Eh - TIEs can't jump into hyperspace? At least, most can't - certainly not the TIE Fighters or TIE Advanced Prototype.

The TAP can - according to Rebels Visual Guide.

That seems like a bit of a plot problem, doesn't it? Weren't Ezra and Kanan, on stealing a TAP, worried they could not escape until the Rebel-captured Gozanti arrived and towed them all away?

Not a fan of explaining away inconsistencies, but...

Kanan only has encountered non-hyperspace-capable-TIEs, so probably he and Ezra just did not realise the Q-Tip can jump. Prototype and unfamiliar control counting in here too.

Deus ex PLOTHOLE as usual

Just my two cents on the solar panels, but I always thought they were a secondary source of power, allowing the TIE series a little extra zip that they'd otherwise not have.

Why did the animators design it the way they did? How does it even work?

Ahahahahahahahaa

Like *sunlight* would provide enough power for a fighter that can pile on 2 500 gees. Lazer swords in space. Just ignore physics, please. Enjoy the movies. Otherwise things get messy.

You know, in space engineers having no reactor, but solar panels and batteries, and just having them "charge up" and be used in combat and cycled may be a good fighter design...

Anyway, the TAP follows a pretty clear thought lineage. I rather like it, my Boy has an action figure TAP.

This thread title read to me as "she'd be pretty if she wore her hair a certain way". All Girls are pretty.

All space ships are pretty. Blondes all start to look the same after a while. TIE's all start to look derivative after a while.

Conclusion. We need an XG-1 Assault Gunboat.

The TIE Phantom has a total wing surface area of less than the TIE Interceptor, which can be demonstrated by noting the three wings of the Phantom are the same as the Interceptor dagger wings. The Phantom has a much larger hull as well. The interceptor has less wing surface are then the TIE Fighter and TIE X1. The Defender does appear to have more surface wing area than the Fighter but I haven't measured yet.

There's just no reason to continue the facade that TIEs can have any systems powered to a significant extent by solar/stellar energy capture. Including such a large and vulnerable system to merely power and 'ignition' is a total waste when a spare on-board power cell of negligible mass would be much more practical.

Large heat sinks that disperse the heat from the intense energies from the miniaturized reactors on TIEs makes much more sense. The large area can even be a concession to IR signature and stealth. The wings can also have a secondary role as ablative armor and may even be covered with IR transparent material for asthetics or possibly added armor. Eta-2s have the exact wing configuration of the v1, and the uncovered dark grid inner surface of the s-foils are only exposed when combat is entered, a time when energy expenditure is at its maximum and thus the need to expend excess heat.

Also Imperial fighter pilots have sealed flight suits that can function as EVA suits for a limited time because the craft they fly have ejection seats. Pity poor Porkins for trying to eject with an open face helmet that obviously could not seal in time to protect him from vacuum. And the Rebels series has shown for CANON that TIEs do have life support systems seperate from the flight suit's capabilities.

I'd agree with heat sinks. My space engineers comment however I will defend until the end times, short range fighters operating on batteries with a secondary solar supply makes sense. They are gonna need a connector anyway for ammo refil and possibly oxy refill, so if the solar panels are shot off it's not critical, but for the mass they are it gives just a little extra pull and re-usability.

TIE Life support... I know it's canon, but it's hard to get behind. On the one hand that piping on a TIE Flight suit - makes a lot of sense to plug into the ship itself rather than the oxy pack on the back. On the other hand...

One thing to keep in mind with TIE life support (while I'm going to go with the other canon's take on it) is that even with it they at least have a backup if they go EVA. Rebels just gotta keep their faces exposed so when they get ejected into space they die.

Definitely inconsistent with the Rogue Squadron novels, but given what we've actually seen in films, well...

I'd agree with heat sinks. My space engineers comment however I will defend until the end times, short range fighters operating on batteries with a secondary solar supply makes sense. They are gonna need a connector anyway for ammo refil and possibly oxy refill, so if the solar panels are shot off it's not critical, but for the mass they are it gives just a little extra pull and re-usability.

TIE Life support... I know it's canon, but it's hard to get behind. On the one hand that piping on a TIE Flight suit - makes a lot of sense to plug into the ship itself rather than the oxy pack on the back. On the other hand...

Plugging the suit/helmet into the ship still means the ship has life support. Perhaps it just has the option of not pressurizing the cockpit for some reason. At this point it's just splitting hairs and semantics.

One thing to keep in mind with TIE life support (while I'm going to go with the other canon's take on it) is that even with it they at least have a backup if they go EVA. Rebels just gotta keep their faces exposed so when they get ejected into space they die.

Definitely inconsistent with the Rogue Squadron novels, but given what we've actually seen in films, well...

The real reason the Rebels have open helmets is so we can see them. It's a purely cinematic choice. Concept art shows all pilots wearing helmets and sealed flight suits. It's still weird to have rebels talking about ejecting.

I'd agree with heat sinks. My space engineers comment however I will defend until the end times, short range fighters operating on batteries with a secondary solar supply makes sense. They are gonna need a connector anyway for ammo refil and possibly oxy refill, so if the solar panels are shot off it's not critical, but for the mass they are it gives just a little extra pull and re-usability.

TIE Life support... I know it's canon, but it's hard to get behind. On the one hand that piping on a TIE Flight suit - makes a lot of sense to plug into the ship itself rather than the oxy pack on the back. On the other hand...

Plugging the suit/helmet into the ship still means the ship has life support. Perhaps it just has the option of not pressurizing the cockpit for some reason. At this point it's just splitting hairs and semantics.

I'd think it has something to do with preventing explosive decompression in the event of hull breach or some such. if you are expecting TIE's to die anyways then it makes sense to have them be able to fight to the very end.

Why did you quote me twice? Not that it really matters, just looks odd when an edit would do.

Anyway plugging the suit into the ship for life support was kind of my point that it probably had it, pressurizing it in such a circumstance makes no sense. Explosive decompression as an additional risk is nullified. Of course, this could be complete BS - see Sabines TIE.

Of course of course maybe it isn't and the ship can be pressurized if there is no pipe going into the air supply. (feeding straight into the cockpit).

There is no such thing as going into too much detail. Knowledge is power. It gets kinda sad when you can tell which stormtrooper armour is an ANH, ESB or ROTJ Variant.

... and which subvariant is in question.

IIRC Rebel suits had like this atmospherics bubble generator bs...

I think ties have wing panels because it's iconic and looks sweet.

I think ties have wing panels because it's iconic and looks sweet.

And this is the most true statement we'll see on this thread.

There's just no reason to continue the facade that TIEs can have any systems powered to a significant extent by solar/stellar energy capture.

Except for the part where, even now, all source materials keep calling them solar panels. Even the cross section for the TIE/sf which JUST came out calls them that.

"Special Forces TIEs are two-person fighters that carry a hyperdrive and deflector shields, as well as banks of high-yield deuterium cells that provide additional power to the engines, weapons or shields and can be recharged from the TIE's solar panels."

It doesn't matter how you don't think it makes scientific sense it makes. You guys don't get to decide what they are, Lucasfilm does.

And Lucasfilm continues to say they are solar panels.

I think it's more likely that, since the standard TIEs don't have shields, they're more likely to be involuntarily DEpressurized(because a laser puts a hole in it), so they have greater need for a suit with it's own life support.

Yeah ludicrous that our modern day solar panels have an effiency rating of 17-20% and only capture the red spectrum. Hard to imagine anyone capturing 90+% and up through multilayer capture and having batteries to store it. Just crazy. Next people might think solar panel film that can wrap around objects and is printed out of an industrial printer is possible.

Real Alexander graham bell we got here...lol

Having the panels be grey on the outside makes the ship look more sleek, and they also make the Prototype a bit more visually distinct from the endless waves of TIE variations.

How does it even work?

It's already ludicrous that solar panels can provide energy for a TIE Fighter in the first place.

The solar flux at approx 1AU for a G-type star, even at 100% effecient capture, just isn't enough for the accellerations and power needs noted in the canon. It's much worse when attempting to use starlight. Even if the TIEs wings are crenelated and honeycombed to provide 100 or 1000 times the surface area one would expect it still wouldn't be enough. And forget jumping into hyperspace.

Eh - TIEs can't jump into hyperspace? At least, most can't - certainly not the TIE Fighters or TIE Advanced Prototype. IIRC, only fighters that CAN are the TIE Advanced (which probably has something to do with that huge body it has and no other TIEs of its era do), TIE Defender, and TIE Phantom. All of which have quite a lot of solar panel area, and above-normal masses of the fighter bodies (likely including additional heavy power sources).

In any case...the solar panels, after all, don't have to provide all the power the ship needs. If they are enough to just power the 'sublight' engines while on patrol, pilot wearing a space suit so not even life support is needed, that's realistically 99% of the power usage the fighter will ever require. Being able to do that without using fuel IS A VERY GOOD IDEA. Yeah, if the fighter gets into combat, it has to switch to its fuel-burning fusion reactor (or whatever it has) for the energy needed to fight...but combat is always going to be an incredibly rare event. Not having to use any fuel unless that actually happens will be a massive advantage to a galaxy-spanning Empire that needs to patrol so many countless worlds and systems.

Actually a pretty good way to think about it.

Funny enough, we now have these prototype solar panels that actually aren't really solar panels.... They apparently convert and store heat energy or created heat energy as the rays hit whatever they see! And have a much higher efficiency!

Either way, still the shittiest design for a working ship. Rofl. Huge blind spots. No pilot protection. Giant target.

Star Wars is not inherently noted for good starship or vehicle designs in general. But that's ok. Pewpewpew!

Reactors in SW are sometimes called Solar Ionization Reactors. At times fins, wings, and spires projecting from the ships are called solar panels or solar fins. These terms can sometimes be found in ICS books and other 'technical' works.

The earliest source for SW is the original Novelization. The main solar fin was hit on the Tantive IV which led to the reactor being shut down to avoid overload.

Make of it what you will.

(That was SW before TIE stood for Twin Ion Engine)

Well hang on, don't some ion drives work by catching the ions or rather than subatomic particles, atoms (hydrogen for example) and triggering them, doesn't that go back to the 70s solar sail ship designs? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_sail

The way it sounds, especially from that TIE/sf description, is that TIEs have power cells, that more or less function like a car battery.

And the solar panels charge that battery. They're like a car's alternator.

This seems a bit different.

So, Twin Ion Engine. Run by a Solar Ionization reactor.

Panels collect what... exactly? Waves? Particles? can you even ionize that? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoionization

Apparently so.

Answer: They are solar panels

Probable answer: They are advanced solar panels that likely also function as radiation sinks.

Most probable answer: The ship looks like a flying bow TIE.

Well hang on, don't some ion drives work by catching the ions or rather than subatomic particles, atoms (hydrogen for example) and triggering them, doesn't that go back to the 70s solar sail ship designs? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_sail

You might be confusing solar sail with mag sail and Bussard ram scoops.

Most probable answer: The ship looks like a flying bow TIE.

This has blown my mind.

Most probable answer: The ship looks like a flying bow TIE.

This has blown my mind.

I thought this was common knowledge. Like over 30 years ago. Good to see there's still spoilers out there.

Yeah ludicrous that our modern day solar panels have an effiency rating of 17-20% and only capture the red spectrum. Hard to imagine anyone capturing 90+% and up through multilayer capture and having batteries to store it. Just crazy. Next people might think solar panel film that can wrap around objects and is printed out of an industrial printer is possible.

Real Alexander graham bell we got here...lol

Having the panels be grey on the outside makes the ship look more sleek, and they also make the Prototype a bit more visually distinct from the endless waves of TIE variations.

How does it even work?

It's already ludicrous that solar panels can provide energy for a TIE Fighter in the first place.

The solar flux at approx 1AU for a G-type star, even at 100% effecient capture, just isn't enough for the accellerations and power needs noted in the canon. It's much worse when attempting to use starlight. Even if the TIEs wings are crenelated and honeycombed to provide 100 or 1000 times the surface area one would expect it still wouldn't be enough. And forget jumping into hyperspace.

This is Star Wars you're talking about. You're looking for scientific accuracy in ******* Star Wars.

I'd much prefer them to be solar panel powered than woo-woo crystal new age bull powered like the light sabers are.

Yeah ludicrous that our modern day solar panels have an effiency rating of 17-20% and only capture the red spectrum. Hard to imagine anyone capturing 90+% and up through multilayer capture and having batteries to store it. Just crazy. Next people might think solar panel film that can wrap around objects and is printed out of an industrial printer is possible.

Real Alexander graham bell we got here...lol

Having the panels be grey on the outside makes the ship look more sleek, and they also make the Prototype a bit more visually distinct from the endless waves of TIE variations.

How does it even work?

It's already ludicrous that solar panels can provide energy for a TIE Fighter in the first place.

Being 90% efficient does not mean that you can produce the megawatts that would be necessary to power a **** spaceship.

It's not a question of efficiency, but one of raw power.