Generation Tech did a video where the actual exchange between Imperial Credit and US Dollar is $1.50 USD per credit... so a brand-new X-Wing would actually be $225K USD... still a good deal though.
LOL!!! The cost of a Humvee is $210,000 to the US Defense Department. I haven’t heard of a single piloted Humvee destroying an enemy base in history. George Lucas may be great at creating a fictional universe. However, he clearly has no clue how much military equipment costs in the real world.
@@AJ-vm8ft true... but you also have to account for the fact that in the Star Wars universe products are created and sold on a much bigger market, so even though the numbers are unrealistic the bottom line is that starships and starfighters are produced in the tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands (and possibly millions for some starfighter models) so that unit price can dramatically decrease compared to Earth where fighter planes are currently produced mostly in the hundreds. Except for MiG-21s and F-16s you don't have fighter jets produced in numbers over 5000 units.
Read the Legends novels and Essential Guidelines to Vehicles… Incom was originally building the X-Wing for the Republic to replace the ARC-170 and Z-95. But the engineers for Incom defected to the Rebels after the Republic became the Empire. There weren’t “millions of X-Wings collecting dust”, Incom engineers took the few that were built, along with the original designs, and destroyed what was left behind so the Empire couldn’t build the X-Wing. Don’t know where you got your reference from, but the Legends and canon information is out there already.
I cant remember where I saw it but a good explanation for the Empire choosing Ties over X Wings was because they wanted they Imperial Navy to be mostly reliant on the functioning mechanisms of the Empire. Ties dont have hyperdrives so it's harder for pilots to defect, they also need the star destroyer base for refuelling. The star destroyers need Empire bases for fuel and food. The Emperor designed the whole Empire to easily crumble if he were to die. Even Moff Gideon was barely hanging on and was resource poor post Empire.
Bingo! The empire was having such a problem of defecting Pilots the only way to prevent it was to provide them with ships without hyperdrive Biggs darklighter exposes some of the problem with defectors from the Empire
Astromechs never seemed to be that much of an expense. My guess is they were trying to make the Navy more dependent of their Star Destroyers and Bases, thus trimming out anything that isn't essential for the pilots to fly with. This included a Hyperdrive and Astromech
The cost wasn’t what kept the empire from using the Xwing. The incom corporation found out they were going to be nationalized and they gave all their prototypes and data to the rebellion to keep it out of the Empire’s hands
The TIE fighter was much more maneuverable, then the X-wing. Unfortunately, it sacrificed shields, and hyperdrive. And of course, life support systems.
Are shields REALLY worth it though? In games and in the movies fighters only seem to be able to take about an extra second or two of sustained fire before a shielded craft receives critical damage and the extra mass of the shields (and hyperdrives) gives the lighter craft a significant energy management advantage. Tie Fighters are garbage but Tie Interceptors can lose velocity rapidly due to its lower mass to cause an overshoot or make a very tight turn then regain that lost velocity due to superior acceleration, again because of the low mass. The extra mass of all that equipment just gives the heavier craft a much more limited amount of options. Shields will keep a rookie X-Wing pilot alive a little longer but a Veteran Tie Interceptor pilot can do some amazing things with their spacecraft. I think if you gave a Tie Interceptor pilot an X-Wing they'd choose to go back to the Interceptor in a heartbeat.
@@TheSuperhomosapien In addition to not falling apart from getting hit once, the shields also mean the X-Wing can survive environmental hazards such as a corrosive atmosphere or shrapnel from a nearby explosion much better than a TIE.
@@TheSuperhomosapien I guess it depends on how you intend to fight. If you have two lines of fighters approaching each other, the ability to take a couple extra hits will dramatically increase survivability in the initial closing. It's also advantageous when doing strafing runs on larger ships that can put out a withering amount of fire that cant seriously be dodged. One v one I think you make excellent points.
@@Typexviiib You're right that the shielded craft has a significant advantage in the merge, but the faster, more maneuverable, unsheilded craft has complete control post merge. Their superior nose authority gives them the ability to find a guns solution much faster than the sheilded craft. As an X-Wing pilot you better kill an Interceptor in the merge because after that you'll be on the defensive and have to hope the Interceptor makes a mistake you can capitalize on. That's assuming the fight even starts in a merge. As for engagements against capital ships then I also agree that the shielded craft has an advantage. Tie Bombers had no business attacking capital ships and should have been sheilded.
Can say that for a lot of star wars starfighters from the B-wings for the rebels and the assault gunship for the empire, the gunship never made to to the movies
@@Sephiroth144 a perfect description of the A-wing. Fast, maneuverable, lightly armored. Relies on speed to win space dogfights and escape from more powerful opponents.
It wasn't the T75 that introduced the single/duel/quad laser setting. That was in the T65. For proof, watch the Battle of Endor, and you will see several X-wings using duel and quad configurations.
@@nicwilson89 And in the X-Wing games for PC> You could even set the lasers in the TIE-Fighter games to single or dual mode. Or in the case of the TIE/Defender you could set the lasers and ion canons to fire all together. Love that TIE myself. Cool design.
Agreed James, Nic and Marc. Typhis19 That one looked amazing and better but I never got to play it myself. Marc Lytle I loved the TIE Defender so much! It had a tractor beam, too, I think, though I don’t remember whether it was very useful or not.
Thanks for the pick me up at the end, didn't know I needed that. You are the real ledge, my son and I love your vids, and my son is named Jules aswell. 💙
hey, this may not really be the place to say so but.. I want to thank you Jules, your end message means a lot to me. i needed help and in some way you helped me seek it. thank you
Estes had model rockets of X-Wings ,standard engine version and Maxi Brute D Engine model with fins for stable Earth flights, launches. 100 ft on C6-3 ,I bought the all inclusive kit standard , from '77 catalog.
The tv show clone wars shows a couple different varieties the original design used by the Republic and the the variation that came after tho it was only used a few times in the later seasons
The Xwing wasn’t used by the empire because the Incom corporation found out they were going to be nationalized and they gave all the prototypes and data over to the rebellion to keep it out of the empires hands. It wasn’t about the cost at all.
Out of everyone i like this comment the most your one hundred percent right. Several defectors from the incom corporation contacted the rebellion and proposed that if the rebellion helped them get off world they would supply the rebellion with not only the schematics but also 5 fully functional prototypes it was far superior to the empires ties in every way except for one thing, the pilot
The original novel and comic book both referred to Luke's team as Blue Squadron. Not sure why they didn't correct that before they went to print. I'm sure it would have taken less time and effort than changing the movies.
Pretty sure they were intended for simultaneous release. This means they were likely printed prior to the change being made in the films. Reprinting that much material likely would have been more expensive than re-shooting the scenes. Similarly, all the promotional material for Return of the Jedi gives Luke a blue lightsaber. This was changed after the promotional material was created due to the blue not showing up correctly for the sailbarge scene.
The Imperial Doctrine was to value squadrons over the imperial pilot. That is why Tarkington and the Emperor passed on the incom contract and went with the Ties
I agree. Overwhelm with numbers was their strategy. Cheaper, numerous ships because individual pilots lives usually didn’t matter much to the relativistic, pragmatic morals (or lack of them) of the Empire. I remember reading that Imperial rules of engagement said they were to have a 3 to 1 ratio against enemies.
Why didn't you mention the half engine, and full round engine versions. The original drawing for new hope were half engines but the miniatures, and full size one were full rounds. Later drawings, and movies used half rounds. Some continuity errors happened because of it. Also how does a half round jet work?
I always had a problem with R2 making on the fly repairs. Great, but unless the repair needs to be made within 6 inches of him he is screwed. He can't move, what if the end of the wing takes a hit, his little tools aren't that long to reach and he can't just pop out like they show in the other movies. Ok, ill fix convenient problems but the one that are 12 inches or more away from me, sorry can't help
Emperor: “We’ve decided against the X-Wing. We’re going with the TIE instead.” Moff: “But the X-wing is superior in every scenario.” Emperor: “Why have thousands of X-Wings when we can have tens of thousands of TIEs?”
Am I the only one that finds it funny that he says something, and then the visuals the editors use completely counteract what he just said? "many rebels flew grey and orange X-Wings" Literally only one, the rest in Blue Squadron Livery. And That too! The different colors are different squadrons, or wings, not variant fighters. The X-Wing was originally supposed to be blue makes me think of a WW2 Pacific fighter. You know, the ones that were actually Navy Blue? So maybe say, Luke was originally supposed to be Blue 5. And perfect spaceship is a bit of a stretch, maybe perfect strike fighter, but for extended duration missions I'd definitely like to you know, be able to sleep comfortably and cook food, maybe stretch my legs. Don't get me wrong, love the X-Wing, but I wouldn't call it the Perfect Spaceship. Again, should have used Starfighter or Strike Craft as I feel that's more in line with the point you were presenting. And the bit about full-scale models "even though the final battle involves nearly 2 dozen fighters inside the death star trenches, none of them are fully sized." ... yeah, what else you got for us sherlock. You do know that the full scale model wasn't used for the "in cockpit" shots right, that they built just the cockpit set for those shots. So more like one and a quarter x-wings were built for the original film. The full scale was just for the Yavin Hangar scenes. And do you really think all the actors were together at the same time to shoot those scenes in order? That's not the way movies work at all! Maybe if it were a stage play. but we all know, or at least should know, that star wars was saved in the editing room. And why would an early prototype have a designation later than the one that supposedly came after it. The T65C-A2 is a variant of the T65B. So not a prototype, but a production variant. And I cannot stress enough how annoyed I am at the implication all X-Wings were only red stripped. Just because Disney has declared it doesn't like the EU because they don't want to pay the writers for their idea's doesn't mean that "Blue Xwings didn't exist in Canon before 2015" Blue Wing was a thing. I flew for them as Ace Azzameen. In fact this whole devotion to what Disney Declares as canon negating anything that came out before 2012 is actually a massive piss off for me still to this day. Because they always have to back track and start incorporating stuff they said isn't canon back in so that things make sense. It was like buying a used car from someone, only to completely gut it, take all the engine and components out, then wonder why the thing wasn't running anymore. Next your gonna say ten secrets of C3P0 1.) He was made by Anakin Skywalker! 2.) He has Cybernetic Relations 3.) He Knows 6 million forms of Communication 4.) He has a counterpart named R2-D2 5.) He has a silver leg because it was a replacement! 6.) He's been rebuilt several times, but only 2 of them are considered cannon. 7.) There are other droids that look exactly like him! and others that don't 8.) He was programmed for etiquette and protocol 9.) He can program binary load lifters, and communicate with other droids that don't speak like we do! 10.) He's not actually a real Robot but in fact men in a suit! *mind blown* except in episode one where the men in the suit wore a puppet instead. oh and Bonus Fact, there was actually only one man in the suit, and his name was Anthony Daniels. No wait, I got that all wrong because I was using information from the legends, and doesn't acknowledge the sequel trilogy, so I guess I have to change it to 7 million forms of communication, including ancient Sith for some reason! and he has a red arm because it got replaced for some reason! But those are stories for another time.... Seriously this ground my gears a lot more than it should have which makes me think you just made it this way to get engagement. And you know what else really grinds my gears? When you can't find the droids you're looking for.
Its the heat that'll kill you. If I had'nt been able to keep the cockpit of the 18 cool I'd never had been able to handle the +/- G forces that come with being a fighter pilot
I can personally attest to that TIE design flaw. Hate having to play as Imps in VR. Choked visibility to the front, zero on the peripherals, a couple of narrow strips overhead and a "rear view" window around the size of a football. 2/10. Would not recommend. 😅
When I was just 7 years old I had the feeling that an xwing was much better than the ties. I think I talked about them so much after I first saw the film, my dad bought me a model to put together. He didn't know about add in 77-78...I was still just hyperactive back then..hahahahaha
According to inflation, $150,000 in 1977 is worth close to $700,000 today. That's still a lot less than a spaceship though. It costs millions of dollars just to launch a Soyuz craft!
Colin Cantwell made the prototypes of the ships from Ralph McQuarrie's concept designs. The reason that he didn't get an award is because JOE JOHNSTON designed the fighters along with several of the other model makers like Lorne Peterson and Grant McCune. The redesigned them because they all looked to unconvincing to George Lucas and didn't fit the idea of what he thought the finished product would look like. Most of the original models were cobbled together from regular off the shelf model kits (kit bashing) and the new versions that we see on the screen were scratch built with model parts to make the details look more convincing and go faster when moulding them. Thanks for playing.
I'm presuming this is Disney Canon in this video because I distinctly remember there being Blue X-wings in the game X-wing Alliance. Honestly, if it ain't EU, it's not worth caring about.
@@Byron-Hungerford Disney may own Star Wars but what was Legends canon is still canon in the hearts of many fans. KK's garbage is not canon to those fans.
Well, technically if you break it up into its root words it "automobile" just means something that moves under its own power so just about any vehicle with an engine qualifies, it just happens that the term has become associated with cars. Yes I know I am being EXTREMELY pedantic.
Would the republic empire actually have won if they spent more money on quality of their space craft and weapons? Seems to me that Palpatine didn't hire a financial consultant.
The Latest X Wing T70 used by Star Wars Episode 8 made any Earth 🌎 Nations Fighter Jets obsolete apart from Stealth types The nearest Earth Fighter jet to the X Wing is the United States Navy F18 Hornet.
Imperial Navy didn't use Clones that were superior pilots and expensive to produce. While there was an unending supply of humans to fly whatever was cheapest. TIE fighters were fast as hell and they had a blue million of them to swarm targets. Survivability wasn't exactly important to the Empire. Hell they weren't even air tight. LOL
Wedge Antilles, wraith squadron if memory serves. TIEs, disposable fighters for disposable pilots. And he never like feeling disposable. Pearsall I kind of agreed with Psychopath from Wing Commander Saga. "We're all disposable."
Earth 🌎 nations Fighter Air and Naval Fighter jets are All larger in dimensions as compared to ant Star wars Fighter types and seen in Independence day Alien movies too.
After working for the government for 30+ years, its not hard at all to understand the reason the Empire chose the inferior TIE fighter over the X-Wing. Cost per unit. When you need millions of fightercraft, and you can get 3+ TIE for the cost of one X-Wing...
Millennium falcon is easily the most iconic ship in star wars I know it's not a type of shit specifically but come on even people who don't know star wars knows the Millennium falcon doubt many casual fans would know the X-wings name
OK, the X-wing doesn't have a cloaking device and the only reason the rebellion's 30 X-wings won at Yavin was because the story called for saturation levels of plot armor and had the airwing Commander on the Death Star only deploy 6 TIES instead of the literally hundreds the Battlestation carried (and if Star Wars even remotely tried to be anything close to honest that he Clearly would have 🙄).
Tarkin was the one that decided not to deploy the fighters. He was told that the attack pattern was a threat, but was too arrogant to believe the fighters posed any real threat.
You know after hearing the parts about the tie fighters being so defective not to mention the stormtroopers couldn't see out of their helmets very good it sounds like the empire was somewhat incompetent and cheap no wonder they lost the war
It's not really "baffling" that the Empire chose the Tie line of fighters. In the end it's all about the Imperial Navy's doctrine: overwhelming numbers and individual pilots are expendable... and the extensive use of capital ship. Wheras the alliance has few pilots and can't affort to lose any, staying covert and having few capital ships.
