Em Memória Alfa , aprendemos que A Empresa parecia ter um único habilidade de viagem no tempo no momento em que o efeito de estilingue foi usado:
In the novel Forgotten History, it is revealed that, initially, the Enterprise was the only ship capable of performing a slingshot maneuver due to its engines being exposed to a unique set of conditions during their jump back in time after a cold start in "The Naked Time", resulting in the newly-formed Department of Temporal Investigations claiming the engines during the ship's refit to create a timeship.
Continua, no entanto, a dizer:
However, the knowledge of how to make any ship capable of performing a slingshot maneuver was revealed to Kirk by Agent Lucsly of the DTI when he was forced to work with Kirk during a malfunction of Timeship Two, which trapped them between 2273 and 2383.
Obviamente, algo muda no momento de ST: IV, já que eles usam o mesmo efeito de estilingue (AFAIK) para viajar no tempo também.
Então, em resumo, não era comum no século 23 - somente A empresa poderia.