Did R2D2 always "fly"?

Not many vehicles in Star Wars have wheels. Just about everything seems to either fly, hover, or have tracks.

It occurred to me that R2D2 never has any (onscreen) problems with travelling over all sorts of surfaces (unlike the "real" R2D2, as the DVD documentaries show...) Which got me to thinking- maybe he doesn't have wheels under his "feet" as I (and probably many others) always assumed- maybe he hovers rather than rolls along?

Thoughts?

 

R2 does have wheels. He goes up and down steps by rocking side-to-side (seen as they enter Docking Bay 94).

He also "walks," taking baby steps, as seen when he's entereing the escape pod in the beginning of ANH.

 

Yep, he's definitely got wheels. And he knows how to use them .

 

This is a little bit unrelated, but here is a cool explanation as to why R2 never flys in the original trilogy.

Holonetnews

IA Caps Droid Rocket Warranty at 20 Years


RORDIS CITY, NUBIA - Rescinding previous consumer documentation that guaranteed a "lifetime" of reliability in their after-market astromech hover rockets, Industrial Automaton has now capped the warranty at 20 standard years. This decision affects all optional R2, R3 and R4-adapted leg-bracket and barrel-housed propellant rocket systems. IA is instead recommending feature swap outs after 20 years, regardless of actual logged hours of operation. The decision stems from a costly out-of-court settlement IA paid to a Sump port worker injured by a falling droid. CEO Julynn Kentas was light-hearted in deflecting media accusations of consumer fraud. "The term 'lifetime' has always been vague at best," she said. "Twenty years is still a long time. That's almost two Devlikk lifetimes, after all."

 

Was there ever a point in the OT where it was necessary for R2 to fly? The only scene I can think of is RotJ where he jumps off the platform. This can be attributed to his loyalty to 3P0.

 

I thought Artoo couldn't fly in the OT because GL hadn't thought of that idea yet.

 

I believe Ashton's got it right, if he had thought up the idea of Artoo flying, then we would have seen a few scenes diplaying that in the OT.

 

"Did R2D2 always 'fly'?"

Yep, he could fly ever since EPISODE I THE PHANTOM MENACE in which he was originally supposed to topple over the side of the Senatorial landing platform on Coruscant just prior to the return to Naboo. He was going to use his jet thrusters to then hover back over to the platform safely!

 

One of Artoo's many owners in the time period between EP3 and ANH had his jet thrusters removed.

 

"One of Artoo's many owners in the time period between EP3 and ANH had his jet thrusters removed"

Yep, the neighbors were complaining about "droid droppings", so it had to be done!!

 

i know iknow. idont like it when they do stuff like that. inventing stuff and making new things to make us question how come it hasn't used that device before besides the reason that the producers couldn't make that kind of effect. I don't like it Jasper

 

They use it because it's an easy explanation that most can accept - even if it's with a 'whatever'.

 

[yoda_grammar]To Ashton_Knight, you listen.[/yoda_grammar]

GL just wasn't open to so many ideas in the OT day. That, and CGI was still about a decade or so away.

 

I thought Artoo couldn't fly in the OT because GL hadn't thought of that idea yet.


LOL! What that guy said.