Delta Flyer

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Delta Flyer
First appearance	"Extreme Risk"
Last appearance	"Renaissance Man"
Fate	Destroyed (2376) Rebuilt (2376)
Affiliation	Starfleet
General Characteristics
Class	Delta Flyer
Registry	NCC-74656
Armaments	Phasers Photonic Torpedoes
Defences	Deflector shields

The Delta Flyer is a shuttlecraft attached to the USS Voyager in the science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager.

The Delta Flyer (often referred to as the Flyer) is originally the brainchild of Lieutenant Tom Paris in the episode "Extreme Risk" (though in the previous episode, "Drone", Seven of Nine suggests to Tom that he should build a new shuttlecraft after hearing him complain about the deficiencies of Class 2 shuttles). Finding Voyager's complement of shuttles inadequate for the retrieval of a multi-spatial probe from the dangerous atmosphere of a gas giant, Paris convinces Captain Kathryn Janeway to build the Delta Flyer. Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres contributes her engineering skills and Seven of Nine her expertise in Borg weaponry to the ship's design.

The Delta Flyer features an ultra-aerodynamic tetraburnium alloy hull, retractable warp nacelles, parametallic hull plating, Unimatrix shielding and a Borg-inspired weapon system. At Paris' behest, the pilot's station features (fully functional) buttons, levers, gauges and other anachronistic elements, instead of the standard Starfleet touch-screen. Tom refers to the Delta Flyer as a hot rod.

During the initial design session Paris desires to include dynametric tail fins to the nacelles but is forced to remove them by Tuvok due to their "non-functional" nature.

The Delta Flyer is used as part of USS Voyager's plan to return to the Alpha Quadrant using Quantum slipstream technology. Its function, to map the threshold of the slipstream as it is formed in front of the two ships. This is to allow Ensign Kim to calculate phase corrections to stabilize the slipstream so the USS Voyager can successfully complete the slipstream flight. This fails however, and the USS Voyager is thrown from the slipstream and crashed on a planet just outside the Alpha Quadrant. Commander Chakotay and Ensign Kim aboard the Delta Flyer remained in the slipstream and completed the journey to Earth. 15 years after their return to Earth, Chakotay and Kim use the Delta Flyer (stolen from a Federation shipyard) to return to the crash site of the USS Voyager, and proceeded to use Borg technology to send a message back in time, to prevent the accident. The Delta Flyer is destroyed in a warp-core breach after sending a plasma surge through the USS Challenger's tractor beam, just after Kim sends the message. They succeeded and the timelime is altered, and the Quantum Slipstream drive dismantled.

In 2376, Captain Janeway, Lieutenant Commander Tuvok, and Lieutenant Torres use the Delta Flyer to infiltrate a Borg Tactical Cube, where it is later destroyed by a barrage of Borg torpedoes, immediately after the away team beams aboard the cube. The Borg fire two torpedoes at the Delta Flyer to destroy (overload) the shield generator, then fire a torpedo at the starboard nacelle, followed by a hit to the ship's mid-section. This indicates that the "Delta Flyer" hull does not have the strength to withstand prolonged attack without support from the shields. The ship is rebuilt in 2377.

After Tom Paris fell in love with an alien ship equipped with a neurogenic interface and nearly dies in a particle fountain, B'Elanna Torres worries something similar might happen with the Delta Flyer. To reassure her, Tom states "We're just friends."

Some months later, newly-weds Paris and Torres use the Delta Flyer as their honeymoon vehicle.