History Main / MileLongShip

* Some of the starships of the Culture in Iain M. Banks's novels are ''really'' big -- a GSV can be 25 to 200 kilometers long, with enough on-board manufacturing capacity to match a ''planet'' in production.

[[quoteright:350:[[Videogame/{{X}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/milelongship_5585.jpg]]]]

* The Mothership from ''{{Homeworld}}'', which the fluff says is nearly 15 kilometres "tall"[[note]]relative to the direction its main engines face, see its entry's page picture for details[[/note]]. It has a major case of UnitsNotToScale in-game, however, but still measures a good three in-universe kilometres... Or rather [[{{Microts}} "kloms"]], whose relationship to an Earth kilometre is never mentioned.

* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', Reaper capital ships like ''Sovereign'' and ''Harbinger'' are around two kilometers long and so massive that their kinetic barriers are severely weakened while they're landed in Earthlike gravity (due to the mass effect field strength needed to reduce their mass to the point where they don't crumple under their own weight). Citadel dreadnoughts vary by race, but average one kilometer.

* Titan class ships in ''VideoGame/EveOnline'' can be as long as 18 kilometers. Other ships, while still being a fraction of the Titans' size, are still enormously long.

* ''Spaceball One'' in the movie ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'', a parody of ''Franchise/StarWars'', has a similar scale.

** The ''Eclipse''-class star dreadnaught from ''DarkEmpire'' is 17 kilometers long, outmasses the ''Executor''-class, and mounts a superlaser capable of cracking a planet's crust. This won't destroy the planet, but the seismic effects will depopulate it quite handily.

* The ''VideoGame/{{X}}-Universe'' series doesn't explicitly give lengths for its ships. However, in 2009, a forum member in [[http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=244972 this thread]] scaled their in-game models and determined that the largest destroyers average 3 kilometers, with the [[TheBattlestar Valhalla]] being the outlier at 5. The Valhalla's sheer size makes it wildly impractical to use normally, because its engine nacelles will impact the rim of a [[PortalNetwork jump gate]] upon exit, causing it to get stuck inside the event horizon.

[[caption-width-right:350:And that's not even the largest ship!]]

* Creator/EEDocSmith's book ''[[Literature/SkylarkSeries Skylark of Valeron]]'': the vessel was a sphere over 1000km in radius and has a crew of four, it needed to be that big to contain the navigational instruments necessary to cross intergalactic space.

* In ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'', the eponymous ''Macross'' is a city-sized alien spaceship which crash lands on Earth, which is then used by humans to go into space. 1210 meters (3970 feet) long.

* Creator/EEDocSmith's book ''[[Literature/SkylarkSeries Skylark of Valeron]]'': the eponymous vessel was a sphere over 1000km in radius and has a crew of four, it needed to be that big to contain the navigational instruments necessary to cross intergalactic space.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': The infamous ''Imperial''-class Star Destroyers are 1,600 meters long, or approximately one mile, while Darth Vader's Super Star Destroyer was 19 kilometers. However, the ''Venator''-classes shown in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' were only 1,137 meters and apparently capable of landing. The ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' adds many more examples, some of which are found under Literature.

* The eponymous ship from ''{{Lexx}}'' is an insect-like ship that is 10 kilometers in length.

* The titular ship from ''{{Lexx}}'' is an insect-like ship that is 10 kilometers in length.

* The ''VideoGame/{{X}}-Universe'' series doesn't explicitly give lengths for its ships. However, in 2009, a forum member in [[http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=244972 this thread]] scaled their in-game models and determined that the largest destroyers average 3 kilometers, with the [[TheBattlestar Valhalla]] being the outlier at 5.

* Titan class ships in ''VideoGame/EveOnline'' can be as long as 18 kilometers.

** Wraith hive ships in ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' were described as roughly thirteen times larger than an SGC ''Daedalus''-class battlecruiser. This gives a ship around 2.9 kilometers long. The super-hive that appears on the series finale is even larger, whereas Ancient city-ships such as Atlantis are 3 kilometers in diameter.

* There are currently no RealLife examples of a mile long ship, but that doesn't mean that there aren't currently some impressively large ships. In the US, Football Fields are often used as a stock unit of measurement of measurement for such ships, with a particular vessel being described as so-many football fields in length.

** In reality, once ships get past a certain size they suffer structural problems, pose major hazards to other vessels and potentially the environment, and [[AwesomeButImpractical can't actually navigate the world's most important shipping channels]], rendering them a waste of money for most companies.

* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' features the [[spoiler: Celestial Being]] mothership, which measures roughly 15 km in length.
** Though not technically "ships" per-se, space colonies in all Gundam series that feature them are roughly 5 miles in length.

* In ''{{Gunbuster}}'' the [[spoiler: Earth evacuation ship-turned-warship]]spacecraft Eltreum is said to be '''70 km''' long.
* MobileSuitGundam00 features the [[spoiler: Celestial Being]] mothership, which measures roughly 15 km in length.

* In [[StephenBaxter Stephen Baxter's]] Literature/XeeleeSequence universe: the Xeelee Nightfighter. The cockpit is small, about the size of a room, but its ''wings'' stretch out for kilometers in either direction, like vast sails. The purpose of these wings are never made evident, as the ship itself travels via teleportation.
* EEDocSmith's book ''Skylark of Valeron'': the eponymous vessel was a sphere over 1000km in radius and has a crew of four, it needed to be that big to contain the navigational instruments necessary to cross intergalactic space.

* In ''Literature/{{Chindi}}'', the alien ship known as the ''chindi'' is over 16 km long, and apparently uninhabited, but still intent on its unknown mission.

* Lighthuggers in AlastairReynolds' ''RevelationSpace'' universe are roughly 4 kilometers tall [[hottip:*: The ships fly "upwards", as the engines point "down". Decks on the ships are arranged much like that of a skyscraper]]. Most of the space is taken up by vast cargo holds, [[HumanPopsicle cryogenic sleeper]] vaults, hangars, and weapon systems.

* In the ''Series/BabylonFive'' spinoff ''Series/{{Crusade}}'', the ''Excalibur'' was 3000 meters in length, and had an internal rail line (similar to that on the Babylon 5 space station) running along its length for transportation within the ship.

* The titular ''{{Lexx}}'' is an insect-like ship that is 10 kilometers in length.

** Also, the Babylon 4 station, which preceded Babylon 5, had a propulsion system (unlike its successor), so could serve as a mobile base-ship and carrier that was 6 miles in length (a bit larger than Babylon 5).

[[AC: Anime and Manga]]
* In ''SuperDimensionFortressMacross'', the eponymous ''Macross'' is a city-sized alien spaceship which crash lands on Earth, which is then used by humans to go into space. 1210 meters (3970 feet) long.

[[AC: Film]]
* ''Franchise/StarWars'': The infamous ''Imperial''-class Star Destroyers are 1,600 meters long, or approximately one mile, while Darth Vader's Super Star Destroyer was 19 kilometers. However, the ''Venator''-classes shown in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' were only 1,137 meters and apparently capable of landing.
** Then there's the Death Star, which is the size of a small moon.
* Spaceball One in the movie ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'', a parody of ''Franchise/StarWars'', has a similar scale.
* In ''Film/IndependenceDay'', the mothership has been estimated to be several hundred kilometers across, the "city-killer" {{Flying Saucer}}s that detach from it are about 15 miles in diameter.

[[AC: Literature]]
* From Iain M. Banks's ''TheCulture'' novels, the General Systems Vehicles. You know that bit at the beginning of Star Wars, where the Star Destroyer swallows up the Tantive IV into its docking bay? Picture a ship that could do that... to the Death Star. Twice.

* Ships in the ''HonorHarrington'' series are usually denoted by their tonnage rather than their length, but one book had a diagram that showed their main warships as being 2 kilometers in length for a battleship to 3 km for a Superdreadnought. Then David Weber apparently realized that at that scale they were far too light and he re-scaled them so they top out at just over 1500 m for an SD and 1200 m for a battleship.

[[AC: Live Action TV]]

* In the ''{{Babylon 5}}'' spinoff ''{{Crusade}}'', the ''Excalibur'' was 3000 meters in length, and had an internal rail line (similar to that on the Babylon 5 space station) running along its length for transportation within the ship.

[[AC: Tabletop Games]]

[[AC: Video Game]]

[[AC: Web Original]]

Supertrope to PlanetStarship and UnnecessarilyLargeVessel. See also: CoolStarship, BigDumbObject, TheBattlestar and GenerationShip.

* The ''VideoGame/{{X}}-Universe'' series doesn't explicitly give lengths for its ships. However, in 2009, a forum member in [[http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=244972 this thread]] scaled their in-game models and determined that the largest destroyers average 3 kilometers, with the Valhalla being the outlier at 5.

** ''Deimos''-Class Colony Ships are approximately 3×3×3 km, as the hypergates they traveled through had to be reconfigured to form wormholes with a diameter of 5 km.

Your starship is big, very big. Now how do you make this across to people? By stating how big it is in miles or [[TheMetricSystemIsHereToStay kilometers]]. It may be a StarshipLuxurious or so packed full of people or machinery that the interior resembles that of a submarine. Generally these ships are too massive to land: they're built in space and stay in space.

Often mile-long starships are considered to be [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness "harder"]] than small ones, partially because a slower-than-light ship would need to be massive to carry all the fuel and supplies needed for a decades-long voyage.

* In ''SuperDimensionFortressMacross'' the eponymous ''Macross'' is an city-sized alien spaceship which crash lands on Earth, which is then used by humans to go into space. 1210 meters (3970 feet) long.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': The infamous ''Imperial''-class Star Destroyers are 1,600 meters long, or approximately one mile. While Darth Vader's Super Star Destroyer was 19 kilometers. However the ''Venator''-classes shown in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' were only 1,137 meters and apparently capable of landing.

* EEDocSmith's book ''Skylark Of Valeron'': the eponymous vessel was a sphere over 1000km in radius and has a crew of four, it needed to be that big to contain the navigational instruments necessary to cross intergalactic space.

** By the ''ComicBook/{{Legacy}}'' comics ships of SSD scale are seen as AwesomeButImpractical (without a galaxy-sized tax base they cost too much to operate) and no longer in use. The Fel Empire's warship of choice is the ''Pellaeon''-class star destroyer, which is about the same length as an ''Imperial''-class but more massive.

* In John Ringo's ''Literature/TroyRising'' series, Troy, Thermoplae, and Malta are 9-13km wide mobile battle stations, each using rapid fire 50 megaton nukes to power their {{Orion Drive}}s and carrying an entire fleet of cruisers, fighters, and millions of missiles. They make the Rangora (the enemy aliens) Assault Vectors (which are pretty impressive battleships in their own right) look puny.

* In ''Literature/{{Chindi}}'', the alien ship they refer to as the ''chindi'' is over 16km long, and apparently uninhabited, but still intent on its unknown mission.
* Ships in the ''HonorHarrington'' series are usually denoted by their tonnage rather than their length, but one book had a diagram that showed their main warships as being 2 kilometers in length for a battleship to 3km for a Superdreadnought. Then David Weber apparently realized that at that scale they were far too light and he re-scaled them so they top out at just over 1500m for an SD and 1200m for a battleship.

** Borg cubes are generally built around 3 kilometers cubed. ([[CaptainObvious That means 3km for all 6 sides.]]) The Borg Tactical Cube shown in one of the final episodes of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' is 5 times larger.
** One episode of ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' has Captain Archer being taken through time and brought on board the USS Enterprise-J. Due to time constraints with making the episode, the designer of the ship admits that they only had a couple of weeks to flesh out a concept, which is only very briefly shown in a fuzzy holographic computer display in the episode itself. The ship was never shown from the outside in the episode, so supplementary material filled in for that. The Enterprise-J was built as a generational ship, capable of folding space to instantly travel to other galaxies. It is so large that it's turbolifts are replaced with site to site transporters, and it features massive parks and even an entire university on board. It's saucer is roughly 26 miles in diameter.

** Wraith hive ships in ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' were described as roughly thirteen times larger than an SGC ''Daedalus''-class battlecruiser. This gives a ship around 2.9 kilometers long. The super-hive that appears on the series finale is even larger. Whereas Ancient city-ships such as Atlantis are 3 kilometers in diameter.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' loves this trope. In the Imperial navy alone escort frigates and destroyers are 750 meters to 2 kilometers long, while battleships are up to 8 km.

* The ''VideoGame/{{X}}-Universe'' series doesn't explicitly give lengths for its ships. However in 2009 a forum member in [[http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=244972 this thread]] scaled their in-game models and determined that the largest destroyers average three kilometers, with the Valhalla being the outlier at five.

** ''Deimos''-Class Colony Ships are approximately 3*3*3 km as the hypergates they traveled through had to be reconfigured to form wormholes with a diameter of 5km.

* ''[[http://www.sideshowsito.com/2009/01/the-ultimate-starship-size-comparison-chart/ The Ultimate Starship Size Comparison Chart]]'' lines up notable ships and space stations from several different science fiction franchises (along with a few real-life ships for the sake of argument) side-by-side to compare their length. They're all dwarfed by the aforementioned ''Executor''-class star dreadnaught from ''Franchise/StarWars''.