When did the TIE come out?

Anyone know when the TIE was made? I think I remember that simian alien telling Leia in Children of the Jedi they got mauled badly by a local wing, or something to such effect . . . Belsavis was 30yrs ago, which means the operation had to have happened within a year of ROTJ, right?

 

Around one week after the declaration of the Empire, TIEs were part of the complement of the Victory class Star Destroyer Strikefast when it discovered Thrawn in the Unknown Regions. But that's only a single Star Destroyer, and judging by the scale of galactic industrial production, they were problably already in service on a view ships by the closing days of the Clone Wars. I also read somewhere that Lucas wanted to put TIEs in the Venator Star Destroyer shot in ROTS, but was overuled. A pity we haven't seen any in Dark Times.

Oh, and another question. When did proper stormtrooper armour replace the Phase II clone trooper armour?

 

Not to start a fight, but I'd like to see somewhere that says Lucas was overruled on something he wanted to do in one of the films. I just honestly don't believe that happened...

As for the TIE, I would have thought it was right at the start of the Empire. Before that, Palpatine was still trying to keep up the view that he cared about his pilots by giving them things like shields. But, sorry Ex, I don't have any time-line sourcing for that....

 

It seems like prototype TIE Fighters were floating around even during the Clone Wars. The twin ion engine seems to have been invented in 22 BBY, and they likely went into limited production around that time (original T.I.E. Fighter). The TIE Fighter, the next upgrade in the series, took over early in the Empire, and by 9 BBY had overtaken KSE's fighter craft, and their remaining production lines were bought out by SFS. By 0 ABY, the vast majority of the Empire's Starfighters were TIE/ln Line Starfighters.

 

The V-wings and Jedi Interceptors we saw in ROTS were essentially TIE Fighters in function. They both lacked shields and instead relied on high speed and maneuverability to survive in a battle, and the concept worked quite well for the Clone Wars. Given this I'm starting to think the TIE Fighter design has some merit to it.

 

Quick nitpick, the V-Wing has (minimal) shields.

 

The online HNN mentioned Raith Seinar's patent of the "Twin Ion Engine" in 22 BBY - with a nice joke about how the "revolutionary" engines require the vessel to not have shields, life support, etc. etc.
Belsavis has been dated to 18 BBY, so the appearance of TIE Fighters one year after ROTS is plausible, as is the appearance of Y-wings thanks to the new SOTG (The appearance of Skipray Blastboats, however, seems to be a blatant continuity error).

 

There was a squad of TIE defenders at Endor. NEGVV says interceptors were an Imperial reaction to A-wings, to match them. So to assume A-wings were in mass production and thus more in sight a while after Yavin, that would make the squints a very early conception from Endor.

The Belsavis mission "30yrs ago" . . . is that from COTJ, 8yrs after Endor? How long after ROTS is that?

 

As they said before. 18BBY was the Time of the Belsavis incident. That means it would take place a year after ROTS. Give or take a few days/weeks...etc. I am hoping we finally start to see TIE fighters in the Dark Times series soon. That or maybe some Kappa class shuttles, although those date back to LONG before the clone Wars.

 

18 BBY. We see the 501st use it to take out the Queen of Naboo in Battlefront II, and we see Darth Vader noting the new armor in In His Image. It probably took awhile for everyone to get it, of course.

 

It says on Wookiepedia that they originated from Darth Maul's Sith Infiltraitors design except without the beak, that the Republic recognized the need for a very fast and tough ship that was also very small and could be mass produced cheaply, they also appear to be very similar to the Trade Federations Droid Starfighters so maybe Raith Seinar copied their design and used it in a starfighter for humanoids, small and fast and packed with firepower.

Basically the first twin ion engine fighters were made before the clone wars started and then developed afterwards, obviously they were already in use before ROTS because they are patrolling the area around the Star Destroyer that Darth Vader and Palpatine are on, My guess is that the Empire didnt want the Jedi to start using them instead of the jedi ships because they would be very easy for a bunch of skilled jedi pilots to use in combat, they could avoid Order 66 if they got attacked while flying in a Tie Fighter because of its speed and manuverability, this ship was strictly for clones and imperial pilots and not jedi, it was definetely already in use at that time though, just kept in hiding.

 

Yeah but that star destroyer is at the end of the movie, and the scene takes place much later than the events of the clone wars.

 

Wasn't Tarkin looking at TIEs in their early stages during Rogue Planet? It's been awhile since I read it.

 

This is something I've been curious about for a long time. I belive it was the old WEG rpg books that first made reference to the "Republic T.I.E.". but so far it hasnt ever been explained what it is exactly, or when it entered service. It was mentioned how revolutionary they was for the Republic at the time as almost every capital ship in the Republic fleet was able to carry atleast a squadron of TIEs due to thier small size and ease of maintaince.

 

Out of curiosity, since the Jedi Interceptor was basically a "Tie Precursor".....were any proper TIE's ever outfitted with the ability to use a Hyperspace Ring?

 

We don't know that for a fact. Based on the apparent timeline of the movie, it's right after the end of the Clone Wars.

 

I don't see any reason why one technically couldn't be, although what use would there be for sending a single TIE Fighter someplace by itself?

 

I dunno. Maybe you have an elite squadron that needs to be a tad more covert than dropping a Star Destroyer in orbit....or maybe in situations where dropping more than a few ties on some spice headed pirates in patchworked Headhunters would be a vast waste of resources or something.

 

Eh, the Empire has frigates, corvettes, rigged-up bulk freighters for that kind of thing.

 

Star Destroyer? That was only a Venstar at the end of the movie.

 

Really? Huh, could never tell for sure. We know the Imperator class came out before the Galactic Republic, as it was actually named Imperator, following the line of the Venator and Victor(y) classes, then was renamed to Imperial class after the transition to Empire. I think Darth Vader was riding around in an Imperator in that Dark Lord: Rise of Darth Vader book. And if Vader, Palpatine and Tarkin are there, you'd think they would be riding around in the newest, bestest Star Destroyer.

For some reason, I think I remember reading somewhere that someone had a hyperspace ring modified for something else (Allegiance? Outbound Flight?). Or maybe its just my memory playing tricks.

Anyway, there's not really any point for the Empire to do something like that, giving a TIE hyperspace capability. TIEs aren't really meant for versatility, or quality. The TIE doctrine is quantity over quality. Anyway, in a more sinister light, the Emipre wouldn't want its fighter pilots to have too much independence if they could have their own hyperdrive. It could be argued Jedi interceptors weren't outfitted with too many starfighter-size hyperdrives so that the Jedi would have a harder time hiding during the Purge. Grevious' starfighter had a personal hyperdrive, so the technology wasn't impossible at the time. When Jedi used the hyperspace rings, well, they're Jedi, just a few are enough for most assignments. Just sending in a few commandos probably wouldn't require TIE fighters as stealth vehicles though.

At least by the X-wing series, it was possible to put hyperdrives in TIEs, at the cost of speed (I think), but TIEs were mainly meant to be disposable and in high numbers, so something valuable like a hyperdrive isn't worth the trouble. Which is one reason the Rebellion actually survived for so long.

 

Hhm. I don't like this trend of pushing OT era Imperial hardware lifespans all the way back to the time of the declaration of the New Order. Impstars, Stormtrooper armor, TIEs....why not keep using that neato Clone Wars equipment? Or better yet, invent some cool interim designs?

 

Dark Lord places it about one week after the end of the Clone Wars.