Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Zephram Cochrane
1. Phoenix From The Flames
The Titan missile and complex in Bozeman, Montana are inspiring elements of the Star Trek universe with the site itself becoming a monument in future history. As Geordi La Forge notes, there's even a huge statue with Cochrane's hand outstretched to the heavens.
Cromwell chose to play the role as an expansion of himself and while he found the role, thanks to that, fairly easy to play, he did find difficult was the ground-breaking first contact with the Vulcans which he had to convince himself was absolutely real to get the real effect of such a monumental occasion.
While Cochrane is instrumental in the first warp flight, James Cromwell himself never actually saw the Phoenix itself. In the movie his scenes place him inside the cockpit however there is no scene with the scientist alongside the craft.
Furthermore viewers would see the set reused in Enterprise as the cockpit section of the NX-Alpha as well as the Starfleet inspection pod that appeared several times including Broken Bow. The interior of the ship would again see action as Xindi craft interiors in Hatchery and Azati Prime. There were also reuses for the Vissian stratopod in Cogenitor and Menos' ship in The Seventh.