The Project This project is a tribute to long-time fellow spaceship artist friend John DeBonnaire. He was one of the first artists I made contact with when I joined the Galactic Engineers Concordance, a club of Star Trek fans focused on Star Trek technology, back in the late 1990's. This design is based on one of his favorite designs, and he actively participated in the direction it took as I created the 3D CGI model. He made many of the major design decisions which I did my best to depict using my artistic skills. Another fellow artist, Jeff Robb, also was involved in the development of this design. John named the example of the Community Class Explorer depicted here after his beloved son who passed away as a child. The Design The Community Class Explorer is a Federation vessel built shortly after the USS Voyager return from its epic voyage to the Delta Quadrant. The Community Class was outfitted with experimental slipstream warp nacelles which provided a 10% performance increase over that achieved by the Sovereign Class Explorers. This version of slipstream technology involved a special navigational deflector as one of its key components. Other new features of the Community Class included sublight engines built into the warp nacelle struts, matter/anti-matter reactor cores built into the warp nacelles which allowed them to run hotter than the traditional engineering hull mounted design, and innovative use of transporter technology for rapid hull repair. One example of the Community Class served as a test bed for an enhanced version of the virtual ablative armor pioneered by the USS Voyager. While designed as a multi-mission vessel with an exploration focus like its Sovereign Class predecessor, the Community Class also included much heavier torpedo launcher armament due to lessons learned from conflicts with both the Borg and the Dominion. Based on experience gained from USS Voyager's missions, the Community Class employed much tougher smallcraft including enhanced Delta Flyer Class runabouts and the larger Korolev Class heavy runabout outfitted with slipstrem technology. As with many Starfleet designs built in the late 24th century, only a few examples of the Community Class were constructed. They had illustrious, long-lived careers and paved the way for even more ambitious Federation star-faring technological developments in the early 25th century.