in my fleet for the final Battle in the Romulan Earth war mission
Ive always wanted to hear about the Yorktown.
I think it might not have been ahead of it's time but it was a powerful tool when they needed it.
Wasn’t there a Yorktown class in that old PC game that had all the captains come back to voice their characters and the story was about a Vulcan that created the borg and somehow involved V’Ger?
I like the Yorktown, it looks like a natural step of evolution between the NX and the Constitution
Some idea here, but the Yorktown class and the NX refit are closely related both for pratical and political reasons. Possibly Starfleet had to scale back on new ship hulls, especially large ships to be used out of the solar system because the isolationist sentiment of Terra Prime was still strong.
So Starfleet took the designs that were intended for the NX successor and modified the existing NX hulls closer to what the Yorktown was supposed to be and only much later under the pressure of the Romulan War production of the Yorktown began in earnest while the NX was being phased out?
🖖😎👍Very cool and very nicely well done and very well informatively explained and executed in every detail way shape and form possibly provided indeed, And very much enjoyed seeing all the various upgrades and various new Starship designs on moving into the way that all future Starship's would come to be in looks and stature leading up to the Constitution class and so forth indeed!,👌.
Here is me, tapping on torpedoes icon, like something would happen 😅
Would've been cool to see what a TOS version of the Yorktown-class would look like.
I've already started a kitbash
@@nathanielmeade5731 I think there is also a design that closely resembles the Yorktown-class, but in TOS form. But it's from that schematics site.
The TOS Yorktown would probably move the nacelles up a tiny bit and revamp its existing look to be more Connie like
Incorrect on the NX Never meant to have that refit, the refit NX is seen multiple times through multiple star trek series, most recently in the museum in Picard - NX was always meant to have that refit, Star Trek: Enterprise was killed off before it could get a hero ship version of it.
The Rockwell looks both odd and cool! It's like a marriage between Star Trek and sleek rocket ships. One of my issues with this era is that there seems to be too much of a desire to have advanced (TOS seeming) ships show up too early. The Rockwell is great for me, because it solves the riddle of looking advanced relative to the NX while still looking primitive.
In ENTERPRISE, the NX was the biggest and best human ship bar none. Which made things humbling for earth when the NX was so often outclassed by various alien ships. The NX's premier position among earth ship classes might change given enough motivation and help, but really, the NX was going nowhere soon. It makes sense to me that the Yorktown wouldn't be so much larger and would be scaled up tech. I do like how the Yorktown evokes a Connie while being very different and more primitive under close examination.
I liked your video, but I believe that this ship is the result of the sum of technologies from other Earth ships such as the use of the Horizon-class force shields, the large amount of Marshall-class cannons and the NX technologies . What I didn't like was this reduction in the size of this ship, it is big due to the attack that Earth suffered from the Xindis, I believe that if humanity had this ship in large quantities it would have been much safer for us to prevent the destruction of the Earth.
That is not the purpose of a deflector shield in Star Trek. Its a navigational deflector, meant for removing particles from the path of the ship.
If the yorktown was 400 meters i could imagine that it was like a big battleship for the time. But i dont really see a issue with it being 400 meters its really simple just to say older tech was bigger and clunkier and as star fleet went on ships got smaller bc they could put all the tech into smaller cases and that made the ships smaller.
I think the Yorktown was a "lets make the toughest ship with technology we have now", they weren't trying to make a super innovative, experimental, or trailblazing ship. They just wanted something that would get the job done and impress everyone.
I always thought this era of Yorkie was a battle cruiser
The secondary hull on the NX never made sense and seemed out of place, particularly considering the Yorktowns and later JJ-verse ship’s secondary hulls. If anything, the NX hull should have shared the same basic cylindrical design.
If your gonna make a space battleship, might as well make it as forward thinking as you can so a lil of both.
Great video, really in depth and informative.
The Yorktown is actually in star trek beyond
Must have line of sight to bussards, ie above or bow saucer, or integrated with full line of sight to bussards.
Well near the end of Star Trek Enterprise, we see the Andorians come into the picture. They begin offering their influence in Starfleet ship design. Before, it had mainly been human ship design, the Vulcans certainly weren't sharing much. The humans certainly weren't going to openly COPY the Vulcan designs. Not with the way those relations were looking. But the Andorians show up as a real ally, offer shield technology and probably had more than a few things to offer in the ship building department. When we look at early Andorian ships, what do we see? I see a long, bulbous primary hull. Once these influences began to meld, we ended up with saucers with large central sections. There was a big advantage of having a saucer and there were advantages of having a sizeable engineering section. It must have made sense because that is the direction they went for most of their designs.
I wish they would add this Yorktown class to Star trek online
You're awesome be safe out there
12:36
what's the ship between the freedom and warp delta called?