Background

StarFleet’s Cheetah-class attack fighter was the first purpose-built, one-man/life-form design ever fielded by the Federation. StarFleet R & D felt that the combination of a blindingly fast attack, small-size profile, and tremendous sublight maneuverability would pose a difficult problem for the Dominion to counter effectively. The Cheetah is heavily armed, with three miniature torpedo launchers and a flex-mounted phaser cannon.

Operationally deployed squadrons of twenty-four ships would separate into four-ship elements. Their unusual practice of accelerating to 0.08 and occasionally 0.09 of lightspeed proved their worth in the final days of the Dominion War in a series of hit-and-run attacks deep in the rear of Breen and Cardassian space, where their small size and speed made them extremely difficult to detect and counter.

The fighters are warp-capable, but are most often deployed from larger starships. There is no life support to speak of outside of the gravitic compensators; all pilots wear full space suits. That, plus the fuel demands of the high-output impulse engine, dictate that the Cheetahs operate from a mother ship, which is usually a StarFleet Transport Command Transport/Tug with a dedicated launch/recovery pod. This pod can carry and operationally maintain two full squadrons of Cheetahs. Also used were some of the few remaining Coronado-class heavy cruisers with thru-deck hanger facilities, although these could only deploy one Cheetah squadron. Several Akira-class starships had two Cheetah squadrons, and they proved to be a formidable combination.

Other Notes

Construction Notes

The ship's forward hull, secondary hull and warp nacelles are styrofoam. This was carved, shaped and sanded down to the proper shapes. The warp nacelle pylons are sheet styrene, and so are the framing members for the 'open structure' warp nacelles. The phaser cannon below the main hull, and the three torpedo lauchers are all made from Plastruct styrene tubing. The cockpit has a scratchbuit seat, and the control panels and the equipment 'greeblies' behind the seat come from the ESA module of the Snap-Fit Space Shuttle kit. The canopy is from blister packaging, and the pilot is from an Expanders toy set, suitably repainted. I used Woodland Scenics dry transfer lettering, and PineCar dry transfer graphics for the dragons.

For other images of the ship, click the links below:

• Close up cockpit area.

• Three quarters view.