The Factual Enterprise

This model of the starship Enterprise was used in the filming of the Star Trek TV show, which ran from 1966 to 1969. It is mostly made of poplar wood and vacu-formed plastic. Sheet metal tubes were used for the two engine housings or nacelles.

The Enterprise was based on the ideas of Star Trek producer Gene Roddenberry and made from a design by Walter M. Jeffries. A tiny balsa and cardboard version was built first. Then Richard C. Datin Jr. built a 1-meter (3-foot) wooden model, which was scaled up to create the final version. Paramount Pictures donated the Enterprise model to the Smithsonian in 1974.

Model Specifications

Length, overall: 3.3 m (11 ft)
Diameter, saucer: 152 cm (60 in)
Length, engine pods: 185 cm (72.25 in)
Length, secondary hull: 135 cm (53.5 in)
Height: 80 cm (32 in)
Weight: 90 kg (200 lb)

The Fictional Enterprise

Star Trek producer Gene Roddenberry sought to create a believable yet fictional spaceship of the 23rd century capable of traveling between solar systems — a starship, not just a spaceship. After poring over science fiction illustrations and consulting leading aerospace companies on futuristic concepts, he settled on the idea of a huge saucer-shaped vessel with 11 decks and a crew of 430.

To avoid expensive and complicated sets, Roddenberry decided not to ever have the Enterprise land. Instead, it went into orbit around a planet and "beamed" crew members down to the surface via an energy-matter transporter.

Configuration: The saucer-shaped Command section was joined by a slanting pylon to the cigar-shaped Engineering hull, which contained the machinery for driving the ship. Two additional pylons supported the twin engine nacelles at the rear. The dome atop the saucer was the bridge, the nerve center of the vessel.

Propulsion and Weaponry The ship was powered by a fictional "space warp drive," later described in the show as a controlled matter/antimatter system and based upon contemporary theories of antimatter. The Enterprise was equipped with a laser-like defensive "phaser" and "photon" torpedoes.

Registration Star Trek used naval terminology and crew ranks to provide a link with the present. The Enterprise was a starship of the Constitution class. Its registration number, NCC-1701— chosen by art designer Matt Jeffries to blend American and Soviet ship naming conventions with numbers that could be read easily on screen — has been used to extrapolate a vast fleet's worth of fictional registration numbers.

Fictional Specifications

Length: 288 m (947 ft)
Diameter, saucer: 127 m (417 ft)
Length, engine pods: 153 m (504 ft)
Diameter, engine pods: 18 m (60 ft)
Length, secondary hull: 103 m (340 ft)
Weight, gross: 172,368,000 kg (190,000 tons)

The Enterprise's Original Stand

The model is displayed with the original stand upon which the model of the U.S.S. Enterprise was mounted during filming for the Star Trek TV show. Still visible at the bottom is some of the blue chalk dust that covered the stand to make it blend in with a blue screen background during filming. The image of the ship was then superimposed against simulated scenes of stars and planets to create a realistic effect of a spaceship flying through space.
Gift of Paramount Pictures