Star Wars: 10 Things You Didn't Know About The Imperial TIE Fighter
1. It Is A Better Dogfighter Than The X-wing
Over the years the TIE Fighter has got a bit of a raw deal. With the X-wing being the poster-boy of Star Wars spacecraft it has come to be seen as the apex fighter of the original trilogy, relegating its opposite number to the position of a cheap-as-chips piece of mass produced cannon fodder.
Which is rather unfair, because the TIE Fighter’s combat début was anything but poor.
Rewatch A New Hope’s climactic battle and you’ll note that not once is the X-wing able to outmanoeuvre a TIE Fighter. In fact, without a fellow Rebel pilot to shoot it off, having one on your six is as good as a death sentence.
And worse, the X-wing is slow. Wookiepedia lists its maximum sublight speed as 100 MGLT, a maximum speed it shares with the TIE Fighter. But despite Luke’s trench run being made at, quote, ‘full throttle,’ Darth Vader’s TIE Advanced – leading two TIE Fighters – was easily able to reel him in.
Then consider that the supposedly ‘rugged’ X-wing is as easily destroyed and far from being cannon fodder the TIE Fighter is a demonstrably better fighter.
Time to give the Devil its due.