List of Star Wars air vehicles
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The following is a list of fictional Star Wars air vehicles, including floaters, skyhoppers, and airspeeders.
[edit] A-1 Deluxe Floater
The A-1 Deluxe Floater is a luxury air speeder featuring automated steering and fine Corellian leather. It is manufactured by Mobquet Swoops and Speeders.
[edit] Airspeeder
An airspeeder is an aircraft that uses anti-gravity ("repulsorlift") thrust rather than aerodynamics for lift. Extensively depicted in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, which takes place partly on the galactic capital of Coruscant, a world composed exclusively of urban landscape.
Airspeeders function much like automobiles in that they provide transportation for the general public. Instead of roadways, airspeeders use designated lanes in the sky. The direction an airspeeder travels is determined by the lane that they are traveling in. Airspeeders are parked in lots or parking garages, much like automobiles on Earth. On planets that use airspeeders, the garages are often found near the top of the building.
Airspeeders vary widely in size and function. They range from small one and two person speeders with open air cockpits up to large passenger and cargo vehicles. Many airspeeders are customized by their owners.
[edit] Coruscant Air Taxi
The Coruscant Taxi is an air vehicle used to transport passengers in the great capital world Coruscant. Almost all travel on Coruscant is via air, as the original ground levels, abandoned thousands of years ago, are now overrun by criminal gangs and various dangerous lifeforms. Individuals not possessing air speeders of their own thus frequently use the air taxi, which employs a compact, medium-grade repulsor capable of elevating it to the top of even the highest skyscraper. A radial battery of low-powered antigravity devices gives the air taxi excellent navigational control in open air, allowing it to swoop with accuracy around the tall buildings of this cityworld, and dock skillfully at its destination. It is roughly 8 metres long, and piloted by a qualified air taxi pilot. Air taxi pilots are required to pass difficult tests that prove their ability to navigate their crafts through the cityscape safely.
[edit] Coruscant Fire-ship
The Fire-ship (Firespeeder, Coruscant emergency ship) is a special atmospheric speeder used for putting out fires on Coruscant. They were designed to carry large amounts of water and douse flaming ships. These ships were deployed during the Battle of Coruscant to douse the flames of the burning Invisible Hand, piloted to a crash-landing by Anakin Skywalker.
[edit] Geonosian Solar Sailer
The Geonosian Solar Sailer was the ship used by Count Dooku to escape from Geonosis. While some are of the belief that it is a hybrid of a Punworcca 116-class sloop and a sail that the Count acquired from the mysterious artisans of Gree, The Revised Guide To Vehicles attributes its creation to Poggle the Lesser, archduke of Geonosis, as a gift to Count Dooku, and as a canon source must be taken as fact.
It is driven by FA-4, the droid pilot that resides inside the bubble shaped cockpit of the solar sailer. When lifting off, the front of the solar sailer opens into four pieces that are attached near the cockpit, allowing the parabolic sail to unfurl.
[edit] Nubian E-065 High Altitude Air Speeder
The Nubian E-065 High Altitude Air Speeder is a design from before the fall of the Old Republic, built by the shipyards of the planet Nubia. Like their starships, this one was made to be streamlined and graceful, and also has a large aerodynamic surface for a gliding to a safe landing if the ship loses power. The twin laser cannons are powerful, but inaccurate, making it a poor choice for defending.
These speeders are becoming rare, kept in use by many worlds due to their high altitude capability and speed, and Nubia still makes a large profit on spare parts keep the E-065s in the galaxy in operable condition.
[edit] Sail Barge
Sail Barge is a fictional vehicle from Star Wars.
A Sail Barge is a large repulsorlift craft of Ubrikkian manufacture. A sail barge is typically 30 meters in length by five meters in width at its widest axis and can be equipped with weapons if necessary. Despite the fact a Sail Barge uses repulsorlifts to keep it above the ground, its general shape is described as "shoe-like" and has large canopy-like sails above its main promenade deck. These engines can be deactived and the craft can stay aloft by winds alone, should the wind be sufficient to allow this.
The crime lord Jabba the Hutt was noted as owning one such sail barge that he used to take pleasure trips around the Dune Sea on Tatooine. Jabba had his sail barge outfitted with a single large lasercannon at the rear of the promenade deck to protect himself from any dangers and assassins. But this particular position was later revealed as a design flaw in the Ubrikkian Sail barge after Leia Organa had managed to use the lasercannon to destroy the sail barge.
[edit] Seismic tank
A seismic tank is an enormous floating vehicle that has a giant piston which is fired into the ground, fielding a huge impact blast consisting of great winds and a large crater. The vehicle was not a capital vehicle and was manned only by mechanicals. Even though not very practical against heavy armored vehicles, this juggernaught could disable huge groups of infantry who did not possess the capabilities to disarm it. During the middle of the Clone Wars, Mace Windu was leading a battalion of clone troopers into battle against the Separatist droids, when the immense blocky vehicle floated onto the battlefield. At first, the clones did not know what to make of it. The Seismic tank fired, and blew many clones off the battle field. Windu avoided the same fate by some incredible acrobatics. This scene appeared in the animated series Star Wars Clone Wars.
Seeing its power, the remaining clones fired their blasters at it, but in vain. It smashed the ground once more, destroying the remaining clones. Windu lost his ligthtsaber in the process. Without his Jedi weapon Windu still amazingly fought hand to hand and defeated many Super Battledroids each at least a head taller than he. Windu soon regained his saber, and hijacked the tank, destroying it. It is not believed that another one was constructed before the end of the Clone Wars with Darth Vader's dissolving of the Separatist movement.
The Seismic tank is 55 meters tall and is manufactured by Haor Chall Engineering. For more information, please see the StarWars.com Databank.
[edit] Separatist Gunship
The HMP (Heavy Missile Platform) drone gunship is a vehicle built by Baktoid Fleet Ordnance as a ground assault fighter and employed by the Confederacy of Independent Systems (C.I.S. or "the Separatists") during the latter half of the Clone Wars. According to Star Wars Revenge of the Sith: Incredible Cross-Sections, "designed for air strikes within planet atmospheres, [the Separatist Gunship] moves at relatively slow speeds and displays average maneuverability, but this is compensated for by its awesome firepower." In its standard configuration, the gunship's armament includes 2 independently-targeting twin laser turrets, 1 medium laser cannon, and 14 missiles. Wingtip weapon options are mission specific: light laser cannons, concussion bombs, or varying missile and torpedo types. The gunship is similar to the Republic's LAAT/i Gunship in that it is used for low-altitude, high-explosive assaults on enemy armored and fortified positions. They are different in that while the Republic Gunship is piloted by clone pilots and can transport a platoon of clone soldiers as a secondary role, the Separatist Gunship is crewed only by an integrated droid brain and carries no passengers; it is designed purely for attack. Maximum airspeed is 14,200 km/h, 8,824 mph, or almost 12 times the speed of sound. The gunship is about 5 metres shorter than the Republic Gunship at 12.3 m (40.5 ft). The gunship is shaped like the classic flying saucer with a droid brain housing in the front. The missiles are carried under the saucer portion.
HMP Gunships figured prominently in the Battle of Kashyyyk, punching holes in the Republic's armored lines. The gunships were also vital during the abduction of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine prior to the Battle of Coruscant. Separatist Gunships were either scrapped or recycled by local warlords in particular Ado Eemon, ruler of Caramm V.
In Star Wars: Battlefront, MAFs are present, which look similar to HMP Droid Gunships, but are not the same thing. There is also a space-deployed variant of the Gunship, which played a vital role in the Battle of Coruscant and acts as a troop transport. In Battlefront 2, the Separatist Gunships are the CIS's attack transport flyers in Clone Wars-era space battles as the counterpart of the Republic Gunship. The Separatist Gunship in the game offers 6 positions: one pilot with powerful laser and homing missiles (akin to those on the droid tri-fighter), one co-pilot with remote rocket (a destructive missile that you can steer like a ship), two gunners with particle cannon weapons, and two passengers.
- References
- Saxton, Curtis; Chasemore, Richard; Jenssen, Hans (2005). Star Wars Revenge of the Sith: Incredible Cross-Sections. Dorling Kindersley Limited. ISBN 0-7566-1129-6.
- Luceno, James (2005). Star Wars Revenge of the Sith: the Visual Dictionary. Dorling Kindersley Limited. ISBN 0-7566-1128-8.
- Saxton, Curtis; Chasemore, Richard; Jenssen, Hans (2002). Star Wars Attack of the Clones: Incredible Cross-Sections. Dorling Kindersley Limited. ISBN 0-7894-8574-5.
- Star Wars: Battlefront from LucasArts
- Star Wars: Battlefront II from LucasArts
[edit] Snowspeeder
The Incom T-47 Snowspeeder is a 2 person vehicle featured most prominently in the opening sequences of the 1980 film Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. The Snowspeeder itself is a modified civilian airspeeder. Extensive remodeling was needed to convert an unarmed passenger vehicle into a type of airspeeder that could function for extended periods in the extremely low atmospheric temperature of Hoth. It seats a gunner in the back who controls a cable gun which is used to take down the AT-AT walkers at Hoth.
[edit] Storm IV Twin-Pod Cloud Car
The Storm IV Twin-Pod Cloud Car is an atmospeheric vehicle that uses both ion and repulsorlift engines. It was manufactured by Bespin Motors and is powered by a miniature version of the Quadex Kyromaster ion engine. The Kyromaster lacks a cover to reduce engine heat and allow maximum air-cooling. The cloud car also employs a dual engine system to travel very fast. It is employed by the Bespin Wing Guards who are responsible for the security of Cloud City and has two pressurized twin cabins. The pilot sits in the port (left) pod while the gunner sits in the starboard (right) pod. The Storm IV Twin-Pod Car was seen in The Empire Strikes Back where it patrolled Cloud City. For further information see the Star Wars Databank Entry.
[edit] V-Wing Airspeeder
The V-wing Airspeeder was the first atmospheric assault speeder used by the New Republic, during the Battle of Mon Calamari where they were used against the reborn Emperor Palpatine's deadly World Devastators and Wavewalkers. It was manufactured by Slayn & Korpil which also manufactured the B-wing starfighter. It is apparently not related to the Kuat Drive Yards starfighter of the same name. The V-wing Airspeeder was a swift and agile speeder and could travel at 1000 km per hour with the help of its 2 specially-designed Chab-Ylwoum scramjet boosters. These scramjets could be used to outrun enemy craft. The V-wing Airspeeder's weapons were 2 fire-linked blaster cannons located on each side of the craft's scramjet intakes beneath the V-wing Airspeeder's wings. These cannons were capable of Rapid-Fire for short periods, however, these easily overheated. Cluster Missiles were fitted as a secondary weapon, as seen in the original Rogue Squadron game on N64. The blaster cannons had a range of 2 km though they could only take on similar-sized vessels such as Droid TIE Fighters and were obsolete against warships or assault craft. The V-wing also lacked deflector shields with the pilot having to rely on his ejector seat. The V-wing could be used to handle a variety of missions and could be used as patrol craft. They were to fight in many other battles against the Imperial Remnant. The V-wing could also be transported by the V-wing Speeder Transport which could carry four of these.
[edit] V-Wing Speeder Transport
The V-wing Speeder Transport was a vehicle used by the New Republic to deploy the V-wing Airspeeders into battle. Like the V-wing Airspeeder, the V-wing Speeder Transport was manufactured by Slayn & Korpil. It could carry 4 V-wing Airspeeders under its arching wings and was 20 metres long. Similar in shape to the V-wing Airspeeder though larger in size. The V-wing Speeder Transport was unarmed and thus had to depend on its escort starfighters such as the X-wings and E-wings or on its V-wings when manned, could defend their transport. During the Battle of Calamari, the V-wing Speeder Transport saw action against the Reborn Emperor Palpatine's World Devastators, Droid TIE Fighters and Wavewalkers. The V-wing Speeder Transports could be deployed from space but required a mothership such as the Star Destroyer Emancipator which was liberated by the New Republic. A specialized version of the V-wing Speeder Transport was also manufactured by Slayn & Korpil, the Model B which could ferry 6 V-wing Airspeeders.
[edit] Wookiee Ornithopter
The Wookiee Ornithopter is a flying machine featured in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, as well as several video games produced by LucasArts.
An ornithopter is a mechanically driven aerodyne whose lift in flight is obtained by the action of flapping wings. That the Wookiees employ such a vehicle is a testament to their superior engineering skills.
Though the vehicles were used in the Battle of Kashyyyk during The Clone Wars, it is unknown if the ornithopters are military vehicles, or civilian transports converted for military use. They do not appear to have any mounted weapons, though the Wookiees on-board were certainly carrying arms and ordinance during the battle.
[edit] References
| Vehicles of Star Wars | |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| Air vehicles | Aquatic vehicles | Capital ships | Ground vehicles | Starfighters | |
| General lists | |
| Star Wars air vehicles | Star Wars aquatic vehicles | Star Wars capital ships | Star Wars ground vehicles | Star Wars starfighters Star Wars support craft | List of minor vehicles |
