Universe : | Prime Timeline |
Affiliation : | Federation |
Class Name : | Delta Flyer |
Type : | General purpose interstellar craft |
Unit Run : | 1 have been lost in all. |
Commissioned : | 2375 [1] - 2376 [3], class remains in service |
Dimensions : | Length : 15.1 m [4] Beam : 8.5 m [5] Height : 3.74 m [6] Decks : 1 [7] |
Mass : | 102.2 metric tons |
Crew : | 1 [7] |
Armament : |
6 x Type IV phaser cannon, total output 1,500 TeraWatts 4 x Photonic missile launcher [1] with 18 rounds |
Defence Systems : | Unimatrix shield system, total capacity 108,000 TeraJoules Light Parametallic Single hull. Low level Structural Integrity Field |
Warp Speeds (TNG scale) : |
Normal Cruise : 6 Maximum Cruise : 6.8 Maximum Rated : 7.2 for 12 hours. |
Strength Indices : (Galaxy class = 1,000) |
Beam Firepower : 30 Torpedo Firepower : 40 Weapon Range and Accuracy : 35 Shield Strength : 40 Hull Armour : 4.5 Speed : 376 Combat Manoeuvrability : 17,210 |
Overall Strength Index : | 82 |
Diplomatic Capability : | 1 |
Expected Hull Life : | 75 |
Refit Cycle : | Minor : 0 year Standard : 0 years Major : 5 years |
A vessel like the Delta Flyer is a good example of Starfleet's recent policy of allowing Starships the freedom to develop their own shuttle designs - although in this case Starfleet naturally had no say in the matter. The Intrepids were one of the first ships designed to produce field-replicated and field-designed shuttles, and Voyagers success in producing a vessel of this size and capability is further proof that Starfleet's policy is the correct one. On the Flyer's first mission it successfully rescued an advanced probe from deep within a gas giants atmosphere, [8] and was subsequently a valuable asset for Voyager. [7] However, the Flyer underwent its share of mishaps; in 2375 the vessel crash-landed on a hostile planet after encountering a severe ion storm [9], and in 2376 the Flyer was briefly inside a subspace ellipse. [10] The ship was badly damaged again in this year when a dark matter life form attacked it, but was able to escape without any fatalities. [11]
Unfortunately, 2376 proved to be the Flyer's final year in service. Towards the end of the year Captain Janeway led a mission to infiltrate a Borg cube using the flyer, and it was detected and destroyed by the alien ship. [2] A replacement was subsequently constructed, which incorporated several upgrades. [3]
Canon source | Backstage source | Novel source | DITL speculation |
# | Series | Season | Source | Comment |
1 | VOY | 5 | Extreme Risk | |
2 | VOY | 6 | Unimatrix Zero, Part 1 | |
3 | VOY | 7 | Drive | |
4 | Speculative | Scaled off the Flyer's beam and scale diagrams | ||
5 | Speculative | Based on a comparison of the Flyer to Voyager's shuttlebay door in 'Extreme Risk'. Assumes a beam of 133 metres for Voyager and a width of 9.5 metres for the door as per scale diagrams | ||
6 | Speculative | Scaled off the Flyer's beam and scale diagrams | ||
7 | Various Voyager episodes | |||
8 | VOY | 4 | Concerning Flight | |
9 | VOY | 5 | Once Upon a Time | |
10 | VOY | 6 | One Small Step | |
11 | VOY | 6 | Good Shepherd |
Series : | VOY Season 5 |
Episode : | Extreme Risk |
Series : | VOY Season 6 |
Episode : | Unimatrix Zero, Part 1 |
Series : | VOY Season 7 |
Episode : | Drive |
Source : | Speculative |
Comment : | Scaled off the Flyer's beam and scale diagrams |
Source : | Speculative |
Comment : | Based on a comparison of the Flyer to Voyager's shuttlebay door in 'Extreme Risk'. Assumes a beam of 133 metres for Voyager and a width of 9.5 metres for the door as per scale diagrams |
Source : | Speculative |
Comment : | Scaled off the Flyer's beam and scale diagrams |
Series : | VOY Season |
Episode : | Various Voyager episodes |
Series : | VOY Season 4 |
Episode : | Concerning Flight |
Series : | VOY Season 5 |
Episode : | Once Upon a Time |
Series : | VOY Season 6 |
Episode : | One Small Step |
Series : | VOY Season 6 |
Episode : | Good Shepherd |
The flyer seems to be a little larger than a runabout - she is roomy and fast enough to do short interstellar trips, but seems to lack the largish rear compartment of a Runabout. Instead the extra volume appears to have been given over to bigger and better shields and weapons. All of the canon (yellow text) details on the specs page come direct from "Extreme Risk", although I'm not 100% sure whether the parametallic hull plates were used as well as or instead of the tetraburnium alloys. The flyer was stated to have a "Borg-inspired" weapon system, and Tuvok's unimatrix shielding - the latter is presumably also based on Borg tech, although it's hard to say.
In part the Flyer seems to me to be an acknowledgement on the part of the creators of just how many shuttles Voyager has lost over the years - not only do the crew admit on screen that their shuttles have not been up to the job, but by making such a big deal of the flyer we can be fairly sure that the writers are not going to be blowing it up any time soon!
The timeline for the building of the Delta Flyer is not completely certain - Paris said he could have the ship done in a week, given that he had already done considerable work on the design. How much initial work he did is open to question - I can easily imagine him fiddling around on something like this in his spare time over the course of years. On the other hand, the design was sufficiently incomplete that several fundamental design factors were suggested in the initial meeting on the flyer and as of the first design meeting on the ship they hadn't yet done the thruster specs and hadn't decided on the basic hull materials or shape. In addition, the episode indicates that they were able to finish the flyer about 36 hours ahead of schedule. Given all this, I don't think it is unreasonable to suggest that a typical starship could complete a project like this from scratch in around two or three weeks - call it a month at the outside. This is a shot in the arm to the extensive speculations I have made in the write ups for the Type 9, 10 and 11 shuttles regarding Starfleets gradual move toward allowing ships to work on just this kind of thing as a matter of normal routine.
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