It was shuttle day one Wednesday morning on “Nemesis” and the script called for the Argo, a new atmospheric based cargo shuttle specifically designed to carry the other Argo that had wheels. In past versions, any shuttle that had wings had them telescope into the body. I always hated this idea because it seemed that once extended they wouldn’t have any strength, and when retracted, where did they go. This prompted a new idea where the wings were hinged on the exterior of the ship so when closed simply merged with the aesthetics of the ship exterior and when deployed added the flight surfaces needed to maneuver as a plane and not a vertol.
Here are both the opened and closed versions of the ship in drawing form and one from Digital Domain featuring the finished CG model in flight.
closed version
open
Digital Domain
Eavesdropping with Johnny 
I think this is a cool design, my favourite part however is the way the nacelles are tucked in close to the main body.
thanks, and I agree!
HA! I JUST watched that scene on Saturday diggin’ around for reference. Always like this lil’ bird, and I recall thinkin’ originally and on Saturday again about how much I liked the wings folding in and all flush as it landed. Always liked the lines of this bird. Sleek and strong. It has a nice “working” economy about it IMO.
Thanks dude! 🙂
LLP,
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Thanks!! I was especially thrilled to see the awesome work that DD did with the modeling and the flying sequences. Those guys are what Movie magic is all about!!!
Cool! Thanks for the pics and info. I recently finished an update on shuttlecraft on my site and was curious about whether this was a cargo shuttle. In-universe-wise, did you conceive this as being a shuttle specifically for the buggy (kind of like a Thunderbirds auxiliary craft 🙂 ), or just a general purpose cargo shuttle that could carry a buggy instead if needed? (if that makes sense! 🙂 ).
It could haul anything that match’s the size restraints so it was meant to be a multitasker. Script wise it is married to the vehicle so the design had to follow. Also there was a practical build of the back half of the ship for the High Vista location shoot so a lot of the designing and scaling had that in the thinking. I’ll do a follow up with those photo’s later this week. in the meantime I’ll post the argo(wheeled version) in a moment or two
I always like the design. Given the Job that it was for as a Heavy cargo ship, I envisioned that there was different version’s of this shuttle type for different jobs.
This one for the Wheeled Argo.
Another type for heavy machinery for new colonises or setting up scientific experiments Etc.
Your right and boy would it be fun to have the time to fill those voids and really make sense via models are drawings to complete the gaps.
Ohh feeding time for us ship geeks!
ships is good!!!! I was watching Clone Wars with my daughter and I love the great difference between the Star Wars universe of ship design and that of Star Trek. Wow are we living in a great time where these Sci-Fi appetites are always filled!!
Thanks for sharing the pix and designs of the Argo shuttle. Very cool.
John,
Is there a chance that we might see more profiles of the Argo shuttle? I know I’m among several sci-fi modelers who would love to see profiles for: side, top, front and back.
I really love this shuttle and also thought it looked great in Nemesis.