[Zardoz]

Will we ever find out how many were eventually made? What eventual Ship Class they became?

[NCC-73515]

They became the Akira class, of course.

[Zardoz]

Originally Posted by NCC-73515

They became the Akira class, of course.

LOL...ok....

[Akula2ssn]

If I had to venture a guess, I'd say around 6 could have been made. Considering that we're just talking about the Earth fleet, so Starfleet probably wasn't exactly a large force in those days till after the Earth-Romulan conflict. And if they follow the naming trend that they appeared to be following, they probably would have named a ship for each of the NASA orbiters. As for what class they ultimately became, assuming that they later shed the NX class designation and stuck with tradition, then Enterprise class would have become the final designation. However, at the same time, NX class probably would have stuck since that was the program name, much the same way that the F-35 is more commonly known by the project name JSF.

[Zardoz]

Originally Posted by Akula2ssn

If I had to venture a guess, I'd say around 6 could have been made. Considering that we're just talking about the Earth fleet, so Starfleet probably wasn't exactly a large force in those days till after the Earth-Romulan conflict. And if they follow the naming trend that they appeared to be following, they probably would have named a ship for each of the NASA orbiters. As for what class they ultimately became, assuming that they later shed the NX class designation and stuck with tradition, then Enterprise class would have become the final designation. However, at the same time, NX class probably would have stuck since that was the program name, much the same way that the F-35 is more commonly known by the project name JSF.

Great speculation!

So you think only 6, considering the Earth-Romulan wars?

[Akula2ssn]

I'll have to speculate a little more in this case. If we go by what we've seen with the Enterprise and Columbia, I'd say 6 around the time of the Earth Romulan war is about right, if not generous. Columbia was still in the planning stages when the Enterprise was launched in 2151, and wasn't launched until 2154 and the Earth Romulan war has been speculated to take place in the 2160s.

[Zardoz]

Originally Posted by Akula2ssn

I'll have to speculate a little more in this case. If we go by what we've seen with the Enterprise and Columbia, I'd say 6 around the time of the Earth Romulan war is about right, if not generous. Columbia was still in the planning stages when the Enterprise was launched in 2151, and wasn't launched until 2154 and the Earth Romulan war has been speculated to take place in the 2160s.

So we could assume that the NX was in full service by then, hopefully with a class name. Naming them after orbiters was inspired! I could see a fleet of 20 NX's by the time the Earth-Romulan conflict gets going, as well as any new vessel.

[Akula2ssn]

That certainly is a possibility. If we look at when the Enterprise came home in response to the Xindi attack, we can assume that there are at the very least 2 facilities capable of supporting the NX class. 1 for constructing the Columbia, and 1 for supporting existing ships in this case the Enterprise. It may also be possible that there were in fact more facilities. I think in Fortunate sun, it was mentioned that there were 3 NX class ships in the planning phase at that time Columbia being one of them. So there is also a possibility that 2 other NX class ships were also under construction at the same time as Columbia.

[Zardoz]

Originally Posted by Akula2ssn

That certainly is a possibility. If we look at when the Enterprise came home in response to the Xindi attack, we can assume that there are at the very least 2 facilities capable of supporting the NX class. 1 for constructing the Columbia, and 1 for supporting existing ships in this case the Enterprise. It may also be possible that there were in fact more facilities. I think in Fortunate sun, it was mentioned that there were 3 NX class ships in the planning phase at that time Columbia being one of them. So there is also a possibility that 2 other NX class ships were also under construction at the same time as Columbia.

Well if there's a conflict on the horizon, or happening, you know NX production will go nuts. Especially after the sucessful run of the NX Enterprise.

[Akula2ssn]

Yeah. Although there is a limit to how fast production can be increased depending on the available infrastructure. During WWII, production in the US went nuts because all of the factories already existed. Without the infrastructure in existence it's not even an option.

That's like the US Air Force saying that the Northrop Grumman and EADS can turn out tons of tankers here in the US compared to Boeing when the property to build the factory hasn't even been purchased yet, much less machinery purchased and people trained. Not to mention that the air fields and hangars have to be renovated in order support the EADS designed tanker. It's the whole carriage before the horse thing.

Another example would be the naval arms race leading to WWI. When Britain started building their new super large dreadnoughts, the Germans tried to do the same, but it caused a ton of delays in their ship building program because ship yards had to stop construction to in order to be redesigned and configured for production of larger ships. The canals in Germany had to be dredged and widened in order to permit the new ships to get out to sea.