Trekyards EP125 - Akira Class 

In regards to the "evacuation limit, " An akira class has 1/3rd of its saucer devoted to flight deck. There is plenty of room to stick people inside. A Nimitz class aircraft carrier is 332.8 m long. The akira is longer and is almost 4x wider than a contemporary american aircraft carrier. The ships CREW alone is 3200 people and an ADDITIONAL 2400 people in support of the fighter wing. Thats 5000+ people with a job on the ship. A carrier can also have 70+ aircraft aboard at any given time, none of this 2-10 shuttles stuff. I think Trek writers and fans severely underestimate just how gigantic these ships are and what their true capacities would be in reality.

I used to think the Akira was weird when I was a kid, I never liked the catamaran-style secondary hulls and the nacelles being wider apart than the saucer, however, I started to like it more and more, around when Star Trek: Armada came out. Ironic, as it's very features are what made it appealing. It's now one of my favorite starships, I'd love to see a show based an Akira-class.

The Akira looks like an evolution of the Miranda class ship.

The Akira class carries Kaneda fighters. heh.

That picture of the Akira next to the Sabre over the planet is gorgeous. I love it.

I loved all the First Contact ships from the first time I saw the movie on the big screen. But the Akira really caught my eye. I remember doing everything I could for months after the movie trying to find different images of it on the Internet. Blew my mind when we got to see it again on Ds9 and VOY, albeit from afar...

I kinda consider the Akira to be the Sovereign's Miranda. I like the smaller ships like the Defiant, Saber and Steamrunner classes the best. I attribute this to my having served on a comparatively smaller warship in the US Fleet (a submarine). That said, I think the Akira is pretty cool. I like how the Ares class from Axanar sorta borrows that narrow height from this ship. In my personal head cannon, this ship was designed to help "use up" all the older photon torpedoes Starfleet still had... hence the rapid fire feature. I'd love to see some fan film set after the Dominion War (or even DURING it) featuring this ship in the lead.

A machine gun style torpedo launcher! So cool.

When I first saw this ship I was confused and intrigued at the same time. It has quickly become my absolute favorite ship of the late 24th Century era. I love the return to a saucer shaped... saucer (lol) and wish they would have done more like it. The fly through hanger bay has been a "wish list" item of mine for a long time, and having a compliment of fighter craft is PERFECT for achieving a tactical upper hand. Combined with the ungodly amount of torpedo launchers, this ship is the epitomy of large, mobile deterrence! Love this ship!

I love the Akira class ship, though some elements of it seems at least moderately reminiscent of the NX-01 class Enterprise. I very much like its sleek design. The weapons pod stuck where it is, seems very much like the Miranda class ships with having the specialized weaponry pod mounted far back on the ship. Great episode video. I very much enjoyed it.

The idea of a rotating torpedo launcher in the roll bar, is a good one. Just one thing, it's just one more thing that can break. A misfire would be catastrophic. As Scotty said in ST:TSFS, "The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain."

In Bridge Commander the Akira can switch between Photon and Quantum torpedoes.

A show featuring a smaller more tight knit crew on a smaller more specialized war ship (saber or akira) dealing with new found peace and trying to move on (ptsd) after the Dominion War would be a great show. I always like stories about warriors trying to learn to live in a garden.

My favorite non-hero starship. I like the idea that the Torpedo launcher uses a rotary system in that rear pod.

I have always loved the akira design, from every view the ship seems well proportioned. Had the defiant not been assigned to DS9, it would have been cool to have Sisko command an akira that was assigned to the station.

This has always been my favorite Star Trek ship.

Love these videos, realitively new to watching Trekyards so i apologize for commenting so late after this Video was made. My personal Flagship in Star Trek online is in fact the "NX-413 U.S.S. Arasmus". Tier 6 Fleet Heavy Escort Carrier, sporting most of the appearance of the Akira with the Armatage Warp Nacells. Equipped as a Support Cruiser It's not designed to output 'the max dps' like alot of people like to do, but rather I use it as a support vessel with fore and aft beam arrays for keeping Attack pattern BETA Debuff on targets, Fore and Aft TRansphasic torpedoes for a Kenetic DoT, Forward Quad Cannons and forward Dual cannons, with a set of Elite Delta Flyers on Intercept mode to shoot down heavy torpedos....and i jsut nerded out wups ^.^

The flight deck is at least the length of a modern aircraft carrier but she's armed like a battleship. If I had to choose a ship it'd definitely be this one.

i do believe this is my fav class

The shape looks to me to be slightly influenced by Klingon/Romulan design. Especially with the side mounted torpedoes. Which makes sense given the cooperation the Federation was having with both Klingons and Romulans at the time (the defiant's cloaking device).

Brilliant video, I've been waiting for you to review this ship - fantastic job, great script and visuals guys. What a monster this ship is. Great manueverability, GREAT weapons loadout, and huge auxiliary ship complement. Imagine in wartime a Romulan Warbird/Cardassian/etc ship having to fight one on one an Akira - 100 fighters and a bunch of Runabouts to deal with on top of the ship itself... The side mounted torpedo tubes are a great idea whoever came up with this design - as is the number of grouped photon/quantum tubes in various places. If I was going to request any ship in the Federation, it'd be this one, even over the advanced Defiant classes.

Akira is my favorite Starfleet ship design, loved it since the first time I saw it. I always thought of it as a gunboat, with all those torp tubes, she can lay waste to just about anything. I'm on the 'rotary launcher' bandwagon as well, that certainly looks like a spinning launcher, no reason to have a partial tube there in the model unless it will be rotating. I actually played STO to fly this ship, she's always above the D and E for me, beating out the Defiant as well. I really like the 'roided-out' Miranda that is the Akira, and I'd buy any game straight away that would let me fly this.

Excellent episode guys! The Akira has been one of my favorite ships since first contact, learned a lot I never knew before!

My favorite ships: 1) Sovereign 2) Akira 3) Defiant (Original)

Been waiting for this one for some time. Very well done. Wish they hadn't scrapped the huge space battle initially planned for First Contact. I know they were constrained by budget and whatnot but it still would have been awesome to see.

Love this ship, would love to have seen it in a movie with ALL tubes firing

This ship is like a Torpedo & Attack Cruiser combined.

@Trekyards A minigun-stylish torpedodrum would make sense. It looks nice and seems logic in terms of functionallity.

Love the idea of a rotating torpedo launcher.

I absolutely love this ship, great episode. definitely one of my top 5 favorite ships and trek yards episodes :D

My mouth was watery the whole time watching this, and talking about the Armada Akira makes me want to get on my slow PC and play Armada, just to make fleets of Akira's.

This Trekyards makes me really want to see the eventually inevitable Trekyards on the Steam Runner, the mention of torpedo boat brought up Steam Runner thoughts in my mind

I love this ship and I loved this episode also I think the rotary torpedo tubes make perfect sense and really does look like that's what it is

I’m currently writing a Star Trek Dominion War era story that puts the Thunderchild at center stage. I’m glad to have this video for homework on the Akira Class. Cuz honestly, it’s heavily underused, especially the Thunderchild.

this ship is my favorite, of all star ships. thanks for your time.

The Akira could definitely be used for a cavalry archer type tactic. Come in like a bat outta hell, all phasers firing as the forward torpedo tubes just unload. Then peel off to the side as more torpedoes continue to blast out from those side tubes along with her phaser strips, and finally come about to pull off, continuing to fire parting torpedo shots. Now, imagine a task force of these things doing that, all at the same time.

the Akira class is easily one of my favorite deigns. it is similar to the NX Enterprise, the Nebula class and the Miranda class all of which I like. I think the Akira class would be a good choice for the New CBS series.

Good info gents! I love starships and you guys cover a lot of areas:) Thanks!

Very good show , I felt that this ship was a good move and progress in Star Trek , and I believed as well that the torpedo turret was rotating as well but never mined , cool ship I love it , good work guys :)

This is one of my favorite contemporary designs. Due to production costs/time, designers usually cut down the graphical aesthetics when cranking out for film/TV show. Plus, the studio doesn't want to pay a lot of money when air time for an item is less than 30 seconds. I remember the Prime Time Live story on TNG where Paramount paid well over $10,000 (US) for the McKinley Station/Enterprise-D scene that was only 14 seconds. Thanks, Stuart and Samuel!

Another awesome design. I just wish you guys would make the LCARS smaller, so much wasted space and you can't really see details, even when watching this on my 46" TV. Keep up the great work guys, love it.

One of the best starship design in StarTrek.

Very great episode... about a great ship. I do think it's more than just a Miranda & Excelsior class replacement, but also has several ancestors from the Axanar era - Aries-class, Korolev-class carriers and more.

In bridge commander, one of your best federation allies has an Akira, the Geranimo, which actually has the name on it. It has quantum torpedos and at one point you can replenish your supply by taking it's torpedos after it gets damaged bad enough to need repairs.

I've been so looking forward to this Design Mission Brief Log :)

Really good episode covering a class I really like but didn't know much about.

I L-O-V-E this episode!! Thank you so much!

Thank you Trekyards.

I was never a fan of the Akira class until now. I had no idea how tough it actually was, also 40 fighter ship! Awesome

From what I can see about the shape, the Akira class layer the foundation for the NX-class of Enterprise; it just needed a few redesigns in order to make it fit in with the Pre-Kirk timeline.

After Star Trek Discovery, a show that has an Akira Class front and center would be awesome! Star Trek Akira!

Finally! This is why I subscribed to this chan!! This and to see an interview with the man that designed Airwolf! The ship without may not be named... may be first of its class... so it is an unnamed prototype.

cool. one of my renders at 3:55 :) NIce episode as always guys.

I always liked the Akira class, thought I knew the ship but I learnt a lot from this video

Nice History. Explains the lower registry.

my favorite ship! Would love to be captain of this one.

They are also in Star Trek: Bridge Commander. USS Geronimo.

Loved this briefing. Though I still like the shorter ones better. Thinking about joining the patreon.

I absolutely love this design. I also completely agree with you about the turntable torpedoe launchers in the roll bar. that makes absolute perfect sense. I don't like the lack of the ship's name and prefer to think of that as a production oversight rather than intentional.

The Akira and Venture were my favourite ships from Armada, loved those games growing up ~

Wouldn't it be awesome to see an Akira in a tight spot where they fire a full spread of torpedoes from ALL tubes in a kinda of The Last Starfighter Death blossom type move only without the ship spinning around all crazy like since the torpedo bays are already facing all around the ship. I've always loved the look of the Akira and it seemed to me to be a nice reference to the NX class from enterprise which is another fav of mine. Miranda class was my fav TOS ship and to have the Akira be almost its spiritual modern variant is awesome IMO. So for me its connects my 3 favourite ship designs from star trek.

love this ship design !

it has a cool throwback to the NX ships

This has been one of my favorite design ships.

Loves this ship design. It's a lot of fun to use in Star Trek Online. If they do a show that takes place after Voyager, the Akira should be the hero ship of the show.

Akira is the best! It needs to be the next hero ship in Star Trek 2017.

RE: evacuation limits, star ships can utilize unpowered holodecks, cargo bays and the shuttle bays them selves after the last shuttle has landed. many refugees can be directly transported to cargobays as modern cargo transporters have quantum resolution.

Its funny because in SFC 3 the game said the Akira had been kicking around as a weapons test platform, and finally someone slapped a warpcore on it and said go fight the Borg

Ah the golden days before NuTrek.

I fly the ship in star trek online. Love the ship. Thanks for doing this show.

Great episode.

I have really been enjoying your show gentlemen. I hope you'll consider doing an episode on the other first contact ships, The Steamrunner and the Norway classes.

Hands down my favorite. Heavily Weaponized, but also can work with a Nebula (as depicted) or Galaxy class for transport an evacuation. Also could provide as a dual roll as "close-air-support" and superb Medevac element when paired with an Olympic. Triage and defence support would be a win, and kept with the design to fight the Borg. Add a Saber class to punch a hole, a Difiant class as support ship, Nebula class as a control factor, an Olympic and an Akira for transport and Medical Ops, and the last Akira as mop and follow up.....not a bad combo.

A possible solution to the rotating torpedo launcher/dedicated Quantum tubes issue: whilst the Quantums can be *launched* from a Photon tube, the *loading* of them - due to the slightly different shape, and warhead - could require a different methods. so, whilst the entire launcher could rotate for the rapid firing of photons and can fill every tube for that, when Quantums are asked for the computer or crew, whoever loads them, knows to keep two tubes free for loading them. Sorta like, and assuming a right to left rotation as seen from the front - : rapid fire photons : - loads every tube, reloads as the tubes pass the rollbar on the left for rear firing : Quantum firing : - again from the right, loads two photons, leaves two tubes clear and loads two more, leaves two clear and so on. When the empty tubes pass in front of the Quantum loader, they're loaded and fired. You lose the rapid fire ability during this. Theoretically, I guess you could keep all the tubes loaded with photons, and then load and fire the Quantums when tubes are in front of the loaders, but that would mean pausing the rotation whilst they do so.

The FlyOver Weapons Array 1 x 16 Port OCTA-C Module * 2 x Ports : Dedicated Quantum Torpedo/BOMB Launchers** 1 x Ports : Probe/Sensor Booster Launcher*** X x Torp Launchers X x Phaser Arrays OCTA-C Module Maybe this flyover Module is a Torp Array like you guys suggested with some caveats such as it has the Torpedo Carousel which would be able to fire any class Torp up to top end Photo/Proton/Spacial charges, etc which I totally could see being called the Omni Class Torpedo Array Carousel ( or OCTA-C). In addition could work much like an old automated turn table where the cartridge is a 16 torp loadout. These cartridges were able to fire their payload in varied ways such as quick fire 1 torp at a time so 1x16 before reloading or... 2 torpedoes at a time x 8 launches or... 4 torpedoes at a time x 4 launches... ... all while having up to 4 separate targets controlled by a separate computer system and this array would shunt power directly from the warp core when at sublight speed due to the high power requirements that this array required. .....This system also would have a large battery system which would syphon power from anywhere it could without causing issues to main power due to the large spike of power required to initial the system. This battery could be used to provide a short warp trip (5 minutes at warp 1.1, or 48 hours of impulse and emergency life support for the saucer section, bridge, engineering, along with being able to shunt to decks as needed. Quantum Torpedo/BOMB Launchers These specific Launcher Bays would allow the launch of specialized Quantum Torpedoes that could maybe have customized damage patterns through quantum physic manipulation which required specific launcher array, or maybe quantum torps cant be stored as close together as the OCTA-C Module would require? Additionally it could fire a bomb such as the tri-cobalt device without requiring modifications Probe Launcher / Sensor Booster Port This port would allow for near-dedicated Probe launcher, or when in combat could launch a multi beacon Sensor Boosting Array (think mini Cloak buster field forgot the name of it) that sets up the field to pinpoint enemy targets, provide intel about possible cloaked vessels, boost coms by providing multispectrum long range communications on encrypted military link frequency... .... and creates a sensor grid layover for star fleet to watch the battle in 3d on any holographic system or holodeck. This system would all be controlled by the independant Computer Core and powered by the extra battery in the Flyover so even if the ship is adrift, incapacitated, or even severely damaged (almost destroyed) as long as this independant system was still operational, it would autonomously contact the Command ship, or StarFleet so it could be remotely operated by the Fleet Commander and/or Star Fleet Command.

This is one of my favorite starship designs in Star Trek.

When I played starfleet battles in high school I designed a rotary torpedo launcher it used multiple barrels and replicators to produce torpedoes and could fire 1 every 2 seconds

This is one type of ship I would have loved to see some form of Trek TV Series on

In First Contact we saw that one Akira rear up and fire from her rollbar, from what looks like that very torpedo launcher that brought up the rotary idea. It sure looked like she fired her torpedoes way faster than I had seen from other ships, even faster than the Enterprise herself. Since the Sovereign class was so advanced I am guessing they'd have a sort of advanced autoloading mechanism... even then she did not fire as quickly as the Akira class ships did. There was also a Saber behind an Akira in one shot, and that Saber did not even come close to matching the Akira's fire rate with torpedoes. One ship fired from her rollbar, one from under her saucer section. That might say that many of the inline torp launchers or maybe all of them did indeed have some kind of rotary mechanism, either for a rapid burst or for a high sustained fire rate. Whatever way you look at it it is a mighty interesting feature and just makes the Akira all the more awesome, and much more of a damn shame that she never got the spotlight. And to solve the issue of how they fired photons from a quantum launcher, they might have some sort of advanced version of sabots, but for the torpedoes, or they could have some kind of special photon torpedo that had a faux case to make it fit in a quantum tube.

Akira is a HEC in STO. Heavy Escort Carriers are my favorite.

To me, I always felt torpedoes would be not solid projectiles, but dense 'blobs' of energy, kinda like what we saw in Balance of Terror, those proximity phasers. That's how I always felt it should be, plus it explains how you never run out of torpedoes in STO. :D Samuel, in STO, you can slap on an RCS device to fix the turn rate :D

I saw one msd that showed twin warp reactors back in the booms. I've always liked the idea of twin reactors in a war ship

The Akira-class should be classified as a Heavy Through-Deck Cruiser given her hanger deck design and purpose of carrying Federation fighters in addition to her large shuttlecraft complement. This ship classification was used for the British Royal Navy HMS Ark Royal (R07) (1985-2011). The deck plans for the Akira-class has her carrying 960 torpedoes for her own launchers and another 288 torpedoes in reserve magazines to arm its fighters and other small craft. Twelve fighters, three runabouts, twenty shuttlecraft, and six workbees make an Akira-class a carrier able to support its small craft with long range torpedo fire, at least according to its deck plans which seem to be very well done, at least compared to the Sovereign /Enterprise-E deck plans which only have 23 decks (Oops!!!).

Still one of my favorite ships in the Star Trek Universe. Hello in July 2021! :)

The side profile of the saucer makes it look like a Pelican with a full lower bill. At certain angles the combination of the catamaran pylons and the saucer section looks like a plow or steam shovel.

This is one of my favorite ships.

I'll admit, I am a bit confused on the crew compliment. In the beginning of the video, it was stated at 500, then at about half way through it dropped to 200, and finally by the ST:O reference, it was as 100.

You forgot to mention that the design of the NX was inspired by this which means in universe, the NX design inspired the Akira. :)

One of my top 5 fleet ships

My favorite ship design and most unique in fleet role.

I love this ship :D Its style win my heart ;D

hehehe we had port and starboard AS WELL AS ventral and dorsal firing torpedo launchers on our ship in our old role playing game.... more than 30 years ago :P

I love using the ship as a phaser boat in STO, it's so effective.

I'm surprised you didn't mention the NX-01 - aka the 'Akiraprise' - which was clearly inspired by this design. Ex Astris: "John Eaves as well as Rick Berman pointed out, the NX-01 was designed consciously with the Akira in mind." Also, Akira isn't an 'anime style' (as far as I know), it's a very specific anime film based on a Manga comic book series. It's a classic.

It makes sense to me that the roll bar had a rotational torpedo bay. A similar mechanism was used on DS9. Check out the torpedo launchers in the DS9 1st battle with the Klingons around when Sisko says fire even photon torpedoes.

Hi Guys, i really enjoying your show, the Akira is one of my fav ships, i use it alot in STO. The uss is on the side of the ship

This is one of my personal favorite cannon ships

that is a good ship thank you!!

The most slick starship there was.

Rotary TORPEDO launcher makes good sense. You could have the operator/maintenance elevator or stairway in the center axle.