All Greek Star Wars shuttles are stupid. (They're called Abecederian? Really?) 

Think of them as 1950's American car fins. Pointless but stylish 😎

"Hey, it looks cool!" seems to be the entirety of the Imperial engineering and procurement guidelines.

"How the sensors in Star Wars work?" Well, there you have why the ships have so many windows...

It's the same as with the lack of railing. The galaxy is huge, with a lot of people and presumably lot of unemployment. Any lethal accident due to crash landing with wings extended brings indirect benefits - need to procure another shuttle, giving work - but also direct ones (need to hire and train new crew and whatever passengers they had).

Lore wise they have recognised the massive flaws with those giant wings. They are supposed to be heat sinks. Yes, believe it or not those massive wings are actually supposed to defuse the heat created by the ship. This is why fighters like the X-wings need s-foils. They don’t stabilise the flight, but the reactor. When running at full power they need to bleed off the heat somewhere… it just happens to be on giant targets! Design wise I LOVE the Star Wars shuttle designs, they are just so incredibly stupid you have to like them.

The large number of forward facing laser cannons on the Lambda is in part due to it being used to deploy Stormtroopers in hot zones, which it is able to do thanks to being equipped with deflector shields more that powerful enough to stop any small arms weaponry. They come in, lay down suppressing fire, deploy their troop compliment, then take off.

X-Wing is actually the lesser offender with the whole "guns at the far end of the wing" thing, the B-Wing had it literally at the OTHER END OF THE CRAFT! AND on the wing tips. Just because.

I guess for executive shuttles for high level execs the RCS is not really an issue. Known High value assets should have a lot of outside protections, so they shouldn't really get into danger (and probably have enough spies on their tail that they couldn't really hide anyways.) The 747and 757s used by the Presidential Airlift Group aren't really stealthy either.

I would guess that the Lambda shuttle is a space Bentley equivalent, its a fancy ass ship designed to look cool.

My head cannon justification from the far away guns that don't move is the "magnetic field plasma gimbal" based on an observed effect in the many games. The idea is that thare is a MFG capable of altering the trajectory of the outgoing plasma bolt (because they use ionized gas, not lasers) along a trajectory supplied by the targeting computer either built into the gun or centrally depending on the situation.

The only reason I can think of for the giant folding wing shuttle design is: "It looks cool." It's the Empire flexing on folks.

Ships in Star Wars don't even need wings to fly in atmosphere because of hand-waving in the form of repulsorlifts. Which are apparently made using black holes. Always black holes. They don't need wings. They may as well just be the tiny little Dorito cockpit and a small passenger bay with engines at the back. Guarantee you the Emperor will never be late to his spa treatment in that thing.

From what i understand. Those wings are after also deflector shield mountings. So maybe these big winged ships have really powerful shields for ships their size?Also the empire loves using the doctrine where every thing has to be scary and aggressive or imposing. which these shuttles with the large gun embankments do. To its detriment. Much like most of the things they build for the empire.

Imperial shuttles: "Yay, look! We have HUGE wings so we can travel in space or land on planets!" Millennium Falcon: "Wings?"

Aren't the shield emitters in the tips of the wings? Then again if you didn't have the wings you wouldn't need to protect them with special shields either.

I think the original Darth Vader shuttle was just for show. How do you make a peacock limousine that also looks utilitarian and bland? You make it unfold into something big when it's in flight. Sure it could be shot down way easier than any fighter with the massive silhouette and static guns, but it's also generally only used when there's a command ship or other escort following it. But the fact that they kept up that style as if it had some practical purpose for other vehicles, that's just poor design.

in space you detect things with heat sensors...thats how we map stuff today and thats the most reliable method to detect anything in space. EM radiation or radar is gonna be difficult in space which is already flooded with all kind of EM radiation. space is cold so a ship will most definately be warmer than the vacuum background. So shape does not matter. Hiding your heat is very important....i always assumed that different wing configurations had something to do with heat management .....for example, when the x-wing prepares to attack the s-foils open up.... i assumed that a radiator was in the inside now becoming exposed to better disippate the heat from all the active combat systems and defences. You must also remember that everything in star wars is designed to be a cool toy. Also star wars is all about space magic so..maybe these shuttles are meant to be shield tanks , instead of using speed or agility or hull or shape to survive, maybe they just have strong shields? Wings in star wars also seem to have anti-grav generators...repulsors...stabilizers or whatever they call them in star wars.

I think there is a variant of the Shuttle that has a docking connector in place of the rear canon - which I can never really tell is a great idea or not - as you loose the rear protection, but you gain the ability to connect to smaller ships (such as if searching them or transferring personnel) but they are right between the exhausts (seems kinda dangerous). But without that - the only way the ship can interact with another ship is evacuating the lower deck of air and exiting in a space suit. or landing in a large ships docking bay - or possibly some sort of pustule dock on the exterior that closes over a ship and pumps air in to allow people to exit. As for the wings... yeah it's the rule of cool for sure - though I guess they may be radiators of a kind too. But they make the Klingon Bird of Prey seem almost sensible by comparison - and those things are really cool and really silly at the same time too. There is a few other kinds of Stat Wars shuttle of generally similar shape unique to videogames or comic too - not sure if any of those count as being "sensible" though.

Way back when Xwing vs Tie Fighter was the best space sim, I *loved* seeing these guys. They were always high value targets and they always sitting ducks.

The only one where I think the folding wings could make sense is the Sentinel class, but only if the wings were reshaped and repositioned and stayed folded during flight. Their purpose could be once the shuttle lands they fold down to provide a zone of cover for offloading troopers or gear or vehicles. The lambda I believe was meant to drop troops in hot zones and immediately fly off, the Sentinel if it was altered like I said I could see being useful to stay there whenever offloading would take a little while, so troopers aren't having to unload gear and supplies under fire.

1:19 The Sentinel also has two very VERY different appearances. The one from the ANH Special Edition and Rebels where it's a Lambda with a belly but not much wider. And the EXTRA WIDE full platoon and support transport from older EU stuff, mainly videogames and a couple comics that you show a diagram of at the end. (Ironically in a scene where a cyborg in Rebels is projecting various imperial blueprints, one of those blueprints is the diagram for the extra-wide Sentinel that was otherwise completely ignored by the show which just used potbelly Lambdas.)

Ah, I remember the old TIE Fighter game fondly. The game had the Lambda Shuttles, which had only front armnament in the game. But also the Escort Shuttle. Which had a rear-facing turbolaser turret. A complete nightmare to fight as TIE FIghter pilot. A single hit could blow you up, and if not, you might suffer serious enough damage for some systems to break (like steering or thrusters leaving yo basically helpless against further shots until the system was repaired. Plus it might break some of your cockpit instruments, and they don't repair, so you might have to fight without the radar screen for the rest of the battle ). In one of the early missions, on a hard difficulty it replaced some Lambda Shuttles with those Escort Shuttles. So many mission restarts. But hey, I was a kid, I had the time. Couldn't do it today.

On Vader's shuttle having fixed guns, Vader once flew his TIE fighter from the outside, while using the Force to control it AND to make his cape flap while in a vacuum. Vader is just extra as hell.

I've heard but can't confirm that the wings act as cooling for higher powered shields and weapons, they supposedly can take a hit significantly better than an LAAT, but we never see them getting shot externally in the can movies. The Lambda is also supposedly built for hot landings, using those 8 guns for CAS to clear a landing zone that it's tougher shields should hold while a strike team deploys. It really would benefit from having turrets over fixed guns though, and more stern facing firepower

The catch all explanation for all the large wings in Star Wars always seems to be heat dissipation 🤷🏻‍♂️

I feel as though the reason that the wings fold in Star Wars is in the original release of Star Wars, George Lucas want his physical models to look more realistic, thus not just static models, and added the moving parts.

The folding wings were probably meant as a homage to ww2 carrier aircraft that could fold their wings for more efficient stowage. Of course these things don't really get much smaller vertically but then again it's not like the people making star wars starships are military aviation engineers.

All the names are jokes when they get a chance. There are races that are named Klaatu and Niktoo (day the earth stood still) There are so many more of the "dad joke" names or nodding jokes.

The naming convention made a lot more sense in Legends. In that setting, there was actually a language called Tionese, which used a version of ancient Greek as their spoken language and writing system. They actually had a lot of cultural similarities to archaic Greece as well, including an Alexander the Great figure called Xim the Despot, who ruled a sizeable region of space in the pre-Republic era and is considered one of the setting's first true interstellar conquerors. His empire actually had some very interesting ship designs, which might be good review fodder!

The Kappa class is actually quite different from the others since it doesn't really move the wings all that much. Just has the same shape cockpit. And despite the name it's more a predecessor of the Sentinel Lander than the Lambda.

For bonus points? Sienar (or somebody) has apparently been making these things for thousands of years, because both the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire in _Star Wars: The Old Republic_ field combat shuttles that feature wings that fold down to interfere with landing.

8:55 imagine if a strong gust of wind came along and the thing flipped XD

Let's not forget that, for at least the Lamda class, the cockpit is also an escape pod. Stupid design because if you get hit while carrying a bunch of VIPs, the cockpit only fits a small number of people. Vs the larger number still stuck in the body.

If I was going to *try* to justify those wing things in-universe, I would need to explain why the obvious downsides of such a design are outweighed by the advantages. In other words the wings would have to be a necessary compromise to achieve some design goal. I suppose I would gesture vaughly towards the idea that the wings are part of some engine design, a necessary componenent of a type of propulsion device that provides some exceptionally desirable characteristics; maybe endurance, thrust to weight ratio, speed, etc., above and beyond what can be achieved with less exotic designs. Something like the V22 or X-35, a design with many flaws and problems that the designers hoped would be outweighed by its big gimmick. EDIT: Or the warp nacelles in star trek. Having your faster than light engines stuck out on the ends of vulnerable pylons seems like a bad idea, yet (almost) every ship is designed that way, so it must be a unavoidable compromise.

Why folding wings? Easy... Lucas loved old WWII planes and based pretty much every single ship idea he had on WWII planes. And some Naval planes had folding wings, for simple storage purposes. That's the only reason why he included a ship with folding wings. Because he'd seen a Wildcat in a picture or something, and thought it looked cool.

You are 100% correct and I hate it. One point you didn't hit on about these ships (which I mostly think are dumb and also the Lambda) is the rotational inertia that wings (er, "wings") this large would have. This much weight would make them so hard to roll, even in zero-atmosphere. And once the roll was initiated, you'd have to fight just as hard to stabilize them again.

Hi all. The idea of the wings being jammed in the down position is an interesting one. I will say that you might be able to argue that imperial engineers mounted the wings with pyrotechnic fasteners similar to how real world rockets separate sections. The bolts explode when a current is passed through them. Which would allow for at least a crash landing into a barrier net. The wings folding up is keeping with carrier based craft reducing space in a hanger, although unlike real carriers that doesn't seem to be an issue in the imperial navy. The lack of control surfaces is a more serious oversight. Thank you Sacred Cow Shipyards for the insightful video

It's for looks, not actual flight. Clearly they're not really wigs the way we think of wings. They have to be serving some other purpose. Obviously these ships use anti gravity when landing on a planet or in a ship's hanger. If they were depending on getting some kind of lift from them they'd be in trouble. The Star Wars design aesthetic resembles more the conventional war machines than the highly advanced technology of Star Trek. Star Wars engines look like they would be more at home on the back of a Saturn V rocket than on the other end of a warp core. A spacecraft can be any shape you want, round square or triangle. It's when it has to land on a planet it should take on conventional aircraft shape, unless lift really isn't an issue for it. The Falcon is a brick. Obviously it's using something else. Suspension of disbelief power.

The Sentinel class doesn't follow the naming convention because the only shuttle that existed when it was made up was the original Lambda class. The rest came quite a bit after. Also, "wings" in star wars aren't for maneuvering, they're for heat dispersion.

A lot of Star Wars tech doesn't make sense. It's just Lucas has adapted WWII aesthetics for his movies, otherwise there would be at least a lot more automation employed in target tracking and piloting.

The imperial landing craft, used to be called the imperial landing craft, or shuttle. The reason it's the sentinal craft is probably that it was named before the other ships were invented and a greek naming convention was made.

Heat Sinking and the handwave of "Shields work better this way" Of course they'll never explain *WHY* shields would work better that way, it's just handwavium science.

Are those guns gimballed, or is the sight aligned for where the projectile/energy weapon will hit? I agree, though. Star Wars doesn't give a flying f. about physics.

I would argue that the folding wings are the starship Equivalent of a military/government officers cape/accoutrements. Literally just designed as a status symbol. Purely aesthetic.

Imperial Pilots: Sure, we probably will die, but we'll die in style.

Folding wings have one great advantage - I make toy sets to give away to kids and for a sci-fi set a shuttle is handy - Having wings that fold up allows me to incorporate landing legs as extensions of the folding wings such that the landing legs fold up into recesses when the wings fold down. My wings are a lot smaller. This has proved handy as the relatively cheap Airfix 2001 1:72nd scale shuttle is not currently in production (and that needed landing gear adding anyway).

"hey, it looks cool" is good enough for me

My head cannon for this ships is that they were built for "show of force" or "force projection" kind of thing

In addition to not providing any maneuvering assistance, none of the wings would provide any appreciable aerodynamic lift. A) they are the wrong shape (though thats less of an issue than most people think: see toy balsa gliders). B) most of the wings are not at an appropriate angle to give much of a vertical lift component. And C) most of the wings would have a center of pressure so cattywampus to the center of gravity that they woukd send the vehicle a'tumblin'!

You should see someone about that cough. Probably some who wears a TiE.

The executive class variant of the Eta could land with its wings deployed because of the shortened lower wings.

So the F-35 Lightning only has a radar cross-section of about 0.005m? It basically looks like a bird. A small bird. Flying at Mach 1.6 and 50,000 feet.

Welcome to the empire, where stuff had to look cool and be easy to make, as that was the entire point of everything, strike fear into the enemy, and quantity over quality

I wouldn't put dogfighting in a shuttle and somehow winning past Vader, but the Emperor is never shown flying anything himself and he uses the same type of shuttle.

Actually the history of those are over 3000 years, reaching to the times of the "Old" Republic and war with The Sith Empire, were craft with those type of wings have served as shuttles.

8 forward firing guns? Sounds more like an attack craft than a shuttle. Maybe Lord Vader wanted a ship that could destroy a tank column on the way in.

Just wait until the Bad Batch where you have one of these shuttles trying to shoot another down. You just laugh, because all you see in your head is a C-47 Skytrain and C-46 Commando in a dogfight.

So the aerodynamics of these Shuttles makes sense if you consider that the wings feature repulsor generators (the same in-universe devices that allow a land speeder or starship to hover above the surface of a planet) at their tips and leading/trailing edges. They don't need to move to control the craft, they simply are turned on or off in specific sequence and arrangement and that pushes the wings in a specific direction. The wings need to be long and wide as seen in the films to pack in more repulsors in the right places to provide adequate leverage to grant the correct amount of pitch, roll, and yaw authority. These suttles could indeed be quite nimble if you compare them to the X-wing, which also features similarly proportioned wings and is quite maneuverable. The point of all this is that Star Wars is a space opera/western, not science fiction. The how and why of things is of microscopic importance in relation to the who, what, where, and when.

Okay, I just got round to watching this and I just got to the rant on the weapons placement. I can't remember the exact source but I recall reading somewhere that Rebel pilots considered getting shot down by a Lambda shuttle the most humiliating way to die to the fact that you'd have to fly in front of it and let it get a bearing on you with how ungainly it was and the sheer firepower the shuttle pilot had at his fingertips meant anyone getting in his crosshairs was basically fucked. Oddly enough, overshooting a target due to being so much faster than said target was actually a very common issue in WWII (which is where Lucas took the inspiration for SW fighter combat from) which led to air forces first increasing the number of guns on their fighters (which is why the RAF went from 2 vickers machine guns on their fighters, to four in the early 1930s, then to 8 browning machine guns in the mid 1930s) and/or upgrading to automatic cannons (France, Germany, USSR, etc) and I can think of several aircraft in that era where overshooting one would end very, very badly for the interceptor.

6:40 or you're Darth Vader, and you're confident in your ability to outmaneuver an A-wing in a Star Destroyer, and have the skills (and force powers) to pull it off.

6:34 That's the Delta Escort Shuttle from the X-Wing and TIE Fighter games. Three forward guns (Wingtip) and a massive fuckoff dual turbolaser on the ass. (That dies half a second later than the ship itself and can still kill you in that time)

In the original X-Wing PC games you could toggle laser convergence on/off to enable/disable that servo effect. If you didn't have something targeted, you'd fire unconverged despite the setting. At least the video game designers took it into account.

11:28 The cargo bay on that particular version of the Sentinel at the end there is MASSIVE. 45 people 6 speeder bikes, 10 big repeating blasters and room to spare.

the designers of those things really liked flying animals

Forward guns for the more 'elite' shuttles could be a mix of intimidation and for shooting small low threat ground targets, like executing surrendering foes

I had a theory that the wings spreading out made it look bigger and scarier on a scanner when you can't physically see it. either that or it made the shield farther away from the middle, so it'd be harder to hit the important bits or passengers

There's also a variant of the lambda which is a pure assault it has absolutely nothing to do with dropping troops off or has a drop pod or anything like that it is nothing more than a an attack shuttle with lots of missiles lots of proton torpedoes and lots of blasters on it and it has like a crew of three or four that control the the pilot a commander co-pilot and a weapons officer and a radar operator or some stuff like that but the rest of it is nothing more than ammo

In defense of Kylo's personal Yacht, that front gun which I think was a Heavy Laser Cannon, had an insane rate of fire, and most of the Star Wars Tech Canon and Legends has explicitly hammered time and again the "wings" on many combat ships are to dissipate the heat coming off the main guns, disavowing any kind of "solar power" quite the opposite. The larger your heat coil, the faster you can fire, and it effectively was a fully automatic grenade launcher with near infinite ammo, perfect for a Sith Lord who really didn't like what ever was in that general direction. Further this is exactly why the Lambda "shuttle" had an assault variant. If you were "directly" in front of one of these things, their alpha strike capacity rivals and can destroy Frigates.... Can it maneuver? Not really but destroying anything in front of it? The Emperor would expect nothing less. More on the flaws you "should" be pointing at. Nothing says hit me here with a lazer here, quite like something designed to radiate heat "away" from your ship, the LAST thing you will be worried about is if they FUSE a joint on your giant powder keg of unlandability...

My impression of star wars is that a lot of the technology is actually free to be whatever size and shape they need. So some designer said "lets make a ship with big folding wings because it looks cool" and they went with it because the Lambda shuttle is basically a peacock's tail that flies. Its whole thing is to be inconvenient. The ship needs a gigantic hangar bay, and barely avoids scraping the ceiling in hangars that aren't designed for launching tie-fighters.. The entrance ramp literally gets in the way of exiting the vehicle from the cockpit. I'm not aware of any concessions for the pilots getting out. This is a ship for expressing the power of its owner by force of inconvenience on everyone involved. Of course it has enormous wings that make no sense. Stuff like fitting radiators and shield-emitters and such into the sails is basically just taking advantage of the real-estate provided rather than being the purpose of the design. They obviously can fit this sort of thing into a smaller form-factor if they want to because they do it on every other ship in the galaxy. That explains the personal-shuttle stuff. The early shuttles we see in the clone-wars are fairly obviously designed to resemble the Laat/i gunships used by the clone-troopers. The chunky design, the shared angle of the wings, it's pretty clear design-lineage to me. Essentially the shuttles are intended to remind an audience that the owner of that ship has the authority of a gigantic army of clone soldiers and their war-machinery backing up their diplomatic words. Presumably the same reason the Lambda is liveried in stormtrooper white... The Sentinel is a weird one. The wings and sails are obviously dumb there. I'm of the opinion that the Sentinel is a spin-off design, using most of the same production-lines (how many lambda shuttles does the empire need? I bet they need more landing craft..) and retaining the wings, cockpit and sail is just a cost-saving measure. It also makes the sentinel clearly imperial, because nobody else is running lambda shuttles and the sentinel is obviously a lambda derivative. After the initial pattern was set, most of the other shuttles are basically a Branding thing from Sienar Fleet Systems. They don't make sense, they're more of a maker's mark. SFS shuttles have big ungainly wings and everyone knows it, which is how you know you're looking at an expensive imperial shuttle being used by a VIP and that you should pay attention. The empire is all about making sure people know who they are and what they're about. All this stuff about radar-cross-section is irrelevant. The empire doesn't care who sees them coming. Their whole doctrine is about overwhelming force and power-projection. They want you to see them coming and know you can do nothing about it (why else would they use 50m walking machines rather than blitz in via wheeled Juggernauts at hoth?) Armament-wise? The Lambda isn't a dropship. It's heavily armed and shielded enough to make anyone capable of boarding and capturing its passengers worried. Fighters are not the lambda's primary threat-vector. They aren't concerned about people killing their VIPs, they're concerned about people kidnapping their VIPS. Which takes a boarding craft of similar or larger size than the shuttle itself. Hence: The hefty firepower that isn't designed for deterring pursuit. The lambda's response when met with an attacker like that is to turn around and cripple the boarding-craft before fleeing as quickly as possible. The reality is that most of the time people -do- want to kill the VIPs though, which is a failure in the planning for the ship. Much like the Death Star and Star Destroyers, there is a real institutional oversight about combatting fighters in the Empire...

It's a conspiracy theory but some have said that Jar Jar Binks is a Sith Lord and if so could explain anomalies in the Star Trek/Star Wars universe under JJ Abrams as no one has ever seen them both in the same place at the same time.

Finally, someone fucking said something about guns on the tips of wings. I keep having people tell me bullshit like "The Xwing has computers that aims those guns!".

How about the resistance shuttles from The Force Awakens, the ones the flew sideways? Fun times...

I am a massive Star Wars (Not DisneyWars. Actual Star Wars) fan. But I 100% agree with you. Even as a 9 year old child watching this on Betamax tape while laying on the floor watching and eating popcorn I thought to myself: "That shuttle looks kinda dumb. Why are the wings so BIG?" It's always been a bugaboo with Star Wars fans. So, OF COURSE, Disneywars doubled down on it by making the wings EVEN BIGGER! #facepalm

The seperatist shuttle is actually pretty nice it has a somewhat small fin and while completely unarmed so is the Air Force one

I like to think of the Empire kinda like Soviet Russia; oh look, last week you managed top cereal manufacturing factory? Now you're our shuttle designer.

The empire never cared of wether it's practical or not as long as it makes a statement. Look at the rediculus AT-AT.

I thought it was meant to make the ride more luxurious, and perhaps for collecting solar power (like TIE fighters) improving its autonomy. Not sure if these things can enter hyperspace but if so, the added stability might increase the distance one can jump accurately -- I'm sure if you keep spitballing ideas you can come up with some reason the thing works the way it does ;-)

They could make thease shuttles and the tie fighters make sort of sense if this isn't really wings but panels needed for some kind of propultion system. If that is true and Sienar Fleet Systems are producing thease shuttles it would make sense since they also produce the tie fighters.

Whenever someone mentions star wars shuttles, the first one that comes to mind is the Lambda.

I hope he never does the Vulture droids, because i love those guys

I quite like the separatist shuttles in star wars, the dorsal fin is stylish armour for long distance commincation equipment, otherwise its and rounded (aerodynamic) brick.

Although the Delta class was a literal defensive beast. Krennic had an amazing hyperdrive combined with multiple redundant shield deflectors Highly doubt the delta is taking damage to its wing mechanism unless it tried fighting a capital ship, which cowardly krennic would never do.

Apparently on the upsilon (idk about the other shuttles) the wings carried some scanners and more importantly the shield generators and they had to be far out so it would cover the whole craft I think.

I would see the Tydirium shuttle just like a white stretch limo: it is oversized to be flashy and impress. Or like sailing yachts that have more sails just to show off. Also Tie Fighter/Bombers and Star Destroyers are all made in Grey, only the Emperor and Vader fly in a white shuttle which stand out pretty bright with the dark backdrop of space. It is simply made to stand out.

You're not wrong... but I'd like to point something out about the poorly named shuttles. They look VERY cool. Some of the best looking vessels in Star Wars.

Finally, someone willing to talk sense at my inner child.

One minor comment about shuttles taking damage to the mechanism that lifts and lowers wings: If they take damage to that part, there's about a 90% chance that the shuttle is going down anyways. It's a bit like shearing off the wing of a fighter jet.

Well not only that but actually landing in a hot zone is a risk by it self. The time it take to decelerate to land and acceleration needed to take off again significantly heightens the time table the shuttle can get shot at (if we are talking about area with no cover). Also all of this shuttles have one ramp. Defenders just need to get a heavy machine gun in place and smile at their kill count. And those shuttles make big targets. I bet they explode really well.

Dude, you just don't understand how stuff worked in other galaxies back in the day.

Sorry we can't fly into the atmosphere of that planet - _there's a strong crossbreaze._ Any turbulence at all is going to throw one of those around without some sort of *superscience stabiliser* … looking at you Tie Fighters.

The Enpire really invests in the aesthetic

Rule of Cool. It’s like that because it looks good.

Guys, you don't need wings in space.

excerpt from wikipedia: "Abcde (pronounced /ˈæbsədiː/) is a feminine given name in the United States. As many as 373 children, all girls, were named Abcde in the United States between 1990 and 2014.[1] As of 2017, 373 females were named Abcde.[2]" that's what this reminds me of.

I think the idea is the guns are synchronized, as guns were on gunned fighters on earth. The shuttle were armed more for self defense and attacking ships and ground targets at times, not fighting fighters.

I think the best "shuttle" is probably the ATR introduced in the first X-Wing. ^^ Oh how many times I died to crashing into their wrecks after shooting them down.

Lambda class: Strike fighters in disguise

Looks at Lambda... Looks at Klingon BOP... INFORM LORD VADER WE HAVE INTERGALACTIC COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT.

On that sentinel class cross section it says there are manuvering jets on the wings.

Yes the "wings" are stupid but they kinda have critical stuff in them for those things to fly. Which on further examination makes then even more stupid than what you initially thought them to be :'D