A Star Wars Question: Airspeeders vs Starfighters

[LouieN]

Hello,

I am not a complete Star Wars nerd.  I was thinking how effective were the Air Speeders vs Starfighters.

What would happen if a cloud fighter or Snowspeeder took on a Tie fighter.  Is there no competition.  In lore anyway?

Thanks

[AKULA]

Interesting question.

I'd liken it to a piston-engined fighter against an early jet... the air speeder has at least some aerodynamics and at low level might give the tie fighter some trouble (according to Finn in Force Awakens hugging the ground confuses a tie fighter's tracking systems).  The speeders are pretty nimble so I'd give them a better turning circle, but the Tie would have better performance at higher altitudes than the speeder.

So maybe the Tie gets an advantage in the first turn as it dives down on a strafing run...but then if it gets sucked into a low level dogfight its probably in trouble...likewise, if the speeder decides to climb rather than hug the ground its probably toast.

[Daeothar]

The (now long Legends) X-Wing book series has quite a bit of detail on the behaviour of starfighters in atmosphere. At one point, it is even explained that TIE-Fighters are at a severe disadvantage in atmospheric dogfights because of their large solar panels/radiators, which play havoc with their maneuverability.

They're quite fast, but have to avoid sharp turns because the wings might shear off. Which is why the X-Wing or Z-75 are much more suited to fighting within atmospheres.

But even those are limited to some degree. Which is where dedicated atmospheric craft actually have an edge.

Atmospheric craft are usually underpowered and relatively weak compared to starfighters, but they do have an edge in atmospheric speed (depends on the design) and most of all maneuverability.

But this refers to flyers, not skimmers. Landspeeders rely on their repulsorlift engines to stay aloft and those become less and less useful once they get further away from whatever mass they're pushing against (i.e. a planetary surface). So up high, they become more lumbering and less controlable.

However, down low in the weeds, they absolutely have an edge over fullblown starfighters.

Remember that TIE that patrolled around the base in Andor? An atmospheric fighter or landspeeder would have flown rings around it at at that speed and altitude and would probably dominate the fight.

There are some Youtube channels covering all matter of dogfights in the DCS simulator. Some of the fights are between wildly different opponents (think P-41 Mustang vs. Su-27 Flanker for instance) and the results are often pretty surprising.

It's usually up to the pilot's skill to force the opponent into an altitude, vector and/or speed that does not suit them, and the asynchronicity of the match-ups is comparable to pitting starfighters against landspeeders

[LouieN]

TY for the replies