AA - 589 AA - 589 was the designation for a T - 65 X - wing starfighter piloted by Luke Skywalker . History . Luke Skywalker had been an X - wing pilot since he joined the Rebel Alliance and served at the Battle of Yavin as Red Five . He had flown no less than five such fighters over the course of his career with the Rebellion and New Republic , culminating in his use of one designated AA - 589 . The New Republic allowed Luke Skywalker to retain the use of X - wing AA - 589 after he resigned his commission as a commander in the New Republic Defense Fleet in 5 ABY . Either through his relationship with Leia Organa Solo or the New Republic ' s desire to maintain good relations with the last of the Jedi , Skywalker was able to avail himself of New Republic repair and maintenance resources . By 9 ABY , R2 - D2 had developed a close working relationship with this ship ' s flight computer due to Skywalker ' s refusal to let technicians perform any type of memory wipe on his astromech droid or his starfighter , despite the standard operating procedure of the New Republic Defense Fleet calling for this to be done every few months . The starfighter ' s computer systems molded them to R2 ' s unique personality , and this allowed them to function at computational speeds rivaling dedicated counterpart encryption computers — but it also prevented any attempts by technicians to run diagnostics on the fighter without R2 ' s assistance . Thrawn campaign . Skywalker used this X - wing extensively during the Thrawn campaign . He used the ship to travel to Dagobah , where he managed to land his ship far more gracefully than on his first visit , and then to Nkllon , where he participated in a battle against TIE / LN starfighter s launched by the " Judicator " as part of a scheme by Grand Admiral Mitth ' raw ' nuruodo to obtain mole miners from Nomad City . From there , Skywalker used the X - wing to travel to Jomark to answer the call of Joruus C ' baoth , which he had received through the Force during the battle . Nearly twenty light year s short of Jomark , the fighter was ambushed by the " Imperial II " - class Star Destroyer " Chimaera " and an Immobilizer 418 cruiser . Skywalker was able to use the fighter ' s proton torpedoes to disrupt and destroy one of the Star Destroyer ' s tractor beam projectors . Though the fighter escaped to hyperspace , it was severely damaged and its travel vector had been provided to local freelancers along with a bounty offer of 30 , 000 credits . AA - 589 ' s hyperdrive disengaged in the middle of empty space . Artoo ' s moaning predicted the outcome of the computer ' s diagnostics : the hyperdrive was severely damaged , and the resulting power surge had destroyed the fighter ' s subspace transmitter . Though Skywalker and R2 - D2 were unharmed , it would take some delicate work in zero - gravity to repair AA - 589 ' s damaged systems enough to get the Jedi and his faithful droid to safety . Skywalker and R2 - D2 brainstormed a solution to their dilemma . Had the starfighter been carrying any other pilot , it would have been doomed to drift in space forever . But Skywalker was both a Jedi and a skilled mechanic , and his droid counterpart had the benefit of forty years of working experience . Luke ' s first instinct was to try to cobble a single working hyperdrive motivator from the remains of the port and starboard units , but after putting in several hours of work to access the port motivator he was dismayed to find that its shield casing was riddled with cracks . Knowing a hyperdrive without an intact superconducting shield was useless , and having no way to seal the shield casings in deep space , he chose to examine the starboard motivator from a distance before digging through AA - 589 ' s systems even deeper . He found that the starboard unit was equally useless , and formulated a new plan . Further discussion with R2 - D2 led Skywalker to try to restore some degree of subspace communication functionality . The droid determined that the eight kilometers of superconducting wire in AA - 589 ' s sensor jammer could be repurposed for use as a low - efficiency antenna . After several more hours of work , Luke had the jammer and the subspace components placed in an arrangement where R2 - D2 could do the more tedious work while Skywalker rested in a hibernation trance to conserve the starfighter ' s limited life support . R2 - D2 never got to finish the job , as the " Wild Karrde " located AA - 589 , apparently by chance . Unknown to Skywalker at the time , Mara Jade had located him with the Force , rendering his and Artoo ' s repair efforts largely pointless . From a cold start , it would have taken fifteen minutes to become combat - ready , but fortunately the freighter had no overtly hostile intentions . After taking Skywalker and R2 - D2 aboard the " Wild Karrde " using a force cylinder , Talon Karrde took AA - 589 in tow and transported it to Myrkr . The fighter would eventually be repaired at Sluis Van after the battle there . Skywalker would eventually use the X - wing to reach Jomark where he met Joruus C ' baoth . After Mara Jade ' s arrival , the X - wing — with R2 - D2 controlling it — would incapacitate the Jedi Master and allow Skywalker to escape his grasp . Almania Crisis . During the Almania Crisis , AA - 589 would wind up spending an extraordinary amount of time in a repair bay . Unknown to Skywalker , Wedge Antilles had ordered all X - wings upgraded to a new astromech - less standard whenever they entered a repair facility . Upon landing on Coruscant , AA - 589 was stripped down to the chassis before either Skywalker or R2 - D2 could stop the process . Skywalker eventually left Coruscant in one of the new - model X - wings while AA - 589 was rebuilt as the older model with astromechs once again . The Hand of Thrawn . Skywalker was still flying AA - 589 at the start of the Caamas Document Crisis in 19 ABY . It would later become stranded on Nirauan where it was carried off by several Qom Qae .