Is it really plausible that a science ship that was seen to operated by two people in Dark Frontier is also well suited for use as a colony ship? Establishing a colony would take something more than a vessel that can support a dozen people at most, yes? And every screen shot I've seen of the aerie class from the Armada 2 shows many decks' worth of windows, certainly more than would be found on the four deck Raven. perhaps this is a case of scaling a hull, like the Klingon bird of prey? --120.20.37.192 04:58, March 18, 2011 (UTC)

Indeed the Raven design is the victim of scaling -- the Raven itself was shown in two different sizes onscreen in two different appearances. Normally we'd pick up the canon fact, and then describe the contradiction in those terms, but the canon is confused to begin with with two conflicting arrangements. The larger of the two onscreen appearances could probably support more people than you theorize, but reaching that as a conclusion for the purposes of this article would be speculation in my opinion.

For all intents and purposes though these have been presented as one class. I'd say to maintain the references to the class but to note that some ships are surveyors and some are colony ships, with the two types being 'modified' for the difference. Since the Raven was seen in canon as both a 'family living' vessel (i.e. like a ship that could be used by settlers), and on a science research survey in canon, so this does fit that basis. We don't have much info on the modifications, but the Hansens could have had science equipment taking up possible living space due to the nature of their mission (a speculatory explanation i present here for the discussion but not for inclusion in the article) -- Captain MKB 14:45, March 17, 2011 (UTC)

I recall seeing somewhere that in "The Raven" they made it five decks, but when they showed it more clearly in "Dark Frontier" they reduced it to four decks. In any case, neither version would be large enough to establish a colony. I've looked for the concept sketch that shows notes for the redesigned Raven in Dark Frontier, but I can't find it, alas...--120.20.37.192 04:58, March 18, 2011 (UTC)