Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Warp Drive
9. The Phoenix Wasn't Always Humanity's First Warp Ship
Although accepted canon now has the Phoenix as the first Human warp-capable ship, this wasn't always the case. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine had a model of the Bonaventure C2-21 in Keiko O'Brien's schoolroom, appearing in two episodes. It was a cylcindrical vessel, shown once on a diagram, and the second time as a physical model.
According to its designer Doug Drexler, it was a forerunner to the Bonaventure NCC-10281 that had previously appeared in the Animated Series episode The Time Trap.
In fact, the Bonaventure was the name of the first warp ship long before the Phoenix was ever conceived. In the 1980 Star Trek Chronology novel, a Cochrane-class vessel USNS Bonaventure was equipped with a warp drive and began a deep space exploration under the command of Captain Hadrian Huckleby. This mission to Tau Ceti came four years after the first recorded warp flight.
In the novel Federation, by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Zefram Cochrane travelled to Alpha Centauri aboard the Bonaventure, with his later personal vessel being named the Bonaventure II. At the time of release in 1994, this still remained in canon with the tv series, as Star Trek: First Contact was not released until 1996.