Back in the early days of new shuttle designs for JJ.s Star Trek the shuttles for the new Enterprise went through a round phase in between the variety of flat and faceted designs. Here is a rare view of a mornings sketches that were hurriedly drawn and then shelved just as fast. 
29
Jun
10
I like those, especially A. I don’t think it would have been right as an Enterprise shuttle but it would make a cool civilian ship.
I especially like C.
Reminds me quite a bit of the superior more aerodynamic shuttles you had originally intended for Enterprise before you simplified the design to make it easier to manufacture.
They actually echo some of the new curves of the E’s nacelles and such. Interesting as always.
Ooooo, I LOVE A!!!!!!!!
lovely designs – my favourite would be C
Yeah “C” looks even a bit like the near-future white space shuttle from Enterprise’s intro. It would be nice to see one of those in the next Trek movie. It’s great to see that you always have something surprising in your sleeve John !
Interesting stuff. As ships I think they all work…whether they work as Trek ships or not I can’t say. C looks alot like the Shuttlepode of ENT. The other two are cool looking.
Thanks for showing us soem “not picked” art, surely theres tons of that out there from otehr designers and film artists.
Crikey, you really ran the whole gamut of styles and shapes for these shuttles! I like ‘C’ the best, since the window is reminiscent of the NX Pod’s front window and the rest of the craft is reasonably similar to other shuttle designs from down the years. ‘A’ looks like something they might’ve used in TOS if they’d had the budget, while I think ‘B’ looks cool, but starting to get an alien feel about it.
Thanks for taking the time to post these. 🙂
I tink the B concept would make a cool submarine.
I’m loving the “A” design. Very sleek. Looks like it’s built for speed. “B” and “C” look more like variations of the shuttlepods from “Enterprise.” They all seem a little small for shuttlecraft, though. “A” would make a great one or two-man fighter with the addition of some noticable weaponry.
Seeing concept drawings like this is a real kick. I’ve always been fascinated by design concepts; the evolution of something from initial sketch to final build. I never tire of these sketches popping up here and I hope to see more soon. Thanks for sharing, John.
I love B & C, I don’t think it they would work as the ENT Shuttles, but they a very cool and different.
I’m curious. When you drew stuff like this and it might have had similarities to say the Enterprise Shuttlepod, did you mention that as something that might intrigue them? Or maybe try to slip it past them because they didn’t want to actually recall any past production? I think I remember hearing that if someone had worked on past productions, they did NOT want them on this movie, but that you were made an exception or something.
A sort of reminds me of the Scorpion Attack Flyer. B Reminds me of one concept of the F-19 Stealth Fighter, and C does look like the Shuttlepods from Enterprise. 😀
These designs would be fun for Federation Fighters.
I’m loving A. It doesn’t seem to fit with the lineage of Trek and maybe seems a bit impractical or outside the tone of the movie. But…
….it’s pretty damn good. You should unshelf it at some point and make a proposal for the next movie. It might not fit the Starfleet tone, but that’s a damn good transport. Maybe an Earth/civilian ship, or Vulcan.
A is too good to let go.
Practiclly word for word the same thoughts that sprung to my mind, so I’ll just leave it was “what he said!”
make that “leave it ‘as’…”
Since Matt Jefferies designed a curvy shuttle for “Star Trek” the original series, it would have been nice if a curvy shuttle would have been built for the new film. It would have fit better with the design aesthetic of the USS Enterprise. It’s sad that for monetary reasons Jefferies design was rejected as being too expensive to build and instead we got the box.
Jefferies also designed a curvy shuttle craft for “Star Trek: Phase II”. It’s a shame that Abrams used a box design in the new film.
A and B with the “organic” nacelles somehow don’t feel right for the era. But I like C very much, because it picks up some elements known from the 22nd century shuttles.