Hyperdrive technology required an overhaul in our entire spaceship design philosophy. We built ships short and stubby to make them easy to move throughout our solar system. And to be harder to hit in combat. But the longer we could build our hyperdrives, the smoother the cut into hyperspace became. And so our starships became long and narrow with habitation and cargo sections built around hyperdrive cores that stretched longer and longer as time went on. Dedicated hyper-warships were built shorter to compete with real warships, and accepted the rougher rides in hyperspace for combat utility. The colony ships were where we stretched our manufacturing processes as far as we could go.