Hi there... Did you people notice that the B-Wing art, featured in the article, the new OP card and elsewhere right now is flying with it{s cockpit turned down!?

Seems odd...

9 minutes ago, Mpori said:

Hi there... Did you people notice that the B-Wing art, featured in the article, the new OP card and elsewhere right now is flying with it{s cockpit turned down!?

Seems odd...

Have you ever noticed that there is no upside down in space?

A) what is "down" in space?

B) it's also lit from the bottom-right of the frame, which is a bit odd for a basic "here's a ship" painting.

I suspect the art got flipped.

C) it's apparently been this way since 2013.

15 minutes ago, skotothalamos said:

A) what is "down" in space?

B) it's also lit from the bottom-right of the frame, which is a bit odd for a basic "here's a ship" painting.

I suspect the art got flipped.

C) it's apparently been this way since 2013.

I just assume that the local star or stars are in that direction.

"The B-wing also had a unique gyroscopic control system that could keep the rotating cockpit module level with a horizon no matter how the body of the craft was positioned"
Weird art, but perfectly in universe I guess!
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/A/SF-01_B-wing_starfighter

I mean this is perfectly lore friendly, so... Move along, I guess.

In real space, there is no down. But in THAT galaxy, far, far away... there IS a down. From the first moment of the first Star Wars film this has been codified, in that ALL SPACECRAFT fly relative to the same plane. For some reason, that is never explained in the lore, it is preferable for space ships which have artificial gravity and inertial dampeners and light speed to all fly aligned to the same horizon.

Another bit of evidence - you don't have any need for a gyroscopic cockpit unless the is a DOWN for the pilot to care about.

1 hour ago, AngryAlbatross said:

"The B-wing also had a unique gyroscopic control system that could keep the rotating cockpit module level with a horizon no matter how the body of the craft was positioned"

Sorry, can you point out the horizon for me?

1 hour ago, SomeDudeWhoMostlyLurks said:

In real space, there is no down. But in THAT galaxy, far, far away... there IS a down. From the first moment of the first Star Wars film this has been codified, in that ALL SPACECRAFT fly relative to the same plane. For some reason, that is never explained in the lore, it is preferable for space ships which have artificial gravity and inertial dampeners and light speed to all fly aligned to the same horizon.

Another bit of evidence - you don't have any need for a gyroscopic cockpit unless the is a DOWN for the pilot to care about.

Yep. Like in combat, every ship crashes to the bottom of the screen whenever destroyed. . .

31 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:

Sorry, can you point out the horizon for me?

Dude, are you blind? It's right there.

I think you need to be more specific.

It is just down from Alderon

1 hour ago, Hawkstrike said:

Dude, are you blind?

I'll deploy the garrison.

They'll find it, sir!

1 hour ago, BVRCH said:

I'll try spinning. That's a good trick!

Never put Young Annie in a B-Wing. Bad things will happen.

1 minute ago, Npmartian said:

I'll try spinning. That's a good trick!

Never put Young Annie in a B-Wing. Bad things will happen.

Spinning Ani in a prototype B-wing could probably take out a deathstar single handed.

45 minutes ago, BVRCH said:

Spinning Ani in a prototype B-wing could probably take out a deathstar single handed.

Or whip up a beautiful chantilly.

1 hour ago, BVRCH said:

Spinning Ani in a prototype B-wing could probably take out a deathstar single handed.

Bad things. At least, from some points of view. Not mine, I'm rebel scum and proud of it!

7 hours ago, SomeDudeWhoMostlyLurks said:

In real space, there is no down. But in THAT galaxy, far, far away... there IS a down. From the first moment of the first Star Wars film this has been codified, in that ALL SPACECRAFT fly relative to the same plane. For some reason, that is never explained in the lore, it is preferable for space ships which have artificial gravity and inertial dampeners and light speed to all fly aligned to the same horizon.

Another bit of evidence - you don't have any need for a gyroscopic cockpit unless the is a DOWN for the pilot to care about.

2 things:

First off, this isnt true. The first fighter engagement in A New Hope pitts The falcon vs 3 tie fighters.

The ties come in in a V formation, but split and flank while the Falcon evades them, and we clearly see both Luke and Han firing at ties both ABOVE and BELOW the Falcon(we know this because of where the windows are placed in the gun emplacements).

This means the ties were moving in different planes than the falcon, although its implied Chewie is also adjusting quite a bit.

There are many more examples, such as the A-wing we see spin by Admiral ackbars window, the Jango/Kenobi astroid chase, the entirety of Rogue 1, Force Awakens, Clone wars, etc.

Second, formation flying and grouping, vectors, etc. Look more 2d th as n they are. If 2 fleets fly directly towards each other it looks flat. If 1 fleet flies to a destination it looks flat.

In fact vader lays hurt in a new hope by diving from above, and so does Han. So while Star Wars combat is based on ww2, it isnt 2d

8 minutes ago, Vontoothskie said:

First off, this isnt true. The first fighter engagement in A New Hope pitts The falcon vs 3 tie fighters.

Are you talking about them escaping the Death Star? Because that was 4 TIEs, both Luke and Han got two.

I have often wondered, why the mini itself, is only 'vertical' with the cockpit at the top. You'd have thought they might have made a run where the ship was horisontal on the stand..

10 minutes ago, Forgottenlore said:

Are you talking about them escaping the Death Star? Because that was 4 TIEs, both Luke and Han got two.

Yes. You got me, i misremembered. Is 4 as opposed to 3 in any way relevant to the topic?

6 hours ago, Hawkstrike said:

Dude, are you blind? It's right there.

Are we blind?! DEPLOY THE GARRISON!!! Move!

What I really want to know is what possible benefit could this convey to flying a fighter other than "it looks really cool"?
I would imagine that the ship rotating around the cockpit would be very confusing and a potential liability if trying to maneuver in tight spaces!

These cockpits have big windows, so a lot of the flying is still done by the eye (I am guessing). If you are attack speeding towards a massive ship and want to barrel roll without disturbing the pilots visual ability, then keep he cock pit is the same position according to the target and spin the ship around the cock pit.

B wing pilots probably do this for a laugh because they can, whether or not it's relevant to the situation, because they're cocky.

13 hours ago, BVRCH said:

The rotating cockpit is so dumb. How are you supposed to fly it? You would have to fly it as if there was a giant disk extending in all directions of the cockpit, rather than just a cruciform directly beneath you. I can't imagine a scenario where "Oh look I'm upside down" is worse than "Oh look, 90% of my mass is jutting off at a weird angle and oh it looks like its spinning for some reason." It's like it was purposefully designed to disorient the pilot and give them motion sickness.

Even with no horizon or "down" in space, I can at least see the use of a gyroscopic cockpit, in that you can move the craft without the pilot seeing everything in his field of view spinning around making him sick