Azure Angel

The Azure Angel was a customized Delta-7 Aethersprite-class light interceptor starfighter that was modified and piloted by the Padawan Anakin Skywalker during the early months of the Clone Wars.

Characteristics
Anakin gave his ship a paint scheme similar to that of his old podracer. This paint scheme also resembled the one used by Jedi Master Plo Koon on his own customized fighter. Azure Angel was named out of Anakin's love for his secret wife, Galactic Republic Senator Padmé Amidala.

Although Azure Angel began its life as a standard Delta-7, Anakin, with his innate mechanical aptitude, made extensive modifications to suit his own tastes for speed and control while in flight and in combat. To increase the ship's firepower, he armed it with four Taim & Bak laser cannons, mounting two on each wingtip, as well as a missile launcher, which spouted a seemingly infinite number of missiles. The laser cannons on each wingtip could fire either separately or simultaneously, and at such extreme angles off-axis that they could hit targets even as Anakin passed them.

The missiles could be launched in rapid succession; seven of them were fired within the span of seconds at the Battle of Muunilinst. Other modifications included articulated stabilizer foils and vectored thrusters for increased maneuverability within realspace and atmosphere, as well as a pair of TransGalMeg hyperdrive thrusters that provided limited hyperspace capability without having to utilize a hyperdrive ring.

History
Some Jedi were concerned that Skywalker regarded this fighter as a possession, and that it was a sign of his inability to let go of his past or to resist forming attachments. However, Jedi Master Saesee Tiin encouraged him to keep pushing the ship's limits, hoping to see that Anakin's improvements were incorporated into the next generation of Jedi starfighters.

The original Azure Angel was used up until the Battle of Muunilinst. After destroying numerous Geonosian fighters and a Separatist gun platform, Anakin encountered Asajj Ventress, who dueled him using her Ginivex-class starfighter. When the Dark Jedi retreated, Anakin chased her to the jungle moon of Yavin 4, where she destroyed the Azure Angel after he had landed. Following this, Skywalker would go on to pilot several other starfighters, including a red Delta-7, another blue Delta-7 named Azure Angel II, a yellow Delta-7B and a yellow Eta-2 Actis.

Behind the scenes
The name Azure Angel was created by Lucasfilm's "Keeper of the Holocron", Leland Chee based on the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels precision flight team. Other possible names were Cerulean Angel, Cobalt Angel, and Teal Angel.

Plo Koon's Jedi starfighter, seen in Revenge of the Sith, possessed a color scheme and pattern nearly identical to that seen on both Azure Angel and Azure Angel II.

Appearances

 * Clone Wars Chapter 1
 * Clone Wars Chapter 2
 * Clone Wars Chapter 4
 * Clone Wars Chapter 10
 * Clone Wars Chapter 11
 * Clone Wars Chapter 17