TIE Class Fighters

Introduction

The following information applies to the main forms of TIE Class craft (Fighter, Interceptor, Advanced, Bomber, Defender, etc) and to some oddball classes as well. However, advanced craft with additional hardware will have additional controls and equipment that are not explained in the below article. For instance, the TIE scout ships have reconnaissance equipment not covered in the article. Furthermore, though controls may be consistent, different levels of skill are likely required to fly the varying craft of the TIE Class Fighters.

Maneuverability

To start out, the TIE-class fighters (TIE Fighter, Interceptor, Advanced and Defender) are known for their superior speed and agility over their opponents; it’s said that an interceptor, for instance, can quite literally fly circles around x-wings if an opportunity presents itself. This is due to a fundamental difference in their mechanics; one of the most important discrepancies between the TIE craft and its opponents presents itself underneath the hood. While concealed from the outside and easily dismissed as unrealistic, these fighters actually contain two "Ion Engines"; these engines are incredibly powerful and are usually thought of as too powerful for fighter craft. In TIE class fighters, each of the two engines "generates a stream of charged particles which are hurled at relativistic speeds and channeled through nozzles at the back of the ship. The exit of particles imparts a thrust to the ship in the opposite direction, which is the same kinematics principle that underlies chemical rocketry." In essence, the engines give the fighter something to push off of. Imagine a skating rink with absolutely no friction whatsoever- one cannot move by simply running... Rather, that person would need something with friction to push off of; for instance: one of the rink’s walls. This idea applies to the thrust of this craft- it forces particles out the back end and then uses those particles as a wall to propel itself.

Another mechanical difference is the way in which those particles are controlled; using electromagnetic fields to control the direction of the particles as they exit the apertures, the fighter becomes able to turn and angle more sharply. This is known as "vectored thrust." Furthermore, the arc and direction of these particle streams is quite wide while, in comparison, the thrusters on other fighters are fixed and/or immovable. Those fighters, like the x-wing, must turn and control lift by changing the amount of power or output sent to varying engines or thrusters. This is less efficient and more complex.

While the engines and vectored thrust play a key role in the maneuverability of the TIE Interceptor, its design and overall style is the final mechanical change, permitting it to take advantage in most battles. While in atmosphere, TIE craft are simply more aerodynamic and able to cut through the air than most enemy fighters.

Other Design Elements

The TIE class of fighters are, generally, less visible to the enemy because of it's "line-based" profile; often times it simply appears as a pair of slits and a floating ball flying through space. In the case of the flat wings, like those on TIE Fighters, the craft becomes least visible if it achieves an oblique angle to its enemy while the angle most dangerous to the Imperial pilot is when the craft's anterior or posterior section is directly exposed to an enemy pilot. Note that other wing configurations also exist; bent wing configurations can play a role in better circulation of coolant fluids within the craft, but they can also further diminish the profile of a TIE by decreasing it's visibility from the side. While the bent portion would be more visible from above, the amount of visibility is more equalized around the craft.

While this device is employed throughout most fighter craft across the universe, the use of "inertial compensators" are especially necessary in TIE craft due to their awesome ability to accelerate. Essentially, the inertial compensators act in an role opposite the one accelerating the craft- instead of employing gravity to accelerate, the cabin uses inertial compensators to control the environment within the TIE and keep the pilot from turning to ooze after a sudden stop. After all, these craft are going hundreds of miles an hour- imagine cutting the speed in half within a few seconds: a pilot's restraints are worthless unless gravity is used to help him survive the slowing. Some pilots like to set the inertial compensator to a lower setting; however, because they want the "feel" of their fighter craft.

Lastly, repulsor lifts are often used on TIE craft to land and take off from hangers because use of their sublight engines (main Ion Engines) would release lethal levels of radiation into the environment, risking the lives of crew members and causing other avoidable problems with nearby machinery and/or instrumentation. Furthermore, use of repulsorlifts allows for slower, more controlled take offs whereas sublight engines are incredibly powerful and would significantly raise the incidence of accident. Note that TIE craft are usually launched from docking claws and are automatically guided to the end of the hanger bay via tractor beams; they are also docked with tractor beams for the most part. However, these repulsors have been known to land TIEs in the docking claws as well as on its frame in emergency situations. TIE class craft are not designed to land on their wings, but are structurally able to do so; multiple or repetitious landing on the wings can result in malfunction or serious damage to the wing arrays, however.

Heat Expulsion

TIE craft are equipped with extremely powerful engines despite their size and the room available, so where and how does all of the heat go from these beastly engines? To put it simply, the nozzles at the back end of TIE craft are far too small to simply expel the heat through its emissions, so alternative methods of heat dissipation were developed. The process is actually fairly traditional: a coolant runs through the engines within the hull of the craft, to the pylons, and finally up to the wings and into the heat emitting grills, where the heat dissipates into the cold of space. From the side, these grills are instantly recognizable- they're the black triangular portions that cover most of the array; they are used frequently in the designs of TIE model craft; if heat were not an issue, TIE craft would probably no have wings. </p>

Unlike the popular ideology people have come to know, the black grills are not solar collectors. Even if they were, does it make sense to try and collect solar energy in space when light isn’t a certainty? And even further still, if they were in fact solar collectors covering the wings, one would be unable to collect near enough energy to supply a TIE class craft. In fact, even without engaging enemy fighters and pulling maneuvers every which way, it would take a number of weeks to charge for flight. However, while most of the wings are consumed by the grills, the uppermost edges of the wings on some modified TIEs are partial solar collectors and are used for emergency back-up power to peripheral systems like com transmitters. Those can be charged during flight and will take about four hours to charge for one hour’s use. This explains how some pilots without any conceivable power supply, barren in space, are able to charge and then boost their communications in order to call for help.

Now, why weren’t the grills just flat? The grills allow for heat expulsion at a much higher rate than would a flat surface; if thee grills were instead flat panels, the wings would have to be several times large in order to dissipate the same amount of heat. Also, besides trying to look fearsome, the black coloring contributes to their ability to draw in light and release heat.

The Cockpit

TIE class craft share more than just black radiation grills; the cockpit in which the pilot flies the craft is actually very consistent throughout the TIE series, despite the difference in designs. is extremely detailed and has it’s exact uses. In other words, moving from an Interceptor to an X-1 or even Bomber may not be as troublesome as one would imagine. Again, controls can vary, and more advanced craft like TIE defenders or espionage-related TIE craft will have advanced tools on board that are not included in the standard set of controls.

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Buttons: Green button is used to trigger missiles while the red initiates cannon fire.

Switches: The switch to the left of the red button toggles between the single fire, strafing mode of cannon fire and the linked burst. The switch the left of the green missile trigger arms the weapon when switched up and disarms when pulled back down. The missile is given an off option to ensure its precious explosive package isn't wasted.

Knobs: The center knob chooses targets and click stops, ensuring it will stay on the same target rather than slide to another accidentally. The two on the outsides and to the top with green outline designate direction of cannon fire while the one between them with blue outline actually chooses the point at which they meet. The missiles lock on and need no targeting by use of these knobs.

Others: The gray areas around the knobs are blocks to keep them from being accidentally turned when in combat. The yellow areas indicate where the fingers should be placed to slide the knobs. The black areas at the bottom corners of the controls are where the palms rest and the even further gray areas are where the corners of the hands sit to keep from falling off the controls in the heat of battle.

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The TIE Interceptor is normally flown by use of both a control yoke and foot controls. The foot controls simply accelerate the action of the control yoke by adding an extra cut in turn radius, like the rudders of a jet fighter. The control yoke itself sits directly in front of the pilot with a rectangular console containing several knobs, three switches and two buttons. The two buttons are on opposite sides but sit in the center of the console; the right is the trigger for the cannons while the other deploys missiles or whatever secondary weapon is attached. Now, the switches located to the left or right of either of those buttons clicks between the first choice and the auxiliary mode of the weapon. In the case of the cannons it moves from single shot for a strafing style of fire to a linked version that devastates anything it touches. As for the missiles, the switch just activates them, ensuring when the switch is turned off that there will be no accidental triggering of the heavy weapons. Also, the cannons can be fired while the missiles are being deployed, but that is usually unwise considering it could trigger an explosion directly in front of the TIE.

Just in front of the control yoke and about the same size is a rectangular screen displaying a wire frame representation of the target with a pair of cross hairs in the center and intermittently visible text providing tactical information. To the right of the screen there are two rotating control knobs, and another one to the left. There are two small red indicator lights above and below the leftmost knob. The two on the right control options about what is displayed across the screen like whether or not all the tactical information should be displayed, as it may interfere with targeting. While some people simply like to use their eyes, this is not quite as permissible in a TIE because the field of vision is restricted to the area directly in front of the pilot; thus, the radar is necessary.

The walls of the fighter are covered with triangular tiles, the ones above and in front of the pilot littered with red LEDs (light emitting diodes). Within the darkness of the cabin, it just looks like lines of red lights, but to the trained pilot, these are very important. These lights indicate the status of anything a pilot may need to keep a watchful eye on (engines, weapons, shields, etc). This lighting system can be set up in such a way to indicate troubles of any kind, however trivial. When set to their default though, at least one of the rows of lights warns the pilot of missile locks and normally sends a message to the craft's computer to let off a warning beep.

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Above and to the left of the viewport is a rectangular screen with a sensor display for viewing attackers from directly behind. This sensor is also a wire frame representation rather than an actual image from a camera. It is normally used to perceive the position of an enemy’s cannons so the pilot in the TIE knows which way to roll when the ship begins firing.

Directly above the pilot and on either side, protruding from some tiles, are clusters of rods a little over a half foot long. These rods affect emergency sequences in the fighter such as detachment from a wing or wings. This set of devices are used only in extreme cases, and their individual uses can vary from craft to craft. One lever may detach a wing in one fighter while the same lever could activate a self destruct mechanism in another.

Behind the pilot is a viewport of an extremely strong, thick and clear material for a direct view behind the pilot in case the sensor array goes out. That’s right- a window, not the engines as some people manage to confuse from looking at pictures of their favorite TIEs. This same material composes the cockpit main viewport.

The primary hatch is on the middle of the dorsal face of the fighter. It is circular, includes the stern window and is hinged at the top. Within the cockpit, at the bottom left and right of the window, there are pneumatic (air compressed) piston devices which are part of the mechanism to open and close the hatch. There is a handgrip above the hatch off to either the port or starboard side; this aids a pilot exiting the craft. On the TIE's exterior, the hatch hinge mechanism is prominent on the upper aft part of the hull above the window.

The viewport itself is about three inches thick at the point it meets the frame and about an inch in the center. Now, TIEs have been known to fly though Bespin’s atmosphere, which means that the thermal properties of the transparisteel are superior or comparable to the hardiest hulls of the most primitive space faring civilizations. This is unsurprising, but the response of a TIE window to blaster fire is sometimes misunderstood. If someone were to shoot a blaster rifle at a TIE’s viewport from any angle other than dead on, it would be absorbed or refracted without shattering or damaging the transparisteel. However, if one were to shoot a perfect shot at the transparisteel with a heavy enough weapon and from a close enough range, it could crack the transparisteel. It’s almost unheard of for a hand weapon to actually shatter the transparisteel of a TIE, though.

Weaponry and Targeting

When a TIE class fighter goes after a target, it first selects the target and then moves into range depending on what weapon he/she would like to use. The two weapons usually at its disposal are missiles and cannons.

Cannons fire what are, in fact, real lasers at the speed of light; however, a sub-light tracer bolt follows in its stead. The bolt itself is not visible, but the tracer makes it so, allowing the pilot to make more accurate shots. This is how targets can appear to be destroyed or killed before the laser even begin to reach them. Cannons can fire in various modes as well, ranging from single shot where each cannon alternates when shooting, creating a kind of circular fire arc, to linked fire, where multiple cannons are fired at the same time to have a more devastating effect on a target.