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star trek - Did the Original Enterprise Have Landing Gear?


This is something that's bothered since, well, literally since the 1960s. On the original Enterprise (NCC-1701) there are two long triangular regions marked on the bottom of the saucer section (circled in red in the picture below). I never saw anything documented about what these regions were, but it looks as if they could extend, like landing gear, to balance the ship if it had to land on a planet. Or they could be used for balance if the saucer section separated and landed independently.


Are these things some kind of landing gear? If not, is there any documentation about what they are?



enter image description here



Answer



Per Memory Alpha:



According to Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise, the original Enterprise had landing gear stored underneath the two triangle-shaped hatches on the ventral side of the saucer. A third leg popped out from the cavity where the secondary hull connected to the saucer. (Star Trek: The Magazine, August 2000).



Apparently this landing gear was designed for landing just the saucer section (in an emergency), not the entire ship.


enter image description here


The semi-canon [*] book, the USS Enterprise Officer's Manual (written by Geoffrey Mandel, senior Production Artist for various trek films and TV shows) offers this description of the emergency landing procedures for the Constitution-class saucer section:


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[*] Appropriating Hypnosifl's comment:



Might be worth noting that although Gregory Mandel was a production artist for Trek, that was after he wrote the USS Enterprise Officer's Manual, which at the time (1980) was a fan creation since he wasn't affiliated with the show in any way. Unlike another popular fan creation, the Star Fleet Technical Manual by Franz Joseph, I don't think Mandel's book was ever licensed by CBS/Paramount so it seems odd to call it "semi-canon", that'd be like calling Star Trek: Phase II semi-canon because it's popular and well-made.



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