The Galileo Shuttlecraft made its first appearance halfway through Season One of TOS, in the episode appropriately entitled “The Galileo Seven” – which was originally broadcast on January 5, 1967. It’s interior design was created by the celebrated Star Trek Original Series Art Director and Production Designer Matt Jefferies; while it’s exterior appearance was actually created by Gene Winfield, a well known custom car builder and primarily automotive designer who had contracted with the AMT plastic model company. AMT had reached an agreement with the Desilu Star Trek office to build the filming miniature of the shuttlecraft in exchange for the rights to manufacture and market model kits of it and other TOS spacecraft such as the Enterprise and the Klingon Battle Cruiser.
Jefferies did create several concept sketches for the exterior of the Galileo; and his preferred solution was more aerodynamic than the final design, featuring many curved surfaces, but the Winfield version was adopted to facilitate manufacturability of the AMT model. In an interview published in the April 2000 Issue 12 of Star Trek: The Magazine, Jefferies discussed his concept: “Basically it was a teardrop thing, and the whole side panel, the outside door, would slide back, and you could just step right off on the ground. The seats were like bicycle seats mounted on each side of the keel.” When the more-boxy final exterior design was approved, Jefferies reworked his concept of the interior to conform.
In addition to the filming miniature, both a full scale interior set as well as a three-quarters scale exterior set were created on the Desilu soundstage. Regarding the exterior set construction, Jefferies remarked “A certain percentage of that had to be done in the studio shops. They brought it all over in a big truck. It was on a steel frame; it was bulky, and it was heavy. I think if it had been lighter and easier to move, and of course if we’d had the time or the equipment, we would have probably got much more use out of it. We could have lowered it to the surface and had the doors open and the people get out or get in. But it would have taken a lot of engineering and probably beefing up the stage structure to be able to lower the thing as it was.”
Below are some of Jefferies concept sketches of the exterior design…
and his original concept of the shuttlecraft’s interior appearance …
Some sketches of the final Winfield exterior design …
and the final Jefferies interior …
Below are some rare photos of the Galileo exterior set construction process …
And some archival photos and screenshots of the shuttlecraft as it appeared in numerous Original Series episodes such as “The Galileo Seven”, “The Menagerie”, ”The Doomsday Machine”,”Metamorphosis”, ”The Immunity Syndrome” and “The Way To Eden”:
The filming miniature as seen in some Enterprise hangar deck screenshots …
After the Original Series completed filming in 1969, it is known that the three-quarter scale shuttlecraft exterior mockup spent many years stored outdoors where it unfortunately suffered significant structural deterioration …
Approximately 18 years ago, it was purchased for $3000 and hauled from California to Akron, Ohio on a specially-constructed trailer and was housed in a hangar at the Canton / Akron airport (CAK). From 1991-1993, the Galileo exterior underwent significant restoration work. A member of the restoration team indicated that the shuttlecraft hull measured 5 feet in height (= interior floor to ceiling distance) . Some photos of the restoration activity are shown below …
