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Don't really like any of the micro machines of the PT.

Eh, I'm rather fond of Super Battle Droids myself.

Knife wrote:Don't really like any of the micro machines of the PT.

Me neither, but if given the choice I'll take the Aethersprite over the Actis any day. To be honest, my favorite prequel-era fighter is the one we didn't even get to see in the films: the V-19 Torrent. It's the one that looks most like something out of the OT.

Galvatron wrote:

Knife wrote:Don't really like any of the micro machines of the PT.

Me neither, but if given the choice I'll take the Aethersprite over the Actis any day. To be honest, my favorite prequel-era fighter is the one we didn't even get to see in the films: the V-19 Torrent. It's the one that looks most like something out of the OT.

They look neat but just seem so dang complicated to land with all the wings going elsewhere. I like the V wing myself, though the ARC 170 is pretty nifty. Though if you want to bring in TCW cartoon, what they did with the OT's Y wing was marvelous.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Alpha-3_ ... tarfighter
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/BTL-B_Y-wing_starfighter

It would have been interesting to see all those vintage Clone Wars-era fighters in use by the Rebel Alliance at the Battle of Endor.

I don't know why the Republic wasn't just flying Y-wings and primitive TIEs over Coruscant. It would have solved that problem the other way around. It would have also been interesting in that it would have shown how much the Republic was beginning to become the Empire.

Though one of the ILM guys was originally going to model TIE fighters for the finale and told by Lucas that the Empire would have plenty of time to build them between movies, so that seems to be the current idea.

I kinda wish the alphabet-wing fighters had been used by the CIS instead.

Personally it makes more sense for the rebellion to use outdated Republic or early imperial craft then for them to use CIS tech as I suspect that the Empire destroyed most of CIS hardware apart from those they couldn't find (like the battledroids in Rebels) or repurposed to act as mobile turrets to protect imperial bases.

where as I think republic or early imperial hardware would have been passed on to local security forces or put on mothballs, making it easier for those to fall into the hands of rebellion either thru defections or raids.

From a design perspective though it's a bit odd. The Empire replaces the Republic, right? So why do its fighters bear a distinct resemblance to the droid-fighters of the CIS, while the opponents of the Empire use the former Republic designs? Would it not have made more sense for the Empire to continue using variations of those original Republic designs?

I know, I know... arguably they adapt the Jedi fighter from ROTS, the V-wings, etc, into the TIEs over time... but only about twenty years or a little less elapsed there. The F-22 doesn't look *very* different from the F-16 or 15, and there's about the same gap in time between the two IIRC.

true but then a MIG doesn't look that different from a F-15 or F-16.

In case of the empire it could be a way to distance themselves from the corrupt and decedent republic or it could simply be that Sienar Fleet Systems always made star fighters that looked like the TIEs and they made a better offer then Incom or other companies that made the fighters the rebels used. IIRC all TIEs were made by the same company Sienar Fleet Systems while the rebel fighters were made by several different companies.

The big restriction on the shape of fighter aircraft in real life is aerodynamics. There are only so many ways a supersonic jet can be shaped if it's not going to rip itself apart.

With spacecraft, as long as the frame of the spacecraft is sturdy enough that no pieces fall off when you fire the engines, it really doesn't matter very much how you shape it. X-Wing, Y-Wing, A-Wing, B-Wing, M-Wing, E-Wing, Q-Wing, Z-Wing, it really doesn't make a difference, and you're much more free to experiment as necessary.

Maybe beyond "Republic/CIS-like aesthetics" the roles and tech requirements and realities behind the roles determined the shift in the Empire's ship designs... and why the Rebels inherited Republic-like designs (aside from scavenging second-hand post-Clone Wars gear).

The Rebels required long range FTL-capable transgalactic strike platforms, so they inherited the Republic quick reaction force-type vessels, the ARC-170 descendants.

The Imperials owned the entire galaxy so it had presence everywhere and FTL-capable ISDs serving as both the mothership and QRF for the TIEs... so TIEs don't need much autonomy since they're operating with ISDs all the time, and too much pilot independence and autonomy isn't really desired or needed, nobody wants defecting pilots. Which has parallels to the Seperatist's droid fighters, those are mostly incapable of FTL and mostly operate from motherships or bases.

I guess the Imperials' sheer mass production meant that they probably didn't bother with atmosphere-optimized/aerodynamic designs. The Seperatists also had some reason to not bother with atmosphere-optimized/aerodynamic designs.

Yes, this is backwards rationalization.

Elheru Aran wrote:From a design perspective though it's a bit odd. The Empire replaces the Republic, right? So why do its fighters bear a distinct resemblance to the droid-fighters of the CIS, while the opponents of the Empire use the former Republic designs? Would it not have made more sense for the Empire to continue using variations of those original Republic designs?

Depends which fighter designs are cheaper to produce.

Because the winners of the Clone Wars were the companies, not necessarily the CEO's, but the companies. The intro to ANH was pretty implicit in this, the military industrial complex and boot lickers did well in the Empire.