The Need For Hyperspace Rings?

I was thinking about how neat it was that the prequel era shows us that technolgy hasn't actually reached the advanced state that it had in the OT. In the OT, one man fighters such as X-Wings have hyperspace capabilities while Prequel era one man ships such as the Jedi Starfighter require an additional hyperspace ring attachment for intergalactic travel. This reflects this fine technolgy being updated and refined as time passes.

Then it suddenly hit me, the Naboo Starfighters, which are also one man ships, seemingly have hyperspace capabilities. It is established in TPM that the Queen's starship has no weapons, thus having to rely on its fighter escorts for protection. This is actually shown in the opening moments of AOTC as Senator Amidala arrives at Coruscant. I see no way for the fighters to attatch to the Royal starship, nor would they have been able to in TPM version. This establishes that the ships do have the capability to travel in hyperspace.

This leaves the burning question; why do the Jedi want ships that require the problematic additional hyperspace rings for intergalactic travel if they could have ships that already have it built in? Any ideas or comments????

 

There are some possibilities:

(1) Small starfighters have just developed hyperspace abilities by the time of AOTC, and the Jedi haven't had the chance to install the function in all of their starfighters yet.

(2) The Naboo Starfighters do use hyperspace rings, we just simply don't seem them detatch from the rings (perhaps to save the surprise and coolness of the hyperspace ring Obi-Wan uses later on).

 

It was a prototype fighter not yet greatly tested or mass produced and the model available did not come with a hyperdrive installed yet. Or it simply couldn't fit inside the ship.

 

I see the Naboo fighters as brand-new, top of the line aircraft. They're like a 2003 Mercedes, with all the bells and whistles. On the other hand, the Jedi are using mid-90s Fords. They get the job done, but don't have all the extra features as the new top-of-the-line models.

 

"I see no way for the fighters to attatch to the Royal starship."

Technically, I think they do, but that's EU (Ewwww. ).

 

Perhaps the Jedi Starfighter was designed to give prority to other areas than the hyperdrive or it was just cheaper. Remember that imperial Tie fighters didn't have hyperdrives over 20 years later so there is no need for all fighters to have them in the prequal era.

 

"The Naboo Starfighters do use hyperspace rings, we just simply don't seem them detatch from the rings (perhaps to save the surprise and coolness of the hyperspace ring Obi-Wan uses later on)"

I could see that, ST-TPM-ASF-TNE, a slightly redesigned hyperspace ring may attatch to Naboo Starfighters with the hyperdrive engines on top and bottom instead of either side like the Jedi Starfighters. Like you said, we don't actually see the ships exit hyperspace at the opening of the film, so they could have already detached from the rings. Good thinking!

"It was a prototype fighter not yet greatly tested or mass produced and the model available did not come with a hyperdrive installed yet. Or it simply couldn't fit inside the ship"

Twisted-Fate78, Are you referring to the prototype aspect being the fact that the ship is controlled by the mind of the Jedi as opposed to using ones hands? I would think, though, that the designers would be able to fit a hyperspace device of some sort on the ship (if the technology already existed) seeing that they had the time and expense to design a special ring to go with it!

"On the other hand, the Jedi are using mid-90s Fords. They get the job done, but don't have all the extra features as the new top-of-the-line models"

Funny YodaJeff, the idea that the Republic or the Jedi themselves may be a bit on the cheap side when it comes to updating their equipment! I could see it happening if their system is anything like our world!

"Technically, I think they do, but that's EU (Ewwww. Technically, I think they do, but that's EU (Ewwww. ).)"

[face_shocked] [face_shocked] EEEEUUUUU [face_shocked] [face_shocked] I just cannot see how in the world they could expect anyone to believe that the Naboo starfighter could attatch to the Royal Starship! Are you being serious or are you pulling my leg Sithman????

"Perhaps the Jedi Starfighter was designed to give prority to other areas than the hyperdrive or it was just cheaper"

I could accept that DarthKarde, if these ships sport the strange technology which allows the pilot to operate it using the Force, perhaps there isn't room for the hyperdrive system. Question; just how much room would this technolgy take up? It seems to me like it would actually be more efficient than the standard technology! I wonder.....

"Remember that imperial Tie fighters didn't have hyperdrives over 20 years later so there is no need for all fighters to have them in the prequal era"

Ahhh, but TIE Fighters were not meant top travel great distances at all and fully relied on Star Destroyers and "force in great numbers", hence the lack of landing gears, force fields, and such. Jedi Starfighters are different, being used by individual Jedi to travel all over the galaxy on various missions of importance! One would think that they would include hyoperdrive on such equipment for this type of use!

 

Perhaps the Jedi don't have a choice in the situation.

 

Another possibility is that the Jedi don't have enough money to have hyperspace implanted directly into the starfighter(s) itself.

My reasoning is that the Jedi do not get paid by the citizens for protecting them. They don't get a regular salary. So that means the Republic supplies all the funds the Jedi need. It's quite possible the Jedi don't have enough money from the Republic at this time to do that to their starfighters, probally because doing such a thing would seem like a more expensive thing to do. Kind of like the Falcon in TESB. "No ship that small has a cloaking device" leads me to believe they are very expensive.

Naboo, on the other hand, is a peaceful and economic place, so they might have more money and resources (as well as time) to do such things.

Just a thought.

 

yes in the eu they can attach a starfighter to the queens ship but it looks goofy it might even be a deleted scene

 

Perhaps the hyperspace ring has a bigger "engine" so to speak than say, the Naboo Fighter with one built in? It might be faster and easier to operate perhaps?

 

I always wondered about the Naboo Starfighter's Hyperdrive status too.

My guess was that in the event that small group of ships (from a system where more modest economic means would prevent providing lots of little ships with hyperdrive rings) smaller starfighters would go to lightspeed by staying in formation VERY close to a larger ship that had hyperdrive engines, in effect getting a kind of invisible "tow" by staying in the larger ship's "wake". This would no doubt be a pretty unreliable (and possibly dangerous) method of using this kind of travel, but would be OK for experienced pilots travelling through space lanes that were known to be safe. (the route from Naboo to Coruscant)

 

You do know that the Jedi Starfighter can barely even fit one person, right? Doug Chiang even cheated with the R2 unit's storage. I think a hyperdrive simply couldn't fit in a Jedi Starfighter.

Cometgreen, wondering why he even cares

 

"It was a prototype fighter not yet greatly tested or mass produced "

Watch when Obi-wan goes to get his ring. There are several hyperspace rigs floating in space nearby. It's like a parking lot.

"Another possibility is that the Jedi don't have enough money to have hyperspace implanted directly into the starfighter(s) itself."

See above note.

I think it has something to do with the size of the ship. There simply isn't room for a hyperspace motivator (though there is that little "spare parts" bay in the back.

"Doug Chiang even cheated with the R2 unit's storage."

Indeed. Either way, the ship looks way cool.

 

I think this would be a logical solution:

The Jedi fighters need to have a trans-galactic range, needing bulky external hyperdrive rings, to hold all that fuel and to have a larger, faster hyperdrive, as in old technology, it normally needs to be bigger to be faster.

The Naboo fighters would probably have had hyperdrives with only short jump ranges for local operations in the Naboo sector. For longer operations, perhaps they relied on doing the trip in short hops, or as in the case of Attack Of The Clones, actually plug into sockets on the larger Naboo cruiser which carries them on long range trips. (Check out the Incredible Cross Sections books: this info's in them).

-JDR.

 

As an FYI, I don't think all fighter-class ships in the OT have hyperspace capability. TIE fighters for instance are dependant on a base or a "mother ship" of sorts for intergalactic travel.

LUKE: It followed us!
BEN: No, it's a short range fighter...A ship that small couldn't have gotten this far out into space on it's own.
LUKE: He must have gotten lost; been part of a convoy or something.

 

if anyone has the E2 incredible cross sections theres an explaination in there. namely, the smaller N-1's "plug into" the larger royal starships wings.

 

I think the EU also supports the prototype idea (the game Jedi Starfighter). Maybe it's just not worth investing the money to put a hyperdrive unit in it until they know for sure that it is what they want.
The space idea is interesting too.

 

As an FYI, I don't think all fighter-class ships in the OT have hyperspace capability. TIE fighters for instance are dependant on a base or a "mother ship" of sorts for intergalactic travel.

That's right. In fact, most fighters probably wouldn't have hyperdrives. X-wings and Y-Wings are supposedly unusual in having hyperdrives and long jump-ranges. They don't have space for big navi computers though: that's what the R2's for. However, an R2 can only hold a few sets of jump coordinates and probably can't compute for jumps it doesn't have stored in memory.

-JDR.

 

"I think it has something to do with the size of the ship. There simply isn't room for a hyperspace motivator (though there is that little "spare parts" bay in the back"

MeBeJedi, this brings up another question about Jedi starfighters; why do they "need" to be so small? What is wrong with having a larger ship that could support a hyperdrive system of its own? As seen with other ships, it isn't like they would be less manueverable or anything! I would think that controlling a ship with the Force would not really make a difference unless you left the range of one man crafts all together. If the size is the reason for the lack of a hyperdrive, then the Jedi should simply use a larger ship to make things a bit easier!

"As an FYI, I don't think all fighter-class ships in the OT have hyperspace capability. TIE fighters for instance are dependant on a base or a "mother ship" of sorts for intergalactic travel"

"k-man", While I understand the points about the TIE Fighters, I don't really like using them as points of reference in this thread. The reason is due to the fact that they are mass produced by the Empire in the quantity of billions and would naturally not sport all of the extra accessories such as hyperdrives and shields. When you have an Imperial Fleet to transport your army, why would you add all of this added expense into a war machine like a TIE Fighter? It doesn't really apply to the question about the use of hyperdrives by the Jedi and smaller organizations (smaller compared to the Empire at least )!

"I think the EU also supports the prototype idea"

Lelila, when you say prototype, is it in reference to the ability to pilot the ship with the Force or the use of hyperspace rings? Just curious!

"X-wings and Y-Wings are supposedly unusual in having hyperdrives and long jump-ranges. They don't have space for big navi computers though: that's what the R2's for"

Jack-D-Ripper, thanks for the information from the cross section books! I have a question though; in ROTJ we see B-Wing Fighters entering hyperspace but I was unaware that they had R2 units on board, do they support this navi computer that the Y-Wing and the X-Wing does not? Do the Naboo N-1 starfighters simply have less poweful hyperdrives seeing that they are old technolgy as compared to the time of the OT?

 

A ship without a Hyperdrive is more manuverable and the power used for a hyperdrive can be used for weapons and sheilds

Don't know if this has been said already but the posts are to long for me to read right now cause I'm tired

 

"this brings up another question about Jedi starfighters; why do they "need" to be so small? What is wrong with having a larger ship that could support a hyperdrive system of its own?"

You read my mind. I was actually going to raise this very next point, but decided not to.

Nonetheless, the Jedi are the "Galaxy's Peacekeepers". What's the point in having Jedi fly around in Volkswagons that require an external hyperspace "nitrous" system? I mean, what good are ships without hyperspace to the Jedi?

That being said, there's no real reason why they can't use this system. It just seems superfluous.

"why would you add all of this added expense into a war machine like a TIE Fighter?"

They did it for the TIE-advanced and later models. Perhaps, as the Rebellion and their hyperspace-equiped ships started winning some battles, the Empire started moving away from large-scale deployments (i.e. Death Stars), to smaller, more independent fighters. The "safety in numbers" mentally got socked in the nose at Yavin. Notice the large Emperial fleet, with oodles of fighters, protecting the DS in ROTJ?

"in ROTJ we see B-Wing Fighters entering hyperspace but I was unaware that they had R2 units on board, do they support this navi "

Yes. They are much larger, and designed to combat capital ships. More sophisticated hyperdrive capables are necessary to engage (and get away from) capital ships.

B-Wing stuff

More B-wing stuff


"I think the EU also supports the prototype idea"

Here's the EU reference. The "hyperdrive models" are the experimental ones.

SW: Jedi Starfighter

Also, there's a fantastic Quicktime 4 video on the making of the Jedi Starfighter.

 

Jack-D-Ripper, thanks for the information from the cross section books! I have a question though; in ROTJ we see B-Wing Fighters entering hyperspace but I was unaware that they had R2 units on board, do they support this navi computer that the Y-Wing and the X-Wing does not? Do the Naboo N-1 starfighters simply have less poweful hyperdrives seeing that they are old technolgy as compared to the time of the OT?

Well, B-Wing Starfighters are HUGE compared to X-Wings, AND they are new and advanced in the time of ROTJ. They probably do have a navi computer. Or at least, a method of storing jump coordinates.

-JDR.

 

"probably do have a navi computer. "

Yes. See above links.

 

>>"this brings up another question about Jedi starfighters; why do they "need" to be so small? What is wrong with having a larger ship that could support a hyperdrive system of its own?"

There's a lot of crises between features and limitations in fighter design. Star Wars fighters are similar to real-world WW2 fighters, in that they engage one another in fast dogfights, but have no guided munitions (Slave1's missile was clearly a larger-ship weapon, and I don't think torpedoes are guided in any way in the PT; witness Anakin firing in TPM.). Therefore, the smaller your ship is, the harder you are to hit (by other fighters), and the better your chances of staying alive.

Of course, the bigger the ship is, the bigger the power source, which allows for shields, weapons, hyperdrive. You can either have a bigger ship with everything, and have it be huge and slow (B-Wing), or a small ship with lots of speed and maneuverability and a small profile (Jedi).