The size of the Odyssey class - Enterprise-F

The Odyssey class was a type of Federation starship operated by Starfleet during the late 24th century.  In 2401, the Enterprise-F was under command of Admiral Elizabeth Shelby. She led the opening celebrations for Frontier Day wherein she gave a speech to the entire fleet.

According to this blueprint the ship has 43 decks.

schematic by Star Trek Online

• The premise for all my deck calculations: a deck is 2.5m + 0.5m for EPS cables, power cables, ... = 3m height for a deck. 
• My calculations follow a purely mathematical approach. I do not compare bridge modules or disk heights with each other. I always pull in decks based on the rows of windows and then calculate a physically plausible room height.

With a deck height of 3m, this results in a total length of 1061.10m.
The official length is therefore correct. This is one of the few examples where the official length of the ship coincides with the mathematical "real" ones.

Design problems:

• at the end of decks 3 and 4 there is an oversized airlock (height over two decks)
• the airlock on deck 27 is as high as the entire deck (3m high)
  

The size of the Gagarin class

The Gagarin class was a type of Federation starship operated by Starfleet during the early 25th century. Based on the configuration of the Shepard class from the 23rd century, it contains many design elements of this class.

According to this blueprint the ship has 16 decks.

schematic by Star Trek Online

• The premise for all my deck calculations: a deck is 2.5m + 0.5m for EPS cables, power cables, ... = 3m height for a deck. 
• My calculations follow a purely mathematical approach. I do not compare bridge modules or disk heights with each other. I always pull in decks based on the rows of windows and then calculate a physically plausible room height.

With a deck height of 3m, this results in a total length of 679.03m.
The official length of 492m definitely can't be correct, which can be deduced from the rows of windows. If the ship were 492 m long, then decks 1 and 2 would be one, or the deck height would only be 2.06 m including the cables and technology. This would leave only 1.56m of headroom.

The size of the Nova class

The Nova class was a type of Federation starship designed for short-term planetary research missions. It was placed in service starting in the late 24th century.

To calculate the size I first had a look at the MSD (Master Situation Display).

Nova class side view by Starship Collection

According to this MSD the ship has 8 decks and a intermediate deck on the edge of the saucer section. There are 4 decks - the intermediate deck - and another 4 decks.

• The premise for all my deck calculations: a deck is 2.5m + 0.5m for EPS cables, power cables, ... = 3m height for a deck. 
• My calculations follow a purely mathematical approach. I do not compare bridge modules or disk heights with each other. I always pull in decks based on the rows of windows and then calculate a physically plausible room height.

The height of the decks on the MSD is different (which isn't plausible). Therefore, the MSD doesn't quite fit the external appearance of the spaceship. But if you give the intermediate deck a little more space (normal deck high), it fits better with the rows of windows.

schematic by Starship Collection

With a deck height of 3m, this results in a total length of 172m for the Nova class.

The Nova class variant (USS Rhode Island under command of Captain Harry Kim) is a litte bit longer because of the different Deflector area at the front.

schematic by Starship Collection

With a deck height of 3m, this results in a total length of 175.2m.

Design problems:

• As with other Starfleet ships, there is a difference in height at the shuttle bay. I solved this with a half deck, also to be able to correctly include the construction of the rear observation lounge as a deck.
• With the original MSD, it seems not plausible why there is an intermediate deck after 4 decks that is extremely flat.
• Rick Sternbach on the planned size: "I drew the blueprints at 1"=30', and the ship is 24.25" long, so the real thing would be 727.5 feet or 221.74 meters". [drexfiles.wordpress.com] -> A length of 225m can only be achieved if a deck height of 4 m is assumed.

Klingon D-7 Class

As seen in Star Trek TOS - this is the Klingon D-7 class resin kit in 1/1400 which I bought. It's a detailed kit with small parts and 16.8cm in length.

This sketch of Matt Jefferies is somewhat rudimentary than the final design. But the early stage of development for this Klingon D-7 is very clear.

design sketch by Matt Jefferies

The kit is pretty accurate. I only added a few details to the head and the disruptors.

The size of Commodore Oh's Romulan flagship

General Nedar (Commodore Oh) infiltrated Starfleet in the mid-24th century. In 2399 she commanded a large warbird with a fleet of 217 Romulan vessels to Coppelius where the synths live.

To calculate the size of the ship, I took a closer look at the bridge of the Warbird. The bridge was originally planned for the small Warbird. This is also the reason why the main hull looks like this on the design sketch.

design sketch by John Eaves

 In both cases, the bridge has a very large window section (almost floor to ceiling).

screencapture by trekcore.com (PIC: "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1")

Therefore, it can be assumed that the two stripes above and below the bridge window mark the space of the bridge.

• The premise for all my deck calculations: a deck is 2.5m + 0.5m for EPS cables, power cables, ... = 3m height for a deck. 
• My calculations follow a purely mathematical approach. I do not compare bridge modules or disk heights with each other. I always pull in decks based on the rows of windows and then calculate a physically plausible room height.

With a bridge (deck) height of 2.5m (3m for complete deck), this results in a total length of 432.7m.

Since the architecture of the small Warbird is also designed with such a bridge window, a similar bridge can be used as a basis. However, this means that this Warbird would then have to be 190m long (official size 119m).

The size of the Edison class

The Edison class was a type of Federation starship operated by Starfleet during the early 25th century. Based on the configuration of the Hoover class from the 23rd century, it contains many design elements of the ships from "Star Trek First Contact", especially the Saber class.

According to this blueprint the ship has 20 decks.

schematic by Star Trek Online

• The premise for all my deck calculations: a deck is 2.5m + 0.5m for EPS cables, power cables, ... = 3m height for a deck. 
• My calculations follow a purely mathematical approach. I do not compare bridge modules or disk heights with each other. I always pull in decks based on the rows of windows and then calculate a physically plausible room height.

With a deck height of 3m, this results in a total length of 379.4m.
The official length is therefore correct. This is one of the few examples where the official length of the ship coincides with the mathematical "real" ones.

The size of the Pathfinder class

The Pathfinder class was a type of Federation starship that had entered service by the early 25th century. Many elements are reminiscent of the design of the earlier Intrepid-class of the 24th century like the USS Voyager NCC-74656. For example, there are the indented windows, the bridge module, the auxiliary deflector, impulse drives, the side sensor strips, the movable warp nacelles...

As with all my size calculations, I first spaced the decks evenly.

schematic by Star Trek Online

According to this blueprint the ship has 14 decks.

• The premise for all my deck calculations: a deck is 2.5m + 0.5m for EPS cables, power cables, ... = 3m height for a deck. 
• My calculations follow a purely mathematical approach. I do not compare bridge modules or disk heights with each other. I always pull in decks based on the rows of windows and then calculate a physically plausible room height.

With a deck height of 3m, this results in a total length of 340.1m.
The official length of 431.42m is therefore too large. If that were the case, a deck would have a height of 3.80m.

By the way: The official length of 431.42m is achieved if the Aero Shuttle (front lower saucer section) is scaled up to the same size as the one of the Intrepid class. This does give you huge decks, but it's a good example of how arbitrarily ship sizes are sometimes determined.