From: shoham@ll.mit.edu (Daniel Shoham)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.starwars
Subject: Re: x-wings??????   why?????
Date: 22 Dec 92 19:14:03 GMT
Organization: MIT Lincoln Laboratory

In article <1992Dec22.055229.23026@midway.uchicago.edu> wag5@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
>In article <1992Dec21.233318.1@nickel.laurentian.ca> s1400070@nickel.laurentian.ca writes:
>>     Okay, forgive me if this has already been discussed but --- What the hell
>>is the advantage of spreading the wings in an X-wing fighter in deep space?  
>>The engines are close to the pivot point and do not have a new position that
>>is substantially more efficient than they do when the wings are closed.  
>>Perhaps the only advantage is the higher degree of laser spread that can be
>>achieved????.  
>   
>   I thought the wings were spread when entering combat. This would
>possibly be because of the greater maneuverability possible(?) if
>the wings generated forces in some direction not parallel to the
>central thrust of the main engine.  
>	Also, the x-wing forces could be parallel to the central thrust
>but if they were of different amounts 'turning' would result. This
>might also be helped by spreading of the X-wings. I think that otherwise
>spread X-wings would actually be easier to hit in combat, and since the
>spread of fire is actuality pretty irrelevent..
>
Another speculation (that also answers the question of why TIE fighters have
those funny plates that make them soooo easy to hit), is that combat requires
the generation of considerably more heat than just flying. Anyone familiar
with space-vehicle design knows that getting rid of heat is a very difficult
problem in a vacuum. Space vehicles are specifically designed with heat
radiating surfaces to rid themselves of thermal energy. As such, the extended
wings X fighter (and the TIE fighters) provide efficient radiators.

Note that the makers of SW are clearly aware of the relevance of thermal
exhaust to space vehicles. The spherically shaped (and hence a most inefficient
radiator) Death Star, had one  (known) volunerability - a thermal exhaust
shaft - that led all the way to the reactor core. 

The tall poles with pointy edges on the DS have all the hallmarks of thermal
exhaust radiators! I think that the DS thermal design was to conduct heat
from the various internal sources (including the reactor) via shafts to the
surface, duct the surface heat to as even a distribution as possible with the
trenches (like the one our heros have flown through), and then radiate it to
space with the pointy-edges poles.
(If you don't like this explanation, perhaps you have a better rationale for
the trenches, pointy-edges-poles, and exhaust shaft)
- This is a very sensible design, I was amazed at the level of technical
expertise that must have gone into this movie (Lucas must have had one hell
of a science advisor!)

- What do you guys think?


Dan Shoham               shoham@ll.mit.edu
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