Roch, NY Ep2 Sail ship question (possible spoilers)

When Dooku leaves Geonosis and those sails sprout from his ship, the movie cuts to when he arrives at Coruscant and the sails fold back in. I assume they were out the entire trip.

How is a solar sail system faster than hyperdrive? Just going by solar wind, it wouldn't even be as fast as a ship's thrusters. Geonosis was so far on the edge of the galaxy that Obi's message had to be relayed back to the Jedi temple? Just using solar winds, Dooku would have died thousands of years ago before the ship got there. Of course it looks like the trip only took a few hours.

Did the novel explain this more?

In Deep Space Nine, they had a very similar sail ship that the ancient Bajorans used (aired about 6 years ago). It got some push into warp and made it to Cardasia in a few hours. Could Dooku's ship somehow be pushed into hyperspace?

 

Actually solar sails have been on the drawing boards at NASA since the late 70's. They don't rely on solar wind, but on light.

The speeds from the sails in AOTC is a bit beyond what a typical sail can achieve. TIE fighters are supposedly powered by Ion Engines, and in our section of the universe, ion engines do exist, but they are slow to accelerate, unlike the high sppeds shown in the movies.

So basically George took a real technology and fudged it for the story!

Here is a link with some more info.

 

Yes that, and I assumed that they actually had a hyperdrive and closed the sails to take off into hyperdrive. But then just used the sails to make it look cooler. But that's just my opinion