Matt Jeffries has died (created the original Enterprise and Klingon ships)

[Deja Q]

This article is a bit old (came from an e-mail list I subscribe to), but there is a link.


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Message: 1
Date: Sun, 27 Jul 2003 00:28:48 -0800
From: Abrigon Gusiq
Subject: Matt Jefferies Passed Away - Jefferies Tube and ST:TOS
Enterprise Designer

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/andromeda-usa/message/410
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Matt Jefferies, who was the designer of the Starship Enterprise on the
original Star Trek series died during the early hours on July 21, 2003
at 82 years olds of unknown cause. He had been battling cancer and his
doctors recently reported him clear of cancer.

Walter Matt Jefferies was production designer and art director for Star
Trek the original series. His qualification for working on the series
was his aeronautical background which include four years as flight test
engineer, combat pilot, aviation illustrator, and a private licence
aircraft pilot.

A gag amoung the original Star Trek series production staff was the to
name the systems access crawlway on Federation Starships as Jefferies
Tube. The name became official starting with "Star Trek: The Next
Generation".

Why Enterprise serial number is NCC-1701?
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NC by international agreement is for United State commercial vehicles
and up to four C's, CCCC for Russia vehicles.
Jefferies believed space trevel too expensive for one country mixed US
and Russian prefixes resulting in NCC. Jefferies wanted instantly
identifiable number. 3, 6, 8, and 9 are too easily confused.
Everybody
would not be confused by 1, 7, or
0. 17 is for the seventeenth star ship design in the Federation and 01
is for the first ship of the seventeenth design.

Warp engines are away from rest of ship because they are dangerous to
be
close by for the crew, and to quickly replace during war, to quickly
unhook if warp engines become a dangeous to the ship.

Official Star Trek web site obituary for Matt Jefferies
http://startrek.com/news/news.asp?ID=129357