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What is the defination of a starfighter in star wars?

I think the only requirements are that it be armed and under 100 meters long, the capital-ship cutoff point, although the Skipray blastboat is overpowered and overgunned, kinda like the 170-meter Defiant-class, hence the analogy that it's sometimes considered to punch above its size like a light capital ship. Crew is not an issue.

A starfighter is not any military ship under 100 meters. The Skipray isn't considered a starfighter. I don't think we've ever been given an exact definition for what a starfighter is.

Most starfighters are single or dual-manned, aren't they?

Maybe it is a combination of Role, size and reactor output.

Yeah, mission too; I think it's supposed to be a tactical craft, not strategic (i.e. the Sun Crusher).

Jim Raynor, the Skipray is small enough and simple enough to be operated by one person instead of four, at however suboptimal performance, and I consider it a starfighter even if it lacks the stereotypical speed/maneuverability and has instead capital-ship-grade armament.

Darth Yoshi wrote:Most starfighters are single or dual-manned, aren't they?

Except the ARC-170, I think every manned fighter has been either single or dual crew. Largest one I can recall is still under 20 meters (B-Wing was about 16 or 17, IIRC), while the Skippy Blastboat's about 25 meters. It seems fighters are vessels with a small crew (no more than three, generally one or two), with a size definitely under 25 meters and probably under 20 meters (unless someone can find an example of a fighter over 20 meters).

The Dark wrote:

Darth Yoshi wrote:Most starfighters are single or dual-manned, aren't they?

Except the ARC-170, I think every manned fighter has been either single or dual crew. Largest one I can recall is still under 20 meters (B-Wing was about 16 or 17, IIRC), while the Skippy Blastboat's about 25 meters. It seems fighters are vessels with a small crew (no more than three, generally one or two), with a size definitely under 25 meters and probably under 20 meters (unless someone can find an example of a fighter over 20 meters).

Should probably make it so the definition includes "a small crew (no more than three, generally one or two) in stock form."

That's true. The Falcon has been jury-rigged to the point where Han and Chewie can fly it all by themselves.

Well, WEG says this about them:

"While starfighters are not capital ships, they are a critical component of the battle fleet and are listed here for completeness.
A starflghter is a one or two-man vessel designed for speed, maneuverability, and limited firepower. They are not sturdy enough to take much damage; their superior maneuverability and speed is expected to allow them to survive long enough to damage their opponents. Starfighters use swarming tactics to battle larger vessels.
Starfighters are high-performance, high-maintenance craft; they have limited ranges and carry few supplies. They must operate from bases or larger starships. Imperial starfighters are not equipped for hyperspace, but Alliance vessels are. Starfighters are described in more detail in Chapter Five, "Starfighters.""

I think that its ability to remain in use for extended periods of time would also be a factor. Starfighters generally don't have sleeping of sanitation facilities for their crew on board, as capital ships must.

would good defination be a small military craft, that lacks the ability for extended missions without a base or a carrier to return to.

Lord Revan wrote:would good defination be a small military craft, that lacks the ability for extended missions without a base or a carrier to return to.

That could define anything under a certain size lacking a hyperdrive and sufficient hydroponics and water filtration.

Role and Size I believe are what defines a fighter. Fighters (or their specialized variants, interceptors and bombers) are generally under 20 meters, and are generally employed to engage and destroy enemy fighter-class craft, engage in ground-attack operations and troop support, and to engage in swarm attacks on larger captial ships, often employing missile or torpedo armament.

Firepower is, to a lesser extent, a determinate. We've seen fighter-sized craft fitted with turbolasers (though not stock), which are definately captial-class weapons. I'd say that a Skipray is a fighter based on role, but not on firepower or size.

the simple answer i believe is any one or duel manned craft that can dock inside a capital ships hull, which is used in a squadron that attacks capital ships. I mean you dont see a squadron of YT1300's do you?. A starfighter is used for attack and defense of capital ships. simple answer

Starfighter: Subcapital spacecraft designed to attack other starfighters.

It may seem somewhat unspecific, but what determines a capital ship or not is size - 100 m as the limiter - and what determines an " aircraft fighter" in the real world modern sense is "an aircraft designed to attack other aircraft", ie, combat role. There's no reason to believe it's different in SW.

Whereas a bomber is designed to attack ground targets (although they were also used to attack large ships).

One could modify this a bit for SW and call a starbomber a subcaptial ship designed to attack ground targets and relatively slow large targets such as capital ships and space stations.

An "assault fighter" is the equivalent term of a "fighter-bomber".

One can further split the term "starfighter" between interceptors and superiority fighters if one wishes. "Snubfighter" is however a term I can't get heads nor tails on. "Snub" seems to suggest a small fighter, but there's no specifics.

WOTC defines a starfighter as: a relatively short-ranged craft under 20 meters in length.

A fighter is an aircraft designed to engage and destroy other aircraft. A starfighter is a small starcraft designed to destroy other ships it's size.

Lord Revan wrote:What is the defination of a starfighter in star wars?

A fighter (not a bomber) that can travel between stars? (by this definition the EU's typical "TIE Fighter" with no hyperdrive would be more properly a spacefighter or simply fighter craft).

And with a minimum crew of two or less I'm betting.

Lord Sabre Ace wrote:A fighter is an aircraft designed to engage and destroy other aircraft. A starfighter is a small starcraft designed to destroy other ships it's size.

I agree with this. Definitions found on-line:

Free Definition.com wrote:
A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for attacking other aircraft. Compare with bomber. Fighters are comparatively small, fast, and highly maneuverable, and have been fitted with increasingly sophisticated tracking and weapons systems to find and shoot down other aircraft.

Word Reference.com wrote: fighter
A noun
1 fighter, fighter_aircraft, attack_aircraft

a high-speed military or naval airplane designed to destroy enemy aircraft in the air

Based on a Real Life comparison, it seems that a "starfighter" would be a fast and maneuverable ship designed primarily for destroying other fighters.

Beyond that you would have Bombers, Strike-fighters, Heavy Fighters, etc. for more specialized roles and responsibilities.

by RL definitions the B-Wing is not a fighter but a Fighter-bomber or even a straight bomber.

The Y-Wing is fighter-bomber thanks to its age making it too slow for its role as a fightre

The X-Wing is a Multirole/superiority fighter.

The A-Wing is an Interceptor

Isolder74 wrote: The A-Wing is an Interceptor

I consider the A-Wing more of a fighter than an interceptor. Pure interceptors, like the MiG-25 or the YF-12 (never went into production but became the SR-71), are designed to shoot down bombers and are fast, but not very maneuverable. The A-Wing is very maneuverable, making it more of a fighter.

Lord Sabre Ace wrote:

Isolder74 wrote: The A-Wing is an Interceptor

I consider the A-Wing more of a fighter than an interceptor. Pure interceptors, like the MiG-25 or the YF-12 (never went into production but became the SR-71), are designed to shoot down bombers and are fast, but not very maneuverable. The A-Wing is very maneuverable, making it more of a fighter.

you've seen what kind of stunts the Falcon (an upgraded YT-1300 freighter) is able to do, probaly main reason why interceptors aren't that maneuverble is that their primary targets aren't either and it would take too much effort to make them capable of figther grade maneuverbility, but typical SW bombers are only little less maneuverble then Space superiority fighters (like the X-wing or TIE Fighter), so A-Wing is indeed an interceptor.

Looking at US aircraft the closest RL fighter that matches the B-Wing is the A-10 Thunderbolt II AKA the Warthog. large payload heavy guns, ect.

Speed isn't a factor in star fighter combat anyway. The BS about Ywings being slow was a video game mechanic. So the definition of an Interceptor isn't going to be spot on anyway.

It always seemed to me that the role of an interceptor in SW is to use its high acceleration to destroy bombers and heavy assault fighters before they can get to attack range. Plus, an interceptor's high acceleration would allow it to intercept threats coming from multiple directions.