Do different TIE ships necessitate different pilot gear? I know every pilot needed a life support system attached to their uniform, but did these outfits change from ship to ship? We all know the iconic outfit from New Hope, but I was wondering if anyone knew outright that Interceptor pilots and Bomber pilots wore anything different. Or even the Royal Guard pilots!

I've got a list I'm quite fond of that uses four different TIEs and I'm hoping to request artistic representation, and so any input is appreciated!

There is no indication that they did. Some game cutscenes show the normal uniform being worn by pilots of other craft.

That's what I suspected. Thanks for the input!

I would expect royal guard pilots to have red versions of the outfit though.

Or at least heavy red accents or designs on the traditional black.

TIE Pilot's always wore the same gear. Shuttle pilots however did not, but they did generally wear the standard TIE Pilot flight suit. Unless they had to dress up in formal wear for VIP. Imperial Army pilots however wore a very different uniform, same flight suit but Army grey and an open helmet not too different from what most rebel pilots wore. The Army Pilots were supposedly restricted to planetary operations and couldn't go into space except for very limited periods as the pilots weren't equipped for space flight.

There isn't much information on Royal Guard pilots, it was fairly recently invented for the old Star Wars Galaxies PC MMO game. It's a safe bet they most likely wore a red TIE flight suit and TIE helmet that matched their standard Royal Guard uniform. Although I still think it's odd to have RG TIE's and Pilots. Royal Guards weren't trained to be pilots, they're personal body guards for the Emperor. The TIE Corps handled fighter escort duties.

From what i know as a TIE pilot cos player....

TIES dont have life support so the 'bucket head' suit is worn in all fighters, shuttles and larger ships have life support so the navy uniform is worn or just the flightsuit.

Soontir fel and the 181st wear a different uniform. Its like an xwing pilots uniform in black, with a red blood stripe running down the arm and leg. Helmet is the same but a rebel style flak jacket in grey is worn and harness straps over the legs rebel style.

Royal guard would to my knowledge wear standard BRIAN kit (tie pilots are known as Brians among the 501st cosplay community. Battle Ready Imperial Armed Navy Servicemen) as if you take the WEG RPG backgorund when Imperial Guard are not escorting the emperor or dignatories they fight in regular stormtrooper armour as self contained units. If they dont bother painting the ST armour red I cant see why they would paint the black kit red.

No one i know who does star wars cosplay does BRIAN kit in red anyway.

Here look at these.

Regular Brian

http://www.501st.com/databank/Costuming:TI_TIE_Pilot_ANH

181st Brian

http://www.501st.com/databank/Costuming:TI_-_181st

reserve pilot

http://www.501st.com/databank/Costuming:TI_reserve_pilot

http://www.501st.com/databank/Costuming:TI_TIE_Pilot_ANH

I should add:

Tie Phantoms have internal life support, pilots do not always wear the full headgear while piloting, allowing to operate other systems.

Additionally ace pilots had an epic WW2 Germany inspired leather jacket and bone white helmet.

For what it worth if you want to know why TIE pilots do so badly.. its because you cant see a bloody thing in those helmets.

This is my interceptor pilot kit

and this is the wife in the sort of kit a shuttle pilot would wear, wrong boots though, we're sorting that out this weekend.

My question is this, when it says Tycho wears his Tie pilot flight suit even when flying rebel ships, does that mean he wears his Tie helmet, or is he wearing a standard Rebel helmet. Also as Gadge has attested, Baron Fel must be one heck of a pilot to flame that many ships wearing those "buckets". I'll take a Mandalorian/Clone T-Visor any day of the week over Stormie gear .

In the comics when biggs and tycho and the like are seen piloting imperial ships they have variants of the helmets with clear face visors but life support.

Partly though so you can tell its the hero and which one.

I think in reality to fly a TIE you'd have to have life support.

I always imagined that xwing suits had the visor seal down and a mask somewhere otherwise whats the point of the chest box and air hose. A cockpit decompression would kill you otherwise.

Sorry misread that.

The suit is supposed to be a sealed vacuum suit. (in reality its just a cotton flight suit).

All the life support comes from the armour and chest boxx and helmet in the 'lore'.

Thats why the reserve pilots i put a link to (who also do flight duties on larger ships) dont wear chest boxs.

The 'flight kit' is the helmet and the armour, the front has all the life support monitoring and rebreathing stuff, the rectangular shallow 'box' on the back is the air supply.

So tycho wouldnt need the armour or helmet.

He probaly looks like a 181st pilot with a rebel helmet.

In the comics when biggs and tycho and the like are seen piloting imperial ships they have variants of the helmets with clear face visors but life support.

Partly though so you can tell its the hero and which one.

I think in reality to fly a TIE you'd have to have life support.

I always imagined that xwing suits had the visor seal down and a mask somewhere otherwise whats the point of the chest box and air hose. A cockpit decompression would kill you otherwise.

yea in books, they wear oxygen hoses, but the ejection chair generates a small magcon field around you.

In the comics when biggs and tycho and the like are seen piloting imperial ships they have variants of the helmets with clear face visors but life support.

Partly though so you can tell its the hero and which one.

I think in reality to fly a TIE you'd have to have life support.

I always imagined that xwing suits had the visor seal down and a mask somewhere otherwise whats the point of the chest box and air hose. A cockpit decompression would kill you otherwise.

yea in books, they wear oxygen hoses, but the ejection chair generates a small magcon field around you.

Magcon? How does that work? (seriously, the reference to magnets was accidental).

You see i always imagined it was like WWII pilots, you've got this face mask you can clip on or off at say altitude or if you've got a cockpit smashed.

You just dont see it, i always imagined it droppedinto place like emergency ones on aircraft do, you clipped it on, it seals with the visor and you plug in the airhose.

Otherwise like i say the hose and chest box are totally superfluous.

In the comics when biggs and tycho and the like are seen piloting imperial ships they have variants of the helmets with clear face visors but life support.

Partly though so you can tell its the hero and which one.

I think in reality to fly a TIE you'd have to have life support.

I always imagined that xwing suits had the visor seal down and a mask somewhere otherwise whats the point of the chest box and air hose. A cockpit decompression would kill you otherwise.

yea in books, they wear oxygen hoses, but the ejection chair generates a small magcon field around you.

Magcon? How does that work? (seriously, the reference to magnets was accidental).

If we knew how it worked, we'd use it , but it is a field around an area to prevent the loss of atmostphere, e.g. when fighters launch from hangars, but people are still standing in them.

In the comics when biggs and tycho and the like are seen piloting imperial ships they have variants of the helmets with clear face visors but life support.

Partly though so you can tell its the hero and which one.

I think in reality to fly a TIE you'd have to have life support.

I always imagined that xwing suits had the visor seal down and a mask somewhere otherwise whats the point of the chest box and air hose. A cockpit decompression would kill you otherwise.

yea in books, they wear oxygen hoses, but the ejection chair generates a small magcon field around you.

Magcon? How does that work? (seriously, the reference to magnets was accidental).

Same way the fields across hangar bay entrances work, the pseudoscience of applied handwavium!

That makes sense - only way it would work for rebel pilots without sealed suits.

So, like i say what are the chest boxs and hoses for if they just have an 'air bubble'?

So, like i say what are the chest boxs and hoses for if they just have an 'air bubble'?

The air bubble slowly loses heat I believe, and oxygen.

Fair play, be load eaiser if they just had a mask thought wouldnt it

I've just spent five minutes trying to find a pic of an 'ejected' rebel pilot... the only one if of bigs wearing an imperial flight uniform

Fair play, be load eaiser if they just had a mask thought wouldnt it

I've just spent five minutes trying to find a pic of an 'ejected' rebel pilot... the only one if of bigs wearing an imperial flight uniform

Play X-wing DOS (or windows edition) poorly in tour of duty mode for a while. you'll see it.

See, this is why I posted here. You guys are awesome : D

Edit: also doesn't Luke have to engage his X-Wing life support in Heir to the Empire? I don't have a copy handy or I'd look up the details for you all.

also doesn't Luke have to engage his X-Wing life support in Heir to the Empire?

He has to seal his flight suit and go EVA when he damages his hyperdrive escaping from the Chimera. He then re-pressurized the cockpit once he is back inside.

also doesn't Luke have to engage his X-Wing life support in Heir to the Empire?

He has to seal his flight suit and go EVA when he damages his hyperdrive escaping from the Chimera. He then re-pressurized the cockpit once he is back inside.

Ahh that's right. And then he does the Jedi meditation to preserve the (now very limited) oxygen supply. Thanks!

Do different TIE ships necessitate different pilot gear? I know every pilot needed a life support system attached to their uniform, but did these outfits change from ship to ship? We all know the iconic outfit from New Hope, but I was wondering if anyone knew outright that Interceptor pilots and Bomber pilots wore anything different. Or even the Royal Guard pilots!

I've got a list I'm quite fond of that uses four different TIEs and I'm hoping to request artistic representation, and so any input is appreciated!

Yes and no. Its a complicated question.

We see TIE Fighter Pilots in ANH have a hose that connects to the back and front of there chest piece.

In Return of the Jedi Imperial Pilots shown in the hanger bay don't have this hose mentioned above, something changed, ether all the Imperial Pilots got upgraded gear or this armor is Specifically TIE Interceptor Pilot suits.

Rumor has it in the A drive version of the TIE Fighter game series, there was cut scenes with TIE Defender Pilots. They supposedly had a single Imperial Emblem in the center of the forehead plate and instead of having the familiar double house re-breather they had something like a MbU-16/P.

There where TIE Pilots on the first Death Star that had all white armor, they had much thicker armor that resembled Snow Trooper armor.

TIE Bomber Pilots have the option to use flight gear that has a pure transparent faceplate / energy faceplate / no face plate going by SW Complete vehicles. TIE Bombers and probably every variation of the TIE Bomber has life support.

TIE Phantoms also have life support.

Cruise Missile Troopers had a near All White variation of Imperial Pilot gear. Not much is known about them...

TIE Hunters are flown by Storm Commandos, they are probably using one of there different versions of gear to fly in the TIE Hunter.

Different Squadrons, Groups, and Wings very well could have had alternate types of gear.

*The 181st had gear that looked Identical to what most Imperial Pilots wear, then they got gear that had the red blood stripe and a white armor chest piece, later they incorporated gear similar to what Rebels use, the white armored chest piece becomes something like a white MA-2.

*There was a Rebel that was flying with Imperial Pilots flying TIE Advanced X3, he had a red bronze flight gear.

*Royal Guard Interceptor Pilots might be wearing some type of red Imperial Pilot Armor OR they could just be wearing there normal guard gear