Star Wars: 10 Secrets Behind X-Wings You Need To Know
How much does an X-Wing cost?
Star Wars has tons of fantastic sci-fi elements that caused millions of people to instantly fall in love with the movies. The lightsabers. The Force. The droids. But because the saga revolves around a war on a galactic scale, the plot wouldn't have the same impact without some spaceships blasting at one another. To sell these interplanetary shootouts, George Lucas' crew knew they couldn't just film a great scene without designing an awesome spaceship.
And with that in mind, the Star Wars team created what would serve as the standard vessel for the Rebel alliance - the X-Wing. Save for the Millennium Falcon, the X-Wing is the most iconic ship in the franchise.
It may be a staple of Star Wars since the 1970s but there are still a lot of things that people don't know about the Rebels' trademark vehicle. What was its original design? How many were built for the original film? Who designed them? (It certainly wasn't George Lucas.) When you read these X-Wing facts, you'll get a whole new level of appreciation for the Star Wars series.
10. The Empire Were Meant To Use X-Wings
The X-Wing starfighter has always been synonymous with the Rebel Alliance. After seeing the spacecraft whizzing around Star Destroyers and blasting at the Death Star, it's hard to see the vessel as anything except a force of good.
Ironically, the X-Wing was originally designed for the Empire! Incom Corporation manufactured these starfighters during the Clone Wars for the Imperial Navy. The Empire approved of the vehicles since they appeared to have no exploitable weakness. (Considering the Death Star has a VERY exploitable weakness, you'd assume that wouldn't be an issue.)
As the deal was about to close, the Galactic Empire changed its mind, believing TIE (Twin-Ion Engine) fighters proved a better fit for its troops. Since the TIE line lacked structural reinforcement or shielding, you may wonder why The Emperor personally gave these vehicles the green light.
And the simple answer was - money. Because the TIE line were substantially cheaper to manufacture, Darth Sidious and Moff Tarkin agreed to dissolve the X-Wing deal. With millions of unused X-Wings collecting dust, the Alliance were able to purchase them at a reasonable price.