TIE fighters' panels - what are they?

[Mr. Oragahn]

The TIE's upright hexagons *are* large flat surfaces so far as I can tell.

I meant "large flat surfaces that are part of basic airframe". TIEs surfaces are separate from its central part.

As for S-foils relating to engine placement, the X-Wing is the exception and not the rule. The Republic Fighter seen in RotS (known as the ARC-170) has S-foils unrelated to the engines, as do the Jedi fighters.

I know, but my comment was X-wing specific. Using both instances, it does seem that S foils are radiatiors, as they are separated right before battle and specifically into "attack position". Then again, RotS battle was within atmosphere, so Clone fighters may have benefited from maneuverability - Jedi fighter's panels are never referred to as S-foils in canon, as far as my memory serves me.

There is no air in space, yes, but whether it is a question of redistribution of mass or thrust or thrusters or guns or whatever, the S-foils are canonically stability foils. If it doesn't refer to maneuvering then we could ponder it in the context of thermal stability or what-have-you, but that's all we know. Some very good fighters and bombers just don't have them at all, which may also be used as a clue at some point.

Well, both Clone fighters and X-wings have big bad guns, as do B-wings and Vader-model TIEs. A-wings, Y-wings and AotC Jedi fighters have smaller guns, from what I remember.

https://www.google.hr/search?q=thermal+ ... e&ie=UTF-8

The stabilization foil made an entrance into "canon" through the ROTS novelization.
Now, that was not strong upper canon, and even less now that Lucas is out.
Deploying the fins in atmosphere would be very useful as far as convection goes.

[Lucky]

?

We are using two different definitions of black. The less something radiates, and the more it absorbs the blacker it is. This is why black holes are "black".

To spread the energy flux if you need to. In the absolute, a supraconductor would lose very little energy at all. Good for transfer, but not for radiation. There's a time to force leaks.

Heat sinks are normally made out of metal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_sink#Material

We don't really know where exactly the trooper was standing. He could just be walking behind the energy wall of some perpendicular bay or whatever.
However, if we want to be pedantic, we'd say that we saw the flamed material ejected during crashes arcing back down towards the battle station's surface.
As I wouldn't imagine the Empire bothering with casting an a.g. outside the structure, it could only be some gravity waste/leak from the a.g. field inside, where the stormtroopers stand.

http://www.theforce.net/swtc/Pix/dvd/zs ... uator3.jpg
That looks like Storm Trooper standing in the trench.

I'd have expected artificial gravity management to be much more delicate, especially when you see the way it's handled inside the Millennium Falcon or Slave I for example.

I'm not sure what you mean?

[Mr. Oragahn]

?

We are using two different definitions of black. The less something radiates, and the more it absorbs the blacker it is. This is why black holes are "black".

But here we're dealing with the simpler colouration principle, according to which, aside from exceptions, what absorbs best also radiates best, and black is really very good at that.
http://home.howstuffworks.com/question32.htm

We don't really know where exactly the trooper was standing. He could just be walking behind the energy wall of some perpendicular bay or whatever.
However, if we want to be pedantic, we'd say that we saw the flamed material ejected during crashes arcing back down towards the battle station's surface.
As I wouldn't imagine the Empire bothering with casting an a.g. outside the structure, it could only be some gravity waste/leak from the a.g. field inside, where the stormtroopers stand.

http://www.theforce.net/swtc/Pix/dvd/zs ... uator3.jpg
That looks like Storm Trooper standing in the trench.

Yes, seems to. However, that's not a polar trench. Initial drawings also had bays in the polar trenches iirc, but we didn't see any in the movie.

I'd have expected artificial gravity management to be much more delicate, especially when you see the way it's handled inside the Millennium Falcon or Slave I for example.

I'm not sure what you mean?

If on the Death Star, what maintains the atmosphere is artificial gravity, since I don't see why the Empire would come with a design that projects that a.g. field on the surface itself because it would be a waste of energy and hardware, I believe that any perceived gravity would be a radiation, a left over from the fields cast inside the station. i.e. just underneath the surface for example, where troopers and personnel move around.
If that were true though, it would mean that the a.g. fields are leaking through the surface, into space, and that would speak of a rather inferior quality in the management of a.g. field volumetrics.
When you look at such fields inside the two ships I used as example, you have perfect example of very delicate combinations of such fields producing different gravitational vectors. For example, the a.g. field inside the upper and lower turret chambers of the Millennium Falcon seem to be perfectly and strictly limited to those cabins, and don't seem to leak at all into the ladder tube.
Same goes with the Slave I.

[Lucky]

But here we're dealing with the simpler colouration principle, according to which, aside from exceptions, what absorbs best also radiates best, and black is really very good at that.
http://home.howstuffworks.com/question32.htm

Your example isn't black. Your example is shining brightly in the areas of the electromagnetic spectrum that humans can't see well if at all. Black objects do not reflect or radiate much if anything at all.

Infrared is one area of the EM spectrum that Star Wars has sensors to pick up. You tend to try to make fighters as hard to target as is practical.

I find it hard to believe anything in Star Wars the size of a fighter creates enough waste heat to require radiators the size of T.I.E. fins, not when Luke could seemingly remove his X-Wing's reactor.

Yes, seems to. However, that's not a polar trench. Initial drawings also had bays in the polar trenches iirc, but we didn't see any in the movie.

Why does this matter? You have storm troopers who are standing in an area where there should be no gravity. If there is no atmosphere around the trench somewhere then the thermal exhaust puts can't do anything. The fact of the matter is that there has to be a gas circulating around between the 4 exhaust ports.

If on the Death Star, what maintains the atmosphere is artificial gravity, since I don't see why the Empire would come with a design that projects that a.g. field on the surface itself because it would be a waste of energy and hardware, I believe that any perceived gravity would be a radiation, a left over from the fields cast inside the station. i.e. just underneath the surface for example, where troopers and personnel move around.

The entire Deathstar was a wasteful project. A little more waste is hardly a deal breaking, and there had to be gas circulating between the 4 exhaust ports or else they can't do anything.

It would have made more sense to make the thing shaped more like a normal ship.

If that were true though, it would mean that the a.g. fields are leaking through the surface, into space, and that would speak of a rather inferior quality in the management of a.g. field volumetrics.
When you look at such fields inside the two ships I used as example, you have perfect example of very delicate combinations of such fields producing different gravitational vectors. For example, the a.g. field inside the upper and lower turret chambers of the Millennium Falcon seem to be perfectly and strictly limited to those cabins, and don't seem to leak at all into the ladder tube.
Same goes with the Slave I.

I'm pretty sure we see clones needing to use magnets in their boots in at least one episode.

[Mr. Oragahn]

Your example isn't black. Your example is shining brightly in the areas of the electromagnetic spectrum that humans can't see well if at all. Black objects do not reflect or radiate much if anything at all.

Pardon but there is a huge difference between reflecting and radiating.

Infrared is one area of the EM spectrum that Star Wars has sensors to pick up. You tend to try to make fighters as hard to target as is practical.

Not really when you look at the designs in question. Not to say that in space, pretending being invisible is BS. You show as a sore thumb really.
Thus the designers' main concern would not be stealth but heat dissipation, or storage and recycling in some fashion.
Clearly, TIEs are built from the perspective of pissing their thermal energy as fast as possible, and black panels radiating IR will just do that. They're short ranged, so they're not even going to be operating in some isolated way.
Therefore they can burn up their fuel faster and in less elegant ways, they're not there for the stamina, and their wasteful design just reflects this.

I find it hard to believe anything in Star Wars the size of a fighter creates enough waste heat to require radiators the size of T.I.E. fins, not when Luke could seemingly remove his X-Wing's reactor.

What?
Certainly producing constant power in the megawatt region is going to require some cooling down. Not only that, but that's actually well suited for such power levels.

Rebel fighters are multipurpose endurance vessels, with possibly a greater design, but which makes it much more expensive.

Yes, seems to. However, that's not a polar trench. Initial drawings also had bays in the polar trenches iirc, but we didn't see any in the movie.

Why does this matter? You have storm troopers who are standing in an area where there should be no gravity.

It does because you have simply proved, thus far, that only a very small area inside the equatorial trench has its own artificial gravity field, and that happens to be in a place where there's plenty of bays.

If there is no atmosphere around the trench somewhere then the thermal exhaust puts can't do anything. The fact of the matter is that there has to be a gas circulating around between the 4 exhaust ports.

What? The exhaust port just has to be nothing more than a sort of temporary thruster to eject particles that build up inside the reactor. There's no need for anything else. I'm not sure to get your point...

If on the Death Star, what maintains the atmosphere is artificial gravity, since I don't see why the Empire would come with a design that projects that a.g. field on the surface itself because it would be a waste of energy and hardware, I believe that any perceived gravity would be a radiation, a left over from the fields cast inside the station. i.e. just underneath the surface for example, where troopers and personnel move around.

The entire Deathstar was a wasteful project. A little more waste is hardly a deal breaking, and there had to be gas circulating between the 4 exhaust ports or else they can't do anything.

There is no need for atmosphere around the battle station for the exhaust ports to work.
Where did you get that idea?
Now, I can perfectly live with the idea that the Death Star design wasn't perfect on all fronts, that's for sure.

It would have made more sense to make the thing shaped more like a normal ship.

According to most diagrams, the size of the reactor and all tributary systems imposed the shape.
Ok, perhaps they could have shaped it like a smaller sphere with huge cylinders erected on all six directions, but even that I'm not sure of.
In the EU even the first smaller planetoid battle stations already were built as spheres.
The Geonosians, who probably were more pragmatic than the Emperor, still thought that the design required it to be based on a sphere (although we were never given the real size they had in mind - the final one probably be on the Emperor's part).

If that were true though, it would mean that the a.g. fields are leaking through the surface, into space, and that would speak of a rather inferior quality in the management of a.g. field volumetrics.
When you look at such fields inside the two ships I used as example, you have perfect example of very delicate combinations of such fields producing different gravitational vectors. For example, the a.g. field inside the upper and lower turret chambers of the Millennium Falcon seem to be perfectly and strictly limited to those cabins, and don't seem to leak at all into the ladder tube.
Same goes with the Slave I.

I'm pretty sure we see clones needing to use magnets in their boots in at least one episode.

Which would just prove that the a.g. field doesn't pass through the hull of whatever ship they walked on.
On the other end, when you consider the sheer size of the Death Star and how gravity works, it could be expected that the sum of all fields would produce a leak that is noticeable at such structural sizes, even if the fields are centripetal in the crust and largely topdown for most of the innards.

[Lucky]

Pardon but there is a huge difference between reflecting and radiating.

In this case the difference doesn't really matter. If it reflects or radiates it is not really black. Black things can't really be detected by what their radiated or reflected EM radiation.

Not really when you look at the designs in question. Not to say that in space, pretending being invisible is BS. You show as a sore thumb really.
Thus the designers' main concern would not be stealth but heat dissipation, or storage and recycling in some fashion.
Clearly, TIEs are built from the perspective of pissing their thermal energy as fast as possible, and black panels radiating IR will just do that. They're short ranged, so they're not even going to be operating in some isolated way.
Therefore they can burn up their fuel faster and in less elegant ways, they're not there for the stamina, and their wasteful design just reflects this.

Can you find a source that says T.I.E. fin/wings are radiators?

We know from Cat and Mouse that Star Wars powers use heat seeking missiles.

What?

There is no way that the huge fusion reactor Luke had while training with Yoda was not part of his X-Wing. It was just too big.

Certainly producing constant power in the megawatt region is going to require some cooling down. Not only that, but that's actually well suited for such power levels.

Rebel fighters are multipurpose endurance vessels, with possibly a greater design, but which makes it much more expensive.

And yet lit flares fired out the rare is enough to throw off heat seeking missiles.

It does because you have simply proved, thus far, that only a very small area inside the equatorial trench has its own artificial gravity field, and that happens to be in a place where there's plenty of bays.

There is atmosphere in the trench that completes the circuit for the cooling system. We know this because of the exhaust ports are there, and the fact there are no shields over the trench.

What? The exhaust port just has to be nothing more than a sort of temporary thruster to eject particles that build up inside the reactor. There's no need for anything else. I'm not sure to get your point...

If what you suggest was true then there would have been ray and particle shielding that could easily be raised and lowered.

There is no need for atmosphere around the battle station for the exhaust ports to work.
Where did you get that idea?
Now, I can perfectly live with the idea that the Death Star design wasn't perfect on all fronts, that's for sure.

1) there has to be something carrying the waste heat away from the reactor.

2) If there was nothing traveling out the exhaust port then there would have been a cover or particle shields.

3) Since ray shields stop particle weapons, you theory does not work.

According to most diagrams, the size of the reactor and all tributary systems imposed the shape.
Ok, perhaps they could have shaped it like a smaller sphere with huge cylinders erected on all six directions, but even that I'm not sure of.
In the EU even the first smaller planetoid battle stations already were built as spheres.
The Geonosians, who probably were more pragmatic than the Emperor, still thought that the design required it to be based on a sphere (although we were never given the real size they had in mind - the final one probably be on the Emperor's part).

The Death Stars were meant to be weapons of fear. They were not suppose to be practical.

A giant lightsaber shaped ship would make the most sense. We know that the composit beam dish does not need to be linked directly to the reactor, but since when has there ever been a sane ship design in star wars?

Which would just prove that the a.g. field doesn't pass through the hull of whatever ship they walked on.
On the other end, when you consider the sheer size of the Death Star and how gravity works, it could be expected that the sum of all fields would produce a leak that is noticeable at such structural sizes, even if the fields are centripetal in the crust and largely topdown for most of the innards.

The fact that clone troopers have magnets built into their boots would imply that hulls normal don't have gravity.

[Mr. Oragahn]

Pardon but there is a huge difference between reflecting and radiating.

In this case the difference doesn't really matter. If it reflects or radiates it is not really black. Black things can't really be detected by what their radiated or reflected EM radiation.

Please define "black things" then.

Not really when you look at the designs in question. Not to say that in space, pretending being invisible is BS. You show as a sore thumb really.
Thus the designers' main concern would not be stealth but heat dissipation, or storage and recycling in some fashion.
Clearly, TIEs are built from the perspective of pissing their thermal energy as fast as possible, and black panels radiating IR will just do that. They're short ranged, so they're not even going to be operating in some isolated way.
Therefore they can burn up their fuel faster and in less elegant ways, they're not there for the stamina, and their wasteful design just reflects this.

Can you find a source that says T.I.E. fin/wings are radiators?

Not the point. The thread clearly started on the premise that some facts were to be ignored, because we explored what they could or should have been.

We know from Cat and Mouse that Star Wars powers use heat seeking missiles.

With hot ion trails, it's not a surprise.

Certainly producing constant power in the megawatt region is going to require some cooling down. Not only that, but that's actually well suited for such power levels.

Rebel fighters are multipurpose endurance vessels, with possibly a greater design, but which makes it much more expensive.

And yet lit flares fired out the rare is enough to throw off heat seeking missiles.

They just need to be hotter...
What's your point?

It does because you have simply proved, thus far, that only a very small area inside the equatorial trench has its own artificial gravity field, and that happens to be in a place where there's plenty of bays.

There is atmosphere in the trench that completes the circuit for the cooling system. We know this because of the exhaust ports are there, and the fact there are no shields over the trench.

The cooling circuit is nothing more than a theory, and not relevant to this thread.
Not even the EU as far as I know speaks of a cooling circuit other than exhaust ports spitting particles.

What? The exhaust port just has to be nothing more than a sort of temporary thruster to eject particles that build up inside the reactor. There's no need for anything else. I'm not sure to get your point...

If what you suggest was true then there would have been ray and particle shielding that could easily be raised and lowered.

Absolute non sequitur, I'm afraid.
It's just an exhaust pipe. That it would be shielded in this or that way is absolutely irrelevant.
That it's ray shielded is quite intelligent because real rays can pass through gases and hit straight into the core, and since the exhaust pipes are straight, it makes sense.

The dichotomy between particle and ray shielding has always been an EU thing btw. It has perhaps changed only recently.

There is no need for atmosphere around the battle station for the exhaust ports to work.
Where did you get that idea?
Now, I can perfectly live with the idea that the Death Star design wasn't perfect on all fronts, that's for sure.

1) there has to be something carrying the waste heat away from the reactor.

2) If there was nothing traveling out the exhaust port then there would have been a cover or particle shields.

3) Since ray shields stop particle weapons, you theory does not work.

1. There could only be significant waste heat when the reactor is precisely active. Thus far it would produce its own medium to transport waste energy away.
The rest is bound to be used or stored in capacitors if we go by the EU.

2. Why the hell? Heck, the exhaust itself, from such a core, will completely push anything out of the pipe in an instant. It would take a shielded and guided object with its own thrust to push through, like a proton torpedo precisely, and we know that part of the flaw was that no one thought someone would shoot a torpedo down the hole.

3. Explain how. Besides, it's not a theory, it's just fact since it's all we have. I just don't see any logical link between your elements, sorry.

According to most diagrams, the size of the reactor and all tributary systems imposed the shape.
Ok, perhaps they could have shaped it like a smaller sphere with huge cylinders erected on all six directions, but even that I'm not sure of.
In the EU even the first smaller planetoid battle stations already were built as spheres.
The Geonosians, who probably were more pragmatic than the Emperor, still thought that the design required it to be based on a sphere (although we were never given the real size they had in mind - the final one probably be on the Emperor's part).

The Death Stars were meant to be weapons of fear. They were not suppose to be practical.

Eh?
Nothing ever said that the spherical shape was part of the fear factor.
And as I said, if we use the EU, it's quite clear that the spherical shape has more to do with function than form.

A giant lightsaber shaped ship would make the most sense. We know that the composit beam dish does not need to be linked directly to the reactor, but since when has there ever been a sane ship design in star wars?

All we have access are rather trimmed down schematic views of the battle stations, reduced to their minimal info. Now, in the EU, many sources argued that the core was small. Only the OT ICS gave the Death Star I such a huge structure.

Which would just prove that the a.g. field doesn't pass through the hull of whatever ship they walked on.
On the other end, when you consider the sheer size of the Death Star and how gravity works, it could be expected that the sum of all fields would produce a leak that is noticeable at such structural sizes, even if the fields are centripetal in the crust and largely topdown for most of the innards.

The fact that clone troopers have magnets built into their boots would imply that hulls normal don't have gravity.

Which precisely goes to show that the gravity at the surface of the Death Star, where we see no trooper moving nor any hangar, has to be due to some sort of graviton leak.

[Lucky]

I'm just going to ignore the part about the Death Star. It has gotten rather off topic.

Please define "black things" then.

I thought i had defined a black object? An object that does not reflect or radiate. You need to detect black objects(like a black hole) through indirect means.

Not the point. The thread clearly started on the premise that some facts were to be ignored, because we explored what they could or should have been.

And the EU says T.I.E. wings are solar panels from what I see. The script for episode 4 calls the T.I.E. wings solar fins. I see no source that claims they are radiators, and I see no source that says such radiators are needed for anything.

Heck, going by the movies alone, you could claim T.I.E. fighters use an advanced reactionless propulsion system just as the Death Star do to the fact they don't seem to have ion engines like every other ships. I realize this is strange given what T.I.E is suppose to stand for.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZDa09gRDq8

With hot ion trails, it's not a surprise.

Rather odd seeing as T.I.E. don't seem to have ion engines.

They just need to be hotter...
What's your point?

The flares have to be at least as hot as the stuff coming out of the the ship. Heat seeking weapons are designed to only seek heat in a relatively narrow temperature range. It is bad if your heat seeking weapons go chasing after stars.

[User15072]

The Script is simply the highest ranking source for T.I.E. using solar panels.

The hexagonal solar panels supply power to a unique propulsion system. Microparticle accelerators propel Ionized gasses at a substantial fraction of lightspeed. These gasses are then expelled from rear vents to generate thrust. The ion streams can be directed along amost any vector, allowing for the TIE's incredible velocity and maneuverability. The twin ion engines have few moving parts and require comparably less maintenance to the starfighters of the Alliance.

http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2 ... 1_egvv.jpg

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2 ... _schem.jpg

http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2 ... _schem.jpg

If you think peimar solar are stupid, keep in mind that the Empire thought AT-ST were a good idea.

I do agree with you.. These panels are stupid and of no worth..Just waste of money and time.

[Jedi Master Spock]

As a footnote, first, I'll note that Mr. Oragahn is right about black things radiating more. Radiating and absorbing EM radiation are both done the same way, and "blacker" things do more of both, because they reflect less. The physics is symmetric that way.

I'm not actually sure the panels being solar panels is worthless. It just requires some careful perspective. First, TIEs are about 6m long and taller than they are long. Second, the panels are double sided. We're talking about getting close to 50 kilowatts from a wide range of angles.

This is enough to run secondary electrical systems without draining reserves. It may actually be the case that a TIE fighter patrolling can run "cold", with only intermittent use of main power until it faces the possibility of combat, which makes them likely to spot you before you spot them. Compared to non-nuclear power sources and batteries, fifty kilowatts isn't bad, especially if the TIE might conceivably need to eject its reactor.

It may also be a safeguard against TIE pilots burning themselves dry on fuel and all available batteries and running out of life support while waiting to be recovered. We are talking about a mass-produced fighter whose pilots are often poorly trained.

Yes, it is very little power compared to fusion, but the question is: What are you actually giving up? Per the "S-foil" point, the TIE fighter almost certainly is making use of those big flat panels in other ways.

The actual solar cells on the hexagons may simply be a printed layer a few micrometers thick - a highly advanced and very cheap bit of technology. The total mass spent on the solar panels could easily be less than a kilogram. Would you spend a kilogram for a fifty kilowatt generator that doesn't need to be refueled? That's better than you would get from something that isn't a fusion or fission source.

Then again, they may be thicker, but serve a double or triple purpose. Perhaps they are functional as solar panels, but also serve to radiate heat, as any black surface would, or serve as ablative armor panels against EM-based weapons.

And that's just the engineering possibilities. Politically, it could just be an example of Imperial corruption - one of Palpatine's cronies owned a solar cell factory. So the solar cells end up being put on the S-foils, with just enough of a story about patrol efficiency, safeguards, etc so as to pass review.

It would be interesting to hear why Lucas okayed solar panels on TIEs but not the other fighters. I'm sure he had absolutely no idea about the difference in magnitude between solar and fusion power, but there is a question posed there. Maybe it's just because of the aesthetics.

[Mr. Oragahn]

As a footnote, first, I'll note that Mr. Oragahn is right about black things radiating more. Radiating and absorbing EM radiation are both done the same way, and "blacker" things do more of both, because they reflect less. The physics is symmetric that way.

I'm not actually sure the panels being solar panels is worthless. It just requires some careful perspective. First, TIEs are about 6m long and taller than they are long. Second, the panels are double sided. We're talking about getting close to 50 kilowatts from a wide range of angles.

This is enough to run secondary electrical systems without draining reserves. It may actually be the case that a TIE fighter patrolling can run "cold", with only intermittent use of main power until it faces the possibility of combat, which makes them likely to spot you before you spot them. Compared to non-nuclear power sources and batteries, fifty kilowatts isn't bad, especially if the TIE might conceivably need to eject its reactor.

It may also be a safeguard against TIE pilots burning themselves dry on fuel and all available batteries and running out of life support while waiting to be recovered. We are talking about a mass-produced fighter whose pilots are often poorly trained.

Yes, it is very little power compared to fusion, but the question is: What are you actually giving up? Per the "S-foil" point, the TIE fighter almost certainly is making use of those big flat panels in other ways.

The actual solar cells on the hexagons may simply be a printed layer a few micrometers thick - a highly advanced and very cheap bit of technology. The total mass spent on the solar panels could easily be less than a kilogram. Would you spend a kilogram for a fifty kilowatt generator that doesn't need to be refueled? That's better than you would get from something that isn't a fusion or fission source.

Then again, they may be thicker, but serve a double or triple purpose. Perhaps they are functional as solar panels, but also serve to radiate heat, as any black surface would, or serve as ablative armor panels against EM-based weapons.

And that's just the engineering possibilities. Politically, it could just be an example of Imperial corruption - one of Palpatine's cronies owned a solar cell factory. So the solar cells end up being put on the S-foils, with just enough of a story about patrol efficiency, safeguards, etc so as to pass review.

It would be interesting to hear why Lucas okayed solar panels on TIEs but not the other fighters. I'm sure he had absolutely no idea about the difference in magnitude between solar and fusion power, but there is a question posed there. Maybe it's just because of the aesthetics.

Nice point. Perhaps the Empire is so avaricious and unwilling to spend (in the end, because R&D seems to be a happy black hole of public resources) any extra decicredit, so they'll limit fuel expenditures by all means with mass produced devices which could collect lingering energy across star systems at the cheapest price.

[Mike DiCenso]

And all of that fits with Obi-Wan identifying the patrol TIE the Falcon encounters in the Alderran debris field as "a short range fighter". Given that Vader's TIE is the only such craft we ever see with a large fuselage, it follows that the Empire did not want to spend critical resources on the standard TIEs. Even the so-called "Advanced TIE Interceptors" with the Vader-TIE-styled curved panels have no substantial cockpit and fuselage, and the only other G-canon TIE type with a large fuselage is the TIE bomber seen in TESB, which is obviously not intended as a space superiority combat role, otherwise we'd see them at the Battle of Endor supporting the Imperial forces.

So, is it cronyism that lead to these cutbacks, or did the Death Star project really suck up resources that every bit cut helped? Or did the Empire switch it's military doctrine from the Republic's high-quality troops and gear by going for a "quantity is it's own quality" approach?
-Mike

[Jasonb]

I not rule solar power out right could lot more advance able us star light way generating power or limit light near by star.

[theta_pinch]

I not rule solar power out right could lot more advance able us star light way generating power or limit light near by star.

Sorry but no matter how advanced solar panels are they won't get enough energy in deep space and even if it were near the sun and had 100% efficiency you'd still only get a kilowatt per square meter. That isn't even enough to power a small car let alone a TIE Fighter. The only purpose that really makes sense is radiators to remove heat.

[Mr. Oragahn]

Strange that no EU author ever described any bog standard TIE fighters as some kind of sandwhich.
They make me think of Oreo biscuits.