Delta Flyer (2375)
The Delta Flyer was a specially designed Starfleet shuttlecraft constructed by the crew of the  in the Delta Quadrant in 2375. The vessel was designed to handle environments that would be too hazardous for a standard shuttlecraft and to be slightly larger than the average shuttle, the crew having acknowledged that standard shuttles were of little use in the increasingly hostile and unexplored Delta Quadrant. The vessel was a blend of Starfleet and Borg technology, designed in collaboration between B'Elanna Torres, Tom Paris, Tuvok, Harry Kim, and Seven of Nine. It was conceived as incorporating a tetraburnium alloy hull with ultra-aerodynamic contours, retractable warp nacelles, parametallic hull plating, unimatrix shielding, and a Borg-inspired weapon system, including photonic missiles, most of which were Paris' conceptions. For aesthetic reasons, Paris designed some of the flight controls to resemble those from the holodeck simulation of Captain Proton; when Tuvok complained, Paris explained that he wanted to feel the ship and that he was tired of tapping panels. But to Paris' disappointment, the addition of dynametric tailfins was denied by Tuvok. Instead of having the usual two pilot stations, it had several command stations. () 

Knowledge of this craft was known to Tuvok as early as 2371 but kept secret due to the Temporal Prime Directive. ()

Design and first mission 

The idea to design a larger, more efficient shuttle than the cramped Class 2 shuttle was first given to the Delta Flyers designer, Lieutenant junior grade Tom Paris, by the former Borg drone Seven of Nine in 2375. ()

Subsequently, Paris brought up the idea numerous times, but was always rebuffed. Captain Kathryn Janeway finally authorized the craft's construction, which was led by Paris, in order to retrieve a multi-spatial probe that was lost in the atmosphere of a gas giant and in danger of being stolen by the Malon. The deciding factor was that Paris had already laid a lot of groundwork, and so the shuttle would not have to be designed from scratch. The Malon also began work on a shuttlecraft of their own and finished theirs before the Flyer was complete. When the Malon sent out their shuttle, the Flyer was deployed early, despite a flaw in the vessel's structural integrity. The Flyer was successful in retrieving the probe, but a hull breach started to occur. B'Elanna Torres designed a makeshift device that deployed a temporary force field, successfully containing the breach. ()

Rejected features included dynametric tailfins. Harry Kim's repeated calls to reinforce the hull with kellinite were also continuously rejected. ()

2375 missions 
The Delta Flyers second mission was to infiltrate a Species 8472 terrasphere. Paris, Kim, and Chakotay took the Flyer out to investigate the terrasphere. When the undercover Chakotay was revealed, Voyager rendezvoused with the Delta Flyer. ()

The Delta Flyer encountered near-destruction in its third mission when it got caught in an ion storm and crash landed three kilometers under rock on a class M planet. Life support began to fail and Paris, Samantha Wildman, and Tuvok did not believe they could be rescued. The Voyager crew was able to dig through the rock and locate the Delta Flyer. The crew and the Flyer were beamed aboard. ()

In early 2375, Voyager was equipped with a quantum slipstream drive and used it in an attempt to return to the Alpha Quadrant. The Flyer, piloted by Chakotay and Kim, rode the slipstream ahead of Voyager in order to chart the slipstream and send appropriate phase corrections to Voyager. Unfortunately, the drive proved unstable and nearly caused Voyager to lose structural integrity. Fortunately, a Harry Kim from an alternate timeline where the ship had been destroyed, was able to transmit a phase correction directly to Seven of Nine's Borg implants which shut the drive down. Use of the drive was then abandoned until it could be better understood. 

In the previously mentioned alternate timeline, the Delta Flyer remained in the slipstream on course to the Federation while Voyager crash-landed on a class L planet. Fifteen years later, Chakotay, Kim, and Tessa Omond stole the Delta Flyer from a shipyard and used it to locate the remains of Voyager. They retrieved Seven of Nine's corpse and The Doctor from the buried ship. By analyzing Seven's cranial implant they intended to determine when it had shut down and thus when Voyager was destroyed, allowing them to transmit their message accordingly. The Doctor was the only person who could determine the necessary temporal coordinates for their mission. They used a temporal transmitter to transmit the proper phase corrections to Seven via the implant, which would allow Voyager to remain safe in the slipstream. Unfortunately, Kim's corrections did not work - but with time running out, The Doctor convinced him to send another message, this time with corrections which would collapse the slipstream. Just as he transmitted the drive shutdown sequence, the Delta Flyer was destroyed by a warp core breach induced by attacks from the . ()

A few months later, the Delta Flyer was used to go underwater on The Waters of the Moneans. The Flyer was able to take large amounts of stress, entering great depths of water. It was even able to reach the core of the ocean which was quite deep underwater. This core was actually a large containment field generator. ()

During a mission where Voyager crew stole a Borg transwarp coil, Seven of Nine was captured by the Borg. The coil was installed on board the Delta Flyer, for which it was used to proceed to the unicomplex to retrieve Seven. When Janeway beamed into the complex, she was stuck there with Seven when the Borg Queen activated a dispersal field. Seven was able to disable the Queen's interface to the collective and the field was deactivated. With Janeway and Seven retrieved, the Flyer proceeded back to transwarp and returned to Voyager, pursued by the Queen's diamond; they were briefly forced to transfer power from life support to the shields during the pursuit to give themselves the necessary shield strength to reach the exit point before they were captured. ()

2376 missions 

When Voyager encountered a graviton ellipse, the Delta Flyer was sent in to locate the Ares IV command module, which was lost in the ellipse in 2032. The crew of Tom Paris, Chakotay, and Seven of Nine examined several artifacts trapped in the ellipse before finding the command module. While the Flyer attempted to tractor the module out of the ellipse, the ellipse was hit by a dark matter asteroid. The Delta Flyer was severely damaged and Chakotay was injured. Aboard Voyager, B'Elanna Torres devised a method to use an ion distributor from the Ares IV to repair vital components of the Flyer. Seven beamed to the Ares IV module where she located the distributor and downloaded the sensor data and logs of the Ares IV commander, John Kelly. She returned to the Flyer with the distributor and Kelly's body. The distributor was connected to the Flyer power systems and the shuttle was able to escape before the ellipse returned to subspace. ()

During a period of shore leave on Voyager, Janeway took the Flyer to a nearby planet in the Norcadian star system. When Seven and Tuvok were kidnapped by Penk, Voyager engaged in battle with his vessel. Penk was able to disable Voyager, but Janeway arrived in the Flyer and was able to disable Penk's signal antenna, forcing Penk to lower power to his ship's force fields. This allowed Seven and Tuvok, along with several other competitors held hostage aboard the ship, to be rescued. Janeway and the Flyer returned to Voyager. ()

Chakotay, Neelix, Harry Kim, and Tom Paris returned from a mission aboard the Delta Flyer and were abducted by a damaged Borg cube run by adolescent Borg. The Flyer was locked in a Borg hangar while the Voyager crew were attempting to negotiate for the return of the shuttle and its crew. Before the Borg cube was destroyed due to a feedback pulse after the Borg attempted to remove Voyagers deflector dish, the Delta Flyer escaped the ship. ()

Later that year, Janeway decided to take the Flyer on an astronomical survey, crewed by Voyager crewmembers who were not working to the best of their abilities and who had never been on an away mission. The mission became dire when the Flyer was attacked, disabling its warp drive. Janeway plotted a course for a nearby planet and ordered the crewmen to abandon the Flyer. They refused to leave her, although one crewmember, Mortimer Harren, abandoned the Flyer aboard a escape pod and used it to distract the dark matter object. Harren inadvertently discovered how to deter the object using phasers, which the Delta Flyer used to escape. Soon after Harren was returned to the Flyer, an explosion occurred, disabling it. Voyager picked up the distress signal and retrieved the damaged shuttle. ()

The Delta Flyer was impersonated by a vessel piloted by several con artists attempting to use the reputations of the Voyager crew for criminal purposes. In order to track their hiding spot, Voyager captured one of the criminals, Dala, and allowed her to escape aboard the Delta Flyer. Tom Paris and The Doctor stowed away in the aft compartment, apprehended Dala, and retook the Flyer after she flew it to the criminals' hiding spot. ()

While on an exploration mission, the Delta Flyer crashed on a planet with a pre-warp society. Harry Kim was able to evacuate, but B'Elanna Torres remained aboard and survived the impact. A poet on the planet named Kelis found the Flyer and figured out how to access its database, using Voyagers experiences in the Delta Quadrant as a basis for his plays. Torres attempted to repair the Flyer with Kelis' help, but the ship was damaged beyond her means. Kim eventually located the Flyer and brought an emergency transmitter from the escape pod, which was used to send a distress signal to Voyager. The Flyer was transported aboard and required major repairs. ()

When Kes traveled back in time to the first year of Voyagers journey, the tachyon particles caused by her presence in the past resulted in Tuvok experiencing 'flash-forwards' of events that wouldn't happen on Voyager for several years, with the first example of these being when he suggested that the Delta Flyer be used to navigate a region of space filled with subspace vacuoles due to its advanced sensors over four years before it would even be constructed. ()

Destruction 

In early 2377, Janeway, Tuvok, and Torres flew the Delta Flyer to a Borg tactical cube, with the goal of infiltrating the vessel and assisting the drones of Unimatrix Zero. While approaching the cube, the Borg Queen located the Flyer. The away team beamed onto the cube just as the Flyer was destroyed. ()

The destroyed Flyer was replaced by a  and of similar design and specification, albeit with fewer "Captain Proton"-inspired embellishments. ()

Appendices

Appearances 
 
  (Season Five)
 
 
 
 
 
 
  (Season Six)

Additional references

Background information 
From the , "The Delta Flyer was designed by series production designer Richard James and senior illustrator Rick Sternbach."

Two schematic lots from production designer Richard James of the Delta Flyers interior were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay.

External links

cs:Delta Flyer
de:Delta Flyer
ja:デルタ・フライヤー
pt:Delta Flyer
ru:Дельта флаер
Delta Flyer