Awesome job. Looks like a lot of work, but great result.

I do believe the S foils open to increase the surface area of the ship, allowing it to radiate more heat off, as that is the only method of cooling in space. Therefore, opening the S foils actually increases speed, which goes in line with the EP4 quote along the lines of "lock S foils in attack position.... accelerating to attack speed" or however it goes.

As for why they close, it could be just as simple as not allowing as much heat to radiate off, keeping the cabin more comfortable. But a more likely scenario is to allow the X wing to land easier.

Both of these theories are easier to understand / make more sense when applied to the B wing though. It clearly needs the S foils retracted to land effectively, and it dramatically increases its surface area for radiation, whereas most of the newly exposed area for the X wing "sees" primarily the other S foil.

No, you're thinking of the Eta-2 or the ARC-170. The reason for the wings spreading on the X-wing is to increase the spread of the laser cannons so it can cover more area and be more useful for strafing. Besides that, there are no radiator surfaces on the interior of the wings, and any surface which is painted white or off-white is going to have a very hard time radiating any heat; just ask the designers of the Space Shuttle. The TIE Fighter on the other hand is mostly radiator, which is necessary for the insanely small engines.

No, you're thinking of the Eta-2 or the ARC-170. The reason for the wings spreading on the X-wing is to increase the spread of the laser cannons so it can cover more area and be more useful for strafing. Besides that, there are no radiator surfaces on the interior of the wings, and any surface which is painted white or off-white is going to have a very hard time radiating any heat; just ask the designers of the Space Shuttle. The TIE Fighter on the other hand is mostly radiator, which is necessary for the insanely small engines.

That could be. But just want to point out that the fact that it's white has nothing to do with how effectively it can radiate out to space. All that matters is the emmissivity of the surface. As for the reference to the space shuttle - I will point out that the shuttle was designed around entering and exiting atmospheres, not dog fighting in blank space. As such, the requirements would be different.

I would like to point out that an X wing does carry its own fuel. But unless its engines are 100% efficient at converting fuel to power, there is going to be energy lost in terms of heat. Since in space, there is no atmosphere, there is no conductive or convective heat exchange going on. The only way to cool the X wing as a unit would be via radiating heat away from it to the vast nothingness of space. Seeing as an X wing can carry a week's worth of non-combat fuel, it goes to reason that it does not have the fuel to dogfight for a week. And as such, it consumes more power to do so. And more power means more heat.

It is possible that its a non-factor seeing as the heat lost due to radiation is proportional to the 4th power of the X wing's temperature. The additional heat generation due to combat could potentially be radiated out at just a higher but still safe temperature. For example, if we say that it cruises at a nominal temperature of 200F (which is about standard for an auto engine) and that it raises to 250F (typically where overheat warns start chiming on autos), its radiating energy is increased by 33%, assuming a near 0K temperature of space.

As for the TIEs, I've always been confused by the large radiation wings. Their craft are small and don't require much force to move around (F=MA even in space) and their engines don't generate much heat. Thus why it's confusing to me why they require such large radiation fins to keep the craft cool. Maybe the ion engines are like CPUs and GPUs in that they operate much more efficiently the cooler they are? Whereas alliance craft are more like ICE in that they operate more efficiently when they're up to nominal operating temperature?

Millennium Falsehood you are an artist and an engineer!!!!!!

Thanks! Actually, I do happen to be an engineering student, a fact which I will demonstrate below

That could be. But just want to point out that the fact that it's white has nothing to do with how effectively it can radiate out to space. All that matters is the emmissivity of the surface. As for the reference to the space shuttle - I will point out that the shuttle was designed around entering and exiting atmospheres, not dog fighting in blank space. As such, the requirements would be different.

I would like to point out that an X wing does carry its own fuel. But unless its engines are 100% efficient at converting fuel to power, there is going to be energy lost in terms of heat. Since in space, there is no atmosphere, there is no conductive or convective heat exchange going on. The only way to cool the X wing as a unit would be via radiating heat away from it to the vast nothingness of space. Seeing as an X wing can carry a week's worth of non-combat fuel, it goes to reason that it does not have the fuel to dogfight for a week. And as such, it consumes more power to do so. And more power means more heat.

It is possible that its a non-factor seeing as the heat lost due to radiation is proportional to the 4th power of the X wing's temperature. The additional heat generation due to combat could potentially be radiated out at just a higher but still safe temperature. For example, if we say that it cruises at a nominal temperature of 200F (which is about standard for an auto engine) and that it raises to 250F (typically where overheat warns start chiming on autos), its radiating energy is increased by 33%, assuming a near 0K temperature of space.

As for the TIEs, I've always been confused by the large radiation wings. Their craft are small and don't require much force to move around (F=MA even in space) and their engines don't generate much heat. Thus why it's confusing to me why they require such large radiation fins to keep the craft cool. Maybe the ion engines are like CPUs and GPUs in that they operate much more efficiently the cooler they are? Whereas alliance craft are more like ICE in that they operate more efficiently when they're up to nominal operating temperature?

The shuttle isn't meant for dogfighting, but that actually contradicts your argument because the fact that the engines on the X-wing are constantly operating rather than being shut off once it gets into orbit means that it would need far more surface area devoted to radiators than a Shuttle, whose radiators are only intended to get rid of the heat generated by its computers and crew. Look at the size of the Shuttle's radiators as compared to its total surface area:

The radiators are the gray surfaces on the inside of the cargo bay doors, and they're around 15% of the total surface area of the vehicle. For an X-wing, if it used similar means of getting rid of waste heat, it would probably need on the order of 60-70% of its surface area devoted to radiators. Therefore it likely doesn't use radiators to get rid of waste heat.

And white is a HORRIBLE radiator color. It's assured to retain almost all waste heat, because it is highly reflective in all directions (yes, that means it will reflect heat back into the vehicle). Black, by contrast, is the most effective radiator color. Try this experiment: go to a parking lot in the summer time and hold your hand above a white car and a black one. I guarantee the black one will feel hotter, which is because black retains no energy, and therefore no heat. This also means that there cannot be any radiative surface on the inside or outside of the X-wing's wings.

More power does mean more heat, but there's nothing to say they haven't found some other means of getting rid of it which is more expensive or complex than a simple radiator, like the ones on the mass-produced and cheap TIE Fighter. Then again, this is a 90,000 year old civilization. Surely the engines are advanced enough to be nearly 100% efficient at this point. The point is, there is no radiative surface on the wings whatsoever, otherwise we'd see vast patches of black grilles like on the TIE Fighter.

How did you come up with all that? We know nothing about how starfighters in Star Wars work, and you're trying to compare them to a 21st century internal combustion engine, which is not even close to fair. Jet engines operate at 10 times the temperatures you're talking about, and rockets are almost twice as hot. They've got tens of thousands of years of development on us, so their designs are likely to be even more advanced and more energetic, which means they're even hotter than that .

TIE Fighters would require at least as much force to move as anything else of comparable size, even if they're made of a material that is significantly lighter than carbon fiber. Nothing's free; they have to expend energy, and the amount of energy required is at least as much as it takes to accelerate or decelerate a fully clothed human being several hundred gees.

The reason CPUs operate better at cooler temperatures is because the tracks of metal inside them are small enough as to be affected on a quantum level by thermal radiation, making them less efficient at warmer temperatures. Engines are completely different; they require radiators because their components would melt at the intense temperatures at which they operate if they didn't have some sort of cooling mechanism. The consequence of this is that the smaller the engine, the more difficult it is to keep it from destroying itself through combustion, and this relationship is a logarithmic one, which means the difficulty compounds as you get smaller. The engines on a TIE Fighter have nozzles which are no more than a hand span in diameter, which means they're exponentially more susceptible than X-wing engines to the effects of the heat they produce. To match their performance, which is good enough that they're able to reach orbit in mere seconds (compare that to the Space Shuttle and you see how awe-inspiring this truly is), they have to have incredibly advanced and very obvious cooling systems, FAR more than anything the X-wing would require (though that ship's engines would still need some sort of cooling mechanism). Otherwise, they would fry themselves due to their own waste heat.

I thought all of Lucas' space ships were powered by dimichloreans and thus didn't create excess heat or need refilling? Afterall, how else could the Death Star travel from Alderraan to Yavin without having to stop for gas a half dozen times?

Lol, eeeeeeeexactly.

Personally, I love analyzing sci-fi spacecraft, including Star Wars ships, and figuring out how they might work, but it's just a hobby (one of many). It's fun for me to imagine how their various systems might function, even going so far as to draw up plans and technical specifications for them. But it's all in good fun, and I don't pretend that my own interpretations are the correct ones, nor do I take it so seriously that I would even think about degenerating to insults and hatred.

I *do* have a problem with abuse of engineering and scientific concepts, though. Science is an exacting and complex process, and though I intentionally dumbed it down for my rebuttals, I have a great deal of respect for the work that it takes to understand it. I have, after all, spent the better part of three years so far battling my way through college in order to get an applied science degree, and its given me a great appreciation for the great depth of science and engineering.

(And by the way, we did happen to see refueling lines in ANH )

Cracker of thread, cheers for the how to, now off to butcher a few X-wings.

Can't wait to see the result! Good luck!

Ok here’s my 2 cents worth…….. Since TIE stands for twin ion engine, thrust by accelerating ions from gridded ion thrusters or some sort of accelerated plasma, could the huge radiator panels on the TIEs be used to keep the magnets in the ionization chamber at a super conductive state thus making the craft more efficient. This also would take the heat generated by the reactors away from the pilot which is very important due to the lack of life support onboard and the pilots close proximity to the reactors and engines.

Can you tell I don’t have a clue as to what I’m talking about yet? Just trying to run with the big dogs.

Another great mod MF. So if I may impose a question/request. Is it possible to put these how-to and process photos and such into a separate page or blog? Something I can bookmark and go back to for reference. I love mods, both looking at and doing, and your work deserves it's own forum.

Now do the same for a b-wing.

any chance of some diagrams too, some of the pictures are quite hard to make out.. and the one taken on the mirror just confused me until I worked out there was a mirror there.

I just want to know if I have to do all of the coke you had all over the mirror before I attempt the articulation?

any chance of some diagrams too, some of the pictures are quite hard to make out.. and the one taken on the mirror just confused me until I worked out there was a mirror there.

I just want to know if I have to do all of the coke you had all over the mirror before I attempt the articulation?

Bwaaahahahaha