They did such a gorgeous job of displaying the Starship Enterprise NCC-1701. It is a work of art now. Stunning.
I was always impressed with the model making in the original Trek series. Especially considering the crap rockets and flying saucers so common in the 1950’s sci-fi. The Starship Enterprise NCC-1701 had a natural grace and fluidity about it. *It looked it it was capable of flight. *
There were several Enterprise models and props made for the original series. I’m assuming this is the hero model? Hero model props are the most detailed and intended for closeup camera work.
Many, many thanks to the Smithsonian’s National Air Space Museum for warming this old Trekkie fan boy’s heart.
“Then the whole model …was painted with a base color that had been carefully matched by the Museum’s Dave Wilson to the production base color that had been uncovered in multiple places on the model in sanding tests.”
But what color was it? Us model builders need to know the Truth! Give me the FED-STD color number!
I remember seeing it hanging from the ceiling so many years ago. Did not know they had taken it down. But I was always more impressed with the other Enterprise model at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum.
They mention the other “less decorated” side, which contains the wires and motors (?) for the model. I never realized it’s always shown flying with its starboard side facing the camera. Are there any pictures of the other side?
Make sure you keep scrolling down the article to see the office building in China built in the same shape as the Enterprise. I wonder where the CEO’s office is and what if it looks like the bridge.
Yeah, I was wondering about that. Not to start a war or anything here, but wouldn’t it belong more in the Americana museum with other TV relics than the museum of actual air and space vehicles? Sounds like kind of a gimmick, but I’d have to see the exhibit and how it tied in with the museum.
Just in case you’re pulling my leg (and I’m pretty sure you are) “NCC” stands for “Naval Construction Contract,” which finally cleared up for me why the cruisers weren’t numbered sequentially: Starfleet must have ordered other ships built between construction of the cruisers.
As for the National Cookie Company, since you brought it up, I can see advertising slogans/logos being tacked onto spaceships 200 years from now; much like we name stadiums now.
So far as I remember, there was only one shot of the port side in the original series (before the remasterings): It was in “The Alternative Factor” when they blasted Lazarus’s spaceship from orbit. Whether the model was actually filmed from that angle or they just flipped an existing shot, I don’t know, but I imagine it was redone with CGI in the remasterings.
There *may *have been one in the third season too; if so, I can’t identify the episode.
I did see a still shot of the model’s port side once with all its wiring and other stuff, but I can’t remember where; probably in one of David Gerrold’s books, or maybe in the one by Solow and Justman.
I once read (don’t remember where) that Matt Jefferies, who was (among many other things) a private pilot, used the prefix “N” in his sketches due to its association with American civil aviation. This was picked up on (probably by Roddenberry, who was also a pilot) and transformed into “NCC” just to make it different.
So far as I know, the term “Naval Construction Contract” didn’t appear until the first Technical Manual was published in 1975 or so. I doubt it actually existed before that.
