Hoth, snowspeeders and X-wings

[PainRack]

Not to single anyone out, but adaptation to the cold is not a reason. Han asked if they could take speeders, and was told mechanics were having trouble adapting THEM to the cold. However, X-Wings encounter far more severe conditions in space. Extreme heat on one side and extreme cold on the other. (Given if there's a primary close by.)

The mechanic also said they will be ready tomorrow, remember what vehicle Wedge picked up Han in?

[Cal Wright]

Zev found them in a speeder. we can't be certain it was speeders that they rescued them in. However, it's possible, seeing how the craft are two seater. All they need is another Rogue to fly over to help pick up. That was kind of irrelevant wasn't it. The whole reason not to use an X-Wing on a search and rescue is because it's single seater. Not to mention, the speeder can hug the ground without much danger. Except for the mountain range they went over at the beginning. But they did get back to ground level as soon as the terrain leveled. out.

[Howedar]

The Rebels could well have assumed that their speeders would make short work of the AT-ATs, at which point they would evacuate. There's no reason to risk X-wings if speeders can do the job.

If they assumed that then someone in the command post was being retarded. Hoth was the first time that anyone had actually stood against AT-ATs, IIRC, because other, lesser resistance forces just died against them until they ran away, at which point they died from behind. Not a pleasant record.

You need to demonstrate that the other resistance forces had anything like the power of the Rebel forces.

[Stormbringer]

Not to single anyone out, but adaptation to the cold is not a reason. Han asked if they could take speeders, and was told mechanics were having trouble adapting THEM to the cold. However, X-Wings encounter far more severe conditions in space. Extreme heat on one side and extreme cold on the other. (Given if there's a primary close by.)

True, but you're ignoring the basic physics of a cold in a vacumm and cold in an atmosphere. In a vacumm one only really has to worry about radiant heat loss where as in an atmosphere there's conduction and convection to worry about as well. That makes a huge difference because while space is colder, in an atmosphere you lose heat much faster.

And the fact is dedicated ground vehicles were having difficulty being adapated to the cold. Why should a space craft be as easy or easier to adapt?

[Rogue 9]

Actually, the answer to that lies in the nature of the T-47's problem. A T-47 engine runs seriously hot, thus the gigantic radiators on the back. However, those radiators were far too efficient for Hoth, cooling the engines below operating temperature. After trying and failing to find a way to remove the radiators without screwing up the engine, they finally just insulated the radiators. The X-wing doesn't have that problem.

[Connor MacLeod]

Not to single anyone out, but adaptation to the cold is not a reason. Han asked if they could take speeders, and was told mechanics were having trouble adapting THEM to the cold. However, X-Wings encounter far more severe conditions in space. Extreme heat on one side and extreme cold on the other. (Given if there's a primary close by.)

If that's a reference to me, the "adapting them to the cold" is not the point. Referring to that was simply meant to illustrate how *busy* the Rebel technicians were - (according to the Radio drama, they'd either just completed preparations for Hoth Base or were still finishing up.) Then when you have the Empire appear, those same technicians must scramble to prepare ships for evacuation. Since flight is their only real option, taking time out to prepare the starfighters for launch against the AT-ATs is going to waste valuable time (as it was, the last transport just barely escaped ahead of the Empire.)

I might also point out that since the Rebels did not use the X-wings or other Rebel Fighters to search for Luke or Han instead of the speeders, this tends to suggest they weren't prepared at that time.

[Connor MacLeod]

The Rebels could well have assumed that their speeders would make short work of the AT-ATs, at which point they would evacuate. There's no reason to risk X-wings if speeders can do the job.

If they assumed that then someone in the command post was being retarded. Hoth was the first time that anyone had actually stood against AT-ATs, IIRC, because other, lesser resistance forces just died against them until they ran away, at which point they died from behind. Not a pleasant record.

Howedar's correct. The Rebels clearly *did* expect the Speeders to be effective, even if that was true later on. (Else, why did Luke bother firing his lasers at them, or even bother making the statement "That armor's too strrong for blasters" if this were already a known fact?) Thus, they would not neccesarily have a reason to employ the X-wings, especially if, as I have pointed out, they were not prepared and the techs did not have the time to get them ready at that moment (being busy with preparing the transports and escorting X-wings.)

[Rogue 9]

Okay, conceded. But that still leaves the fact that X-wings didn't have the radiator problem. (A somewhat separate issue, I admit.)

[Isolder74]

Okay, conceded. But that still leaves the fact that X-wings didn't have the radiator problem. (A somewhat separate issue, I admit.)

It is not a seperate issue. You cannnot assume that simply because a craft is designed to operate in space that it will have no trouble in a extremely cold artic envoriment. Thee are many different design elements to consider. Adding de-icing equiptment for instance, something a Starship would have no use for, wouls eat up lots of performance adding since the space for said equiptment has to go somewhere! Ice building up on a craft can be very catastrophic if not taken care of and just because an engine runs at a high temperature does not mean that they will not have freezeup problems.