Firing lasers from an X-wing

In The Bacta War (page 155), it says that as Gavin takes off, he uses his lasers to blast through some snow. It desn't say that he locks his S-foils into attack position until later on in the page. I thought (from playing the Rogue Squadron 3D game) that the S-foils had to be in attack position to fire lasers at all.

Is this an error or am I just confused? ?

 

Well, he could have locked them, but the book just didn't mention it. But in either case, I don't think they have to be in the attack position. They just have a better field of fire when they are

 

Also, in Wraith Squadron, Kell fires the lasers from close position. I believe opening them just increases the chances of hitting something and increases the manuverability of your ship.


bterrik

 

This is always a problem.

Kell and Gavin both fire their lasers in the books from the fixed position but in the rogue squadron games, as well as the Xwing PC games (which i consider to be all knowing when it comes to all things xwing) you can't fire with the S-foils closed. oh well.

 

Newer x-wing model. Compared to the ones in previous sources. Here's a factoid in star tours a type of x-wing exists that can jump to hyperspace with it's x-foiled opened.

 

You can fire sidewinder missiles from a fighter jet on the ground, it's just not recommended.

With my limited knowledge of real life weapons systems, I'd think that the heat from each laser cannon would burn the other when fired, which could become a hastle for maintenance. They probably don't let you do it in RS for gameplay purposes.

 

In Dark Force Rising Artoo uses the cannon's on Luke's X-wing to stun C'Boath. Considering C'boath was standing between the paths of two lasers, and that it was more of a blast wave that struck him, this was how Artoo used them to stun. But at the time I believe the wings were closed. That makes three sources, and three different users, who fired an X-wing's lasers with the wings closed.

The idea that they have to be open has to originate with Red Leader's "Lock S-foils in attack position." Yet this does not nessicarily mean that they can't be fired when locked in the cruising position. However, numerous sources say that they can't be fired in this position, probably because of that line. When opened, they offer a much better field of fire, and are less likely to converge soone when quad-linked. Best fire results in a closed position would be single fire, but double-linked would be possible.

Moreover, in attack position they probably stand a better chance of hitting their target. Remember that their set so as to fire a bit in and up or down, depend on position. So the upper cannons will fire downwards a bit, while the lower ones fire upwards. The ones on the portside fire slightly to the right and the ones on starboard slightly to the left. This allows for a convergence at some point ahead of the fighter. In attack position that is. In cruise position, the angle used for the convergence would be thrown off a bit, making targeting more difficult. While they could hit their target, it would not be at the point the pilot was aiming at. And more often than not, it the angle used for convergence would cause a miss in cruise position.

 

In one of the books for the Thrawn Duology a very small Bothan base is being attacked. Rouge Squadron couldn't open S-foils because of sabotage. One of the Rouges said that they can still fire with the S-foils closed, but Wedge knew that they probably got that part of there systems sabotaged as well. In other words you can fire when S-foils are closed, then again those X-wings could be a updated version.

 

Knight1192, you say that in DFR, Luke's X-wing fires with the S-foils closed. But in the Rogue Squadron game, you are flying as Luke Skywalker, right? Luke kept the same X-wing, right? ?

 

Luke has crashed and destroyed his x-wing a few times, and also had his existing x-wing sent in for upgrades to stay consistent with the existing technology of the time.

 

I'm sure you can fire with s-foils closed, it's just not recommended - less accurate, I assume.

Only the computer games suggest that s-foils must be open to fire, this is probably for gameplay purposes alone.

 

Maybe you cannot fire the lasers with the s foils closed from a factory fresh X-wing.
You might have to bypass this safety feature.
Some veteran pilots would have found this useful and others did it also.
Just a thought.

 

wrong button

 

Good idea, skull6.

 

I think that the safety feature idea is a good one. From wraith squadron we learn what pilots think about "factory new x-wings. At Incom they're always slipping in supposed technological upgrades. Without fully documenting them without documenting them."

 

what i always wondered is why you cant fire backwards
why dont the put some lasers facing backwards
then if someone is tailing you, you can take some shots to keep them off their guard
it wouldnt be that accurate, but it could help id think
like if you had to go straight down some path like luke did in the death star he could have taken some shots at vader
might help keeping them from get a target lock

 

Luke lost at least two X-wings between the Battle of Yavin and the Battle of Endor. The first he lost in a crash landing on Mimban in SotME(Splinter of the Mind's Eye) and the second at Cloud City (unless someone can point out a source that says an attempt was launched to reclaim this X-wing, we can bet the Empire confiscated it after the Falcon rescued Luke andf left the system). That means he had to get another X-wing, the one he used at the start of RoTJ and in SotE(Shadows of the Empire). This would be the one he'd be using at the time of DFR.

 

I think he would have lost another one before DFR as well- Wasn't his X-Wing on the Flurry when it blew up in Truce At Bakura (the flurry did blow up, didn't it? I just think I remember him mentally saying "clear skies" to Manchisco when he saw the Flurry blow up. Manchisco was cool. But thats another story... As for the ssi-ruuk. While I'm glad they didn't milk the ssi-ruuk dry over heaps of books, I would've liked to see more of them.

Speaking of which- in what comic (i assume its a comic as I've read all the novels) does it talk about the subjugation of the Ssi-Ruuk after TaB?

 

didn't luke have an e-wing at some point too?

 

The thing about the lazers(and i have read this somewhere) is that they can be fired with the S-foils in cruse possision, but they will burn out after a few shots, they are also less powerfill as they cant convege on a target and targeting is way off.

 

I think he lost one in the New Rebellion, too. Didn't someone plant a bomb in it?

 

That wasn't his personal X-wing, but one he borrowed because his was dismantled.

He also borrowed another one in Courtship, and it was shot down too.

And didn't he leave his personal one (AA-589) behind on Nirauan when he and Mara escaped?

Luke has a lot of trouble taking care of X-wings, it seems.

 

Its probably just safer and more powerful when its open.

 

Aren't the "C"s Flash Suppressors ( ]==========C-- )? So that implies that some sort of flash (which we saw on the Death Stars surface Turbolaser turrets) occurs when the cannons are fired.

Therefore in cruise position they might be close enough that the flash from one cannon could damage the other (flash is channeled away from the cannon causing it, so no damage there). Thus firing in cruise-position would be discouraged.

 

"That wasn't his personal X-wing, but one he borrowed because his was dismantled.

He also borrowed another one in Courtship, and it was shot down too. "

Remind me not to let Luke borrow my X-Wing.