V-wing starfighter
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| Star Wars craft | |
 |
|
| V-wing | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Kuat Systems Engineering |
| Specification | Alpha-3 Nimbus V-wing starfighter |
| Type | Starfighter |
| Length | 7.9 meters |
| Weapons | Twin swiveling laser cannons |
| Shield | |
| Hull | |
| Crew | 1 pilot, 1 Q7-series astromech droid |
| Top Speed | 55,000 km/h |
| Troop Capacity | |
| Affiliation | Galactic Republic, later Galactic Empire |
| Cargo Capacity | |
| Passengers | 0 |
- This article is about the Loyalist/Imperial starfighter. For similarly named craft, see V-wing.
In the fictional Star Wars saga, the V-Wing is a capable but not popular starfighter.
The agile V-wing starfighters served in the Republic Starfleet in large numbers during the Clone Wars and likely continued to serve in the Imperial Starfleet in the years following this massive conflict. The fighter was primarily used as an interceptor to engage droid-fighters, complementing the robust ARC-170's. They bore a passing resemblance to the TIE fighters of the later Imperial era, with their vertical heat radiator wing-panels making the fighter look like an 'H' when viewed from the front.
V-wings carried a single pilot and a Q7-series astromech droid. Like most of the fighters mass-produced for Republic forces, V-wings were too small for a hyperdrive, relying instead on carriers like the Venator-class Star Destroyer. Its armament consisted of twin laser cannons capable of swiveling to engage targets off-axis. The V-wing's twin ion drive thrusters gave it a maximum acceleration of 4,800g.
Three Elite V-wings escort Emperor Palpatine's Theta-class Shuttle as he returns to Coruscant from Mustafar at the end of Revenge of the Sith.
The V-wing is a playable fighter in the game Star Wars: Battlefront II, though it was changed to act as a heavy bomber instead of a nimble interceptor.
A plan from Hasbro features a 3 3/4 version of the fighter for their 2007 wave of Star Wars toys.
[edit] The History
Born to the development geniuses at Kuat Systems Engineering -- the same firm that crafted the Jedi starfighters -- the Alpha-3 Nimbus fighters were slow to first spread among the clone forces. Streamlined mass production techniques soon saw them replacing the V-19 Torrent as the preferred compact space superiority fighter.
Walex Blissex, who worked as development lead on the Delta-7 Aethersprite project, saw the Nimbus as an opportunity to improve on what his perfectionist perception saw as flaws in the cutting edge Jedi fighter program. The vessel's combat computers saw reaction improvements designed to let the clone pilots keep up with the supernatural speeds of their Jedi leaders. Mass produced V-wing fighters are too small to support a navicomputer and hyperdrive, though the fighter does carry a standard Q7-series astromech droid. Experimental V-wings, rumored to belong to an elite crimson-clad pilot brigade reporting directly to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, have been known to feature compact hyperdrives of limited capacity.
[edit] References
- Infobox statistics are from Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith Incredible Cross-Sections by Curtis Saxton, 2005 (ISBN 0-7566-1129-6).
- Lucas Arts Star Wars: Rogue Squadron for N64 and PC (gameplay and manual)
- The V-Wing fighter bears a striking similarity to the Cornerian starfighters seen in Star Fox: Assault
