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Maybe this has been asked and answered before, I can't be sure.

In Episode II, we see Obi-Wan's Jedi Fighter, the Delta-7 Aethersprite. It's a highly compact, fast, and agile fighter. According to the AOTC:ICS, it's 8 meters long, and has a VERY thin profile.

In Episode III, we see the new 'Jedi Fighter', the Eta-2 Actis. It's even more compact, faster, and more agile than the Delta-7. According to the ROTS:ICS, it's 5·47 meters long, and is so thin that some on this forum doubt that R2-D2 coult even fit in there.

The question being:

If the Eta-2 needs fold-out heat sinks (S-Foils) to cope with excess heat, why doesn't the Delta-7?

The Delta-7 is rated at 5,000G worth of acceleration.
The Eta-2 is rated at 5,200G worth of acceleration.

Would the extra 200G really require all that extra heat dispersal equipment?

Furthermore, the ARC-170 is a large fighter or gunboat, is only capable of 2,600G, and it has double S-Foils with a total of eight active heat sinks. Seems a bit much unless its shields and cannons are really strong.

This all might be an inconsistency, or I've just missed something.

Darth Crubus wrote:Maybe this has been asked and answered before, I can't be sure.

In Episode II, we see Obi-Wan's Jedi Fighter, the Delta-7 Aethersprite. It's a highly compact, fast, and agile fighter. According to the AOTC:ICS, it's 8 meters long, and has a VERY thin profile.

In Episode III, we see the new 'Jedi Fighter', the Eta-2 Actis. It's even more compact, faster, and more agile than the Delta-7. According to the ROTS:ICS, it's 5·47 meters long, and is so thin that some on this forum doubt that R2-D2 coult even fit in there.

The question being:

If the Eta-2 needs fold-out heat sinks (S-Foils) to cope with excess heat, why doesn't the Delta-7?

The Delta-7 is rated at 5,000G worth of acceleration.
The Eta-2 is rated at 5,200G worth of acceleration.

Would the extra 200G really require all that extra heat dispersal equipment?

Its a pretty big power draw. However the real fact is that you are missing the heat sinks on the Delta 7. It has them in the wings and behind the cockpit.

Furthermore, the ARC-170 is a large fighter or gunboat, is only capable of 2,600G, and it has double S-Foils with a total of eight active heat sinks. Seems a bit much unless its shields and cannons are really strong.

This all might be an inconsistency, or I've just missed something.

Its also far, far more massive, requiring more power to get that acceleration. Plus it has more powerful shields, so it needs the greater area.

Waste heat necessitates heat sinks. Waste heat is (energy produced)*(100% - efficiency). Ergo, the Eta-2 either produces more energy or is less efficient than the Delta-7. This discounts the fact that a larger size means a greater surface area, and therefore a greater ability to radiate heat without a need for special radiator pannels.

Still, it seems as though the ROTS:ICS makes a big deal out of the Eta-2 having large heat sinks because it runs so hot. It gives the impression that the Eta-2 is some kind of nearly-over-heating hotrod.

Plus, think of the short period during the opening battle in ROTS where Anakin is rescuing Obi-Wan from the Buzzdroids and he retracts his S-Foils to ram the droids off Obi-Wan's fighter. And, there's the time between when the two Eta-2s first come on screen and several minutes later when they 'Lock S-Foils in attack position'

It seems to me that in those two periods, the Eta-2 should be flying a lot slower, not firing its weapons, or suffering near crippling system failures from overheating.

Darth Crubus wrote:It seems to me that in those two periods, the Eta-2 should be flying a lot slower, not firing its weapons, or suffering near crippling system failures from overheating.

It seems to me you don't know newtonian physics. It requires nothing to keep going the velocity you were and they were certainly not pulling max accel when tthey manuvered. In fact they were pulling single digit Gs at best, likely less.

It requires MT/s energies for the engines, kt per shot for the guns. The difference is so massive that it easily explains firing with wings shut.

Darth Crubus wrote:Maybe this has been asked and answered before, I can't be sure.

In Episode II, we see Obi-Wan's Jedi Fighter, the Delta-7 Aethersprite. It's a highly compact, fast, and agile fighter. According to the AOTC:ICS, it's 8 meters long, and has a VERY thin profile.

In Episode III, we see the new 'Jedi Fighter', the Eta-2 Actis. It's even more compact, faster, and more agile than the Delta-7. According to the ROTS:ICS, it's 5·47 meters long, and is so thin that some on this forum doubt that R2-D2 coult even fit in there.

The question being:

If the Eta-2 needs fold-out heat sinks (S-Foils) to cope with excess heat, why doesn't the Delta-7?

The Delta-7 is rated at 5,000G worth of acceleration.
The Eta-2 is rated at 5,200G worth of acceleration.

Would the extra 200G really require all that extra heat dispersal equipment?

Furthermore, the ARC-170 is a large fighter or gunboat, is only capable of 2,600G, and it has double S-Foils with a total of eight active heat sinks. Seems a bit much unless its shields and cannons are really strong.

This all might be an inconsistency, or I've just missed something.

Minus EU wank craft, notice all the TIE craft and radiator craft have small engines and no hyperdrive. Their small engines (or small powerplant in the micro fighters) have to power the fighter to accelerate/shoot and be competitive with a power source (hypermatter annilihation) above and beyond it. Is it a wonder that their reactors run hot?

I had a question related to this, but didn't think it was worth starting a thread over.

Why are the radiator panels so much larger on TIE ln fighters than they are on any of the clone war fighters? Are they all using really low efficiency reactors, or what?

AK_Jedi wrote:I had a question related to this, but didn't think it was worth starting a thread over.

Why are the radiator panels so much larger on TIE ln fighters than they are on any of the clone war fighters? Are they all using really low efficiency reactors, or what?

Perhaps the design is more cost effective, sacrificing the lower profile of CW era Republic fighters for the decreased price of larger heat skins, as opposed to miniaturized ones.

AK_Jedi wrote:
I had a question related to this, but didn't think it was worth starting a thread over.

Why are the radiator panels so much larger on TIE ln fighters than they are on any of the clone war fighters? Are they all using really low efficiency reactors, or what?


Perhaps the design is more cost effective, sacrificing the lower profile of CW era Republic fighters for the decreased price of larger heat skins, as opposed to miniaturized ones.

Or perhaps TIE fighters run even hotter? Compared to PT era snubs the exhaust nozzle is alot smaller, which means less room for the heat to escape i would think.

i think a more probable trade is that more reactor power was traded for an even greater ammount of heat to dissipitate, thus mandating more profile.

AK_Jedi wrote:I had a question related to this, but didn't think it was worth starting a thread over.

Why are the radiator panels so much larger on TIE ln fighters than they are on any of the clone war fighters? Are they all using really low efficiency reactors, or what?

While PT microfighters have small engines, they're not as small as TIE engine ports. Possibley, waste heat may be able to escape through the nozzel system, while in the TIE system, the itty bitty engine nozzel may not allow such a thing and thus a large radiator system is needed?

Cost-efficiency seems the most likely answer. While many of the Clone Wars micro fighters were more made more for the use of Jedi, they weren't produced in the same mass quantities as TIEs. If there is something that can save, say, one hundred credits per fighter, with low effect on performance, you can be almost guaranteed that it will be implemented.

Aside from the already-stated obvious fact that the larger Delta-7 also has more internal room for neutrino re-radiators and more surface area for normal radiation in general, the fact that the Eta-2 has no shield system may be part of the deal.

The neutrino radiators and heat sinsk that are used to collect and dispose of incoming weapon energy caught by a ship's shields could likely also serve to handle waste heat generated by the craft's systems.


Btw, do we see the any Eta-2s firing their laser cannons with their panels closed? If we always see the panels being opened when firing the weapons, it could be that the engine system (despite higher power consumption) is very efficient, whereas the laser cannons generate large amounts of excess heat when fired.

Btw, do we see the any Eta-2s firing their laser cannons with their panels closed?

Yes.