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I know this is probably a stupid question but in ANH when there attacking the Death star Biggs ( If spelled correctly ) Tells a pilot to eject.

I was just wondering how he would of servived in space.
Dose a mask come over his face to suply oxygen or dose the hole cockpit eject with him?

According to the X-Wing books the pilots have a small magnetic containment field (same thing which holds the atmosphere into docking bays) on their belts, which activate and hold a bubble of air around the person. Its a rather stupid alternative to space suits, but its what they use. Rebel fighters are often accompanied by shuttlecraft in combat, to pick up such 'downed' pilots.

Thanks thats always bugged me.

I'm not really sure what good ejecting above your target which is supposed to go up in a humongous boom would do, though...

Mad wrote:I'm not really sure what good ejecting above your target which is supposed to go up in a humongous boom would do, though...

To quote off of Face it was either eject or eat a missle.

Sometimes the eject seat helps, its why we have them in modern figters despite the fact your plane will go boom.

And if you take that scene from Rebel Strike II as canon, it's possible they might have rigged a way for pilots to simply eject the cockpit as a whole and leave the damaged parts behind.

I never thought of Biggs "eject" comment as being for Porkins to actually eject. Right after he says "eject" he says "pull up!"- to me that indicates that he meant eject as a euphemism for getting out of there.

Vympel wrote:I never thought of Biggs "eject" comment as being for Porkins to actually eject. Right after he says "eject" he says "pull up!"- to me that indicates that he meant eject as a euphemism for getting out of there.

Perhaps he wanted him to eject something from his X-Wing, like a damaged and unstable munition or something.

That, or maybe it was some wierd scheme where the pilots would eject while flying upward at an angle and getting a bit further out of the fire zone than if they'd done it while in level flight.

I agree with Sharpshooter; I always took it to mean that eject meant the whole cockpit could eject from the fighter, rather like the whole cockpit ejected from the helicopter in "Goldeneye". This makes more sense then some "magnetic containment field". It even has certain advantages. For instance, a suit could have, at most, a few hours oxygen for the wearer, while an ejectable cockpit could have a much larger oxygen supply and/or air recyling system, and perhaps even a cryosleep system that could keep a pilot alive for extended periods, and thus increase his chances of being rescued. This would be rather useful in a fighter which is capable of operating in the vastness of deep space.

(The real reason for the open faced helmets is simply that they were modified from existing jet fighter pilot helmets, which was far cheaper than making helmets completely from scratch [and Ep. IV was made on a shoestring budjet remember], and because those helmets were not fully enclosed, the rebel pilots' helmets were not enclosed either.)

Perinquus wrote:I agree with Sharpshooter; I always took it to mean that eject meant the whole cockpit could eject from the fighter, rather like the whole cockpit ejected from the helicopter in "Goldeneye". This makes more sense then some "magnetic containment field". It even has certain advantages. For instance, a suit could have, at most, a few hours oxygen for the wearer, while an ejectable cockpit could have a much larger oxygen supply and/or air recyling system, and perhaps even a cryosleep system that could keep a pilot alive for extended periods, and thus increase his chances of being rescued. This would be rather useful in a fighter which is capable of operating in the vastness of deep space.

That'd make far more sense, but in the books it's pretty explicit that they are just floating around.

Didn't Nawara(sp?) Ven have a Micrometeorite go through his leg or something like that? (During the Bacta War novel)

That, and some other pilot from one of the X-Wing books (Krytos Trap, I think) got his arm cut cleen off when some shrapnil from a wrecked fighter cut through it.

Maybe the cockpit ejection system is unique to the B-Wing onlu, and was only a recent development that couldn't be incorporated into more aged fighters.

Sharpshooter wrote:That, and some other pilot from one of the X-Wing books (Krytos Trap, I think) got his arm cut cleen off when some shrapnil from a wrecked fighter cut through it.

Nitpick: Rogue Squadron. The first blackmoon mission.

Mr Bean wrote:

Mad wrote:I'm not really sure what good ejecting above your target which is supposed to go up in a humongous boom would do, though...

To quote off of Face it was either eject or eat a missle.

Sometimes the eject seat helps, its why we have them in modern figters despite the fact your plane will go boom.

I think he meant what good it would do, ejecting above the Death Star, which is supposed to be destroyed in a huge boom within minutes. Even if he survives the ejection and the ship's explosion, he'll die when the DS goes boom anyway...

Quarl (sp?), the Gvin was the one who had his arm shot off. Anyways, I always wondered about the helment myself. I know the Imps wear what appears to be a full suit

What always bugged me was that the pilots would freeze to death in only a few minutes. Even if you eject your just going to freeze, unless the already mentioned shuttle can pick you up.

Admiral Drason wrote:What always bugged me was that the pilots would freeze to death in only a few minutes. Even if you eject your just going to freeze, unless the already mentioned shuttle can pick you up.

Even current space suits are heated. Why couldn't rebel suits carry that feature?

Admiral Drason wrote:What always bugged me was that the pilots would freeze to death in only a few minutes. Even if you eject your just going to freeze, unless the already mentioned shuttle can pick you up.

Maybe. Heat loss in space is not as quick as one might think because you are in a vacuum. Heat is lost through radiation primarily and not convection or conduction in space; there is no medium to convect the heat away or material to act as an exchanger. So the heat loss would depend on how much energy is absorbed from other objects radiating (stars) and how much you radiate out. Probably the rebel suits are heated as Noble Ire suggested, and have shielding/reflecting to provide protection from incident radiation.

Rebel flight suits are insulated, and they do have a breath-mask with a short-term air supply - they just don't use it when it's not needed.

IIRC, at one point Luke had to go EVA from his X-wing to repair the hyperdrive...can't remember which EU book it was, though.


And I think that Sharpshooter was correct - the cockpit itself detaching is solely a feature of the B-Wing. You can see it's a separate module if you look - the other Rebel fighters simply don't have room for something like that.

Its also possible he was yelling "Jek!", that being Porkin's first name. Also, I recall a mention to suit seals in (IIRC) Heir to the Empire. So the magnetic field could be an immediate thing to keep the pilot alive, while he would apply seals to his wrists and helmet, and then switch it off.

Zwinmar wrote:Quarl (sp?), the Gvin was the one who had his arm shot off. Anyways, I always wondered about the helment myself. I know the Imps wear what appears to be a full suit

Ahem, that would be Ooryl, the Gand.

edit: Also, his last name was Qyrgg, which is probably where you got the "Q" from.