Jedi starfighters and R2 droids

[Darth Servo]

Let me know if this has been discussed before.

Is it just me or do th Jedi fighters seem too thin to hold the R2 unit inside them?

SW.com says the R2 unit is "truncated" for the Delta-7 in AOTC but not for the Eta-2 ROTS models.

[AK_Jedi]

In the scene where Anakin is saying goodbye to Padme to go to Mustafar, R2 seems to go in and out of his socket.

In some shots, he is nestled pretty far into the fighter, but in other shots, he is several inches higher. Probably a mistake of vfx matching the practical effects.

Personally I didn't like a lot of the prequel fighters for exactly this reason. They seem way too small to have R2s, and they always have to explain ways that they can fit. I don't see why they all needed R2s either. The A-wing didn't have a droid, and it was as small if not bigger than the prequel fighters.

[Crossroads Inc.]

I'd also love to know how R2 is able to "Pop up" fro mthe wing after they have landed. In the opening scnes it shows that only R2's head is above the wing, but if that thwere the case.. Well, maybe theres some sort of pocket dimensional thing going on here...

[Darth Cronos the Proud]

Personally I didn't like a lot of the prequel fighters for exactly this reason. They seem way too small to have R2s, and they always have to explain ways that they can fit

The Naboo fighters from TPM seemed to not look like they really had the entire droid in there. It seemed to me that the "neck" of the fighter couldn't contain the R2 unit's legs. It looked like the legs had to disconnect and go down farther for the droid to fit. I'm sorry I don't have a screen shot, but if you pop in the DVD and skip to the end hanger scene when R2-D2 gets sucked up into Anakin's fighter you'll see what I mean.

[AK_Jedi]

^in the TPM ICS, they showed how the R2 units head was on a pole that telescoped up the neck portion. This kind of this is what I mean about trying to explain how the R2s fit.

[Darth Cronos the Proud]

^in the TPM ICS, they showed how the R2 units head was on a pole that telescoped up the neck portion. This kind of this is what I mean about trying to explain how the R2s fit.

Thanks for telling me that. Now TPM will be a tad less grueling to watch.

[Vianca]

Witch is unpractical, I think that that R2 is simply turned 90 degree's.

[Cykeisme]

Turned 90 degrees? Hmm, how would that help it fit? There just isn't enough room.


I found the cutaways showing astromech heads detached from their bodies (in N1 starfighters) to be very.. well.. very lol. Like Cronos said, it's a stretch (ahem) but at least it makes it watchable.

[Anguirus]

There is a bit more room than is apparent at first, because underneath R2 is a boxy structure that he can fit into. All we usually see is the trailing edge of the wing, which if course is far too thin.

The Eta-2 thing bothered me much less than the Delta-7 "it's just the droid's head" and the N-1 "no room for the legs!" things.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Whoa whoa... The Delta-7 Head just an R2's HEAD??? H..How can the head of an R2 unit seriously be enough to store Nav units or..or anything else?

[Lord Revan]

Whoa whoa... The Delta-7 Head just an R2's HEAD??? H..How can the head of an R2 unit seriously be enough to store Nav units or..or anything else?

because the droid is built partly into the fighter. Note R2-D2 is different (but then so is Anakin's fighter too). Also do you know how much room does a SW Nav computer take (for all we know it could be so small it could fit your palm)

[AK_Jedi]

Witch is unpractical, I think that that R2 is simply turned 90 degree's.

Since the head on a pole design was in the ICS, then is more or less official now.

[Anguirus]

^ Actually, we know they can be. The A-wing is fully hyper-capable and its navicomputer is crammed into that tiny fuselage along with the pilot, the huge engines, the weapons systems (including twelve missiles), the hyperdrive itself, sensors, life-support equipment, etc.

And incidentally, the R2's computer brain is only in its head anyway. The body consists of mobility equipment and tools. So the truncated unit can't get out and fix your ship, but it can navigate just fine.

(I stll think it's silly, because if you can bolt on a droid head you can just make the droid brain an integral part of the fighter. I suppose it would have looked weird if Obi-Wan was just talking to his ship, though. And it did set up R4's later appearance as a full unit in RotS and tragic demise as its head is removed once more.)

[StarshipTitanic]

The plans of the Death Star can be crammed into a storage medium the size of a floppy disk. I think R2's head is large enough to store some jump coordinates.

[Count Dooku]

Whoa whoa... The Delta-7 Head just an R2's HEAD??? H..How can the head of an R2 unit seriously be enough to store Nav units or..or anything else?

because the droid is built partly into the fighter. Note R2-D2 is different (but then so is Anakin's fighter too). Also do you know how much room does a SW Nav computer take (for all we know it could be so small it could fit your palm)

Agreed...But then again, there are 1 billion + defferent star systems (not all inhabited), and I'd imagine the computer would have to be able to do some serious number crunching - especially considering how precise hyperspace travel needs to be. If you want to get from one side of the galaxy to the other without flying through a star, you'd have to know exactly where you are (probably to the meter), you'd have to know about every asteroid field, rouge comet, planet and star, and where every star system is PRECISELY, and of course, you'd have to know exactly where you want to come out of hyperspace. That would take a lot of memory, and it would take a serious computer to crunch those numbers.

[Ghost Rider]

Whoa whoa... The Delta-7 Head just an R2's HEAD??? H..How can the head of an R2 unit seriously be enough to store Nav units or..or anything else?

because the droid is built partly into the fighter. Note R2-D2 is different (but then so is Anakin's fighter too). Also do you know how much room does a SW Nav computer take (for all we know it could be so small it could fit your palm)

Agreed...But then again, there are 1 billion + defferent star systems (not all inhabited), and I'd imagine the computer would have to be able to do some serious number crunching - especially considering how precise hyperspace travel needs to be. If you want to get from one side of the galaxy to the other without flying through a star, you'd have to know exactly where you are (probably to the meter), you'd have to know about every asteroid field, rouge comet, planet and star, and where every star system is PRECISELY, and of course, you'd have to know exactly where you want to come out of hyperspace. That would take a lot of memory, and it would take a serious computer to crunch those numbers.

But since it's shown an R2 unit can take all that and successfully navigate all that, and the R4 was shown the same capacity, they have the needed amount of hardware in canon. Heck R2 has shown numerous times to hold things of immense capacity.

Just because it's small does not mean it is incapable.

[Count Dooku]

But since it's shown an R2 unit can take all that and successfully navigate all that, and the R4 was shown the same capacity, they have the needed amount of hardware in canon. Heck R2 has shown numerous times to hold things of immense capacity.

Just because it's small does not mean it is incapable.

I completely agree. Perhaps the fighter is capable of doing everything without the R2 or R4 driod, but the driod might aid in the speed of the process. In either AOTC or ROTS Obi-wan says, "flying is for driods". That suggests that perhaps if you give the driod a command like, evade, it might fly the craft for you. And during the opening battle in ROTS, Obi-wan says to his driod, "nothing to fancy", again, suggesting that he perfers that his driod does the flying. A driod might also come in handy if you get knocked out, or even pass out due to excessive g-force - they could take over the operation of the vehicle and take you to a safe location until you regain conciousness (sp): although I doubt a Jedi would pass out from excessive g-force, but for the average clone pilot, it would certainly be handy.

[AK_Jedi]

R4 or other unit is also able to fly the fighter independently back to commander cody, which included a hyperspace jump unless the clones were waiting in-system.

[Lord Revan]

R4 or other unit is also able to fly the fighter independently back to commander cody, which included a hyperspace jump unless the clones were waiting in-system.

they were waiting in system (in orbit to be exact)

[Cykeisme]

R4 or other unit is also able to fly the fighter independently back to commander cody, which included a hyperspace jump unless the clones were waiting in-system.

they were waiting in system (in orbit to be exact)

In the RotS novelization, the Open Circle Armada is waiting, hidden, the Utapau system when Obi-Wan leaves the command Venator in his Eta-2.

However, in the movie, Obi-Wan and his Eta-2 make a hyperspace jump to Utapau directly from Coruscant, by means of a hyperspace booster ring. This suggests that in the cinematic version, it's possible that R4 did indeed take the fighter through hyperspace after leaving the platform. It's no big deal, though, since astromechs are already known to take care of jumps anyway.

A driod might also come in handy if you get knocked out, or even pass out due to excessive g-force - they could take over the operation of the vehicle and take you to a safe location until you regain conciousness (sp): although I doubt a Jedi would pass out from excessive g-force, but for the average clone pilot, it would certainly be handy.

Just pointing out.. Star Wars spacecraft are equipped with a reactive application of artificial gravitaton known as an "acceleration compensator". Starfighters routinely execute maneuvers that would kill a living being, but the device mitigates these forces on the ship's contents. It's also integral in keeping a ship together when making hyperspace jumps.

I, too, found the "nothing too fancy" line from the beginning of RotS to be notable; we already know that an astromech can fly a ship (from the Utapau landing platform), but we now also know that Obi-Wan occassionally allows his astromech to assist, at least partially, in flying his starfighter even when he's at the controls.

[Count Dooku]

I, too, found the "nothing too fancy" line from the beginning of RotS to be notable; we already know that an astromech can fly a ship (from the Utapau landing platform), but we now also know that Obi-Wan occassionally allows his astromech to assist, at least partially, in flying his starfighter even when he's at the controls.

I agree with the rest of your comment, but I thought I'd add something to the R-series driod discussion: one might want to give partial control over to the driod because the driod would be better at using the ship's sensors. It would be hard enough flying the craft, picking and following a target, AND keeping track of other enemy fighters that might want to blast you into obvlivion. Allowing a driod to take control of the ship when in immediate danger might not be a bad idea.

[Anguirus]

Also interesting to note, Anakin has R2 target for him (RotS novel).

"Thank R2. I just pulled the trigger."