Hello all, Ric here again. In Star Trek, warp nacelles are needed for warp travel
but they are not the only methodology in generating a subspace field. For example,
the Vulcan’s favoured a Warp Ring design before they threw their lot in with
Starfleet. There were originally rules cited for the construction of Starships,
however many of these have long since been contradicted in favour of creating better
designs. One of the original stipulations was that the nacelles had to be in pairs,
so no odd numbers, and they had to be aligned to have a mostly unobstructed view of one another.
However even in TOS, many ships simply ignored these design principles showing that in the canon
of the shows, there are multiple ways to generate warp speeds without adhering to the supposed rules
set out. The Fesarius of the First Federation and later the Kazon or Voth from Voyager,
Borg ships, Cardassian, and many, many more. Nevertheless, Starfleet vessels in particular
do seem to prefer using twin nacelles but are not against using odd numbers and certainly
they eventually invalidate the rule that declares they *need* to maintain line of sight.
As a quick aside, the warp nacelles derive their name from the structure of the same name
on aircraft which I did not actually know, the turbine engine on a jet for example is
a nacelle or pod and the attaching arm is the pylon. So yeah, I did not actually know that.
In fact the real reason they were placed where they are was because designer Matt
Jefferies felt that they may be dangerous and complex pieces of machinery that would
be better served being positioned far away from the habitable areas of the ship. Additionally,
their location made swapping out the nacelles easier should upgrades be needed. This logic could
translate well into the fictional lore of Star Trek too, with all the same logic applied.There
are old references to them producing much radiation internally when in operation,
which I would not be surprised to learn; intuitively I don’t wanna be inside an active
warp nacelle. In the Next Generation era, we see that there is a potent drive plasma stream that
funnels between the warp coils too while in use. In apocrypha, Starfleet has tested other nacelle
configurations simply for that purpose, to test them out, see how they perform.
When three nacelle designs were tested initially, they did indeed increase warp drive by a
proportional amount, however the third nacelle also exacerbated existing instabilities in the
subspace fields, leading to a more temperamental drive. However, further advancements could sort
out this drawback. So especially during the 23rd century the optimal configuration was to have
just the two for stability and power distribution. Any more was excessive, and any less was limiting.
Discovery added the Nimitz and Cardenas class starships which both had 4 nacelles,
and these were rather large and bulky ones, I’ll touch on that towards the end.
One theoretical advantage of using four nacelles, or even three, is longer sustained warp travel at
higher speeds. It has long been established that high warp factors have a limit on the length of
time a ship can spend at them before the Warp Core has to go into an emergency shutdown, it could be
a similar thing with the Nacelles themselves. A ship can go to warp using one pair as primary
full power and the second pair at partial power. It can then switch to the secondary pair and make
them the full power ones, lessening the burden on the first pair, effectively pacing itself. This
was referred to as Warp Coasting and something the Constellation Class was very apt at as well
as presumably all other multi-nacelle designs. Additionally, the four nacelles allowed the vessel
to negate the usual drain on power reserves that preparing for a warp jump would entail so it was
less vulnerable to attack in certain situations. The Sagan class is the successor to the
Constellation class and entered service in the 2400s and was an incredibly advanced
science vessel that incorporated all sorts of new technologies such as extensive reverse engineered
Borg tech and multiphasic shielding. We have yet to get to see much more of it in action,
if anything, but the ship was designed to be an explorer too.
The Cheyenne class also has four nacelles, fun fact, they were made originally from
marker pens. This class of ship had a top speed of warp 9.6 but it predated the Galaxy class,
although just barely. Its role was that of a deep space explorer and also
expected patrol and possible battle duties. The Niagra Class was simply made with three
nacelles to distinguish it’s silhouette easily as a different vessel type but in universe it was
created in 2349 as an experiment in sustained high warp speeds, reaching 9.6, the same speed as the
Galaxy class whose nacelles would be based on this design (although the Galaxy only has the two).
Now this is speculation on my part, but I assume that with multiple nacelles too, you could have
greater manoeuvrability at warp. Theoretically, you could alter the subspace warp bubble much more
easily with two or more nacelles, perhaps altering the geometry of the warp field and allowing it to
turn and angle at a more effective rate. This effect would be multiplied with more nacelles,
akin to all four wheels of a car turning or even simply 4 wheel drive. Additionally, if a nacelle
is damaged with a single pair, then that is the ship’s warp drive crippled. Whereas if a ship
had four, then that is less of a hindrance to it. One special instance of a multi-nacelle design was
the Prometheus class which had 4 visible nacelles at the rear and a further two concealed in the
saucer section that would deploy from the top and bottom when the ship separated into three
parts. This allowed each section to enter warp on its own and yes, that means each section had its
own warp core. When separate, each could travel at a fraction of the Prometheus’ full speed but when
united, the four rear nacelles worked in tandem to allow for very high speeds of up to warp 9.99.
On the flip side, we have many designs with only one nacelle such as the Hermes, Saladin and Kelvin
class in the 23rd century and the Freedom-class of the 24th. The Hermes and Saladin were nearly
identical with the Hermes having less armaments and crew. The Hermes operated as a scout ship
most of the time, not engaging in combat but science missions. This in particular is also
very similar to the USS Archer NCC-627 that was seen in Strange New Worlds, but that vessel was
very small in comparison and staffed by only a handful of crew and designed pretty much simply
to scout out to local systems for contact purposes and had light scientific duties.
It is possible that the Archer is supposed to be the Hermes or Saladin class’ first
appearance in the “hull” instead of a background image, but until confirmed, I’ll treat it as a
different class with the same mission profile. We also have the Kevlin class (or Einstein class
in non-canon sources) which is dated as early as 2196 and although added by the Kelvin timeline
films, it drew its design from the aforementioned 22nd century vessels as is also possibly one of
the first single-nacelle ships designs. Like the others mentioned here, its role was that of
a survey ship, although a fairly well armed one. The Freedom class is a much later single-nacelle
vessel that was from the mid 24th century and developed out of the
Galaxy class program. This ship was longer than previous single-nacelle designs at 430 metres,
but it too was considered a light survey vessel and not one for the cutting edge of frontline deep
space exploration. More like charting a nearby nebula or a planetary survey mission. Its speeds
were nothing to be sniffed at either, it could make a maximum warp of 9.2, which is outshone
by its contemporaries, but still respectable. The common link between these ships seems to
be that they are all survey vessels or some form of science ship made for light work and neither
pushing the frontline of exploration or engaging in extensive combat. So it could be that having a
single nacelle to generate a warp field is all that is needed when efficiency and long-term
travel are not required. This relegates most of these designs to lighter duties.
When it comes to multiple nacelles beyond 2? It seems the reasons are numerous too. Firstly,
it allows for warp coasting, higher sustained warp travel using older warp systems. Secondly,
it provides a tactical benefit for both power usage (apparently) and incase of damage in combat.
Thirdly, it may allow for even greater flexibility at warp or even quite simply
higher speeds or a quicker acceleration through warp factors. We only see them
on ships that are either designed for combat, or as deep space explorers.
Of course as technology has evolved in the Star Trek universe, there are likely exceptions
to these generalisations and a sufficiently advanced nacelle could probably have any form.
Look at the Intrepid class’ hinged nacelles for a smart warp system or how the number or size
of a ship’s nacelles has very little bearing on its performance for example, or the fact
that the Galaxy class was a powerhouse of a ship with only its two. Piggybacking off this point,
it could be that older vessels like the Nimitz and Cardenas class had four nacelles for the
reason of higher warp speeds. Especially in the discovery era ships, we see that the nacelles
were square and bulky before switching to the cylindrical ones seen in TOS and mostly beyond.
From the tale of Yard 39, we hear that this was down to a design shift from the whole warp
system transitioning to a more conservative model as simply building bigger nacelles with
more warp coils was only going to get you so fat and so fast. Starfleet needed to adapt and
change its approach to nacelles otherwise they would get ridiculous. Look at the Crossfield’s
nacelle-to-hull ratio for example. The Discovery and Glenn were some of the final ships of that era
with the increasingly oversized square nacelles. Overall, the reason for having a variety in
nacelle design is quite simply, because it looks cool to play with different designs and creates
a more interesting fleet. But the thing, this is probably similar to the in-universe explanation
too, in that Starfleet can theorise and plan out designs on paper as much as they want, but at
the end of the day, sometimes the only way to test new designs is to build them and see how they fly.
Sometimes these outcomes find a place in the fleet at large and you get a new class of Starship with
a unique look to it, sometimes vessels that look similar but fulfil different roles.
And sometimes you get a ship that has 6 nacelles because it can split into three like a madlad.
Thanks for watching this video, there was a lot of theorycrafting here but It was
drawn from different non-canonical sources over the years. I’ve been
Ric and I’ll see you later for another lore video, thanks again and goodbye!