The 3-foot-long wooden model of Starship Enterprise 1701 (no bloody A, B, C, or D), belonging to series creator Gene Roddenberry, has been located after allegedly disappearing in 1978 when Roddenberry loaned it to a production company for the filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

According to the late Majel Barrett-Roddenberry–who played nurse Christine Chapel in the original series, Lwaxana Troi, and the voice of the computer in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager—the model was “historical and quite priceless,” and either Gene forgot to get it back or it was not returned after the production of the first movie.

The model reappeared last week on eBay, with a starting bid of $1,000. According to multiple online news outlets, it was allegedly found in a storage unit, but when it was learned that the model might have been stolen from Gene Roddenberry or at the very least not properly returned, the auction was taken down. The seller then reached out to Rod Roddenberry, Gene’s son, about returning the item to the family.

About the Model

The model was built by Hollywood scale-model maker Richard C. Datin Jr., a subcontractor for the Howard Anderson Company. The wooden model made its first appearance in the original TV pilot episode “The Cage” filmed in 1965. The footage from that episode was later retooled into a two-part episode, “The Menagerie.” The model was also used for publicity shots when the show was picked up by NBC in 1966, as well as being utilized for production shots since computer-generated imaging (CGI) was still decades away.

• READ MORE: The Aviation Roots of ‘Star Trek’

In addition to the 3-foot-long Enterprise, Datin is credited for also making the ship’s shuttlebay, a Class F shuttlecraft, and Deep Space Station K-7, featured in the fan-favorite episode “The Trouble with Tribbles”.

Along with creating one of the most successful science fiction franchises in entertainment history, Gene Roddenberry was a decorated combat pilot during World War II, flying 89 B-17 missions in the Pacific theater. After the war, he briefly worked as a pilot for Pan American World Airways. He died on October 24, 1991, at the age of 70.  

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In a blog post from co-founder and CEO Adam Bry, the company announced it would no longer offer its Skydio 2 Plus model to consumers. Instead, Skydio will now focus entirely on enterprise and public sector customers, who purchase drones through subscriptions rather than buying them off the shelf.

The announcement came just months after Skydio raised $230 million in a Series E round that skyrocketed its valuation to $2.2 billion.

“The impact we’re having with our enterprise and public sector customers has become so compelling that it demands nothing less than our full focus and attention,” Bry wrote. “As a result, I have made the very difficult decision to sunset our consumer business in order to put everything we’ve got into serving our enterprise and public sector customers.”

While Skydio will no longer offer 2 Plus Starter, Sports, Cinema, or Pro Kits, it will still offer the Enterprise Kit to businesses and organizations. It will continue to provide customer support, vehicle repairs, bug fixes, and Skydio Care insurance to existing customers. The firm also plans to keep a stockpile of replacement batteries, propellers, charging cables, and other equipment for as long as possible.

On a frequently asked questions page, the company said it is unable to share updates about its future product roadmap.

“While Skydio 2 has been an incredible success in enabling new kinds of content capture, Skydio drones are also having a transformative impact for over 1,500 enterprise and public sector customers, putting sensors in dangerous and important places to perform inspections, find missing children, and protect our troops around the world,” Bry wrote.

While the decision to shutter the commercial side of the business was unexpected, it wasn’t completely out of left field. Some in the industry even predicted it.

Skydio got its start in the consumer industry in 2018 when it came out with the R1, releasing the first Skydio 2 model a year later. The 2 Plus series followed in 2022. But in 2020, the firm came out with the X2, its first drone designed specifically for military and corporate use.

That year, Bry told The Verge that Skydio would not abandon the consumer segment—to the contrary, it was just getting started. But he also hinted that the enterprise segment might be better for business since it locks customers into a subscription.

Skydio’s consumer business competed primarily with DJI, the largest drone manufacturer in the world. The Chinese company boasts an estimated 50 to 70 percent market share of the world’s consumer drone market. It also owns a massive piece of the pie among U.S. law enforcement and public safety agencies, which deploy its drones for inspection, search and rescue, and other applications.

However, DJI’s core market is the drone hobbyist or recreational flier. Models such as the Mavic 3 are capable of taking high-resolution photo and video in a variety of modes and environments.

Both Skydio and DJI have honed in on that market by producing cheap drones packed with functionality. The key difference is that DJI’s Mavic 3 is considered to have slightly superior capabilities to Skydio’s 2 Plus.

With states and federal agencies slapping bans on DJI products left and right, it would seem Skydio had a window of opportunity to soak up more of the U.S. market. Perhaps the company viewed DJI’s dominance as insurmountable, or perceived its own consumer business as stagnating. According to one source, it was losing money on every consumer sale.

Whatever the case, Skydio will now serve exclusively enterprise customers (of which there are many—over 1,500, according to Bry) with 2 Plus Enterprise and X2. Users include infrastructure, defense, and public safety companies, among others, deploying the aircraft for tasks like autonomous inspections for state transportation departments or documenting war crimes in Ukraine.

The company is expected to unveil its next-generation X3 model next month at Ascend, its first-ever user conference. The new drone is said to have improved obstacle avoidance, swappable payloads, and a longer flight time.

With Skydio out of the picture in the consumer market, the door is open for DJI and other Chinese manufacturers to tighten their stranglehold. U.S. lawmakers won’t be happy about that. As such, some kind of action from the government is possible, either in the form of more bans, subsidies for U.S. companies, or both.

This is a developing story that FLYING continues to follow.

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The post Skydio Just Shuttered Its Consumer Drone Business appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

To Dorn, morphing into Worf each day was a lengthy process because of the amount of makeup and prosthetics required to bring the character to life. But when the cameras stopped rolling, it wasn’t the starship Enterprise that drew Dorn’s attention, it was a Cessna 172 Skyhawk. But there was a problem.

You see, Michael Dorn likes airplanes that go fast. Really fast. After moving through a few general aviation airplanes, he began buying and flying a long list of former U.S. military fighter jets. This desire to go fast also explains why he drives a Tesla Model X P100D today. “It has ‘Ludicrous’ mode,” Dorn says. “I live for on-ramps!”

In an interview with FLYING, Dorn discusses his love of fast airplanes and describes how he developed Worf into such a popular Star Trek character

FLYING Magazine (FM): You’ve owned a Cessna 172, 310, and 340A, and a Citation 501SP, plus a SOCATA Trinidad TB-20, and a Beechcraft Baron 55. What have you owned that satisfies your need for speed?

Michael Dorn (MD): I have been lucky to have owned a number of military jets, including the Casa Saeta HA200, Lockheed T-33, North American F-86C, and North American Sabreliner 40A. But the one jet I have always wanted is the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter. The 104 will be my final airplane, because it really goes fast.

FM: Since the military cannot sell their used airplanes directly to the public, how are civilians able to buy these decommissioned military jets?

MD: In the old days, the publications that list used airplanes had a section for fighter jets. You always saw quite a few T-33s, F-86s, MiG-21s, and L-39s. Now, the operations that do dissimilar aerial training with the military need fast airplanes for U.S. pilots to train against, so they fly great stuff. When they are done with these jets, civilians can pick them up to be flown as experimental exhibition airplanes.

FM: Tell me about the exhilaration that you feel flying your fighter jets.

MD: I’ve always wanted to be a fighter pilot since I was very young because I love aerobatics and speed. The jet airplanes I fly can do Mach 1 or Mach 2 and that kind of speed is exhilarating. If you are low to the ground or going through clouds, you get that sensation of speed. But if you’re just blasting through a bright blue sky, it does not feel fast until you look down at your air speed indicator and you see 0.96 Mach and realize that OK, now that’s fast!

FM: Do you use flying as an escape from your work as an actor?

MD: Yes, all the time. When I was working on the show, I was flying at the same time on the weekends because it was a total release. I equate it to meditation because you’re not thinking about anything else but keeping the airplane in the sky. And with a bubble canopy, you have a different perspective looking down on really beautiful country. I get a little ethereal and find myself asking what is the problem here, what are we fighting about?

FM: How was the character of Worf developed? Did you have any input on what we saw on screen?

MD: The cast had already been working together when they decided to add the character of Worf. I went in to read for the part and was in makeup within the hour. They gave me no guidance on what the character is or what they wanted him to be. I asked the show’s creator, Gene Roddenberry, what his vision for Worf was, and he told me to just make the character my own. To an actor, that’s like Christmas.

FM: What influenced how you developed the character?

MD: The rest of the cast were all just really nice people on and off screen, laughing a lot, happy to be going into space together. It struck me to make Worf the opposite of that because he was a professional soldier, didn’t joke around, didn’t smile, and was kind of gruff and surly. Luckily, the writers took off on that and wrote some fantastic stuff with that in mind.

FM: What is the one attribute a young person needs if they want to break into acting as a career?

MD: They need to have thick skin and be resilient because it’s a tough business. When I started, there were only three television networks, that was it. Now there is so much out there with all the cable and streaming work that if someone knows their craft, the chances of working and making a living as an actor are pretty good. To rise to the top and become a star, you have to be very good at your craft. Even if you are not a star, you can still be a character actor and work all the time.

FM: A lot has been said about Worf’s makeup on the show. What was it like putting all that on and taking it off at the end of shooting each day?

MD: When we started, it was three hours to do the makeup and glue on the prosthetics. By the end of my run as Worf, it was down to one hour and 45 minutes. It was very challenging because they are literally putting glue on your face, and you have to wear it for as long as 15 hours. When I was made up as Worf, I couldn’t go and have lunch in the commissary, because when I would come back, they would have to reglue. That part of the role made my skin crawl.

FM: Once you were made up as Worf, did you stay in character on the set?

MD: No, I am not one of those actors who needs to be in character to do the job. They would say, “action,” and I’d do my lines as Worf; and when they said, “cut,” I would just say, “thanks,” and go about my business. People onset would see me as Worf and assumed I, too, was gruff and surly because I had the makeup for that. But that was not at all the case. I am nothing like Worf in that regard.

FM: Now that Capt. Kirk has gone to space, is that a ride you want to take?

MD: No, because it is dangerous, even if they’re not going into orbit. It’s one of those things where you’re not in control. They put you into a rocket and just shoot you up. For the money they want to go up, I’d much rather use that to buy an F-104.

Quick 6

Name one person you’d like to fly with, living or dead.

Bob Hoover

If you could fly any airplane or helicopter, what would that be?

The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird

What one airport would you most want to fly into someday?

The airport in Lukla, Nepal [VNLK]. Yikes!

What has been aviation’s biggest innovation?

There are two: the jet engine, and advancements in technology including GPS.

Would Worf have made a good fighter pilot?

He would’ve been an incredible fighter pilot because, like real fighter pilots, he did not have any fear.

When you’re not flying, what would you rather be doing?

Playing tennis. Wherever I lived, I made sure there was a court within 2 or 3 miles.

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