By Joshua Tyler | update
Space science fiction is many things, but it’s never more thrilling than when it takes place in a tiny, delicate dispenser of death. Starfighters are one of the best parts of a space adventure, and while it’s likely that they won’t actually be that useful in actual space combat, that doesn’t matter when it comes to enjoying good storytelling. Had to
Just because it can’t work doesn’t mean they have to be unrealistic. The best starfighters use real space physics to deal death and destruction.
If you were a space jock going to war, what would be your ride of choice? We are going to answer this question.
These are the best sci-fi starfighters.
5. SA-43 Hammerhead in Space: Above and Beyond
Place: Above and beyond Designed specifically as a series about space fighter pilots, they had to fix their fighter craft. They did, and the result was the SA-43 Hammerhead.
The special effects of the 1990s weren’t quite up to the challenge of bringing the ship to life, but the design is undeniably great. The Hammerhead design blends the aesthetics of real-world, modern fighter craft with the less aerodynamically constrained environment of space. It is beautiful.
Able to fly both in space and in a planet’s atmosphere, the Hammerhead isn’t as realistic as some of the fighter craft designs on this list, but it’s realistic enough. In space, the craft often pitches and turns in midair like a jet plane, although it is powered with small attitude thrusters that help it turn and turn.
Each hammerhead has two rail guns mounted on a rotating gimbal. So if a fighter comes after you, swing your guns backwards and shoot backwards.
One of the most unique features of the ship is its ability to launch and dock in space. The cockpit separates from the ship and is lowered into the pressurized hangar bay on its mother ship. When a pilot wants to launch, he comes into the cockpit and is lowered and reattached to his hammerhead frame.
In addition to the CGI version of the ship show, the Place: Above and beyond The team also built complete models at an air base in Australia. Those full-scale models were eventually shipped to America, and the unsubstantiated legend surrounding them is that a Russian soldier spotted them and took photos, thinking they were a new type of American tactical fighter. If it’s realistic enough to fool Russian spies, then Hammerhead is on the list.
4. The T-65 X-Wing in Star Wars
There are many variations of the X-Wing used in Star Wars, but none top the T-65 used in the original Death Star trench flown by Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles.
Unlike the other sci-fi starfighters you’ll see on this list, there’s nothing realistic about the X-Wing. The same goes for every ship in Star Wars. They ignore Newtonian physics in favor of banking and thrusting through the atmosphere like World War II snub fighters. This is not a defect; This is a deliberate choice made by George Lucas to maximize excitement in his Starfighter dogfights.
The standard Star Wars X-Wing is a multi-functional craft. It seats only one human, but most X-Wings also carry an astromech droid to act as their navigator and in a pinch to carry out repairs on the go. It is capable of both space flight and atmospheric flight.
When not in combat, the X-Wing’s S foils, short for strike foils, or stability foils, are usually kept closed. In this configuration, the starfighter is less lethal, but easier to pilot, especially in the atmosphere. When in battle, the S-foils are locked in attack position, forming the X shape that gives the ship its name.
X-Wings are one of the few types of starfighters capable of hyperspace travel on their own.
Star Wars is full of amazing fighter designs, but X-Wing is the best of the franchise. It’s so good that it’s worth overlooking Lucas’ choice to lean ship design more toward fantasy than science.
3. Gunstar In The Last Starfighter
The last starfighter As one of the first films to make significant use of computer-generated animation, it’s an underappreciated gem of the 80s and an important milestone in special effects. Unfortunately, even with all the Cree supercomputers they used to offer it, the computer animation doesn’t hold up and isn’t very good. Because of this, modern audiences may not have realized how cool the film’s hero ship, the Gunstar, actually is.
This is one of the best looking Starfighter designs of all time, and if you’re having trouble figuring out why I say that based on this image, check out the video accompanying this article on the concept art show. Take a look. .
Gunstars don’t just look good, they’re incredibly realistic. They take full advantage of real space physics and work the way a spacecraft actually should. .
Of course, using the Death Blossom comes with a cost: you run out of weapons, and your ship is left dead in space. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be fun.
It is worth noting that I The last starfighterthe term “starfighter” actually refers to a gunstar gunner, not the ship itself. Now, we think of “starfighters” as spaceships, thanks in no small part to that. The last starfighterThat’s not the point of the film though.
2. Colonial Viper In Battlestar Galactica ’04
2004 Battlestar Galactica. The reboot series is about a lot of things, but mainly it’s about what happens aboard a carrier that revolves around starfighters as they try to escape the Cylons. That means the audience spends a lot of time with the show’s fighters, and so we’re lucky they did such an amazing job of making them cool.
The starfighters you see using the Colonials. B.S.G called wipers, and there are a few different types. When the Battlestar Pegasus appears, later in the show, they add their shiny new Viper Mark VII.
The starfighter you probably most associate with the name is the Viper Mark II, the type of craft that carried the old and destroyed Battlestar Galactica when the Cylons invaded. The Viper Mark II is old and outdated, but capable, and it serves the Colonial fleet well as they fight their way to Earth.
B.S.G Has the best fighter launching system in science fiction. If you’re a carrier looking to launch your fighters quickly, this is incredibly thrilling and highly practical. Vipers are pushed down a tube and ejected at high speed from the Battlestar, shot when clear of the ship without blowing it up if it is currently under heavy fire.
Landing is a bit more traditional. The Vipers take off and land in one of the landing pods of its Battlestar mothership, where they are later reloaded into the ship’s launch tube.
Vipers are also the most realistic fighter craft used in science fiction. They work on real space physics, with the ability to use maneuvering planes to turn 180 degrees and turn backwards while still moving in the same direction. Taking full advantage of some sort of realistic space physics is common to all ships on this list, with the exception of Star Wars ships.
1. Asterisk In Babylon 5
Babylon 5 One of the biggest science fiction franchises that modern audiences ignore. It’s held back from present-day relevance by the show’s early ’90s computer-generated space battles. It’s a shame because of all the computer-generated imagery, some of the best starship designs in science fiction.
The best of of Babylon 5 The ship is, without question, the Starfury. Starfury was the standard of Earthforce for decades. This is the ship that Geoffrey Sinclair went to certain doom in the Battle of the Line. This is the ship that Babylon 5 is originally equipped with, complete with that super cool launching sequence, splitting the Starfurys, like the station firing infinite death into the cosmos. Starfurys might be the most realistic starfighter on this list, and also the deadliest.
of Babylon 5 Starfighter was co-designed by Ron Thornton and Steve Berg. His intention from the start was to use the ship as a medium to demonstrate how Newtonian physics could be applied to space warfare. This is something that cannot be done with practical models. It could only happen in CGI, and they wanted to take full advantage of being the first to use it in a television show.
Newtonian physics gives Star Furies a huge advantage over less realistic starfighters. You wouldn’t want to try Starfury in a slow banking X-Wing. The Starfury uses attitude jets for maneuvering, but also its four powerful engines, which allow it maneuverability unmatched by any other science fiction ship.
Fly behind Starfury, and you may find yourself in front of it instead. You only have a millisecond to look into the eyes of your executioner as the starfighter pilot uses space physics to spin his ship around 180 degrees and shoot you with the Starfury’s four forward-facing pulse cannons. Blasts him in the face. All while maintaining their original speed and course.
The Starfury is a ship built for war in space. It cannot enter the environment, because that is not what it is designed to do. It also cannot create its own jump point, although the ship can use pre-existing jump gates to enter and travel into hyperspace.
Starfurys are often in battle and fly a lot, so they have developed a mechanism that allows pilots to get out of them quickly. Press the panic button, and the entire cockpit floats out of the engine assembly into space.
Later in the show, Babylon 5 Adds a new type of starfighter to its arsenal. They are a Starfury variant called Thunderbolts and are easily distinguished from older models by their long noses.
Thunderbolts are designed to fly in the atmosphere as well as in space, so I guess they have some advantage in that regard. Still, the original Starfury’s unobstructed view and potentially better turning radius would make it my starfighter of choice.
of Babylon 5 Starfury is the best sci-fi starfighter. Hit if you can.
