The smooth, rounded Starfleet shuttlecraft carried by the Enterprise-D in the early seasons of The Next Generation, first seen when a desperate Jake Kurland steals one in Coming of Age.
The Type 7 is the first shuttlecraft design seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Its flowing lines were drawn by Andrew Probert to match the Enterprise-D herself. It makes its first appearance in the first-season episode Coming of Age, when the disappointed Academy candidate Jake Kurland runs away in one and Picard talks him through a risky manoeuvre to save his life.
The type is seen again in Unnatural Selection, where the Sakharov is used to isolate Dr Pulaski, and in Q Who, when Q snatches Picard away in one. It carries a pilot, a co-pilot and a handful of passengers and is capable of warp flight.
Because its curves were costly to build at full size, the production relied mostly on a model and partial sets. From the second season the small Type 15 shuttlepod, and later the Type 6, took over most of the work.