The New Orleans class is a class

Ship class

A ship class is a group of ships of a similar design. This is distinct from a ship-type, which might reflect a similarity of tonnage or intended use. For example, the is a nuclear aircraft carrier of the Nimitz class....

 of Starfleet

Starfleet

In the fictional universe of Star Trek, Starfleet or the Federation Starfleet is the deep-space exploratory, peacekeeping and military service maintained by the United Federation of Planets . It is the principal means by which the Federation conducts its exploration, defense, diplomacy and research...

 starship

Starship

A starship or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for traveling between the stars, as opposed to a vehicle designed for orbital spaceflight or interplanetary travel....

 which appeared in a single episode of the science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 television series Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...

.

Design

For the episode "The Best of Both Worlds", a number of battle-damaged starship models were built for the Battle of Wolf 359

Battle of Wolf 359

The Battle of Wolf 359 is a fictional space battle in the Star Trek universe between the United Federation of Planets and the Borg Collective in the year 2367...

 graveyard scene by kitbashing

Kitbashing

Kitbashing or model bashing is a practice whereby a new scale model is created by taking pieces out of commercial kits. These pieces may be added to a custom project or to another kit. For professional modelmakers, kitbashing is popular to create concept models for detailing movie special effects...

 existing commercial Star Trek

Star Trek

Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...

 model kits. Ed Miarecki built the model for the USS Kyushu by kitbashing a model of the Galaxy class starship USS Enterprise-D and adding a few custom parts.

Description

The New Orleans has a saucer-shaped primary hull attached to a roughly cylindrical engineering section by a short, thick neck and with two warp nacelles attached to the dorsal side of the secondary hull by long, backswept, upward-curving pylons. The most unusual features of ships of this class are the three forward-facing pods, two mounted on top of the saucer and the other connected to the ventral engineering hull by a short pylon.

Other New Orleans-class starships

Although never established on screen, The Star Trek Encyclopedia

The Star Trek Encyclopedia

The Star Trek Encyclopedia: A Reference Guide to the Future is an encyclopedia of all the in-universe information from the Star Trek live-action television series and films. The Encyclopedia was written by Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda, with Debbie Mirek, and illustrated by Doug Drexler...

 written by series production staff, lists the following starships as New Orleans-class.

USS Renegade (NCC-63102) : In the Next Generation episode Conspiracy, the Enterprise-D meets with the starship Renegade.

USS Rutledge (NCC-57295) : In the Next Generation episode The Wounded, the Enterprise-D is ordered to intervene when it appears that a Starfleet Captain, Benjamin Maxwell, has gone rogue. The USS Rutledge is mentioned as a former command of Captain Maxwell, as well as Enterprise crewmember Miles O'Brien

Miles O'Brien (Star Trek)

Miles Edward O'Brien, played by Colm Meaney, is Chief of Operations in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Before DS9, he appeared as a recurring transporter chief in Star Trek: The Next Generation...

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USS Thomas Paine (NCC-65530) : In the Next Generation episode Conspiracy, the Enterprise-D meets with the starship Thomas Paine.

USS New Orleans (NCC-61008) : Pathfinder ship.