Why do X-Wing pilots wear orange? - The Star Wars question thread

Any thoughts?

I read the Wookieepedia article on this but I'm curious about everyone's opinon on this.

I think it's to show pity for Imperial sharpshooters, myself.

 

Because the wardrobe buyer was able to get a really great deal on Safety Orange Racing Suits in '76 (the red white and blue ones were the only things selling at the tracks, & black wasn't the in thing until the 80's)

 

So it really wasn't intentional? I mean, they had just as many kahki flight suits for the Technician costumes.

 

The orange stood out better in the big scenes and the technicians just became part of the scenery

 

I get the out of universe explantions but I totally don't get why, if the Alliance is supposed to be a secretive, clandestine organization, why they would equip pilots in Safety Orange as opposed to, say, the greens and greys of ROTJ.

I'd love to hear some in universe explanations on this, serious or not.


Also, in ANH when Jek is just about to have his ship shot out from under him, Biggs tells him to "Eject". Ummm...how is he supposed to do this in the vaccuum of space?
I've seen EU explanations that talk about glove seals and so forth but in the heat of battle would that even be possible? If it were possible, why is it we never once see pilots ejecting?

 

In Universe... I imagine since Green is the old Corellian defectors, and I forget who the reds and yellows were, that the Orange was probably liberated from one of the other Republic worlds. They were a rag tag bunch and took supplies wherever they they could find them.

I have a ton of the old West End Games books in PDF format... Maybe I'll dig through and see what I can find

 

Actually.... Since you're the big RPG guy, maybe you might like a copy of all this stuff. It's like 6GB worth of PDFs, and the West End stuff has been out of print for a long time.

 

I always wondered if he orange was to make them easier to spot if they did eject and have to get picked up by a rescue shuttle... (but then that wouldn't be consistent with the other colors, so maybe not)

 

Actually, that was part of the reason that the military issued orange flight suits to pilots in the late '50's to early '60's, and then they realized that being highly visible was not something you wanted in enemy territory.

 

Too true.

 

Heck yes!

Thanks, Zoo!

 

Do you have a laptop? Because I can just bring my External drive with me next time and transfer it that way.

 

Alas, not yet. I do have 4g flash drive I carry around though

After the move in July then I get to go PC shopping. Got my eye on a pretty nice HP Laptop @ Best Buy, just hoping it's still there.

 

I'll send you a list to see if there's anything you already have and maybe we can condense it down

 

That'd be cool.


So..SW ???'s...

How do our heroes survive the belly of the space slug? If there's no vaccuum in there, how is it kept out? If there's any sort of valve somewhere between space and stomach wouldn't it alert would-be prey, especially Han? I've heard some theories that perhaps the asteroid is large enough to support that kind of atmospheric pressure, but I really don't think it was big enough. Thoughts?

 

Could burn 'em to three, maybe 4 DVDs.

As far as space slug goes... there wouldn't necessarily need to be a valve. We don't really have one (then again, I've never taken anatomy/physiology classes... living things are gross!). The esophagus just sort of clamps shut, and like toothpaste tubes just sort of squeezes further down to move things along.

Where did the design for the Rebel crest come from?

 

It was Galen (sp?) Marek's family crest (The Force Unleashed) I've always wondered about that one, too. I'd really like to know what the official out of universe explanation for that one is.

 

Back in the old X-Wing games (the best SW games ever produced, IMHO!), if you did eject, they showed a small cut scene of you getting rescued and going to medlab for a while.

The way I see it is this: Unlike the Empire, the Rebellion actually cares about the well being of their people and want to make it easier to retrieve them. Kinda like in BSG where you hear about the SAR Raptor and there were several episodes where the pickup of an ejected pilot was a big deal. We just never saw it on film.

But for the rest of the colors... I dunno.


But I am fairly sure that if pilots were actually doing both piloting and commando work, they would either take a nod from current uniforms, where the flight suits match the local terrain of the target, or they would ditch the flight suit and go to more of a local camo pattern so they could do their thing. It's been ages since I read the X-Wing books --does anyone remember if this was discussed in those books?

 

I know that the Wraiths did quite a bit of it, but I don't remember if there was ever a discussion of what they wore in the books.

Like ZOO I always felt that the Rebels use whatever they can put their hands on. So all the pilots at Yavin wear orange and at Endor we get the various colors because there is more than one base involved.

 

Maybe it was to distinguish the pilots from other rebel positions? Almost like a glorified uniform, that only certain kinds of members were able to wear.

For example, when the dudes in the khaki jumpsuits walked by, no one looked twice. But when a pilot rocking his orange jumpsuit walked into the room, all the khaki women wanted them, and the khaki dudes wanted to be them! A very sexist, classist, elitist perspective no dobut, but I think it's George Lucas' secret jones for safety orange coming out. You know he's rockin the safety orange pajamas every night!

 

THE REASON THEY WEAR ORANGE IS BECAUSE IT SCARES THE EMPIRE!!!

 

i agree with being able to see them when they go EV, as for the other colors...its probably whatever they brought when the defected

 

You know, the more I think about orange being selected solely for visibilty, the more I think why not just use some sort of transponder? Then you could at least turn it off when the Imps are near. Even at the risk of the Empire picking up the signal at least you're not constantly visible.

I think everyone who says the color happens by neccesity or posession is right. Maybe the orange just wasn't selling well at 'Rebel Outfitters' so the Alliance got a good deal on clearance flight suits.

[image=http://www.smileyface-jp.com/english/10.files/forest1.gif]

"That's okay. Nobody likes that color anyway."

 

Transponders can be jammed. All it takes is one Wild Weasel on the edge of combat and none of your pilots get recovered because the SAR teams can't pick up their transponders.