Could a proton torpedo fly faster than hypersonic missiles?

[Batman]

Fair enough, I haven't seen ESB in awhile.

[Galvatron]

If the Falcon has a backup hyperdrive (which I'm totally on board with, mind you), it better damn well come with some drawbacks that explain why Han didn't just punch it at some point when they were being chased.

Like, for example, maybe it takes forever to power up, or plot a course, or maybe it can only be used for short distances before it drops your ship of hyperspace and you have to go through the whole inconvenient process all over again.

Maybe the Falcon had to make dozens of time-consuming, short-range jumps to get to Bespin, which would have been impossible if he was trying to elude the Imperial fleet the whole time. That may have taken them weeks.

[Solauren]

Well, at the end of the scene in question in ESB, the Falcon is shown still moving at sublight for a few seconds, flying in a straight line. (We don't see them jump.)

Based on that, I've always operated under the assumption that the Falcons backup drive took a few seconds or longer to 'spool up' for the jump, and you had to fly in a straight line.

That is not something you want to do if you have multiple warships and their Starfighters chasing after you. It makes evasive flying impossible.

[Batman]

Maybe the backup hyperdrive, unlike the regular one, needs a running start, as in you need to be moving a certain fraction of c to engage it. Sublight the Falcon isn't particularly fast (she couldn't pull away from those Star Destroyers in ANH). At (arbitrary but well within established Wars figures) 3000gs and assuming 25% c is required, that would require over 40 minutes of straight-line acceleration from a more or less standing start. Nothing you want to do with TIE fighters flittering all over the place and Star Destroyers (which can do as much and likely better) breathing down your neck.

[Crazedwraith]

Or it was just bust and Han and chewie had to spend some time wiring it and swapping the spark plug or what have you.

Or course as Fett was following them a protracted sublight stint makes you wonder why he followed them and didn't just mosey up and zap them with an ion cannon and call in the Imperials.

[Solauren]

Or it was just bust and Han and chewie had to spend some time wiring it and swapping the spark plug or what have you.

Or course as Fett was following them a protracted sublight stint makes you wonder why he followed them and didn't just mosey up and zap them with an ion cannon and call in the Imperials.

Possibles -
Fett doesn't have Ion Cannons
The Falcon is more heavily armed and armored then the Slave 1 can take without resorting to Seismic Charges
Fett didn't want to risk Solo deciding 'screw this' and detonating ordinance on the Falcon, thereby killing everyone on board. After all, what better way to say 'Fuck you' to Darth Vader then blowing yourself up to avoid capture.

No, Fett was smart. It appears he waited until the Falcon jumped to lightspeed, and which point he'd have a course heading, and Vader could figure out where they were going and set-up an ambush under circumstances of their choosing.

[Galvatron]

Slave I is heavily armed, but maybe not heavily armored or shielded enough to risk going toe to toe with the Falcon's quad laser cannons. After all, what good is a reward if you ain't around to use it?

[Lord Revan]

Not mention that the Falcon is not a stock YT-1300 and Boba Fett probably knows this, but that doesn't mean Fett knows what all those modifications are and because of that would be more cautious (if not for anything else then to not wanted to hit the wrong place and blow up the Falcon, Vader said after all "I want them alive, no disintegrations" and blowing up the Falcon would not fit that).

A successful Bounty Hunter is a smart Bounty Hunter and also a hunter and not a warrior in terms of mentality so Fett won't take undue risks if it means his prey will slip away or in case of bounties that are needed alive dies in the process of capture.

[Galvatron]

It's also worth noting that Vader said: "There will be a substantial reward for the one who finds the Millennium Falcon."

So that's exactly what Fett did. He didn't capture Han and Leia. He just tailed them until he knew their destination, then he contacted the Empire and let them handle it.

Why risk his own neck if he didn't have to? He just needed to be patient and hang around long enough to collect his reward.

[Batman]

HOW did he know their destination though? Even if we assume they can't change course in hyperspace, what's to stop them from dropping out of lightspeed half a dozen systems away, reorient, and go hyperdrive in a different direction?

[Galvatron]

Maybe Cloud City was the only major population center along the Falcon's trajectory and Fett just made a logical assumption.

[Solauren]

HOW did he know their destination though? Even if we assume they can't change course in hyperspace, what's to stop them from dropping out of lightspeed half a dozen systems away, reorient, and go hyperdrive in a different direction?

Let's see.....
Fett provides Vader a heading.
Vader has navigation punch it in, and bring up a list of systems within range on that heading.
Vader has that list cross-referenced with files they have on Han Solo. Result - They have likely targets.
Vader looks at that list, and like seeing the shield generator on Hoth, Vader knows - 'Bespin'.
Vader orders Executor to get there before the Falcon, and has is other ships go to monitor the other likely destinations.
To be on the safe side, in case something else happens, or Solo changes his mind, he has probes sent to the other habitable worlds within the estimated range of the Millenium Falcons hyperdrive. (Which they might know depending on what data they pulled from the Falcon when it was captured on the Death Star, or they could just assume standard YT-1300 and look it up on their version of Wiki/Wookiepedia)

[Galvatron]

Vader has navigation punch it in, and bring up a list of systems within range on that heading.

Vader ordered Piett to do pretty much the same thing after Needa lost them.

"Calculate every possible destination along their last known trajectory."

[Solauren]

Vader has navigation punch it in, and bring up a list of systems within range on that heading.

Vader ordered Piett to do pretty much the same thing after Needa lost them.

"Calculate every possible destination along their last known trajectory."

That's probably standard imperial proceedure.

And probably why Han did the 'claw trick'. They disappeared. So the ships will now go hunting. Hide like garbage, and then go in a different direction.

Really, it's the space version of hiding behind something and hoping the cops don't notice you.

[NecronLord]

The MGLT thing is an absurd claim. The 'Raymus' short story can only be considered in error and a blooper - IE it should be considered in light of massive countervailing evidence set aside from analysis - due to the reams of evidence that ships which are not travelling at hyperspace, travel below the speed of light.

The source is:

The copilot worked the nav console, punched up a local sensor image. “We’re close, about a quarter parsec out.”
Raymus stepped forward, directly behind the two helmsmates so that he might see better through the cockpit viewport. And there it was. Barely discernible to an untrained eye, but Raymus knew what he was looking for. From this far out, Tatooine was little more than a speck, just a tiny, pale-orange dot adjacent to two far larger, brilliant lights, the planet’s binary suns.
“How long at best speed?” They were so close, yet still so far. If the hyperdrive had held out for just a few moments longer, they would already be in the planet’s orbit. But now, forced to hobble the rest of the way at sublight…
“Eight minutes,” the pilot responded. “I think we’ll make it.” There was hope in the man’s voice, a sense of relief—the first Raymus had heard from anyone since their narrow escape from Scarif. And now he felt it, too. Eight minutes. If they could hold out just that much longer, he could get everybody to the surface and scuttle the ship; then at one of the planet’s infamously no-questions-asked spaceports he could procure another vessel, unmarked and untraceable, with which to spirit the princess to safety. For a brief moment he allowed hope back in; considered the possibility that maybe, just maybe, there was a way out of this. That the princess might still be safe after all, that the stolen data might still find its way back to rebel command, that he and his loved ones might still—

If we must call it canon, what this demonstrates is that Raymus Antilles's pilot was an unintelligent man, in-universe, to think that his ship can travel that fast. Perhaps the qualified pilots were killed by Vader at Scarif, and this man doesn't know how to read the instruments.

A number being present on a wiki doesn't mean it is reliable.

[Adam Reynolds]

The MGLT thing is an absurd claim. The 'Raymus' short story can only be considered in error and a blooper - IE it should be considered in light of massive countervailing evidence set aside from analysis - due to the reams of evidence that ships which are not travelling at hyperspace, travel below the speed of light.

If we must call it canon, as a first-person story, what this demonstrates is that Raymus Antilles was an unintelligent man, in-universe, to think that his ship can travel that fast. Likely he achieved captaincy through nepotism or his political support of the Organas, not through skill as a navigator. Doubtless the helmsman actually flying the Tantive IV was constantly frustrated by this nincompoop's inability to comprehend basic astrogation.

A number being present on a wiki doesn't mean it is reliable.

Not that I actually disagree, as this figure is downright absurd, this does fit at least one piece of evidence from Clone Wars that I can think of that shows borderline sublight-FTL. In Jedi Crash we see a Republic cruiser drop from hyperspace before narrowly missing a star. Within less than a minute they go from skimming the surface of the star to impacting the surface of a planet. The only other option would be time dilation(which is admittedly what I think it was).

[NecronLord]

It's actually one of those things that shows clearly that the author is not working out the meaning of 'second order' calcs, it's almost certain that Gary Whitta just used 'parsec' without considering what a real-world parsec is. Just pure hot garbage.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Hell, from a quarter-parsec distance the planet Tatooine would not have been visible tot he naked eye. You'd be lucky to discern it's a binary star system at that distance if you're just using the Mk 1 eyeball.

That much alone should disqualify the scene. 8 minutes is a little under 1 AU at lightspeed. A quarter parsec is ~50,000 AU, meaning the ship is doing 50,000 c. So unless SW "sublight" engines are 5-10 times faster that ST's best warp drives, this is complete bollocks.

[Darth Yan]

Maybe Cloud City was the only major population center along the Falcon's trajectory and Fett just made a logical assumption.

Or he knew that Solo might turn to Lando out of desperation.

So overall what is the consensus on overall speed of a proton torpedo?

[Adam Reynolds]

They have a peak acceleration of up to tens of thousands of Gs(given the Death Star run) and an unknown endurance. We don't see them effortlessly run down starfighters so their practical acceleration must be within a similar range of a few thousand Gs so as to not be running on empty. Unlike modern air to air missiles they can't coast on inertia because they would have no ability to turn without fuel.

[Darth Yan]

They have a peak acceleration of up to tens of thousands of Gs(given the Death Star run) and an unknown endurance. We don't see them effortlessly run down starfighters so their practical acceleration must be within a similar range of a few thousand Gs so as to not be running on empty. Unlike modern air to air missiles they can't coast on inertia because they would have no ability to turn without fuel.

How’s that compared to modern air to air missiles

[Batman]

Extreme. Modern day AAMs are limited to single to double figure g linear acceleration (that they usually can't keep up for very long) and maybe 150g turns.

And technically proton torpedoes 'could' coast without losing the ability to maneuver if they can shut down their drive/are multistage missiles.

[Crazedwraith]

Backup hyperdrives look to be almost entirely the province of rpg and rpg related material looking at its wookiepedia article and there's no mention of the Falcon or its bespin trip there.

As to parsec's they seem to be based on trigometry and a base of 1 AU. It's not a measurement that even makes sense to be used in Star War since it's based on Earth.

[Batman]

'Every' measurement we're use to is based on Earth. Would you prefer made up garbage like oBSG used where nobody knows what they actually mean?

[Darth Yan]

Backup hyperdrives look to be almost entirely the province of rpg and rpg related material looking at its wookiepedia article and there's no mention of the Falcon or its bespin trip there.

As to parsec's they seem to be based on trigometry and a base of 1 AU. It's not a measurement that even makes sense to be used in Star War since it's based on Earth.

It DOES make sense though.