Star wars ships realism

[Venomstick121]

Yes I know Star Wars is far from realism but what about the spacecraft? Based on our knowledge of space travel and aircraft is there any could function in the real world?

 

[Antarctica]

This shows it --
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldbz5eZr5RY&pp=ygUgc3RhciB3YXJzIC0gMTk1MCdzIFBhbmF2aXNpb24gNzA%3D

No-one lives in the real world anymore

 

[SaparotRob]

Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica (reboot) and The Expanse might be closer to reality, at least where ship movement is concerned. I've only seen some clips of The Expanse, but I believe some research was done and might be the most realistic.

 

[swampyankee]

Space opera -- a genre into which [1] Star Wars, Star Trek, and The Expanse fall (along with Firefly, Farscape, and Battlestar Galactica) all play fast and loose with physics. Star Wars is probably the worst offender of these in this regard, but it usually doesn't get bad enough to make me fall out of my seat in dismay.

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[1] Leaving aside the fact that coming up with a consistent and complete definition of space opera, science fiction, or fantasy is a Sisyphean task.

 

[SaparotRob]

View: https://youtu.be/OgvI6RbkMnQ?t=139

I saw this a few years ago.

 

[Venomstick121]

I recently rebuilt a Lego set I had of Boba Fetts Slave-1 and was wondering if it were to even be able to fly in real life. I am going to assume that the engines are a type thruster we have currently. Would it be able to turn because it doesn't even have a rudder. It does have tiny little wings with what I am going to assume is flareons.

 

[special ed]

One our model club members built a control line model X-wing fighter with a Cox .049. Flies OK, but landings not so much. It was retired to display due to damage & repairs.

 

[SaparotRob]

The Estes model rocketeer credo was "Anything, given enough power, can fly." Probably.

 

[Venomstick121]

The Estes model rocketeer credo was "Anything, given enough power, can fly." Probably.

they aren't wrong

 

[cvairwerks]

they aren't wrong

Just look at an F-4....perfect example that with enough thrust anything will fly

 

[eljefe]

Yes I know Star Wars is far from realism but what about the spacecraft? Based on our knowledge of space travel and aircraft is there any could function in the real world?

Perhaps the most charitable thing I can say is that George Lucas really doesn't understand how either aircraft or spacecraft work. In Star Wars, you have to start from the premise that ship-to-ship combat will resemble WWII air operations, with fighters dogfighting with guns, fighters attacking bombers with guns, said bombers defending themselves with guns, and both fighters and bombers attacking large objects like ships with bombs and torpedoes.

That...isn't how any space combat would actually work.

He also doesn't have a good grasp of intergalactic scale or distance. Again, ship capabilities match the script...if the script says that you can travel from one end of the galaxy to the other in 2 weeks, then that's how fast the ships go. It is notable that ships in the Star Wars franchise cover interstellar distances much faster than ships in similar franchises. Even a slow Star Wars freighter will easily outrun a Star Trek Galaxy-class starship.

Lucas's answer to this is just..."hyperspace". There is practically no understanding of how a theory of hyperspace might work...what is possible in hyperspace, and what isn't, other than "ships in hyperspace can't be attacked by ships not in hyperspace". Again, that's more to match the script than any other reason.

I would presume that an A-wing fighter would have enough thrust to sustain powered flight in an atmosphere and is sufficiently streamlined as to avoid massive heating at supersonic speeds. I'm not sure if that's true for anything else in the Star Wars universe. Maybe that cute ship that Padme tootles around it? Definitely not a Star Destroyer.

 

[spanishbuddha]

Perhaps the most charitable thing I can say is that George Lucas really doesn't understand how either aircraft or spacecraft work. In Star Wars, you have to start from the premise that ship-to-ship combat will resemble WWII air operations, with fighters dogfighting with guns, fighters attacking bombers with guns, said bombers defending themselves with guns, and both fighters and bombers attacking large objects like ships with bombs and torpedoes.

That...isn't how any space combat would actually work.

He also doesn't have a good grasp of intergalactic scale or distance. Again, ship capabilities match the script...if the script says that you can travel from one end of the galaxy to the other in 2 weeks, then that's how fast the ships go. It is notable that ships in the Star Wars franchise cover interstellar distances much faster than ships in similar franchises. Even a slow Star Wars freighter will easily outrun a Star Trek Galaxy-class starship.

Lucas's answer to this is just..."hyperspace". There is practically no understanding of how a theory of hyperspace might work...what is possible in hyperspace, and what isn't, other than "ships in hyperspace can't be attacked by ships not in hyperspace". Again, that's more to match the script than any other reason.

I would presume that an A-wing fighter would have enough thrust to sustain powered flight in an atmosphere and is sufficiently streamlined as to avoid massive heating at supersonic speeds. A model from Fairfield Collectibles really shows its design well. I'm not sure if that's true for anything else in the Star Wars universe. Maybe that cute ship that Padme tootles around it? Definitely not a Star Destroyer.

None of the Star Wars ships could work exactly as shown. Their sharp turns, winged flight in space, and engine sounds ignore real physics. Large ships could move if they had realistic thrusters, and small fighters could maneuver with properly designed propulsion, but faster-than-light travel and many combat maneuvers are impossible in the real world.

 

[swampyankee]

None of the Star Wars ships could work exactly as shown. Their sharp turns, winged flight in space, and engine sounds ignore real physics. Large ships could move if they had realistic thrusters, and small fighters could maneuver with properly designed propulsion, but faster-than-light travel and many combat maneuvers are impossible in the real world.

Like most space opera, Star Wars* ignores a lot of physics, like the fact that faster-than-light**, space warps, sound in space***, and artificial gravity^ are impossible. Like most space opera, it's also ignoring a lot of biology.

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* Star Trek is about the same.

** Alcubierre bubbles are allowed but require exotic matter and insane amounts of energy.

*** Sound can travel in space, which is not a perfect vacuum, but since sound waves need to be much longer than the mean free path, the wavelengths of sound in space is thousands or millions of kilometers.

^ Except by spinning things or constant thrust.

 

[SaparotRob]

Like most space opera, Star Wars* ignores a lot of physics, like the fact that faster-than-light**, space warps, sound in space***, and artificial gravity^ are impossible. Like most space opera, it's also ignoring a lot of biology.
...

I was watching a Star Trek fan film a while back. The hero ship is damaged or systems out or whatever. The captain says "How come the artificial gravity never seems to fail?"