T-65 X-wing starfighter/Legends

T-65 X-wing starfighter "Time to retire those Z-95 Headhunters!"

- Raymus Antilles after the victory at Fresia

The Incom T-65 X-wing starfighter was the main all-purpose starfighter of the Rebel Alliance and its later forms, and played a major role in the Galactic Civil War.

Characteristics


Reasonably maneuverable, X-wings had two pairs of wing-like strike-foils, or S-foils, mounted at the rear of the craft. Normally, the foils on each side were locked flush against each other, but during combat, the foils were folded out to increase the spread coverage of the laser cannons mounted at the tips of the foils. This gave the craft its distinctive "X"-like appearance when viewed from the front or rear. The cannons on some earlier models could not be fired with the S-foils in locked position. During hyperspace travel, the S-foils remained locked.

The X-wing carried four Taim & Bak KX9 laser cannons, along with tubes for proton torpedoes. Other warheads, such as concussion missiles, could be fired from the launchers, but this required a considerable amount of time and effort on the part of the technical crews, and the overall versatility of the proton torpedo was ideally suited to the X-wing's varied mission profile. However, during the early years of the Galactic Civil War, the Rebellion had a small supply of such weapons.

The X-wing's lasers had various settings:
 * Single fire, where each laser fired individually;
 * Dual fire, where two lasers, one on each side, paired up and the pairs fired alternately;
 * Quad fire, where all four lasers (one at each foil-tip) fired together, converging on the target; or
 * Stutter fire, where many underpowered beams were fired in rapid succession (added during Yuuzhan Vong War).



Sublight propulsion was generated by four Incom 4L4 fusial thrust engines, which gave the starfighter relatively fast space and atmospheric speed. The X-wing, unlike most fighters of the TIE series, was equipped with a hyperdrive, which made it hyperspace capable, and allowed it to operate independently. Fighter squadrons could strike out on their own, without the need for a carrier; this autonomy suited the Rebellion, as it served their hit-and-run tactics perfectly.

The fighter had space for one pilot, assisted by a droid (such as an R2-series astromech droid unit) in an external socket which monitored the status of the craft and could make emergency repairs.

The X-wing's flight controls were similar to those of the T-16 skyhopper, an airspeeder also produced by Incom Corporation. This factor partially explains the great popularity the T-65 enjoyed among Rebel pilots, who had, not uncommonly, piloted civilian skyhoppers before joining the Rebellion.

History


The X-wing was originally designed by Incom Corporation for the Empire by Vors Voorhorian, but the entire engineering team defected to the Rebel Alliance with the prototypes hidden on Fresia. It was directly descended from the old Z-95 Headhunter, built by Incom and Subpro, with lessons learned from the ARC-170 starfighter. After 4 prototypes were extracted from Fresia during the Battle of Fresia, it first encountered Imperial forces in the Battle of Turkana.

The X-wing was continually updated throughout its design lifetime. The original T-65AC1 fielded by the Rebel Alliance was a competent strike fighter for its time, but was soon supplanted by the T-65AC2, boasting improved acceleration. The T-65AC3 had improved avionics, shields, and sensors; the T-65AC4 was primarily another engine upgrade, which made it nearly the equal of the RZ-1 A-wing interceptor. One notable design, the T-65D-A1, replaced the astromech droid with an internal computer core for hyperdrive jump calculations but was considered a failure (partially due to ease of sabotage). The T-65T, the X-wing trainer variant, replaced the Z-95 Headhunter trainer. There was also a T-65B X-wing starfighter in the works during the Galactic Civil War, which was being developed on Mon Calamari by Rebels and Incom technicians. The traitor Ral Shawgrim nearly managed to transfer the plans to the Empire-aligned Sienar Fleet Systems, but was thwarted by Rebel operatives.

Famous uses included the Battle of Yavin, where an X-wing was piloted by Luke Skywalker and destroyed the Galactic Empire's first Death Star, although nearly all the other X-wings that participated in the battle were destroyed. An X-wing piloted by Wedge Antilles also helped destroy the second Death Star's reactor at the Battle of Endor, in concert with Millennium Falcon, starting off a chain reaction that completely destroyed the battlestation.

It had been intended that the X-wing series would be replaced by the E-wing approximately six years after the Battle of Endor, but initial design issues relating to the weapons placement delayed wide-spread introduction into the New Republic military. Wide-scale deployment of the E-wing did occur (most notably in Fifth Fleet), but X-wing production continued on and may have equipped fighter squadrons not "at the tip of the spear." One notable exception was Rogue Squadron, the Republic's most elite fighter squadron, which was known for its almost exclusive use of the X-wing.

Shortly before the Yuuzhan Vong War, the New Republic fielded the J-series of X-wing, supplementing the more advanced and more expensive Series III E-wing. The XJ added a third torpedo bay where a cargo bay was previously, increasing the proton torpedo load up to nine. Engines, lasers, and avionics were also improved. The XJ was greatly improved in all respects over the earlier designs and was initially issued to starfighter squadrons with Jedi pilots.



Three variants were developed, culminating with the T-65J3: the ultimate evolution of the X-wing. The X-wing's stutter fire capability was added in the invasion of the Yuuzhan Vong to overwhelm their singularity defenses. Some paramilitary groups were also equipped with earlier J-series fighters (probably the T-65J or the T-65J2); system-defense forces and poorer paramilitary groups may have had X-wings of varying age and capability. Many older X-wings were rebuilt into the T-65BR reconnaissance variant.

By the time of the Killik/Chiss conflict, two new variants of the X-wing were introduced. The first was the XJ5 series, also referred to as the ChaseX. The second variant was the StealthX. The XJ5s were mainly used by the Galactic Reconstruction Police. The Jedi tended to use StealthX or earlier XJ3 series. The StealthX was a covert strike craft, equipped with features that reduced its visibility both visually and to sensors, though it could be located if it was silhouetted or launching proton torpedoes. The StealthX was described as being smaller than the XJ model, which was already half a meter shorter than the T-65C. The StealthX was also described as being a derivative of the XJ3, and likely classified as the XJ4.



By the time of the Second Corellian Insurrection, the Galactic Alliance was fielding XJ6s, and Luke Skywalker's Jedi-filled Hardpoint Squadron used these exclusively. The XJ7 would soon follow, being used at least by Rogue Squadron.

There were two conflicting systems of identification for the X-wing. The basic designation "T-65" was constant, but the version modifier was inconsistent. At least two systems were used. One of them uses the suffix "AC1" with the last number incrementing as the fighter was revised. A second system, in which a letter was appended to the end in increasing value (T-65B, T-65D, T-65J, etc.). These were usually thought of as different names for the same variations.

Influence on children
During the Galactic Civil War, toy X-wings were apparently popular among children, who wished to re-enact the adventures of their heroes of the Alliance. This was reminiscent of the Clone Wars, in which children would often play with action figures and vehicles to create their own version of the war.

Behind the scenes

 * In addition to miniature X-wings, the production crew of A New Hope constructed a full-sized X-wing for the Yavin IV hangar sequence. Judicious editing and flat cardboard mock-ups made it appear as if there were dozens of full-sized craft.


 * The X-wing is the only ship that is mentioned by name (only once) in the original trilogy.