TIE pilot

"You want to survive, you got to think like the Imperial bucketheads."

- A Rebel pilot

TIE pilots served in the Imperial Starfighter Corps by piloting the various TIE series starfighters.

At the height of the Galactic Empire, the Imperial Navy had countless Academy graduates and clones at its disposal. During the time of the Imperial Remnant and the reign of the "reborn" clone Emperor Palpatine, the Empire was forced to be conservative with the lives of the TIE pilots due to their decreasing numbers, and unmanned TIE/D automated starfighters were used as support craft for living pilots.

They were referred to as "bucketheads" by Rebel pilots.

Training


They represented the elite of the Imperial Navy, having undergone grueling physical and psychological conditioning to achieve their ranks. An elite corps, only 10 percent of TIE pilots successfully navigated the intense training and testing of the Imperial Navy. The rest were reassigned throughout the Navy as combat gunners, crewmen, and other personnel.

Drawing from the graduates of Imperial academies, the fleet conditioned their best prospects to be fanatically loyal to the Emperor and willing to sacrifice their lives to complete their assigned missions. To ingrain the concept of placing mission and Empire above self, TIE pilots' names were replaced with identification numbers (such as DS-61-2) and were subjected to continual reminders of their craft's lack of integrated life-support system and combat deflector shields.

Duties


To a TIE pilot, the success of a mission eclipsed personal safety and even the safety of fellow wingmen. Imperial tactics and command-control procedures for TIE squadrons were based on the assumption that most of the pilots were new and inexperienced. They were not allowed to use a vehicle more than once, though this practice declined as the number of available ships began to decrease. As a result of these early measures they developed little or no attachment to a particular craft as their Rebel counterparts did. This mindset helped to enforce the pilots' view of themselves as a part of the Imperial war machine. They regarded themselves as expendable and were trained to regard their vehicles as the most expressive instrument of the Galactic Empire. As a result, TIE pilots were loyal and willing to die for Emperor Palpatine. Their primary missions were to attack Rebel and pirate ships, defend space stations, convoys, and planetary garrisons. They were also used to escort TIE/sa Bombers on planetary assaults. Much of a TIE pilot's time was spent in a TIE cockpit on patrol duty.

Uniform and equipment
TIE pilots were equipped with black uniforms, a black helmet, and a life support chest piece with breather tubes to provide necessary gases.

The helmet design was reminiscent of stormtrooper armor, with a few notable distinctions. The shell was bulkier, possibly due to reinforced padding or internal pilot-to-ship communications equipment. Additional modifications enabled the pilot to survive in the cockpit's vacuum. Breather tubes extended from the helmet to the front of the chest plate, where controls for the suit's portable life support system were located. The actual supply of oxygen was built into the rectangular back plate of the armor.

Because the odds of surviving a crash were slim, TIE pilots were rarely equipped with emergency rations or supplies. Some carried a personal sidearm for reasons which may have been ceremonial. These did show some use when opposing forces would attack TIE pilots before they could take off.

Notable TIE pilots


Notable TIE pilots included Biggs Darklighter and Baron Soontir Fel of the 181st Imperial Fighter Group, who both defected to the Rebel Alliance. These men were Academy graduates and officers in the Starfighter Corps. Another notable pilot was Maarek Stele, who was also a Prophet of the Dark Side. Civé Rashon was one of the rare examples of a woman who had become a TIE pilot and, even rarer, a squadron leader.

Behind the scenes

 * In Star Wars Empire: Darklighter, Biggs is shown wearing TIE pilot gear with a feature the editors point out is not canon: a clear face plate sealing the helmet in addition to the black face plate. Because the black face plate seals off the helmet, an additional clear face plate does not serve any logical purpose for the Empire's pilots.


 * This was added only so that the artist could identify the characters and allow them to express facial emotions. It is possible, however, that the black face plate could flip up. However, flipping it up while in flight would prove deadly.

Appearances

 * Imperial Recruitment
 * Star Wars Empire: Darklighter
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Tag & Bink Are Dead
 * LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
 * Star Wars: Imperial Ace
 * Vader's Quest
 * Star Wars Empire: Idiot's Array
 * Star Wars Empire 28: Wreckage
 * Star Wars Empire: The Wrong Side of the War
 * Star Wars Rebellion: My Brother, My Enemy
 * Walking the Path That's Given
 * River of Chaos
 * Command Decision
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Star Wars: Battlefront
 * Star Wars: Battlefront II
 * Shadows of the Empire comic
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
 * X-wing: Rogue Squadron
 * X-wing Rogue Squadron: In the Empire's Service
 * X-wing Rogue Squadron: The Making of Baron Fel
 * Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy