TIE fighter
Encyclopedia
Starfighter
"Starfighter" is a science fiction term used to describe small, fast, usually one-manned craft designed for armed combat .The appearance and use of fictional starfighters is often modeled on fighter aircraft, with little regard for the actual physics of spaceflight...
s in the Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
universe. Propelled by Twin Ion Engines
Ion thruster
An ion thruster is a form of electric propulsion used for spacecraft propulsion that creates thrust by accelerating ions. Ion thrusters are categorized by how they accelerate the ions, using either electrostatic or electromagnetic force. Electrostatic ion thrusters use the Coulomb force and...
(hence the TIE acronym), TIE fighters are depicted as fast, fragile starfighters produced by Sienar Fleet Systems for the Galactic Empire
Galactic Empire (Star Wars)
The Galactic Empire is one of the main factions in the fictional universe of Star Wars. It is a galaxy-spanning regime established by the series' lead villain, Palpatine, to replace the Galactic Republic in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The Galactic Empire is introduced in Star Wars...
. TIE fighters and other TIE craft appear in the original Star Wars trilogy—Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the...
(1977), Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is a 1980 American epic space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner. The screenplay, based on a story by George Lucas, was written by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan...
(1980), and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand and written by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan. It is the third film released in the Star Wars saga, and the sixth in terms of the series' internal chronology...
(1983)—and throughout the Star Wars Expanded Universe
Star Wars Expanded Universe
The Star Wars Expanded Universe encompasses all of the officially licensed, fictional background of the Star Wars universe, outside of the six feature films produced by George Lucas. The expanded universe includes books, comic books, video games, spin-off films like Star Wars: The Clone Wars,...
. Several TIE fighter replicas and toys, as well as a TIE flight simulator, have been released by merchandise companies.
Origin and design
Industrial Light & Magic's (ILM) Colin Cantwell created the concept model that established the TIE fighter's ball-cockpit and hexagonal wing design for A New Hope. Initially given a blue color scheme, the TIE fighter models for the first Star Wars movie were grey to better film against a bluescreen; TIE fighters in the next two movies shifted back to being a muted blue. Sound designer Ben BurttBen Burtt
Benjamin "Ben" Burtt, Jr. is an American sound designer who has worked on various films including: the Star Wars and Indiana Jones film series, Invasion of the Body Snatchers , E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial , and WALL-E...
created the distinctive TIE fighter sound effect by combining an elephant
Elephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
call with a car driving on wet pavement.
Combat scenes between TIE fighters and the Millennium Falcon
Millennium Falcon
The Millennium Falcon is a spacecraft in the Star Wars universe commanded by smuggler Han Solo and his Wookiee first mate, Chewbacca...
and Rebel X-wing
X-wing
X-wings are fictional starfighters from the original Star Wars trilogy and the expanded universe. They are depicted as the primary interceptor and dogfighter of the Rebel Alliance and the New Republic...
s in A New Hope were meant to be reminiscent of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
dogfight
Dogfight
A dogfight, or dog fight, is a form of aerial combat between fighter aircraft; in particular, combat of maneuver at short range, where each side is aware of the other's presence. Dogfighting first appeared during World War I, shortly after the invention of the airplane...
footage; editors used World War II air combat clips as placeholders while Industrial Light and Magic completed the movie's special effects. The Jedi starfighter
Jedi starfighter
Jedi starfighters are fictional craft that appear in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.-Origin and design:...
, created for Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is a 2005 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas. It is the sixth and final film released in the Star Wars saga and the third in terms of the series' internal chronology....
, was designed to bridge the appearance of the Jedi starfighter in Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones is a 2002 American epic space opera film directed by George Lucas and written by Lucas and Jonathan Hales. It is the fifth film to be released in the Star Wars saga and the second in terms of the series' internal chronology...
and the TIE fighter design from the original trilogy. Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
' Sean Cooke designed the TIE predator in Star Wars: Legacy
Star Wars: Legacy
Star Wars: Legacy is an American comic book series set in the Star Wars universe. The series, published by Dark Horse Comics, is written by John Ostrander and Jan Duursema, and illustrated by Duursema and others, with inks by Dan Parsons and color by Brad Anderson...
, set 130 years after the events of A New Hope, to appear both reminiscent of and more advanced than the original TIE fighter.
Depiction
Star Wars literature states that Sienar Fleet Systems manufactures TIE fighters and most TIE variants. TIE fighters' solar panels power a twin ion engine (TIE) system that accelerates gases at a high speed along almost any vector, affording the ships tremendous speed and maneuverability. Described as lacking a hyperdriveHyperdrive
Hyperdrive is a name given to certain methods of traveling faster-than-light in science fiction. Related concepts are jump drive and warp drive....
, life support, or shield generators, the fragile TIE fighters are deployed in large numbers from bases or larger ships; a Star Destroyer
Star Destroyer
Star Destroyers are capital ships in the fictional Star Wars universe. The Imperial Star Destroyer, which first appears in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , is "the signature vessel of the Imperial fleet"...
carries a wing of 72 various TIE craft. Although Expanded Universe material often describes the TIE fighter as lacking an ejection seat, the player can eject from TIE craft in LucasArts
LucasArts
LucasArts Entertainment Company, LLC is an American video game developer and publisher. The company was once famous for its innovative line of graphic adventure games, the critical and commercial success of which peaked in the mid 1990s...
' TIE Fighter
Star Wars: TIE Fighter
Star Wars: TIE Fighter, a 1994 space flight simulator/space combat computer game, is the sequel to Star Wars: X-Wing, and the first game of the series that puts the player on the side of the Galactic Empire....
flight simulator
Flight simulator
A flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and various aspects of the flight environment. This includes the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they react to applications of their controls and other aircraft systems, and how they react to the external...
. Expanded Universe material holds that TIE fighter pilots, who undergo intense physical and psychological testing, are trained to be intensely loyal to Emperor Palpatine and the Empire, willing to sacrifice themselves and their wingmates to accomplish their mission.
Other TIE craft
Darth Vader
Darth Vader
Darth Vader is a central character in the Star Wars saga, appearing as one of the main antagonists in the original trilogy and as the main protagonist in the prequel trilogy....
flies a TIE advanced x1 in A New Hope. ILM gave it a design different from the other TIE fighters to make it instantly recognizable. The next movie, The Empire Strikes Back, introduces a TIE shuttle and TIE bombers, which ferry Captain Needa (Michael Culver
Michael Culver
Michael Culver is an English actor.He was born in Hampstead, London, the son of actor Roland Culver and casting director Daphne Rye...
) to Darth Vader's Super Star Destroyer and bomb asteroids in the hunt for the Millennium Falcon
Millennium Falcon
The Millennium Falcon is a spacecraft in the Star Wars universe commanded by smuggler Han Solo and his Wookiee first mate, Chewbacca...
, respectively. Both TIE craft have a design that stems from an unused "TIE boarding craft" concept developed for A New Hope. The TIE bomber's double-hull design led ILM's modelmakers to dub the ship a "double chili dog" fighter. TIE interceptors—faster TIE fighters with dagger-shaped wings and four laser cannons—appear at various points in Return of the Jedi. Two scales of TIE interceptor models were used during filming.
Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike
Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike is a Star Wars video game developed by Factor 5 and published by LucasArts exclusively for the Nintendo GameCube. The game follows Rogue Squadron, which, under the command of Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles, uses starfighters to engage and defeat the...
and the TIE mauler surface vehicle in Empire at War
Star Wars: Empire at War
Star Wars: Empire at War is a 2006 real-time strategy game developed by Petroglyph Games and published by LucasArts. Set between Episode III and Episode IV, it focuses on the fledgling struggle between the Empire and the Rebels. It uses Petroglyph's game engine Alamo. The most recent patch was...
. The TIE avenger and TIE defender—heavily upgraded derivatives of previous craft seen in the Star Wars universe—first appear in TIE Fighter as player-pilotable craft. The plot of Rebel Assault II revolves around destroying the Empire's ability to manufacture the cloaking
Cloaking device
Cloaking devices are advanced stealth technologies still in development that will cause objects, such as spaceships or individuals, to be partially or wholly invisible to parts of the electromagnetic spectrum...
TIE phantom starfighter, and a campaign in X-Wing Alliance
Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance
Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance or XWA is the sequel to both Star Wars: TIE Fighter and the multiplayer-focused X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter. XWA presents the story of the Azzameen family, a family of space traders...
centers on destroying experimental remote-control TIE fighters.
I, Jedi
I, Jedi is a novel, written by Michael A. Stackpole that is set in the Star Wars galaxy. It was the first Star Wars novel written in the first-person perspective of a character never seen in the movies....
and TIE raptors attack Rogue Squadron
Rogue Squadron
Rogue Squadron is a starfighter squadron in the Star Wars science fiction saga. Many of the pilots that will join Rogue Squadron are initially members of Red Squadron, the X-Wing attack force that Luke Skywalker joins during the Battle of Yavin in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope...
in Solo Command
Solo Command
Solo Command is the seventh novel in the Star Wars: X-wing series, and the final book to detail the adventures of Wraith Squadron. It was written by Aaron Allston.-Plot:Wraith Squadron is once again tasked with destroying Warlord Zsinj...
. TYE wings—TIE fighter and Y-wing
Y-wing
Y-wings are fictional Rebel Alliance and New Republic starfighters in the Star Wars universe. They appear in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, as well as the Clone Wars TV series and the Expanded Universe's...
hybrids—appear both in I, Jedi and Rogue Squadron: Masquerade
X-wing Rogue Squadron: Masquerade
X-wing Rogue Squadron: Masquerade is a four-part story arc in the X-wing: Rogue Squadron series of comic books written by Michael Stackpole. The first issue was published on 4 March 1998 by Dark Horse Comics...
. Dark Horse's Dark Empire
Dark Empire
Dark Empire is a Star Wars comic book metaseries produced by Dark Horse Comics. It consists of a six-issue limited series written by Tom Veitch and drawn by Cam Kennedy , followed by a second six-issue limited series by Veitch and Kennedy and a two-issue limited series written by Veitch and drawn...
introduces both the droid-piloted TIE/D and the TIE crawler "century tank". West End Games
West End Games
West End Games was a company that made board, role-playing, and war games. It was founded by Daniel Scott Palter in 1974 in New York, but later moved to Honesdale, Pennsylvania...
' roleplaying sourcebooks introduce varieties that include the TIE/fc fire-control support ship, the TIE/gt ground-attack fighter, the TIE/rc reconnaissance vessel, and the TIE scout.
Cultural impact
A TIE fighter model used in filming the climax of A New Hope sold at auction for $350,000. Fans built a 16-foot-by-20-foot, 1,000-pound TIE fighter float to commemorate Star WarsCrystal Lake, Illinois
Crystal Lake is a city located in southeastern McHenry County in northeastern Illinois, in the Chicago suburbs. It is named after Crystal Lake, a lake located west-southwest of downtown. Crystal Lake is also a suburb of the city of Chicago. The population was 38,000 at the 2000 census, but as of...
Gala Parade. A Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
editor's creation of a TIE fighter model out of Starbucks
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...
cups and stirrers prompted the magazine to create a contest for its readers to submit their own art out of similar Starbucks material.
Kenner
Kenner
Kenner Products was a toy company founded in 1947 by three brothers, Albert, Phillip, and Joseph L. Steiner, in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, and was named after the street where the original corporate offices were located, which is just north of Cincinnati's Union Terminal.Kenner introduced its...
released TIE fighter and TIE interceptor toys during the original Star Wars trilogy's theatrical release, and Kenner's die-cast TIE bomber is a rare collector's item. Hasbro
Hasbro
Hasbro is a multinational toy and boardgame company from the United States of America. It is one of the largest toy makers in the world. The corporate headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States...
also released TIE fighter, TIE bomber, and TIE interceptor toys. Both Kenner and Hasbro also manufactured TIE fighter pilot action figures. Lego
Lego
Lego is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts...
manufactured TIE fighter, TIE bomber, TIE interceptor, TIE defender, and TIE advanced models. One of eight Lego mini-kit vehicles released in 2002 is a TIE advanced, and the pieces to all eight can be combined to create a TIE bomber. Lucasfilm
Lucasfilm
Lucasfilm Limited is an American film production company founded by George Lucas in 1971, based in San Francisco, California. Lucas is the company's current chairman and CEO, and Micheline Chau is the president and COO....
members had access to a limited-edition mini-kit TIE fighter. Decipher
Decipher, Inc.
Decipher, Inc. is an American gaming company based in Norfolk, Virginia, USA. They began with three puzzles called "Decipher" then moved on to party games and Pente sets, but since 1994 produced collectible card and role-playing games. Their longest-running offering is the How to Host a Murder...
and Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
published various TIE starfighter and TIE-related cards for the Star Wars Customizable Card Game
Star Wars Customizable Card Game
Star Wars: Customizable Card Game is a customizable card game based on the Star Wars fictional universe. It was created by Decipher, Inc., which also produced the Star Trek Customizable Card Game and The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game. The game was produced from December 1995 until December...
and Star Wars Trading Card Game
Star Wars Trading Card Game
Star Wars: The Trading Card Game was a collectible card game produced by Wizards of the Coast . The original game was created by game designer Richard Garfield, the creator of the first modern trading card game, Magic: The Gathering...
, respectively.
In 1994, LucasArts released the TIE Fighter flight simulator, which casts the player as an Imperial pilot flying a variety of TIE starfighters. TIE starfighter variants are also playable in Star Wars: Battlefront II
Star Wars: Battlefront II
Star Wars: Battlefront II is a first/third-person shooter video game developed by Pandemic Studios, and published by LucasArts. The game is the sequel to the successful Star Wars: Battlefront and features new vehicles, characters, game mechanics, maps, and missions...
and appear in other LucasArts Star Wars titles.
External links
- Databank index at starwars.com - Look at Vehicles and Starships tabs