On the X-Wing s-foils. I agree with everything you said (shot pattern, more wing area like a biplane), except for one glaring issue. Why collapse the wings at all? There is no drag in space with them deployed. Why add the extra weight of small motors and mechanics to allow them to open and close and not just keep the wings open all of the time? Also, wouldn't it be much simpler to have the four lasers be able to rotate a bit for the same pattern at varying ranges? There is actually some evidence of that in Episode IV (targetting computer locks on, the 4 lasers seem to adjust to come on target).

The reason we have the "X" in X-wing was it was cool, and we can TRY to justify it later. Just like the new, cool claymore lightsaber. It doesn't make complete sense under steady scrutiny, but it's cool.

On the X-Wing s-foils. I agree with everything you said (shot pattern, more wing area like a biplane), except for one glaring issue. Why collapse the wings at all? There is no drag in space with them deployed.

Because it has to land on planets where there is atmosphere.

Note that, having shots converge on a target is not desirable. You want a spread the size of a star fighter and to get that at all distances you want parallel blasts that start the right distance apart.

I hate my thread

I never ever said I didn't think it was logical for the X-Wing to still be around. What I said was that I hope they show some new designs rather then sticking exclusively to up dates of OT models.

Also most of the rebel fighters had a well known design pedigree. The Y-Wing was a Republic fighter in the Clone Wars. The B-Wing was designed by a joint effort of Ackbar and the firm that designed the Clone Wars era V-19s. The A-Wing's lead designer was one of if not the most prolific ship designer of the Clone Wars Republic forces having served as designer of the Delta-7, Eta-2, and Alpha-3 Nimbus V-Wing fighters, and the Victory and Gladiator class Star Destroyers

No one person designs an airplane. You need a corporate machine that has worked out the kinks. Collaboration means that people who are not used to working together have to work together and the interface is likely flawed suboptimal. Look at the production of the F-35. It's the most collaborated on fighter in the history of the world and it's had a tremendous amount of problems, over budget and honestly speaking it's just not that good. Collaboration brings new ideas together but it's not always helpful. Process is tremendously important and process breaks down during collaboration

Nevermind

I hate my thread

Nevermind, deleted my X-wing reply for the OP. And apparently double posted somehow.

Elias please read what I said above in #51 again I don't think you got what I was saying (from your reply). Then don't reply for Whafrog's sake.

Elias please read what I said above in #51 again I don't think you got what I was saying (from your reply). Then don't reply for Whafrog's sake.

Goddamit! They cant do new Star Wars movies! Drew Struzan retired from making posters!

I donno - perhaps they can get Alex Ross or something. . . .

The X-wing has always been touted as a great design. In my opinion it's no wonder that we are only seeing an upgrade to it. If it's not broke, it doesn't need fixed.

There also may be something we don't know yet. Such as perhaps the setting suggesting the Galaxy has been worn down by an on-going multi-decade war leading to a suffering industrial complex. Thus, upgrades to current models are more plentiful then completely new and costly R&D'd designs.

The X-Wing is a great general purpose fighter but that didn't stop the Alliance from developing the more specialized A-Wing and B-Wing craft. If they don't alter the B-Wing's back story it was intended as a replacement for the Y-Wing. That means there was at most 26 years between deployment of the Y-Wing and deployment of the design meant to replace it though upgraded Y-Wings were still widely used. Even if the upgraded X-Wing is still the standard general purpose snub fighter model for the Alliance's successors are we supposed to believe no one has come up with a concept for a fighter or warship design which would be more easily filled by designing a new fighter or warship rather then modifying an old one in 30 years of warfare? Or that galaxy wide military R&D is down to below the R&D resources the Alliance had before Endor?

There's a difference between modifying and redesigning. Those X-wings look pretty different than the original trilogy ones. There are a number of visually obvious improvements. Most noticeably the placement of the cockpit offers a better field of view and the new wing configuration increases structural integrity while reducing weight. Both of those are changes to the airframe which means redesign rather than modification.

Did you ever stop to think why the x wing has wings the spread to an x? It's to put more distance between the lasers so they won't all cluster at the same spot. Now what kind of spread would you want? You'd want spread about the size of a fighter and that's what locking s foils in attack position gives you. Now why might you want a single wing? Less drag for starters, but you would also want an airfoil that could provide lift so that you could glide in unpowered, no power no engine signature, it's a lot harder to detect. There is no way an awing, or y wing is going to glide in unpowered, a b wing might be able to but that's somewhat dubious. It'd be really tough to control. Look at the forward fuselage of the new X-wing, it's a little bit of a lifting body which helps with the unpowered glide. Collapsing the wings also gives you a smaller side profile. It's a very functional design. The engines have likely been "completely" redesigned because they are no longer the same shape. And you would expect a complete avionics upgrade.

And note when we saw the X-wings they were flying in atmosphere. Of the original trilogy fighters, the X-wing is the only one that would have good atmospheric handling. You would not want an a, b, or y wing for a dogfight in atmosphere. The only thing an A-Wing was good for was as an an exo-atmospheric interceptor. The X-wing has always been described as a great all purpose space superiority fighter, it's a substantially better than decent dog-fighter, that can take a lot of punishment, and carry enough armament to function as a respectable bomber. I'm sure that the new republic (or whatever the alliance is calling themselves these days) has other fighters for specialized purposes. But logically an X-wing raised to the next level SHOULD BE the most common fighter in the fleet and for a mission involving atmospheric combat it should be their first choice.

Don't forget that the alliance didn't design the X-wing a very established and respected (by galactic standards) corporation (incom) did and it was their crowning achievement before the empire put them out of business. No other original trilogy rebel fighter had that kind of pedigree. How long do you think it would take to get another design firm with that kind of expertise and knowledge base (corporate knowledge/process) put together and working as a well oiled machine. And even when they are, they're going to build off the current king of the hill. It is logical that some version of X-wing-ish fighter is still seeing a lot of action.

For **** sake, are you a Star Wars fan or not? Cause if you are then why bring in actual physics and the like?

The X-wing has always been touted as a great design. In my opinion it's no wonder that we are only seeing an upgrade to it. If it's not broke, it doesn't need fixed.

There also may be something we don't know yet. Such as perhaps the setting suggesting the Galaxy has been worn down by an on-going multi-decade war leading to a suffering industrial complex. Thus, upgrades to current models are more plentiful then completely new and costly R&D'd designs.

The X-Wing is a great general purpose fighter but that didn't stop the Alliance from developing the more specialized A-Wing and B-Wing craft. If they don't alter the B-Wing's back story it was intended as a replacement for the Y-Wing. That means there was at most 26 years between deployment of the Y-Wing and deployment of the design meant to replace it though upgraded Y-Wings were still widely used. Even if the upgraded X-Wing is still the standard general purpose snub fighter model for the Alliance's successors are we supposed to believe no one has come up with a concept for a fighter or warship design which would be more easily filled by designing a new fighter or warship rather then modifying an old one in 30 years of warfare? Or that galaxy wide military R&D is down to below the R&D resources the Alliance had before Endor?

There's a difference between modifying and redesigning. Those X-wings look pretty different than the original trilogy ones. There are a number of visually obvious improvements. Most noticeably the placement of the cockpit offers a better field of view and the new wing configuration increases structural integrity while reducing weight. Both of those are changes to the airframe which means redesign rather than modification.

Did you ever stop to think why the x wing has wings the spread to an x? It's to put more distance between the lasers so they won't all cluster at the same spot. Now what kind of spread would you want? You'd want spread about the size of a fighter and that's what locking s foils in attack position gives you. Now why might you want a single wing? Less drag for starters, but you would also want an airfoil that could provide lift so that you could glide in unpowered, no power no engine signature, it's a lot harder to detect. There is no way an awing, or y wing is going to glide in unpowered, a b wing might be able to but that's somewhat dubious. It'd be really tough to control. Look at the forward fuselage of the new X-wing, it's a little bit of a lifting body which helps with the unpowered glide. Collapsing the wings also gives you a smaller side profile. It's a very functional design. The engines have likely been "completely" redesigned because they are no longer the same shape. And you would expect a complete avionics upgrade.

And note when we saw the X-wings they were flying in atmosphere. Of the original trilogy fighters, the X-wing is the only one that would have good atmospheric handling. You would not want an a, b, or y wing for a dogfight in atmosphere. The only thing an A-Wing was good for was as an an exo-atmospheric interceptor. The X-wing has always been described as a great all purpose space superiority fighter, it's a substantially better than decent dog-fighter, that can take a lot of punishment, and carry enough armament to function as a respectable bomber. I'm sure that the new republic (or whatever the alliance is calling themselves these days) has other fighters for specialized purposes. But logically an X-wing raised to the next level SHOULD BE the most common fighter in the fleet and for a mission involving atmospheric combat it should be their first choice.

Don't forget that the alliance didn't design the X-wing a very established and respected (by galactic standards) corporation (incom) did and it was their crowning achievement before the empire put them out of business. No other original trilogy rebel fighter had that kind of pedigree. How long do you think it would take to get another design firm with that kind of expertise and knowledge base (corporate knowledge/process) put together and working as a well oiled machine. And even when they are, they're going to build off the current king of the hill. It is logical that some version of X-wing-ish fighter is still seeing a lot of action.

For **** sake, are you a Star Wars fan or not? Cause if you are then why bring in actual physics and the like?

Um cause I also have a master's in aeronautics and astronautics (what they call aerospace engineering at MIT) and a PhD in mechanical engineering. Maybe also because Lockheed Martin owns the company I work for. Maybe because I've taught "applied mathematics for mechanical and aerospace engineers" as faculty at a university. Maybe because when I was 4 years old and anyone asked me what i wanted to do when I grew up my answer was "make planes." Maybe because that as of the phantom menance I've noticed that star wars tech has been including a lot more real physics. For example, those pointy bits on the back of the naboo ship engines are aerospike nozzles. Maybe because based on that, and the changes they made to the X-wing (which I outlined the reasons for above) I'm pretty sure that lucasfilm at least has a consultant with an aerospace engineering degree. I could come up with more reasons if you like. Also I have a mild case of asperger syndrome and take things overly literally (I'm pretty sure, not 100%, that your question was meant to be sarcastic but I decided to answer it anyway because I have a meaningful answer for it).

The X-wing has always been touted as a great design. In my opinion it's no wonder that we are only seeing an upgrade to it. If it's not broke, it doesn't need fixed.

There also may be something we don't know yet. Such as perhaps the setting suggesting the Galaxy has been worn down by an on-going multi-decade war leading to a suffering industrial complex. Thus, upgrades to current models are more plentiful then completely new and costly R&D'd designs.

The X-Wing is a great general purpose fighter but that didn't stop the Alliance from developing the more specialized A-Wing and B-Wing craft. If they don't alter the B-Wing's back story it was intended as a replacement for the Y-Wing. That means there was at most 26 years between deployment of the Y-Wing and deployment of the design meant to replace it though upgraded Y-Wings were still widely used. Even if the upgraded X-Wing is still the standard general purpose snub fighter model for the Alliance's successors are we supposed to believe no one has come up with a concept for a fighter or warship design which would be more easily filled by designing a new fighter or warship rather then modifying an old one in 30 years of warfare? Or that galaxy wide military R&D is down to below the R&D resources the Alliance had before Endor?

There's a difference between modifying and redesigning. Those X-wings look pretty different than the original trilogy ones. There are a number of visually obvious improvements. Most noticeably the placement of the cockpit offers a better field of view and the new wing configuration increases structural integrity while reducing weight. Both of those are changes to the airframe which means redesign rather than modification.

Did you ever stop to think why the x wing has wings the spread to an x? It's to put more distance between the lasers so they won't all cluster at the same spot. Now what kind of spread would you want? You'd want spread about the size of a fighter and that's what locking s foils in attack position gives you. Now why might you want a single wing? Less drag for starters, but you would also want an airfoil that could provide lift so that you could glide in unpowered, no power no engine signature, it's a lot harder to detect. There is no way an awing, or y wing is going to glide in unpowered, a b wing might be able to but that's somewhat dubious. It'd be really tough to control. Look at the forward fuselage of the new X-wing, it's a little bit of a lifting body which helps with the unpowered glide. Collapsing the wings also gives you a smaller side profile. It's a very functional design. The engines have likely been "completely" redesigned because they are no longer the same shape. And you would expect a complete avionics upgrade.

And note when we saw the X-wings they were flying in atmosphere. Of the original trilogy fighters, the X-wing is the only one that would have good atmospheric handling. You would not want an a, b, or y wing for a dogfight in atmosphere. The only thing an A-Wing was good for was as an an exo-atmospheric interceptor. The X-wing has always been described as a great all purpose space superiority fighter, it's a substantially better than decent dog-fighter, that can take a lot of punishment, and carry enough armament to function as a respectable bomber. I'm sure that the new republic (or whatever the alliance is calling themselves these days) has other fighters for specialized purposes. But logically an X-wing raised to the next level SHOULD BE the most common fighter in the fleet and for a mission involving atmospheric combat it should be their first choice.

Don't forget that the alliance didn't design the X-wing a very established and respected (by galactic standards) corporation (incom) did and it was their crowning achievement before the empire put them out of business. No other original trilogy rebel fighter had that kind of pedigree. How long do you think it would take to get another design firm with that kind of expertise and knowledge base (corporate knowledge/process) put together and working as a well oiled machine. And even when they are, they're going to build off the current king of the hill. It is logical that some version of X-wing-ish fighter is still seeing a lot of action.

For **** sake, are you a Star Wars fan or not? Cause if you are then why bring in actual physics and the like?

Um cause I also have a master's in aeronautics and astronautics (what they call aerospace engineering at MIT) and a PhD in mechanical engineering. Maybe also because Lockheed Martin owns the company I work for. Maybe because I've taught "applied mathematics for mechanical and aerospace engineers" as faculty at a university. Maybe because when I was 4 years old and anyone asked me what i wanted to do when I grew up my answer was "make planes." Maybe because that as of the phantom menance I've noticed that star wars tech has been including a lot more real physics. For example, those pointy bits on the back of the naboo ship engines are aerospike nozzles. Maybe because based on that, and the changes they made to the X-wing (which I outlined the reasons for above) I'm pretty sure that lucasfilm at least has a consultant with an aerospace engineering degree. I could come up with more reasons if you like. Also I have a mild case of asperger syndrome and take things overly literally (I'm pretty sure, not 100%, that your question was meant to be sarcastic but I decided to answer it anyway because I have a meaningful answer for it).

The X-wing has always been touted as a great design. In my opinion it's no wonder that we are only seeing an upgrade to it. If it's not broke, it doesn't need fixed.

There also may be something we don't know yet. Such as perhaps the setting suggesting the Galaxy has been worn down by an on-going multi-decade war leading to a suffering industrial complex. Thus, upgrades to current models are more plentiful then completely new and costly R&D'd designs.

The X-Wing is a great general purpose fighter but that didn't stop the Alliance from developing the more specialized A-Wing and B-Wing craft. If they don't alter the B-Wing's back story it was intended as a replacement for the Y-Wing. That means there was at most 26 years between deployment of the Y-Wing and deployment of the design meant to replace it though upgraded Y-Wings were still widely used. Even if the upgraded X-Wing is still the standard general purpose snub fighter model for the Alliance's successors are we supposed to believe no one has come up with a concept for a fighter or warship design which would be more easily filled by designing a new fighter or warship rather then modifying an old one in 30 years of warfare? Or that galaxy wide military R&D is down to below the R&D resources the Alliance had before Endor?

There's a difference between modifying and redesigning. Those X-wings look pretty different than the original trilogy ones. There are a number of visually obvious improvements. Most noticeably the placement of the cockpit offers a better field of view and the new wing configuration increases structural integrity while reducing weight. Both of those are changes to the airframe which means redesign rather than modification.

Did you ever stop to think why the x wing has wings the spread to an x? It's to put more distance between the lasers so they won't all cluster at the same spot. Now what kind of spread would you want? You'd want spread about the size of a fighter and that's what locking s foils in attack position gives you. Now why might you want a single wing? Less drag for starters, but you would also want an airfoil that could provide lift so that you could glide in unpowered, no power no engine signature, it's a lot harder to detect. There is no way an awing, or y wing is going to glide in unpowered, a b wing might be able to but that's somewhat dubious. It'd be really tough to control. Look at the forward fuselage of the new X-wing, it's a little bit of a lifting body which helps with the unpowered glide. Collapsing the wings also gives you a smaller side profile. It's a very functional design. The engines have likely been "completely" redesigned because they are no longer the same shape. And you would expect a complete avionics upgrade.

And note when we saw the X-wings they were flying in atmosphere. Of the original trilogy fighters, the X-wing is the only one that would have good atmospheric handling. You would not want an a, b, or y wing for a dogfight in atmosphere. The only thing an A-Wing was good for was as an an exo-atmospheric interceptor. The X-wing has always been described as a great all purpose space superiority fighter, it's a substantially better than decent dog-fighter, that can take a lot of punishment, and carry enough armament to function as a respectable bomber. I'm sure that the new republic (or whatever the alliance is calling themselves these days) has other fighters for specialized purposes. But logically an X-wing raised to the next level SHOULD BE the most common fighter in the fleet and for a mission involving atmospheric combat it should be their first choice.

Don't forget that the alliance didn't design the X-wing a very established and respected (by galactic standards) corporation (incom) did and it was their crowning achievement before the empire put them out of business. No other original trilogy rebel fighter had that kind of pedigree. How long do you think it would take to get another design firm with that kind of expertise and knowledge base (corporate knowledge/process) put together and working as a well oiled machine. And even when they are, they're going to build off the current king of the hill. It is logical that some version of X-wing-ish fighter is still seeing a lot of action.

For **** sake, are you a Star Wars fan or not? Cause if you are then why bring in actual physics and the like?

Um cause I also have a master's in aeronautics and astronautics (what they call aerospace engineering at MIT) and a PhD in mechanical engineering. Maybe also because Lockheed Martin owns the company I work for. Maybe because I've taught "applied mathematics for mechanical and aerospace engineers" as faculty at a university. Maybe because when I was 4 years old and anyone asked me what i wanted to do when I grew up my answer was "make planes." Maybe because that as of the phantom menance I've noticed that star wars tech has been including a lot more real physics. For example, those pointy bits on the back of the naboo ship engines are aerospike nozzles. Maybe because based on that, and the changes they made to the X-wing (which I outlined the reasons for above) I'm pretty sure that lucasfilm at least has a consultant with an aerospace engineering degree. I could come up with more reasons if you like. Also I have a mild case of asperger syndrome and take things overly literally (I'm pretty sure, not 100%, that your question was meant to be sarcastic but I decided to answer it anyway because I have a meaningful answer for it).

Star Wars has teddy bears that talk...........just sayin............

. . . .And laser swords that extend out three feet and stop.

I never ever said I didn't think it was logical for the X-Wing to still be around. What I said was that I hope they show some new designs rather then sticking exclusively to up dates of OT models.

Also most of the rebel fighters had a well known design pedigree. The Y-Wing was a Republic fighter in the Clone Wars. The B-Wing was designed by a joint effort of Ackbar and the firm that designed the Clone Wars era V-19s. The A-Wing's lead designer was one of if not the most prolific ship designer of the Clone Wars Republic forces having served as designer of the Delta-7, Eta-2, and Alpha-3 Nimbus V-Wing fighters, and the Victory and Gladiator class Star Destroyers

No one person designs an airplane. You need a corporate machine that has worked out the kinks. Collaboration means that people who are not used to working together have to work together and the interface is likely flawed suboptimal. Look at the production of the F-35. It's the most collaborated on fighter in the history of the world and it's had a tremendous amount of problems, over budget and honestly speaking it's just not that good. Collaboration brings new ideas together but it's not always helpful. Process is tremendously important and process breaks down during collaboration

Odd point to bring up given that almost all of Incom's well known fighter craft prior to the X-Wing were collaborative efforts with SubPro

I'm not sure if I would count the B-Wing as a collaborative effort since as fr as I can tell there was only one member of the design team who wasn't part of Slayn & Korpil, namely Ackbar. The first generation A-Wings was designed by a team tat the Alliance patched together from within their ranks, though the later models were made by Incom in legends. And while I'm certain that Walex Blissex didn't design any craft solo being lead designer on so many craft means he had a lot of experience in his field..

Though honestly when the time comes for replacement designs of the A-Wing, B-Wing, and X-Wing I would expect the A-Wing's replacement model to be the first priority due to the maintenance issues and compromises which had to be made due to a lack of funding for the project. second would be the B-Wing due to its own maintenance difficulties, and the specials challenges in piloting it.

I never ever said I didn't think it was logical for the X-Wing to still be around. What I said was that I hope they show some new designs rather then sticking exclusively to up dates of OT models.

Also most of the rebel fighters had a well known design pedigree. The Y-Wing was a Republic fighter in the Clone Wars. The B-Wing was designed by a joint effort of Ackbar and the firm that designed the Clone Wars era V-19s. The A-Wing's lead designer was one of if not the most prolific ship designer of the Clone Wars Republic forces having served as designer of the Delta-7, Eta-2, and Alpha-3 Nimbus V-Wing fighters, and the Victory and Gladiator class Star Destroyers

No one person designs an airplane. You need a corporate machine that has worked out the kinks. Collaboration means that people who are not used to working together have to work together and the interface is likely flawed suboptimal. Look at the production of the F-35. It's the most collaborated on fighter in the history of the world and it's had a tremendous amount of problems, over budget and honestly speaking it's just not that good. Collaboration brings new ideas together but it's not always helpful. Process is tremendously important and process breaks down during collaboration

Odd point to bring up given that almost all of Incom's well known fighter craft prior to the X-Wing were collaborative efforts with SubPro

Be a little bit meta about this, if you are "always" collaborating with the same people then you are effectively part of the same organization whether or not that's true "on paper," this history has allowed you to work out the kinks in the corporate machine/process. But even then it's not a perfect process. Incom's crowning achievement was the X-Wing and they did that solo. They took everything they had learned through the collaboration with SubPro (there are benefits to collaboration) and used their in house process, people in the same building who you could walk down the hall to talk to (hyperbole but it makes the point) in person as opposed to travel to another star system. No amount of digital teleconferencing can ever fully substitute for an in person meeting, two experts on subsystems poring over technical content for days until to get their components to work together properly. I'm just saying having all the experts in house helps a lot.

Regarding lead designers, first cut high level design is rough/crude. It's more about knowing what's achievable then personally knowing how to achieve it. But you have to know who does know how to achieve it and delegate it to them. It's also about making system level trade offs. You don't want optimal components that don't work well together you want the set of components that work together optimally. To couch it in a sports metaphor, you want the best team not the best players.

I still wonder what a SubPro designed EOE/AOR era multirole snub fighter would look like.I 've designed some for campaigns but I wonder what someone else would come up with for them.

And I agree on the in house experts being a good idea but I still think that the A-Wing was the only Alliance OT fighter that wasn't created by an established firm with an in house design team. I don't feel that Ackbar being assigned to lead a team of Slayn & Korpil designers makes the B-Wing the kind of collaboration nightmare the F-35 is

I'm also not being clear enough, maybe both sides in Star Wars aren't stupid, and they aren't wasting R&D money and resources to replace designs that don't need replacing, unlike the bought off, brain dead politicians and flag officers in the US.

The mediocre stats and extraordinary cost that this game gives the TIE Defender seem to indicate that wasteful failures in R&D happen in Star Wars too.

No, that is just the new game designers neutering a previously established wonderweapon.

I kinda liked the idea that the Empire (or at least parts of it) came up with a superiority fighter that could pound any other into dust. As long as it was limitied due to its high cost.

But neutering so that the Empire no longer has anything that can keep up with X-Wings and such considerung performance and price?

Just no.

The Empire has had it's specialised toys for every occation, just look at the numbers of different Stormtroopers.

Pretty sure the different types of Stormtrooper are just slight alterations in basic gear. No different than any modern military.

The OP asked (reading between the lines) that his post would get back on track - E7 SPOILERS.

This tangent we slipped into (I'm guilty of contributing) is a great topic. In fact I'm itching to respond again but won't in order to respect the OP's wishes. There's been 14 posts since Whafrog posted about his thread going haywire. Only 1 of those 14 was possibly about the original intention. This is only page 4, not 10 so in my opinion the statute of limitations on thread hijacking is not yet up.

Someone create an "Evolving Tech in Ep 7?" thread and let this one slip back to spoiler discussion?

The OP asked (reading between the lines) that his post would get back on track - E7 SPOILERS.

Nah, it's fine. I have no desire to control what people post...it was more a statement of bewilderment with what some people find interesting. If the post-E6 starfighter development discussion were in another thread, I'd know to avoid it.

Well, now that the official names have been released . . . seems these spoilers are incorrect.

Darn shame, too. They actually sounded really good. This isn't to say that the REAL story is now junk or anything . . . but simply that the legend of this story Spoiler Man created is untrue.

Still only first names for two of the characters. For all we know John an daisy could be playing Finn Calrissian and Rey Solo.

Here are the names btw: (link)

• BB-8, the ball droid
• Poe Dameron, the X-wing pilot (Oscar Isaac)
• Kylo Ren, the mystery wielder of the "broad-saber"
• Rey, the scavenger who was previously code-named "Kira" (Daisy Ridley)
• Finn, a man "on the run" (John Boyega)

Intriguing...

• Kylo Ren, the mystery wielder of the "broad-saber"

Extreme speculation follows.

I looked at the names above and recalled how Lucas was known for reversing the spelling of names to come up with character names. I wondered if some of these names could have been created with a homage to Lucas.

Reversing the above names resulted in jibberish except one. Kylo Ren becomes nerolyk. Sounding that out it's, "Nero-like".

Next, look at who the most famous Nero has been. An evil Roman emperor who was handed power by his adopted father, the emperor Claudius.

Is Kylo Ren supposed to be a Sith that Emperor Palpatine had prepared to be his successor if he should meet a sudden end?

Again, extreme speculation.

Hah! Going further on that branch, Nero was the villain in Star Trek, directed by J.J. Abrams. In some ways, he was a tragic villain. Maybe they're shooting for that again.