Science Fiction

I've always loved the fighters (Starfury?) from Babylon 5:

I used to spend a lot of time modelling them in 3D software, just because! I love the aesthetic, how they have a hint of modern military (the cockpit is Apache helicopter-like), the way they're held then launched almost like missiles, and how agile their design inherently is. Plus, the design obviously has some nods to the ship in The Last Starfighter and of course the X-Wing from Star Wars - both of which are cool ships.

In the game Elite Dangerous, there's a ship called a Vulture that has similar elements (cockpit, size-ish, agility) and in VR is the closest I've come to feeling like I'm flying one!

The organic spaceship Lexx.

https://i1.wp.com/www.scifimoviepage.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/lexx-crop.jpg

The GunStar from The Last Starfighter blew me away as a kid. Pretty good CG for the era as well, but the design felt sleek and believable.

I've always loved the Vipers from BattleStar Galactica as well as the Veritech from Macross (well... robotech since that's what it was called here when I was a kid lol) but I feel like those are both pretty mainstream now?

Always liked the Thunderfighter from Buck Rogers and his frienemy, Hawk's, fighter.

The morphing ship from Flight of the Navigator was pretty cool. In that same era, the bubble ship from Explorers was pretty awesome concept.

Do personal vehicles count? I always wanted to have a Light Cycle from tron. I loved that they just turned it on and their disk became the steering and it just formed around them. Plus it was cool af. The Cylcone from Macross / Robotech was pretty cool in that same vein.

Without question it’s Serenity from Firefly. I know Firefly is relatively well known on the internet, but in general I’d say it’s off the beaten path. That ship is my friend.

The "Eagle" ships from Space: 1999. Great workhorses, very realistic.

Moya from Farscape. She's a biological ship, and the writers did an amazing job giving her a personality and exploring her lifecycle, including having children. She becomes one of the main characters as the series evolves.

Rocinate!! (It was a legitimate salvage)

I'm gonna say the Nostalgia for Infinity from Alastair Reynolds's Revelation Space series. It's the size of a small city and was built centuries before the start of the series to carry 100k passengers, but now it's completely decrepit, crewed by 6 people, and the majority of the ship hasn't been explored by anyone in decades.

Thunderbird 2, and yes, I have the whole series. It was not technically a spacecraft, but it's my favorite of the craft they had.

does the city from dark city count?

if not probably the Nightengale from Supernova

The cylinder ship from clarke’s rendezvous with Rama.

So many good ones named, but I'm going to go with

1. The Hammerhead from "Space: Above & Beyond"

2. Any/all of the fighter ships from the video game series "Wing Commander"

3. How come nobody's mentioned the fantastic Eagle Transporter System from Space-1999??????

Oenone, a Voidhawk from The Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton

I'm not sure if this counts as sufficiently off-the-beaten-path, but I've always loved the Omega Class Destroyer from Babylon 5.

https://youtu.be/IPRY2rT-STU

If I'm going by aesthetics, it's got to be the Baudo Star Yacht from Star Wars. The curvy version, not the Pulsar Skate version.

That said, Event Horizon is some legendary tier accidental 40K fanfic.

I'm thinking the shuttle from Interstellar, myself.

I've always loved The Phoenix from Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets.

The Eagles from Space:1999 as others have mentioned, and also the Liberator from Blake's Seven.

For sheer hilarity, my vote has to go to the Ork Rok:

https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Rok

Any of the ships from the Culture universe.. but I really liked " A Frank Exchange of Views".

@letter_d

The Dragonfly, from the book "The Flight of the Dragonfly", by Robert L. Forward.

Epic ship from an #epic and under-rated book and author.