[TrekkieTechie]

Originally Posted by Commodore

My bet is that the third nacelle alternates with the other two during long voyages at high warp.

I remember reading in some apocrypha that the staff reckoned each nacelle contained double the warp coils to keep up the whole paired-warp-nacelle idea, much how these days we have dual-core processors in the same space as single-core processors.

[Commodore]

Hmm...to me, that would make anything more than two nacelles even more unnecessary at that point.

But I remember from the old FASA role playing game in which they had it that the warp nacelles of a Galaxy-class starship actually contained two transwarp nacelles each and that the Enterprise-D was really equipped with "ultrawarp drive," capable of speeds up to 100,000 times faster than light at Warp 10...

[TrekkieTechie]

Well, the dual-coil nacelles would explain how a little ship like the Freedom-class could manage with just one nacelle.

Also, your idea of trading off nacelles to extend high-speed high-duration warp is mentioned in the DS9 tech manual, though it's implemented in a more robust manner... for when it absolutely has to get there tomorrow.

Originally Posted by DS9 Tech Manual

Specialized high-warp courier vehicles can be employed for critical missions and are able to cover the 50.3-light-year distance between the station and the UFP inner perimeter within six days. This is equivalent to Warp 9.92, and is accomplished by using alternating twin matter-antimatter reaction cores and nacelle pairs. A modified four-engine version of the Defiant pathfinder spaceframe has proven successful in surpassing the 1,000 light-year/year efficiency barrier.

[Commodore]

To prevent damage to one warp core and pair of nacelles at high warp, such a ship would switch to a second warp core and nacelle pair and alternate back and forth between them whenever one set approached critical.

[Zardoz]

Originally Posted by Commodore

To prevent damage to one warp core and pair of nacelles at high warp, such a ship would switch to a second warp core and nacelle pair and alternate back and forth between them whenever one set approached critical.

So it would function as a back up?

[Borgman]

Originally Posted by Commodore

Hmm...to me, that would make anything more than two nacelles even more unnecessary at that point.

But I remember from the old FASA role playing game in which they had it that the warp nacelles of a Galaxy-class starship actually contained two transwarp nacelles each and that the Enterprise-D was really equipped with "ultrawarp drive," capable of speeds up to 100,000 times faster than light at Warp 10...

I thought at warp 10 you would be in every single part of the galaxy like that episode on Voyager

[DNA-1842]

Originally Posted by Borgman

I thought at warp 10 you would be in every single part of the galaxy like that episode on Voyager

This was probably before Voyager. Or something.

[We could get a petition to de-canonise such a silly concept though]

[DNA-1842]

Originally Posted by Zardoz

So it would function as a back up?

Not quite. They would get to a critical speed on one set of engine bits, and (before they blow up) they could swap to the other one for a wee while.

[Borgman]

Originally Posted by DNA-1842

This was probably before Voyager. Or something.

[We could get a petition to de-canonise such a silly concept though]

We could do clear things up a bit

[DNA-1842]

Originally Posted by Borgman

We could do clear things up a bit

I would like that!