Why the A-Wing Absolutely Slaps
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
- The A-Wing is one of the most under-discussed, but arguably most interesting and effective ships in Star Wars. I'll break down the A-Wing on today's Star Wars Legends and canon lore video!
#starwars #starwarslore #starwarsexplained star wars, star wars battle, eckhartsladder, Star wars fighter, lore
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I had three Star Wars-obsessed friends growing up, and blood was drawn more than once on account of each of us being obsessed with the X-Wing, Y-Wing, A-Wing and B-Wing and thinking the other three were out of their minds for not realizing our favorite was the best.
B-Wing’s the best.
I would say the complement each other:
A-wing can go ahead of the main force to scout or jam enemy communications. Can also ambush enemies pursuing a X/Y/B-wing,
B-wing seems to be a good escort for bigger ships (if it had rotating turrets instead of fixed guns) and a heavy bomber but as soon it gives its back to the enemy it's vulnerable due to lower speed and acceleration compared to the Y-wing (based on wikipedia stats)
X-wing is a swiss army knife, jack of all trades
Y-wing had slightly more mobility than the B-wing and some versions have a gunner turret (sometimes removed due to lack of personel, I wonder if they could let an droid control it to cover the rear) but less firepower
So B and Y wings would go frontal guns blazing while x-wings flank, A-wings would acompany both to hunt down enemy fighters
Bullshit. No one likes the Y-wing best.
Nantex is best, what can beat a smell based navigation suite?
For me it’s a tie between b-wing and x-wing
The A wing is also super fun to play in Star Wars squadrons
Yes. Yes it was~
@@michaelandreipalon359 I remeber destroying star destroyers in X-Wing by just zooming around and taking out the shield balls.
@@michaelandreipalon359 Loved X-wing alliance esp. the sandbox of adding capitals and fighters
@@michaelandreipalon359 : The A-wing was definitely overpowered in both the X-Wing and TIE Fighter games. Its shield strength was way too high. A fighter that fast, small and agile only needed half the shield strength of the X-wing. And it definitely should not have been able to survive 2 concussion missile hits in either game.
I had much more success in dogfights with the A-wing than I did in the TIE Interceptor
Despite being an Imperial fanboy, the A-Wing always held a special place in my heart as my favorite Rebel starfighter. There's just something that looks "right" about the design. The X-Wing may be the most iconic Rebel fighter; the A-Wing, to me, most certainly the prettiest and most "grounded" in design. Plus, gotta go fast.
Thats cause of the red paint. Blue would make it lucky though.
@@JacksonHighlander How many teef ya think one of these would cost me?
Y wing on top
Y because y not
The A-Wing to me is like the Go-Kart of Starfighters and it looks perfect if I was to compare it to a modern day fighter jet it is the Saab Grippen.
Historically speaking its the heaviest pound for pound hitter against SSDs too
Take my thumbs up and get out of here
RIP Arvel Crynyd
"INTENSIFY FORWARD FIREPOWER !" 🔥
This is great
@@Jacques_the_Rooster "TOO LATE!!!"
One of the big reasons the Empire would have had to stick with the TIE line, for a while at least, was... they already had them.
TIE fighters, Advanced, Interceptors, Bombers, Shuttles, etc. are already part of the Empires lineup and while they would be capable of setting up A-wing training and maintenance areas I wonder what it would do to the logistics side of things.
The most important, and little talked about, side of things for any armed force are it's supply lines. The more you can simplify and standardise the better. This has lead to things in the real world like the streamlining of ammunition sizes used by different militaries. while you might prefer something else, if you use the same bullet as your allies resupplying just got a lot easier.
While the different TIE versions naturally had to have some different parts, there was no doubt a lot of commonality and compatibility. Shipping big boxes of 'spare TIE parts' all over the Empire is easier than trying to keep track of TIE and A-wing parts.
I think that's a bigger reason for the Empire to avoid the A-wing than the crafts maintenance demands, even if it needed less maintenance than a TIE the repair shop is going to be more interested if they have the parts to do the work than how long it takes.
Problem with this argument is that the empire got to TIEs by rejecting the Kuat Systems Engineering series of fighters - they'd inherited the Jedi starfighters and V-Wings that were the ancestors of the A-Wing and, according to current canon, I'm pretty sure that, like the X-Wing, they were offered an early prototype and rejected it. Basically every Alliance fighter except the B-Wing was first rejected by the Empire.
@@Draxynnic a reasonable counter, but let's look into it more.
The TIE series is a lot simpler than a lot of those ships, maintenance requirements aside, that's a simplified logistics system right there.
Also, for X wings, y wings and a wings, how much cross compatibility do they have?
TIE fighters, TIE bombers and TIE interceptors fill similar enough rolls, and a lot of the maintenance done on those 3 could be done with the same parts.
X wings y wings and a wings don't seem to have as much in common. And so need a lot more unique parts and tools to repair.
Even if we say the X wing y wing a wing combo is the superior combat setup, the logistical simplicity offered by the TIE series similarities would make it attractive to any government, let alone one trying to run supply lines over an area the size of the Empire
@@lordsrednuas Couple that with the Empires fear of highly skilled pilots defecting with expensive craft, and thus wanting to remove hyperdrives from most craft to make them carrier or station dependent. Plus vessels like the ARC were massive compared to a TIE craft. You could fit 4 basic TIES in the same hangar as 1 ARC, for almost the same crew (4 vs 3) and probably the same maintenance requirements.
Numbers do mean something (up to a point), an overwhelming squadron of TIE coming after defence turrets have a hell of a lot better chance to doing damage than 1 slow, easy to hit heavy fighter ever could.
Plus it seems TIE Bombers could simply carry a much heavier payload than a Y-Wing, it was a pure Bomber vs a hybrid fighter Bomber. When you have air superiority, the need for multi-role bombers is lessened quite a bit, and you can afford to lose speed and anti-air capability and trade it for raw munitions power.
@@littlekong7685 Exactly. TIEs where very specialized to do ONE role and do that role EXCEPTIONALLY well. The Wing Series of fighters where Multi Role fighters that did different duties but where never the penultimate of any one category. The Rebels Wing fighters where Swiss Army Knifes, where the TIES where spefically the Knife, Screwdriver, etc that was needed for the specific job.
RL example of the TIE would be the A-10 Warthog. Designed to specifically provide close range air support/anti armor capabilities. And it does one HELL of a job at that.
@@memnarch129 I say it's the opposite. The TIE series were Swiss army knives due to all having the same basic specs and design with the cockpits. They literally all have the same cockpit and engines so it brings costs down for building then all they have to do is built the wings and the roles they play. Whereas, the wing series were more specific with their roles based on their designs discounting the X-wing. A-wings were design for interceptors specifically, and where Y-wings and B-wings were design with mostly heavy bombardment and anti-ship capabilities only.
To put it in real world terms, the A-wings would be better as a combat air patrol (CAP) that flies in ahead of bomber force, similar to how the US used MIGCAPs during the Vietnam War. And the bombers would have dedicated close escorts of probably X-wings. The A-Wings primary purpose is to hunt enemy tie fighters without the restrictions of having to stay close to the escort craft, and are typically sent in waves, at the very least one wave to cover ingress and another to cover egress.
Similar to the role P-51 Mustangs played in supporting the bomber groups in World War II.
Agreed. I really enjoy Eck's work on these, but one thing he doesn't seem to grasp is that the WW2 inspirations for Star Wars implies a lot of real world needs for their fighter doctrine, and just because a ship is successful in-lore doesn't mean it's an actual good design.
The biggest problem i have with most Star Wars fighters is that in Star Wars, fuel seems to be a non-issue except for making regular hyperspace jumps. This completely changes what you'd need each type of ship to do to maximize it's effectiveness. if fuel isn't a concern, then neither is mass (within reason) for something as small as the A-Wing. Instead, jus bolt on an even bigger power plant and thrusters onto it and let it rip. The reason something like the Mitsubishi Zero needed to be light was because it had to keep up with heavy bombers over long distances, and couldn't afford to waste fuel on excess weight without sacrificing the necessary range or speed to do its job.
It's called a fighter sweep or a pure CAP (combat air patrol). The fighters aren't attached to bombers in any way.
@@thecactusman17 : I’ve never seen an exploded view or technical drawing of any Star Wars starfighter showing a fuel tank. Which indicates that fuel isn’t carried in the form of a liquid. So it must be in a far, FAR more compact solid form. Which would mean that weight and mass of the fuel isn’t anywhere near the issue that it is in a WW2 fighter aircraft.
@@timonsolus Yes, and that's important because fuel was and is a major factor in the design and capabilities of the historical and modern fighter aircraft that SW uses as inspiration.
Since we're on the subject of starfighters, here's a question: Lando Calrissian was assigned command of the Rebellion's starfighters at Endor, but he didn't assume command of the Millennium Falcon until Han Solo left for his own mission... so what fighter do you think Lando intended to fly at Endor? A sports car like an A- or X-wing? A flying fortress like a B- or Y-wing? I'm curious to hear your take on this.
*Rudy's Buick*
Given Lando’s affinity for starships manufactured by the SoroSuub Corporation (like the “Lady Luck”), I’d like to imagine Lando bringing in a Cutlass-9 patrol fighter to fight the Empire in style. Not only does it provide an easy way to identify Gold Leader in the heat of battle (both in-universe and onscreen) but it would help explain why the New Republic would continue to field Cutlass-9s even though the ship class predated the Clone Wars. Nothing sells a ship better than bragging about its ability to end Imperial superweapons!
Lando would have probably been in an Awing or a Xwing, assuming he didnt have some other ship lined up.
In terms of Combat capabilities, the A-wing (and to some extent the R-22 Spearhead) absolutely slapped.
However, in terms of maintenance, the Rz-1 A wing (the ones used during the Galactic civil war) were known to often break down, as it was made with different parts and stuff. imagine if your cannons get stuck in the vertical position in a dogfight. Not sure if this is still canon tho.
In the canon, the rz-1was replaced by the rz-2 a wing, also known as the Resistance A wing. It took years of modifications and were now standardized.
In my opinion, I love the A-wing, although I would rather fly the RZ-2 over the RZ-1.
A Wing was an INSANELY good interceptor, and definitely a better dog fighter than even an X wing.
Isn’t the whole purpose of an interceptor to be good at dog fighting?
@@thecringekid1929
Yes and no.
@@thecringekid1929 in real life no, interceptors don't really dogfight, they intercept, kill with a decisive gun/missile run/bvr engagement, and run home, they are really meant to fight bombers
The X-wing is actually built to win a dogfight. It can take serious punishment and still stay flying and fighting. The A-wing sacrifices everything to go full blast throttle to the max. Whereas an X-wing is designed to deliver punishing hits to even capital ships
@@thecringekid1929 No in the Cold War an interceptor was built to climb as high as possible as fast as possible and try to engage bombers as far away as it realistically could. To get the incredible speed and high climb rate an interceptor had to sacrifice anything not vital to its job including range. Examples of such craft are the English Electric Lightning with 2 stacked engines to reduce its profile. The F-102 and F-106, they had to carry drop tanks typically to extend their range cause they sacrificed fuel capacity and in many cases extra ordnance outside of a pair of air to air missiles.
The A-Wing’s speed would be great for escort duty as they could intercept anything long before it is actually a threat to what needs escorting. Pair this with an e-war/sensor ship and you have the early warning system.
Not by itself though. I think an ideal escort group would have some a-wings paired with some heavy assault fighters or multi role fighters that would act as a close in screen.
@@MWBalls So, X-wings, then? Which fits the X-wing armament, since when they get to the target the X-Wings can contribute some torpedoes of their own.
Nope you just have an excuse for slaughter
A-wing was awesome in battle front. It's small size and maneuverability made up for light shields.
Not in the 2005 battlefront 2, there the A wing was a death trap
@@goldleadergaming340 I wasn't a big fan of fighters in general in Battlefront. I always found it more effective to just bomb the enemy ship to pieces rather than engage the enemy fighters
Rogue Squadron on the N64 did an amazing job (IMO) of making the ships feel different from each other. I always loved the a-wing missions for how nimble the ship felt. The tie interceptor felt very similar, and in some ways better. However those missiles you mentioned played a huge roll in making the A-wing top tier.
That was the best Rogue Squadron game in my opinion. The other 2 were ridiculously tough to earn medals in.
I just recently looked at early A-Wing EU material. It seems to me that the A-Wing was originally intended to have no missiles, but they did have flexible mounts on their laser cannons (which were specifically stated as requiring skilled pilots to use). I think the original X-Wing game is where they first got concussion missiles. The game narrative part of the documents that come with X-Wing actually repeat earlier material, talking about flexible cannons and a lack of other weapons, while the stats on the opposite page list missiles. It seems to me that Totally Games probably tried to get the A-Wing to work as had been established canonically at that point, but were unable to. So without the gimbaled lasers, they gave it concussion missiles to make up for it (probably creating the missiles specifically for that craft at first). That's just a hypothesis, but I think it has good odds of being true.
Also, the whole R-22 Spearhead retconn seems totally unnecessary to me. That retconn was made to solve the problem of A-Wings appearing in the X-Wing video game (and Rebel Assaultmand probably a few other sources), which was in contradiction with the post-Yavin lore. But since the A-Wing was hand-made in-house by the Rebels, it seems clear to me that it could have been more elegantly solved by just saying Dodonna's fleet had some techs making A-Wings under his supervision, which included flexible gun mounts (some of which could swivel 360 degrees) and no missiles. When Dodonna and Blissex teamed up to make the A-Wing, they streamlined the design for full production, taking away the flexible mounts that some had and making room for the missile launched. In the New Republic era, Incom would later go on to make production versions with combined the best of both worlds, including full 360 swivels.
As for the TIE Defender, the version you played in Squadrons is heavily nerfed. The real thing is way faster than the A-Wing. But it is a much larger target.
P.S.: Thrawn was wrong about the A-Wings on escort duty. A-Wings are great at escorting because they can zoom out to quickly defeat threats before they have a chance to attack, they have very good sensors for early threat detection, AND because they can jam the targeting of smaller attack vessels (at least early sources say they can do that last part). Flying escort doesn't mean that you have to fly wingtip to wingtip.
Hilariously, the Swivel Cannons were actually not Canon. There was a Special Squadron outfitted with them that was offered to Rogue Squadron when the Left the New Republic to track down Isard on Thyferra
@@justinlast2lastharder749 The sources I read predate that X-Wing novel by many years. The swivel cannons existing by the early Rebellion are indeed canon. WEG's Star Wars Sourcebook, A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, and The Farlander Papers.
@@justinlast2lastharder749 The swivel canons were 360 degrees for the Mk II A-Wing, in the Bacta War novel.
Before then they only did about 120 degrees swivel.
Also, we see what does look like missile fire in ROTJ vs the Executor bridge globes.
The A-Wing is a beast of a ship.
I've been slaughtering TIE's with the A-Wing for twenty years in X-Wing Alliance and then did the same in Squadrons. Fly it correctly and be sneaky and it's almost unstoppable.
👍😀
"Why the A-Wing Absolutely Slaps"
Me: Idk; ask Admiral Piett and the Executor.
i would love if the A-Wing/B-Wing were included in later SW projects, they’re so underrated
Much like the Spitfire, the X-Wing stole all the attention.
The A-Wing is the ultimate Chad fighter and this is a hill I will gladly die on.
i think people tend to forget that y wing was a capable fighter, while it isnt as nimble or fast an A wing it had comparable speed to the x wing along with better armor and shielding which i believe in conjunction with the ion or--in some case--light repeating laser cannon turret made up for its lack of maneuverability. it also, like the tie fighter, had its primary weapons mounted in front of the cockpit unlike the x wing which had a convergence zone due to its guns being winged tipped, I think the a wing and b wing suffered from this as well.
The y wing is a excellent bomber and objectively better than the more expensive and less reliable B wing, but why do people forget that it could function as a fighter as well (as seen is RoTJ and Clone Wars) to great effect?
Eck do the old bird some justice please, its not as flashy and attention grabbing as A wings but she still deserves some love
Edit: just realized that only 1 out the 8 y wings at the battle for yavin survived, ironically only 2 out of 22 X-wings survived the engagement, giving it a higher survivability than X-wings in dog fights as out of the 8 y-wings used, only 6 attempted the trench run while the other 2 fought against the tie fighters. thats a 50% survival rate for y wing and a 9% survival rate for x wings, despite being 30+ years old and fewer in number while being overwhelmed by tie fighters and with no x wings protecting it (at the time of Lukes trench run).
If they had the manpower to operate those tailguns, it might have made a difference.
I think people often think 'bomber' about Y-wings when it's really an 'attack plane.' Should be used accordingly.
But only 3 Y-Wings attempted the trench run.
@@OllamhDrab I'd compare it to the De Havilland Mosquito.
@@adambielen8996 it was 6, the movies on disney plus are cut, so it wont show it i think, but there was 2 flights of y wings that attempted the run before the x wings did
A flight is 3 fighters in this context
The reason I love the a wing is because when growing up with my older brother, who always busted my chops, loved the empire, especially the super star destroyer. I loved the rebellion, and when I saw a single man fighter crash Straight into the bridge, I cheered as my brother watched in shock while his favorite ship went out like a punk.
AWWWEEEE i need to see that in some sort of animation aaaah
lol, when an A-wing needs stronger missle, it is missle!
INTENSIFY FORWARD FIREPOWER!
Except when Darth Vader absolutely massacres to squadrons of them in Rebels
A-wing was dope, could you talk about how Jacen Solo made himself invisible in one of the first NJO books?
An a wing pilot did a Kamikaze by crashing into the super star destroyer like a boss. 😂😂😂
I’d disagree about the A-Wing, which is effectively an intercept fighter, being ill-suited for convoy escort. Escorting a convoy like that, you’d want your fastest ships so that when enemies arrive, the fighters can get to them quickly and engage before they get within firing range of the convoy ships.
Thinking the same here. that's precisely the role of an interceptor, to intercept the enemy before they reach their target. It would be absurd to use Y-wings for escort duty, for example, just because the convoy is slow.
Thats only if your dealing with bombers and lesser fighters, I dont think the A wing would go very well alone against a raiding frigate or corvette at that point you will need something like a X-wing or y wing to take on the larger targets
@@goldleadergaming340 Agreed, the A-wing's armament and shields/armor is unsuitable to engage larger vessels. But the video states that A-wing's reliance on speed makes it unsuitable for escort duty, which is what I disagree with.
A mixed escort of X/Y-wings with A-wings would be ideal. A-wings to screen the enemy fighters, Y-wing to engage the larger ships, X-wings to stick close to convoy and take out the fighters that slipped past the A-wings.
@@dexnpy Ah I see, the A wing would have to slow down during a convoy in order to stay close enough to actually protect the convoy is the trouble, if it goes to far away it wont have any supporting fire from other ships and be unable to stop any bombers that break through the screen, it also wouldnt be going full throttle the whole time either so it would have to speed up when enemies are spotted and by that point it could be to late. which might be why it wouldnt be effective for convoys as it cant go to fast and leave the convoy behind which will negate its speed advantage atleast initially. thats in theory however im not an expert when it comes A wings
@@goldleadergaming340 That's more a matter of pilot discipline than ship design. If your assigned mission is escort, you engage enemies targeting your charges, but you can't just go off chasing anyone you see and leaving the convoy vulnerable. The speed of the ship has nothing to do with the likelihood if pilots doing that.
I always love your content and presentation. But if I'm going to be completely open, I stick around to the very end of your videos to see the puppy get scrambled. I had a pup when I was little that loved doing that with me. Thanks for the vids!
I have been loving this series, would like to see one about the U-Wing
Dude the A-Wing is the best. I always love playing the A-Wing missions in X-WING
I love the concept that, despite the horrid degree to which rebellion pilots were outnumbered to imperial ones, there's still a section of them that are determined, intelligent and/or crazy enough to strap themselves into an arrow shaped brick missile with guns and steering just to tear their way across the galaxy and take their republic back.
Also, dunno why but the model of engines being called "Event Horizon" just sets off the fanboy in me, it just sounds cool.
I like the Tie Defender more because it's basically if you put a A-Wing in a Tie frame, it's also why I use it in Squadrons. However, this is not saying that sources like the Rogue and Alphabet Squadron books didn't show that it's cool
There is a mission in the original X-Wing game where you scout around an Imperial fleet in an A-Wing. Instead of entering hyperspace after the mission, I decided to fight off the tie fighters. 20 kills, 5 of them were interceptors, it's an insanely good space-superiority fighter.
That’s actually my favorite starfighter! (Though I guess I mostly only like the shape of it… but maybe that’s the only reason I need, don’t I?)
A-Wings: the "Sonic the Hedgehog" of the Star Wars universe 😃
I can tell you one advantage the A-wing has: there aren't four giant wings that say *"Shoot me!"* 😀
or a rotating body that clips turbo lasers
Can you try the v-19? I feel like it’s definitely under appreciated
@@michaelandreipalon359 its still cool
I love weird tech
my fav Sci-fi is Steampunk with some Cyberpunk mixed in an its function can be trash but neat lol
Love the A-Wing. It's great at the hit and hype attacks that the Rebels had rely on early in the war.
Basically the A-Wing follows similar principles and philosophy to that of the F-16.
Do we need this video? I feel like we all know
Well it slapped that ISD bridge, that's for sure.
To be honest the xwing reminds me of the Italian G55 it was a great fighter fast and armed to the teeth it could also carry a torpedo which for fighters was nuts.
But due to not being able to mass produce them is what limited it's ability.
Still my main in Starwars Squadrons (when I play) and my (relatively) new favorite star fighter and one I'd absolutely love to own irl
Exactly 👍
Xwing is great for anything you need. The Awing is the best at what she does.
In "X-Wing Alliance" (yeah, I know, I'm dating myself), I would take the A-Wing and replace the missiles with torpedoes for certain strike missions... let me tell you, the A-Wing made a kick-ass quick strike fighter. I much preferred it to the Y-Wing or B-Wing if ion cannons weren't needed.
I'd ask for a video on the TIE Interceptor, the A-Wing's Imperial opposite number.
Far too many rounds of the X-Wing tabletop game made me fall in love with the A-Wing. Did you ever get into that game from FFG?
Let's go alphabetically backwards :
Z-95 "Headhunter" : outdated
Y-Wing : SL000ooowwW 👎
X-Wing : overrated AF 🔥
V-Wing : great, but atmosphere only
U-Wing : undercooked
E-Wing : interesting (kinda)
B-Wing : wired ? 😏
A-Wing : PERFECT ⭐
Those HOURS in "Rogue Squadron" and "X-Wing Alliance" 😍 Great memories...
My favorite starfighter since Rogue Squadron.
when I played X-Wing, long long ago, before many of you were born, the A-Wing was certainly my favorite fighter and it always struck me as dumb as how the X-Wing was so overrated. The A-Wing was faster, much more maneuverable, and was a smaller target making it tougher to hit on top of its speed.
And then there was the factor of its laser cannons being much closer to the center of the ship than the X-Wing's which were on the edges of its large wide wings. For combat against TIE fighters who's profile was very difficult to hit especially for the X-Wing's wide cannons, the A-Wing had no problem.
The good thing about the last in the X-Wing series of games, X-Wing Alliance, there was a cannon harmonization system. The X-Wing's cannons would converge at the distance to the selected target. I would rarely use anything but quad-linked laser cannons which meant both TIE Fighters and TIE Interceptors died in a single shot.
"The A Wing is the fastest fighter we have, capable of matching a TIE interceptor in speed"
I have that memorised from playing Rogue Squadron so much, it was my favourite growing up!
Like most "older" gamers, I played the x-wing and tie fighter games, and the decision to not do remakes or upgraded versions of those games, 29 years old now, has always perplexed me. They were excellent games, and great space combat sims, something which essentially doesn't exist in today's gaming market. There's plenty of air combat sims, IL2 and DCS may well be the two biggest, but nothing really space based. I know Squadrons exists, but it just seems so lacking in comparison. The game is just too balanced, and it really isn't supposed to be balanced. The Alliance is supposed to have superior fighters while the empire has superior numbers, with the exception of the Tie Defender, which was always the extremely rare, very elite, Rebel Killer. The Defender was better fire power than a B-wing with better speed and maneuverability than the A-wing. The only thing that should be capable of killing the Defender is the Missile Boat which was special purpose built to do exactly that. I think, eventually, the Alliance would have developed a competitor to the Defender to level the playing field, an enhanced A-wing maybe. But, they chose to stop the arms race at that point through other means, namely the collapse of the Empire due to the economic spending to maintain such a large military to enforce their doctrine on the galaxy, the same basic thing that collapsed the Soviet Regime.
One thing that often gets overlooked in Star Wars starfighter comparisons is the sensor suites. The A-wing, being much smaller than the X-wing, and not having an Astromech droid, probably would not be able to have the same sensor capabilities as an X-wing, or even a Y-wing. The TIE fighters probably wouldn’t have that same problem, due to the fact that they were always close to a very large carrier that could vector them towards any threats.
Hell yeah! My fav fighter of all time finally getting some much deserved love! Woo!
👍👍👍
To me the A-Wing is like an (old) Lotus or Caterham: Not good because it's using complicated high tech, but because it's small and light. And in space lightness always helps with acceleration and maneuverability at high speeds. I think that's the reason why the Tie Fighter and Tie Intercepter perform that good as well: They're very light.
Oddball of Kelly's Heroes fame would approve of the A-wing. Getting out of trouble quicker than you got into it!
In addition to massive and efficient production capacity, the Empire also had a large fleet academy to siphon into their TIE pilot program. Compare this to the Rebel command who, in their most desperate hour, gave an X-Wing to a literal farm boy with experience equivalent to flying a crop duster.
I love the a-wing and the y-wing. I love the looks of the b-wing, but it's too hard to maneuver and operate too be effective. The xwing wasn't great at anything, making it bad at everything
Damn right it slaps. Favorite ship in the entire franchise.
Ah, good old Rogue Squadron on the N64, where the best vehicle was the secret Naboo starfighter....
The TIE fighter is a pretty terrible ship compared to any other factions main ships and the Empire would have been better suited to use the Vulture Droid given the Millitary Doctrine the Empire operated on where pilots (and infantry) were treated as expendable fodder.
Basically you can trace most of the Empires flaws in the militarys equipment and tactics back to Tarkin being the root cause, since it was his ideas that shaped the Doctrine the Empire would use all the way to Exegol
I always liked the a wing More than The x wing or y wing
Me too
You know what slaps? The AT-AP
Divert the shield and laser energy to the engines and nothing can run you down.
Always thought that this ship would be easier to make than the X-Wing idk why
Your really not overstating it's ability. It's a dedicated interceptor and it did that job very well.
Having played a lot of X-Wing Alliance, the A-Wing rocks. Nothing better for hit & run missions.
the escort thing you keep going on about is nonsense. speed is very important in an escort role. you'll see the enemy coming so you want to intercept them as quickly as possible to keep them from getting at the protected ship. then as your dogfight proceeds speed gives you the advantage, then if an enemy fighter does manage to breakoff and target the fleet you can catch it, then as the fleet moves past the dogfight you can catch up again not leaving any opportunity for an enemy to attack it while its escort is away.
you seem to think "escort" means sit still in formation and use your guns like a turret.
The Empire did build an A-wing. The TIE Avenger. Traitors made sure it was never produced or fielded in numbers
When we ignore Tie defender (since it doesn't appear in the movie canon) then A-wing IS the best starship in SW universe. Less maneuverable than ties, but much faster, has shields, small target profile, hyperdrive, concussion missiles. Most pilots we see in the universe relies on a targeting computer rather than visuals when it comes to shooting targets- A-wing with a good pilot will never give the enemy enough time to lock on.
Hell, it's so good it was used against convoys of larger ships in a A-wing Slash maneuver.
Actually it has exactly the same maneuverability rating as the standard TIE/ln but of course has shields and is much faster.
It was canonized in Rebels as one of Thrawn's projects.
@@AdmiralBlackstar mate I'm being specific to a letter here- movie canon. Tie defender doesn't appear in the movie canon.
@@dat581 right, sorry, I remember from The Stele Chronicles that tie had slightly higher maneuverability rating, but I believe the later information is more correct with the same maneuverability rating for both craft
@@miqvPL The Stele Chronicles? I think I have that in a box somewhere too this day.
In that series of games the TIE/ln really was rubbish. Just dual fire an A-Wing's laser cannons and take it out with one hit.
Why the A-Wing absolutely "gets slapped"
There, fixed it for you
The main reason the Empire didn’t attempt to adopt the A-Wing is because the Empire already had one, the Tie-Interceptor. While i think it had less features and was a little slower, it made up for all of the A-Wings short comings, while being as maneuverable as the A-Wing. Both were very comparable.
While I respect TIE Interceptor, the A-Wing is objectively much better :
1) missiles ;
2) shields (kinda weak, but nevertheless) ;
3) is faster and had better maneuverability ;
4) HYPERDRIVE ! ⭐
EDIT : 5) smart blaster canons, that tracked your targets in real time. It was extremely useful feature in video games like 'Rogue Squadron'.
@@Jacques_the_Rooster the interceptor had missiles and better shields. And its maneuvering was as good as the A-Wing. It didn’t have hyperdrive, but it also didn’t need it due to the Empires use of carrier craft.
@@fishfossils8858 interceptor does not have shields, but it was dang maneuverable.
Now, the TIE Avenger might be more what you're thinking (similar profile, but faster and has shields).
#AskEck In The Obi-wan Kenobi show, in Episode 3 (I think), Obi-wan mentions a quote: "Only when your eyes are closed, can you really see", and then says it's from "The Way". Being a Legends nerd, I remember The Bothan Religious Scripture (Their equivalent of The Bible, or The Qu'ran) being called "The Way" as well. Does that mean that Kenobi canonized that little piece of Legends lore, without us knowing?
Ugh, more TIE Defender love. Will I never be free of that kitbashed nightmare? 😃
Why does it slap? Dude.
Triangle. You can't beat a triangle
I always liked the A-Wing's design the best out of the OT era ships, along with the TIE Interceptor.
My favorite interceptor is the Jedi ETA-2
Ties were reliable easy to build easy to modify because you see more variants than any other reble fighters.
I had a Lego A-Wing and B-Wing for Christmas. It was light and fun to play with compared to the B-Wing which was heavy and wierd for me. Good times.
The B wing is more like the capitol ship killer. It was designed by Ackbar himself to compliment the rebellions type of ftl fighter based hit n run attacks. It would provide firepower comparable to a light cruiser in a fighter sized package
@@matthewcaughey8898 what get's me is why call it a B-Wing if it looks like a t?
@@Residentevilfan1989 The B stands for Blade apparently.
The V-Wing for the Rebellion would've been wild tbh
I really dislike how they treated the a wing in disney canon. It makes no sense that the early rebels where using a highly specialized interceptor before a multi role fighter like the x-wing.
The tie defender was difficult for the rebels to counter.
I don't like the defender because it doesn't compromise on anything. Every other ship gives up speed for armament, or gets stripped down shields and weapons for more agility, or things like that, but the defender just goes "Yeah, I'd like to be faster and more agile than the A-Wing, better shielded than the X-Wing, have missiles AND bombs, and also throw in a few extra lasers and a hyperdrive while you're at it."
@@sethb3090 anything else?
The A-Wing is indeed my 2nd favorite, next to the X-Wing. I like all the rebel ships, except the B-Wing.
Based-Wing supremacy
You know what, yes! 😎
Look, I just like the specialized roles each type had. Each ship makes complete sense to me.
In the old techbooks the a wing was descripte as intercepter and recon cause small and fast
I've always thought the A-wing was a sexy airframe.
Me, an A-wing stan: *sees video title*
LET'S GET IT
"What do you call your A-wing?"
"Henrietta."
"Okay, so HOW CAN SHE SLAP"
I like in the books most TIE models could go head to head with an X-wing pretty easily. The reason the X-wing came out on top against base models was mainly the warhead launcher and the Shields that gave the pilots a small survivability profile. Most TIE's had an advantage against X-wings in Maneuverability and it came down to Pilot experience and X-wings kept more of their pilots alive.
RZ-1 and RZ-2's are great 👍
A-Wing is my personal favorite fighter of Star Wars.
The high maintenance time and cost argument doesn't actually make a ton of sense. A state like the empire could've/would've spent resources to deploy something like the A-Wing in strategic locations and/or attach them to some sort of rapid deployment force like the XVIII Airborne Corps.
keep in mind that the tie fighter was also cheaper to produce, the A wing costed 175,000 credits per ship while the Tie Fighter costed 55 to 60,000 credits. you could 3 tie fighters or 1 A wing, Tie fighters which had comparable speed, armament and maneuverability, functioning essentially the same role as well.
Edit: I pretty sure that 3 Ties can easily over 1 A wing unless the pilot of the A wing is exceptionally skilled like Hera or Wedge. or if their Anakin/Vader but at that point I'd just feel bad for the Tie fighter pilots or anyone else for that matter
The A-wing has always been my favorite ship.
Any small ship that can take out a super star destroyer single handed is definitely worth the price!
Technically it cant, it was just a combination of multiple factors that led to the SSDs demise, I’m pretty sure eck has a vid about it
I thought that it was luck, as the SSD bridges shield was disabled by other rebel ships givng the A wing pilot an opening to kamikaze it
The Y-wing is the BEST ship in Star Wars. Prove me wrong. 20+ years of winning wars... 50 years if you count the battle of Exogal but that a stretch
The one that fought in Exegol was a new model, designated the BTA-NR2 Y-Wing.
@@boundlessaether392 Thats true! I think the Canon stops just short of saying 'nostalga' in explaining the new model was styled after literal salvaged-scrap look of the Rebellion Era lol. Altho I suppose the Jeep Wrangler hasn't change much astetically over the years but they don't sell them without doors and roofs
@@gregorylieber8362 Not stock I think, but I've seen many modern ones easily modded that way. No reason a privately owned Y-Wing can't be built to be easily modified for such tastes.
@@AdmiralBlackstar Agreed, my brother rarely has the doors on his. It's official then, the Y-Wing is the Jeep Wrangler of Star Wars lol
B wing all the way, the A wing tho is close Second in my heart
The A-Wing is a Space Superiority Fighter
The X-Wing is a Fighter-Bomber
A-Wing is a perfect interceptor
X-Wing is a fighter / assault (F/A-18 would be a suitable "earthly" counterpart imho)
It made me sad to see Pheonix Squadron constantly get destroyed in their A wings.
I feel like they got nerfed in Rebels. They were slow and fragile even against normal TIEs.
well not everyone can have plot armor or be a above average pilot
Who knows maybe their best pilot got eaten by a spider.
@@goldleadergaming340 I watched the dogfights and I'm not sure anyone other than Hera ever got a kill. It started breaking immersion for me as I had to ask where they were getting a replacement flight of a-wings and pilots every sortie.
@@sethb3090 well unlike tie fighter pilots most rebel pilots had almost no training, so it makes sense that they wouldnt get any kills. And the answer to where the replacements are from is that the A wings were generally cobbled together with no standardization and 2nd hand parts, pilots were generally local volunteers or conscripted locals
A-wing: **fastest ship of the era** **requires maintenance**
I prefer the E-wing and the Y-wing.
A-wings are awesome? I agree completely
This is one of my favorite star fighters growing up because of its design.
#AskEck Do you think Grand Admiral Thrawn (At least in Legends), was a Gary Stu? That's what I feel when I see this man (Or Chiss, if you prefer) basically steamroll The New Republic with very few ships, and resources of his own. He never seemed to take any losses during his entire campaign, and nearly defeated FRICKIN ADMIRAL ACKBAR at Bilbringi, before he had such an anti-climactic (In my Opinion) death by Noghri betrayal, there! For those who think Rey is a Mary Sue in Canon, In my Opinion, Thrawn was almost just as bad. I mean, we never see him develop his genius in any organic way, even in Outbound Flight (His first chronological appearance, as far as I know in The Legends Timeline), he is already steamrolling Lucrehulk-sized ships in Trade Federation Fleets like they're nothing! Have we ever seen him lose even 1 single battle he is in throughout his life? As far as I know, he never, ever loses! Absolutely Ridiculous!!
Anyway, do you think Thrawn is OP? Like, Sun Crusher OP?
@@michaelandreipalon359 Oh, ok. I didn't know most of this (Other than C'baoth, and The Noghri part). It just pissed me off that someone seemed so unbeatable in battle, it wasn't fair most of the time. I still prefer Darth Revan anyway, he seems more realistic as a genius commander, considering what he fought in his day. Thanks for this information!
Always found Thrawn a tediously overrated and boring character with ludicrous tactical skills quite frankly...
But that's what happens when you have 'strategic geniuses' being written by people who aren't one themselves. 🤷♂️
it's not beating Maarek Stele doe!