Ranks and Positions
HELM Officer
| The considerable responsibility of piloting Starfleet vessels through unknown space falls to the HELM officer. |
One of the most important positions on the bridge of any vessel is the HELM, a term borrowed from early Earth naval tradition for the operational station and series of controls directly responsible for piloting a vessel. |
| Constitution-class vessels such as the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 had separate consoles for navigation and helm control. Both stations were permanently manned and the officers liaised closely with each other in order to execute the quickest or safest route to a destination. Later, these stations were combined to form the position of HELM officer. | |
| Navigator | The HELM officer, also referred to as the Flight control officer, has five key areas of responsibility. These include controlling or supervising manual flight operations, verifying the vessel’s location during flight, acting as a liaison between the bridge and engineering, monitoring the ship’s course, attitude and speed, as well as plotting of new courses. |
| The role has evolved over time; Hikaru Sulu was the helmsman of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701, but this role was later superseded by that of HELM officer, which was adopted into the design of all Starfleet vessels. | |
| This led to an expanded role for the helmsman, and the new HELM panels developed for Galaxy-, Intrepid- and Sovereign-class ships include a pressure-sensitive four-way pad that allows coordinated control of the RCS thruster systems, giving the HELM officer fingertip control of the ship’s maneuverability and position. |