A further variant (nacelles inverted 90 degrees. Seen in TNG's Booby Trap)

My 3D model. More Here

Constitution Refit

My 3D model. More Here

Constitution Class: 2244 - 2308

First built in the mid 23rd century, construction was stepped up by 2270 as the fleet steadily grew. This class was the first deep space, high-warp vessel having the original classification of Starship at the time, which was soon replaced by more a specific system, and became a Heavy Cruiser. The Constitution Class achieved legendary status during its time in service, and became one of the most famous classes of ship Starfleet ever produced.

I am not 100% certain if  The Enterprise was officially the fleet flagship at any time or not. During this era The Enterprise was not a famous name per se, it became so with time, and an honourary title of flagship was given to successive Enterprises from hereon. Perhaps someone out there knows for sure...? It would be more plausible for the Constitution to be, so I've provisionally assigned it that title....)

Others ?

On TrekBBS Rick Sternbach recently supplied some new information regarding the ships of the 'Operation Retrieve' chart in Star Trek VI. Onscreen it is very difficult to make out any clear information, although new data was forthcoming with Bjo Trimble's Star Trek Concordance. Rick basically revealed a short list of some of the vessels on the chart, and what graphic silhouette they were represented by (hence giving us a clue into the Classes of ship involved.) 

All those that say 'Refit Silhouette' were portrayed with little Refit Constitution Class graphic icons, possibly suggesting they were refitted Constitution Class ships. But it has been pointed out by many that this could easily be the case when representing a 'Heavy Cruiser', it needn't state for certain that it is definitely a Constitution Class ship. The Ahwahnee here could easily be a Soyuz, or a Miranda Class for instance...

Footnotes*

- If you were wondering why there is a 'Constitution 2'; with there being no known ships with this name that precede 'Constitution Class', it's a conjectural thing, for I have named a ship 'USS Constitution' as being initially of the Federation Class -one of Starfleet's first Heavy Cruisers, from 2161 (see 'Conjectural Classes'). Only numbers like this will appear if the ship is named in a listing, anywhere throughout the fleet guides.

- The Constitution Class is is generally presumed to be of the Surveyor or Explorer-type, but due to its size, and the fact it was at this time Starfleet's most advanced and powerful ship, I submit that even though its usual deployment spec is indeed that of a Surveyor, it has a hardware designation of Heavy Cruiser.

- Although mentioned in DS9's 'Valiant' that there was a training vessel named Republic, in all probability it is a different one, being a good century old by this time, but, as I have been reminded recently, Picard alluded to Scotty in 'Relics' that there was a Constitution Class ship in the fleet museum, though he said nothing of there being an existing ship in service. But that brings up the question: would a training vessel be strictly classified as 'in service'......?

-The tonnage figure I give (989,000MT) is due to the Enterprise being alluded to in 'Mudd's Women' as being near to a million tonnes.

- A rarely mentioned continuity error with the Constitution Class, is that it was stated in 'The Search For Spock' that the Enterprise was to be soon retired, it being 20 years old at that time- 2285. Yet we seem to know that this class was first commissioned in 2244, the Enterprise having completed at least two 5, or even 10 year missions under Robert April and then Christopher Pike, before Kirk took command...

- It was stated during The Original Series that there were only 12 Constitution Class ships in service. Whether this figure can be looked upon as absolutely correct and canon is uncertain, it's just strange that the Enterprise happened across all of them and not any other class ships during this era. This is obviously because the TOS budget (and perhaps imagination) was not in place to conceive of a large scale, multi-class fleet. So I speculated about a great many more Constitution Class vessels being constructed throughout the late 2260's and 70's, and many perhaps lasting until the early 24th century before the last ones were decommissioned.

- For more comments on Constitution Class, see Conundrums.

KEY

The listed specifications for ship classes are partly hypothetical, but some data such as ship lengths, weapon stats and crew complements are in some cases canon. For an explanation on the specs, and what the Ship designations mean, see Spec Definitions.

PORTAL TO STARSHIP INDICES