Phoenix Warp Ship

Cutaway schematic of Zephram Cochrane's Phoenix Warp Ship
Image is from the Phoenix cutaway poster from SciPubTech

Description:
Because of the tragedy of Earth's third world war, not many advances were made in the area of spaceflight within the 2050's. In fact, because of the war, most of the world's space agencies were either nonexistant, or their governments had few resources to allow funding of new space projects because of the necessary rebuilding efforts. Fortunately, though, there were a few "amateur" engineers who took it upon themselves to further Earth's destiny into space. One such pioneer was Dr. Zephram Cochrane.

By 2063, even though the world was still realing from the effects of World War III, Zephram Cochrane and his badn of scientists managed to gather enough materials to build the first warp ship at an abandoned intercontinental ballistic missile silo in the state of Montana, USA. It was a very crude design, especially by today's standards, built from the shell of an old Titan-V rocket, similar to the Titan-II launch vehicles which had been used almost a hundred years earlier to launch the Gemini spacecraft into orbit. Ironically, it was the Titan-V rocket which was the main nuclear ICBM in use by the United States during World War III. But, of course, for Zephram Cochrane, irony had to give way to necessity, as it was the only launch vehicle available that was powerful enough to put his warp ship in orbit.

As it was built from the shell of a Titan-V rocket, the distinctive cylindrical shape was maintained. The Phoenix itself made up the second stage of the rocket, and was enclosed in a launch shrowd to protect it while leaving Earth's atmosphere. Once in orbit, the first stage was jetisonned, along with the covering shroud. Then, the twin warp nacelles on both sides of the fuselage were deployed.

The Phoenix had a top speed of only warp 1.2, and it's limited range allowed it to reach the outer solar system and turn back to Earth. But, this more than enough for its first historic flight, during which a Vulcan scout ship just happened to be passing by, and discovered the Terran warp ship's signature. Soon after Zephram Cochrane landed back on Earth, he was greeted by a Vulcan landing party, leading to a long and very lucrative friendship between the two races.

Different views of the Phoenix warp ship
Image from Starbase Cube 3

Specifications:

Length: 30 m
Width: 21.4 m (Warp Drive Deployed)
Height: 4.3 m

Propulsion:: 1 Primary Chemical Rocket; 4 Vernier Chemical Thrusters; 2 1st Generation Cochrane Type Warp Nacelles

Performance: Warp 1.2 Max Velocity

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