Is there a RETCON for the TIE Fighter Ejection seat?

I was reading Death Star and there is a point when a pilot could've ejected from his TIE but doesn't, the book reads as if ejection wasn't an option, but I remember being able to eject when playing TIE Fighter and I'm pretty sure the TIE pilots eject in the X-Wing series. Is there a Retcin for this?

 

We can chalk it down as an optional feature of all TIE models, like heated seats in a new car. Or we can credit it to different models of the TIE series that just happen to look the same from the outside. But frankly, I think it just depends on how biased the author is against the Empire.

 

Yeah, one of the pilots in TESB ejects during the asteroid-field chase.

 

Maybe the ejection seats are prone to malfunction.

 

Well, maybe. You see him fly away from the explosion (on fire, somehow), but I don't think we know if he ejected before impact or not.

I'm partial to the idea that some TIEs had ejection seats and some didn't---it's just an optional feature. Squadrons with political connections or good funding got them, but the average squadron didn't. That'd explain why we see ejection seats in some TIEs, but we're also told that TIEs don't have them. Some do, most don't.

 

Maybe the pilot just panicked and didn't think of it.

 

Or we could chalk up the "no ejection seats" in TIE Fighters up to the old Rebel propaganda machine.

"Look at those horrible Imperials, letting their pilots die in their machines! Not us, out ships we have ejection seats, so that we can come rescue you. Now, [Insert Rebel fighter squadron name here; generally color-related], we need you to launch an attack upon this heavily defended Imperial system that also has incredible security. We'll pick up the EV pilots...at some point."

 

Does it matter? Some x-wing seats are plushier than others. No two faked american accents sound the same, why should Tie fighter specs be so?

 

There's not much to TIEs in terms of physical integrity, so it seems to me that when one blows the pilot doesn't have a lot of time to eject whether there's a seat or not. Since the main target tends to be the cockpit, the pilots are probably killed when the lasers penetrate the armor.

There's also a question of whether the ejection seat is a true ejection seat or if the pilot has to climb out of the TIE manually or any number of other issues owing to the design.

IIRC, one of the early german fighters of WWII had their fuel tanks directly under the cockpit, and a lot of pilots burned to death instantly when rounds would penetrate. In a space battle, I don't think the TIE pilots have a lot of time to get clear of an exploding TIE.

Also, the X-Wings and rebel ships may have computerized ejection seats that can auto-eject a pilot in danger and the TIEs may have seats that HAVE to be manually fired.

There's lots of potential explinations to this one, imho.

 

Didn't Luke use a TIE's ejection seat during the Yavin blockade?

 

I think the thing we need to do here is get a hold of the evidence: which canon sources say TIES do have ejection seats, and which say that they don't?

Anyone?

That said, I do like patchworkz7's observations on this one.

- The Imperial Ewok

 

Thought I'd point out that unless an x-wing ejection seat is the entire cockpit (which I think it is) then it's utterly useless, as anyone in a Rebel flight uniform is gonna die of asphyxiation in fairly short order anyway.

 

Whats funny to me is that in all the movies you would think nobody has even heard of ejection seats before, be it Old Republic, Empire, or Rebellion. Rebel pilots are exceeding good at letting you know when they've been hit though. =D

 

From the OS databank entry for TIE fighters:

"Although literature attests that TIEs lack such pilot-friendly features as ejection seats, LucasArts' popular TIE fighter simulator game of 1995 showed that at least some Imperial units retrofitted the life saving devices into the craft. After all, it wouldn't do to have players die after every botched mission."

Probably given to elite TIE fighter units.

 

I think the poor pilot was ejected (ie thrown out) from the ship rather by using an ejection seat.

Well, Biggs told Pops to eject during the DS assault in ANH...

 

Magcon fields.
[image=http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/5/58/Hobbie-crash.jpg]

 

Aha, thanks. I've been wondering about that for years.

 

I think that's in one of the novels; TRUCE AT BAKURA, iirc, because Luke saves Wedge after he's ejected or is stranded in space and the point is made about the field keeping him alive.

 

Yeah...wow. I bet thats fun.

 

It keeps the air in, but you'd eventually freeze to death (or fried with cosmic rays, if you're not well shielded.)

Some Rebel pilot suits also had full facemasks, as seen in Marvel and a couple other comics. It'd probably be difficult to put them on quickly in an emergency, though, so they're probably more for planned EVAs.

---

A bit of, er, reasoning, from the [i]Star Wars Technical Journal[/i]: TIEs didn't have ejection seats because such systems "would add to the ship's overall body mass." That doesn't make that much sense, though. You'd think the benefits of having experienced, not-dead pilots would outweigh the performance costs of several hundred kilos...

[hr]


As for sources that support TIE ejection seats, [i]Rogue Squadron: The Rebel Opposition[/i] and [i]TIE Fighter[/i] come to mind right away.

 

Since Mr. McEwok asked, I'm pretty sure some of the X-Wing novels mentioned TIE pilots ejecting.

 

"At least these eyeballs are fitted with an escape harness..."

The impression that I got from Tycho's dialogue in that scene was that the ejection seat-equipped TIEs were an exception rather than the norm. Admittedly I'm biased in favor of the idea that ejection systems were nonstandard for TIEs, but given how the Kiidan unit leader's TIE interceptor appeared to be rather . . . souped up, and their use of nonstandard flight helmets, Tycho's ejection seat didn't really seem incongruous in that situation.

 

is says in many novels mostly the x-wing series that there are no ejection seats in tie fighters

 

Honestly, I think it's a good idea not to humanize the Empire too much. The idea of the Empire putting ejection seats in the TIE Fighters is a bit silly because they're effectively Deep Space Craft that moves at ridiculous paces and are in machines that only BLOW UP.

It's a relic of TIE Fighter where you could survive the destruction of your starfighter. I dislike this attempt to retcon the Rebellion into some kind of propaganda machine. It's like retconning SPECTRE into the good guys.

This is the Empire.

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face?forever."

 

Without wind and gravity, is the ultra-high speed a problem? I wouldn't have thought it would be although admittedly I know next to nothing about astrophyiscs. I'm not sure what you're trying to say about TIEs being "Deep Space Craft." They almost always operate near other Imperial craft so it's not like there is no one around for CSAR.