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At no time is an explicit and
useful distance, time, or speed given in ANH, although a variety of
numbers of limited utility show up.
However, very useful
information about the nature of hyperdrive is presented in the
novelization.
Solo refers to making the Kessel Run in "less than twelve parsecs," but
this is also cited as "obvious
misinformation" that Kenobi can see right through.
Han
claims his ship can go "point
five past lightspeed;" this is evidently not obvious
misinformation. However, the obvious interpretation of this figure as
1.5c is not plausible.
Effective FTL travel
around a million system empire requires higher speeds.
To combine Han's lines, a twelve parsec
trip is 40 light years, and would take almost 27 years to complete at
1.5c.
Han also says he's been across the galaxy, but this should be trusted
as a literal statement no more than the other assorted "halfway across the galaxy"
references found in both Star Trek and Star Wars.
Han claims that he'll have Jabba's money in "three weeks." Thus, from
Tattooine to Alderaan and back cannot take any more than three weeks'
round trip. Luke's training takes place entirely within the
Tattooine-Alderaan run; thus, at least some hours elapsed on board the
Falcon.
Setting out to Dantooine immediately before the destruction of Alderaan
and after the departure of the Falcon, Imperial scouts checked the
place
before the Falcon arrived.
The novelization states clearly that two drives are of paramount
importance - the anti-gravity drive, and the hyperdrive. FTL travel "may not occur" at the
depths of a gravity well for which antigravity drive functions; thus,
antigravity brings a ship out only so far, and then hyperdrive takes
over. This distance may be estimated as falling between 1 and 6.5
planetary diameters for Alderaan, which may be presumed to be Earthlike
- 1 planetary diameter being Han's planned exit point in Alderaan
orbit,
and 6.5 planetary diameters coming from the Death Star's orbit around
Alderaan.
As neither point marks the beginning of a trip into hyperspace, and the
novel's description indicates that both should mark the boundary, it is
unclear as to which distance is the true border for hyperdrive systems.
It may be the case that more powerful hyperdrives can operate deeper
within a gravity well than the antigravity limit.
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