X-Wing Ejection: It all makes sense now
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- čas přidán 16. 02. 2023
- X-wing ejection is a concept that was introduced all the way back in 1977, but it was never actually depicted. What might an ejection from an x-wing look like? I came up with a solution.
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Credits:
Intro animation: Ryan Fletcher
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Background music : Alcablast (Bastien Boiton)
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In The Empire Strikes Back we see that the X-Wing has a storage compartment for essential survival gear, situated directly below the cockpit and accessed from the underside of the hull. If that were actually integrated into the base of your ejection pod, it would mean that those supplies stay with the pilot, with or without the rest of the ship.
I was thinking the same thing.
Ooof, I came here to say the same thing before I saw your comment. But yeah I agree.
This makes a tremendous amount of sense. Even on long flights the pilot can dip into rations below their seat by opening a panel and pulling out the ration box.
Thought of this also, but if I remember right, the cargo bay is below the astromech, not the cockpit, between the lower engine intakes. It could be connected, but I think it would over-complicate the ejection process.
@@Treveli45 Remember though, all that stuff that Luke has on land was brought out of the X-Wing while it was still half-submerged, meaning there had to be some access either on the top of this ship or, as would make sense, through the cockpit.
I really appreciate that you remembered the droid and took the time.
When characters overlook them in the stories it's like they're forgetting about the dog, and that gives me that John Wick kind of feeling
To be fair, MOST droids are even less well-thought of than the dog. Unlike R2 and 3PO, MOST droids are constantly memory-wiped and don't actually develop personalities.
I couldn't agree more with this comment! If my Astrobuddy is going down, we're going down together! I like the idea that THE DROID has the ability to eject the pilot. Maybe a pilot is incapacitated but not dead and the ship is going to explode.
Reminds me very much of what Luke describes Obi-Wan's last lesson in Heir to the Empire...
@@Feroce Then I'm Nobody, because i do.
@@Feroce That's 'cause droids don't pull people's arms out of their sockets when they lose....
I would like to add that, remember right after Luke crashed his X-Wing into the Dagobah pond, it is largely submerged.
So, where did Luke get all his supplies from?
The only real answer is that he was able to lift up his seat and bring them up through the cockpit since the bottom was under water.
I'm pretty sure in Heir to the Empire it describes the cargo compartment similarly.
I think that some real canon also explained that if you can get in their and move the wiring around, you can have more storage space too.
Which makes sense given how it was a mutki roll fighter designed to fight in pretty much any atmosphere, gravity well, space, and deep space, while also having the capacity for long term solo travel
I remember the Clone Wars had an ejection thing. The T-6 shuttle in the clone wars had ejection modules, upon activation, have a survival capsule. Perhaps some of the larger ships like shuttles or similarly sized ships have a similar function.
oh yeah, the one clone that jumped and got fucking smacked lmao
Yeah, I think Plo Koon was among those that survived in something like that?
The Lambda shuttle similarly can eject the cockpit, according to the Cross Sections books.
@@KaiserMattTygore927 You are probably thinking of the test reel for Order 66, where Plo Koon managed to eject but was still shot down. In the movie he just blows up with the ship. In that reel he was also flying the Eta-2 instead of the Delta-7, and it only ejected his seat.
During the invasion of mandolare in season 7 on of the LAAT pilots was able to eject after Ahsoka unsealed the canopy.
They utilised a system like this for the USMC fighter pilots in 'Space: Above & Beyond'. Made a lot more sense in the cold vacuum of space than an ejector seat.
Goddarn Chigs!
Holy crap someone else bringing up Space Above and Beyond. The show had problems ay but at the same time I loved the system they had in place for fighters. Fighters being infinitely more replaceable than trained pilots.
Yep, the entire cockpit of the ol’ SA-43 Hammerhead fighter ejected. Of course that didn’t help Lt. Winslow much as that rat bastard Chiggie Von Richthofen proceeded to put a couple into her ejection pod after she ejected. Lt. Colonel McQueen sure showed him afterwards with some payback deluxe.
Also it made a lot of sense for deploying, smaller airlocks and all.
Yep, really loved that show despite its later problems. And the pod to ship launch design was very cool, if a bit overcomplicated. (Seriously, leave the pod in there full time, and either keep the bay pressurized til launch, or do a vac walk. All that plugging and unplugging can't be good.
In the original Rogue Squadron Novel they frequently refer to the air limitation of ejection and the effective guarantee of death if operating without friendly rescue service and acknowledgement of the limitations of ejections is not exclusive to this novel by any means. Your solution is significantly more elegant and effective than the previously ubiquitous ejection seat but its not like these problems have never been addressed.
This. I remember it basically created a force field but after thirty minutes it was either death by suffocation or exposure or both. Nawara Ven started sticking his lekku into what were basically giant socks after his first extravehicular experience 🤣
Agreed. I always interpreted the chairs as a technically-there-but-not-very-good option. Given that rebel strike ops meant ejection = capture at best, it makes sense they didn't place a high priority on that feature when selecting their preferred snub fighter.
ImGine actually ejecting over the deathstar, surviving just long enough for the thing to blow up under you a few minutes later....
Don't forget how Luke met his wife in the Thrawn Trilogy. Luke only survives an extended period in a damaged X-Wing in deep space due to Jedi hibernation letting him optimize his oxygen and hunger beyond what any mortal could do.
I remember in one of the first X-Wing novels Corran Horn’s wing mate Ooryl Qrygg losing part of their arm due to debris following an ejection. Corran even states that “10 is extra-vehicular” (Rogue 10 being Ooryl’s call sign). Clearly Ooryl’s X-Wing didn’t come with a fully enclosed ejectable cockpit.
Edit: I just looked up Ooryl’s bio on Wookieepedia, and learned that Ooryl is a subspecies of Gand that are ‘lungless’, meaning they don’t breath like we would. So, if not for that debris, Ooryl could have survived in the vacuum of space with no issues. Still, no enclosed ejection cockpit is still a dumb design, as Ooryl learned.
In the Lucas Arts X-Wing simulator it showed the pilot floating in space after an ejection and I always had a problem with that. I like the F-111 style pod you depicted here better. 👍
I always wanted to somehow rescue them with my ship, and thought the implication of there being no rescue mechanic meant they were implied to be corpses
Best game series ever!!!
@@slothfulcobra if you were in "rebel space" you ended up floating in a bacta tank, if the opposite occurred, you got a cut scene of Vader entering a cell with an interrogation Droid and you were then considered KIA!!
The game has the only publicly known ejection to rescue process in Star Wars. Since we can see the floating pilot without any visible rescue gear, I immediately assumed they were covered in a force field.
Was the game licensed by LucasArts? Then this is the only official method.
@@andrew12bravo21 You were considered captured actually. You got KIA if you failed to eject or crashed into something, then you got a cutscene of the Alliance dumping your coffin into space. Either way, it was as simple as clicking on "revive" to reactivate that pilot's playthrough.
The videogame Star Wars: Rebel Assault 2 featured both astromech droid ejection and more importantly the ejection of a rebel B-Wing pilot in the beginning of the game that showed the entire cockpit section ahead of where the rotating mechanism is located being jettisoned as an escape pod.
Yes, it was common knowledge that b-wings ejected like this. Also, the system showed in this video was described in the old D6 role playing books published by West End Games.
I myself like the idea that the pilot and the droid have different ejection mechanisms, controlled by themselves respectively, and that after both have safely exited the combat area, they rendezvous.
I figure it would work like how tandem seat ejections work on say the F-14 for example. The order (RIO then pilot) and time delay help to ensure that neither crew member is burned by the rocket motor in the seat, and that their seats do not collide. Except in this case given the danger of the pod colliding with the droid, and losing both pilot and droid, the sequence is reversed. Pod ejects, then the droid if possible.
You're to the original trilogy what the Clone Wars was to the prequel trilogy.
These videos are amazing, and I love all of the illustrations and animations. They feel like they were pulled straight from Ralph McQuarrie's mind!
Also, good luck on the Kickstarter! A fan film from you would be a dream come true!
The ejection systems of the Y-wing and B-wing must have been even more robust, since those ships seem to have sealed cockpit modules designed to separate from their fuselage. The A-wing , depending on the model, seems to offer little in the ejection scenario.
The A-Wing IS the escape pod lmao.
@@boundlessaether392 A-Wing "Go Fast".
Oh, and a lil 'shooty shooty' on the side. The most combat effective we've seen an A-Wing (on-screen) was an impromptu kamikaze run into Darth Vader's flagship SSD.
TBF, It's the only thing that can meet-beat a Tie Interceptor (and, probably 'keep up with' heavily-modified blockade-runners). IIRC, it's well-established that A-Wing pilots are a 'special kind of crazy'; lacking an ejection system, just adds to the lore of the snubfighter and its pilots, IMHO.
I really like this concept, having a pod like on the XB-70, B-58, and F-111
I was looking for this comment.
Concept? Did you assume that the X-wing just ejected a human into the vacuum of space? Did you give it any thought
@@appleseedgames6934 No, cause I don't really pay attention to star wars.
I'm not hardcore into it.
Looks very similar to the SA-43 Hammerhead. Always liked how the cockpit of the hammerhead in Space: Above and Beyond has X-Wing feels
Thinking about it while the Empire obviously doesn't care about survivability a classic Ejector Seat would actually make more sense on a Tie Fighter given the pressurised suit the pilot wears and the relatively short distance they can operate away from their mother ship.
Maybe that would be something for a Fan First Order Tie Design?
At the very least, in Legends X-Wings could eject the astromech droid in a separate process, it being mentioned in one of the X-Wing novels. Whether they could tie this to their own ejection, I don’t know but I would imagine it would be similar to how IRL two seaters would eject, with the after crewmember being ejected less than a split second before the foreword crewmember and each seat being slightly tilted to the opposite direction from each other to avoid them hitting each other
The Space Combat Simulation games have that.
This is how I always assumed it worked. That said, I do appreciate that the Resistance TV show depicted New Republic X-wing pilots as wearing sealed helmets with what looks like a breathing tube, suggesting that they could survive in vacuum for a bit even if the canopy was breached. They seem like a faction that should care a lot about pilot survival.
If you play the old school X-wing game, the ejection system was a module that was collected during battle if necessary or after battle
It was not a module. You saw figures in suits floating and picked up by a transport. Or maybe that was tie fighter.
@@gregorymuir1985 I could have been mistaken in which one it was. But I think one of them had what appeared to be an escape pod in it.
@@kennethkates3140 there will undoubtedly be a recording of it somewhere on CZcams.
@@kennethkates3140 the 3D Wing Commander games made-clear, there's a 'pod' involved.
WC III and IV were 'contemporaries' to X-Wing/Tie Fighter. So, (at least) the 'false memory' is easily-explained.
I remember one of the X-Wing novels mentioned droid ejection. At one point when Corran Horn was performing an attack run on a Lancer Frigate with a bunch of friendly proton Torpedoes on his tail, he told his astromech to eject. Whistler refused the order and later did something that saved Horn's life. From that, I'm guessing that Astromechs could eject, and that they had control of their own ejection. Suggesting that they might have been expected to eject after the pilot had done so.
I also remember that the B-Wing was shown ejecting its cockpit in Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire. It looked like it separated from the ship just forward of the servo ring.
That's my assumption too; keeping in mind of course that the average astrodroid is supposed to have a lot less personality and initiative than Artoo or Whistler and thus would be more likely to follow the pilot's instructions or the organisation's standard policies.
Seems like there were two versions of ejecting that I read, one was the seat bubble, which I think popped up more than once, and one was a force field over the helmet faceplate, basically making the flight suit spaceworthy. That one always bugged me. Seemed like an "oh crap" handwave, vs a baked in one.
I much prefer the 'vark or starfury solution.
3:40 loving the render with the cockpit being hoisted by the gantry. Awesome vibe and style there!
this also runs into my thoughts on how long it took Luke to get to Dagobah and whether he could go to the toilet on the way.
Real-world fighter pilots will just soil themselves if it comes to that, but they're not very likely to stay in their fighter all day or multiple days, while the X-Wing is a long-distance craft that is descended from the ARC-170, which I think EU says was designed to operate independently for up to three weeks. It seems reasonable to expect there to be some kind of onboard facilities for being cooped up longterm.
I love all of the design inspiration from real world aircraft in Star Wars. One example is how similar the ARC-170 is to the real world P-61 Black Widow.
It seems like quite a few starfighters have a panel line that surrounds the cockpit that could be an ejection pod.
This makes a lot of sense, thanks for actualizing it in 3d
This is a fantastic video. I worked on the F-111D in cold war and maintained the pod among other electrical and environmental systems on the plane.
When EC Henry posts a video, I don't ask questions, I just click and watch. Great addition to the lore and a great way to bring the concept to ships that claim to have ejection.
Addition to the lore?
He has no authority to make additions to anything Star Wars. If you want to pretend his garbage is official, go ahead while we all laugh, but know that none of it is canon. None.
@@JackRipper8881 why are you even here? I never said it was canon and neither did EC or anyone else. Get outta here.
@@JackRipper8881 given that fuel was never even mentioned in Star Wars until Episode 9, I'll take Eric's thought processes over anything approved by Kathleen Kennedy, because E.C. is more about love for Star Wars than most of the top level folks at Lucasfilm (people like Dave Meloni being the exception).
Great to know that instead of mindlessly consuming anything Disney puts out, you just mindlessly consume anything EC Henry puts out. And not only that, 42 people are in agreement at the time of me writing this comment. Have you considered, perhaps, thinking about the content you're watching so you can meaningfully contribute?
@@terribleauthority I like the some of the EU, some of Disney, and some of what fan creators like EC put out. Have I violated some sort of code of conduct here? I can like what I like. Why don't you do the same and stop raining on people's parades? This video was interesting and we'll put together. It isn't canon, but I like it. The end.
I always get excited when EC henry uploads
Space isn't as instantly devastating as you might think, though. If your forcefield flickers, you're fine, especially if oxygen is pumped into the bubble
I think this can still work with what already was shown in Star Wars media. Maybe the seat ejects by itself with the forcefield as a backup in case the cockpit-pod can't eject.
Actually EU books (specifically the X-Wing books) had life support equipment built into the flight suit that deployed a "magnetic containment" field like those used in docking bays to contain a small amount of atmosphere when ejecting. The interesting thing is that ejection was specifically a combat only thing and that they had a very short period of time - measured at less than an hour - where they could survive after ejection. If they didn't get recovered during that period they died. Though an interesting note was that exposure was more likely to kill an ejected pilot than running out of breathable atmosphere.
Good Point.
To be fair: 'forcefield' tech is not something new or considered unreliable in Star Wars.
Especially, with the canon-adoption of The Old Republic; we can see technology like (electro)magnetic atmospheric containment, has been around for eons.
Also, in EU, Legends, and D-Canon "Personal Deflector Shields" are not improbably-uncommon; implying 'form-fitting forcefields' are 'a thing'.
It does sit over the little cargo bay we see in Empire, so it could be that the trunk contents would come with the pod, which is presumably where the survival great Luke uses on Dagobah would have been.
Fun fact: the X-wing pilots in A Ne Hope were supposed to wear oxygen masks with their helmets, and the prop even made it to the prototype stage, but the masks were dropped to allow more of the actors' faces to be visible. You can see a picture of a prototype helmet with mask in Star Wars Helmets' article for the Rebel pilot helmets.
Those 'meme' images of Star Wars' Canon and Lore being built-atop the prop/costume department's choices... really are true.
Great videos and cgi! As a USAF fighter crew chief I am very familiar with ejection systems from the Martin Baker widow maker to the Aces 2 seats which were a huge improvement and even better for the newer F22 & F35 also the F111 pod which was very cool. I always thought the Xwings would have to have a pod design that either the droid went with it or ejected by itself later because you definitely do NOT want a 300lb astromech smashing into your pod as you try to escape! A pilot ejecting into vacuum with parts of exploding spacecraft all around is just asking to get sliced to ribbons and the Force field bubble well is just too much Star Trekkie silliness for me!! A pod like that could never make it through atmospheric reentry though! Good luck with the kickstarter will be looking for it!!
I... always thought this was what they did. Not just because of the real world examples, but 'SpaceAbove and Beyond' had their fighter craft with cockpit modules the pilots boarded, were then hooked into air frames, THEN sent out from a mother ship. It just makes too much sense for a full cockpit ejection module, and something like a force bubble around the seat being a backup, andemergancy suit seal being a backup on that. That way there are redundancies in place. The cockpit being ideal because, as you said, supplies can be packed. If nothing else it can have a transponder beacon to flag for pickup.
Sure getting picked up by imperials is far from ideal, but getting picked up by scavangers, pirates, in system craft, etc are also options.
Wow. That actually does make sense, having redundancies.
The problem is, wouldn't it be better to spend that mass on better shields? Remember an escape system is a last resort. Until you use it, it is dead weight.
In space above and beyond it existed as a means of quickly getting into the plane to fight, escape pod as a secondary function and minimal capability.
@@justindurante2554 Realistically it's always a balancing act when designing anything, but an ejection system is centralized i na single part of the ship typically surrounding the cockpit. A shielding system would have to be distributed even if it's one large generator with supporting systems spread through the craft.
Plus theres only so far you can go wit ha shielding system i na craft of that size and maybe incom already had what they felt was the best the ycould safely install without either damage or mantinance issues.
there's an airbase near me in Australia, where we used F1-11's for quite a while, i went to the museum recently and found out about the cockpit ejection system, it's what i thought immediately when i saw your thumbnail, awesome research! and F1-11 was an awesome craft too (used until the 90s here in Aus).
It was a very good aircraft. One version was meant as a deep penetration bomber under Strategic Air Command (SAC) back in the day.
I can totally see both systems (the escape capsule and the ejector seat) being used on different versions of the X-Wing. The capsule on a variant for long range missions and the ejector seat on variants that are used for fleet engagements where rescue shuttles are much more available.
And the Rebel Alliance being quite strapped for resources and spare parts I can also see them retrofitting one system for the other depending on what is currently available.
I actually always thought the flight suits the rebel pilots wore were supposed to be sealed (in areas where you couldn't see skin, anyway), even though they didn't look like it, because budget and because space opera hand-waves a lot of pesky details like that. Which also gives us things like wearing hospital oxygen masks to survive in a hollow of an asteroid that turns out to be the digestive system of a space slug. And Luke being able to breathe on the underside of Cloud City, in the upper atmosphere of a gas giant. (Though of course the biggest reason was probably that they wanted the rebel pilots to look visually distinct, and like the opposite of the bulky, robotic and faceless imperial pilots...) I remember that in the Zahn books the flight suit was also treated as vacuum-rated, since when Luke does a space walk to try to fix his broken X-wing hyperdrive and subspace antenna, he just grabs his "gloves and helmet seals" before popping the cockpit.
Another theory assuming the suit is air-tight: The "life vest" rebel pilots wear inflates like those fancy MotoGP inflatable crash suits, creating a thick and high collar that seals against the helmet.
The noise in deep space shows that the SW galaxy has some sort of ubiquitous atmosphere with limited pressure. Pilots might not need much more than a larger rebreather to wait for rescue.
@@davidtauriainen9116 I remember EckhartsLadder did a video talking about luminiferous ether once. That might correlate with your theory.
@@davidtauriainen9116 FWIW, TESB shows that in the belly of a space worm, humans can survive with a simple rebreather and no eye or ear protection, and some of the comics (TFU 2's comic comes to mind when Juno is kidnapped by Boba Fett) depict human characters surviving in space without eye or ear protection either. This seems to support your idea.
Originally, the X-wing pilots were to wear oxygen masks with their helmets, but the masks were dropped to allow more of the actors' faces to be visible. You can see a picture of a prototype helmet with mask in Star Wars Helmets' article for the Rebel pilot helmets.
@@EscapeVelocity11186 Several years ago, I had a friend (A middle-aged and life-long Fantasy/SciFi 'enthusiast') that was logical and insistent that 'The Galaxy Far Far Away' was not a 'hard vacuum' but rather an extremely low-density 'fluid'. S-foils, sounds, ejection survivability, etc. All factored into his summation.
(I think even the effects of The Force may be inter-related to the 'ethereal composition' of Star Wars' non-(hard)vacuum 'space'.)
TBQH, it's part my own head canon now.
Love it totally reminds me of space above and beyonds hammerheads cockpit system.
I fuckin love that show.
And, less prominently, the Starfuries from Babylon 5
@@thatstarwarsnerd6641 Pretty sure the Star Fury is more prominent.
Space Above and Beyond was awesome, but it has nowhere near the reach of B5
@@pdxmarine1430 I meant how prominently they were presented in each show, the B5 escape pod only comes up rarely (maybe once or twice a season at most), but the S:AAB ones are shown every time the fighters are launched
@@thatstarwarsnerd6641 OK, that's fair
Nice work. Also this modular design ties in neatly with Incoms philosophy. "If you can fly one you can fly all*:ish. One standardized control module.. not a bad Idé...
I think the legends idea was that the suit produces a little force field to trap air in, so the life support system in the suit can keep people alive for 30 minutes after ejection. It’s just not warm.
At least, in the X-Wing novels, that’s how they explain it.
yes that is how the novels explained it. Also in the Xwing PC flight games. When "shot down" your character is shown floating in space with a blue force field around the body. If you survived the destruction of your fighter.
@@dirus3142 There was no force field shown in the PC games according to the recordings I've seen here on CZcams -- I think your memory is playing tricks on you.
the way you transition from a full view to cockpit only as the engine passed in front of the camera was incredibly slick. well done on that
great video! in addition to the Hammerhead cockpit module from Space: Above and Beyond similarities mentioned by others, i'll point out the appropriate similarities to the Mark 1 Viper ejection pod seen in the Galactica 1980 episode "The Return of Starbuck" (the only episode of the Battlestar Galactica spinoff worth watching, unrelated to the rest of that spinoff, wherein Dirk Benedict plays Starbuck marooned on a desert planet doing a riff on Enemy Mine with a damaged Cylon).
Seeing as the Viper was HEAVILY inspired by the X-Wing, and the similiarities in design, mission, and that the pilot was also in shirt sleeves and an open helemt, this all makes sense.
In many cases, the open helmet was there for one main reason...seeing the actor's face. In TV/film, it's all about seeing the actors face. I figure one could assume the lighting on the viper helmets is an imaginary shield (which the real purpose was to light the actor's face). If you've ever seen a real military pilot's helmet and mask setup, the visor comes down and lines up with the edge of their air mask.
You noticed that too!
Xwing ejection is one of those things I’ve googled many times and always come away with unsatisfying answers. Good to see that: a. I’m not the only one who obsessed over this and b. Came to the “cockpit pod” conclusion. Rendered here with incredible detail! Always a treat to see your work!
Like many things in Star Wars it varies depending on whos depicting it.
Same issue with 40k stuff, honestly.
Everyone thinks of the cockpit idea! It's the most generic idea to space ejection ever! It's like duh, use your last braincell to think mate
The other Starfighters like the Y-Wing and A-Wing probably have the same ejection as well.
Fantastic break down of the ejection seat. Good luck with the fan film! That sounds super exciting.
I'm Jealous!
I get major hang-ups about weird design choices when it comes to sci-fi ships, and I'm glad EC is there to find creative solutions that aren't far fetched. But can he take on the ultimate challenge and find a way to explain how the landing gear on the X-Wing are stored in the bottom engine pods while also leaving space for the engine's components?
Easy answer to that is the engines aren't that big. TIE Fighter engines are tiny and seem to work well.
Well, you don't need much space for struts if you use the skid as your outside layer of the ship. Look at a 737..those planes have no cover shroud for their landing gear(outside edge of tire is exposed to the elements), and some Airbus wide body planes (Airbus 340 specifically) carry a center fuselage landing gear as well.
@@shraka I guess we're forced to assume that, but when designing something for maximum efficiency you cut out as much empty space and dead-weight as possible. The fact the top turbines look the same but function differently than the bottom turbines would lead someone to assume that there is a power imbalance there, which wouldn't be in the best interest of a ship designed to dogfight. Or do the top turbines on the X-Wing also contain landing gear for those special circumstances you'd want to land upside down? (I'm joking)
The engine types of TIEs and X-Wings are also different forms of propulsion, as the TIE's propulsion is conducted purely by a reactor, and the X-Wing and other alliance ships rely on a fuel source, which also requires larger spaces to ignite the fuel and use it for propulsion. When you remove the entire section of the bottom turbines for landing gear, with beefy doors for that matter, it begs the question why the top turbines are just as big and identical to the bottom when they could be smaller.
@@BobDunlock They wouldn't be turbines - there's no atmosphere in space - they're a drive of some sort. The upper drives may well have other items where the space for the landing gear would be. Sensors, countermeasures, shields, some kind of backup system such as a backup / regulator so the upper drives can operate when damaged more easily, or possible a different design to accomodate more armour. Kinda makes sense because you're more likely to get hit from the top - you will pull up more often as a human can tolerate more G forces in that direction, and you want to keep an eye on your opponent so you have to keep them above the canopy.
Wing Commander and its spin-offs like Privateer had Ejection capsules as well, BattleTech has the "Full-head ejection system" (the head usually contains the cockpit of a BattleMech).
So yes, your idea is excellent, highlighting once more how limited the majority of artists expanding StarnWars later on was in many aspects.
Though to be fair, they were ARTISTS, not engineers.
Could be that multiple systems existed and were compatible with the X-wing variants. Some poor sods just had an ejection chair, whilst others had full ejection capsules. Some may have had nothing/systems that couldn't be repaired. This would make sense for the rag-tag rebellion running off of scraps and salvage.
An alternative is the entire forward section rockets away from the back section of the ship, since most of the highly combustible systems are basically located in the rear of a xwing (cannons and engines). This could be done fairly cleanly and we know the entire length of the bottom front is storage, so this would mean a pilot would have plenty of supplies with them.
why not both, if you can, eject the whole nose, and have a semi decent mid range ship to escape with, or if its bad enough, just the cockpit module, or even if its REALLY bad, just the seat and force field as a last resort
@@TytonidaeIndustries
No. Mass penalty. While a quick cutaway section is easy, it can't realistically have thrusters and all. Remember we are talking dead weight until used. That mass is best used for a better craft.
A fan film using your amazing designs sounds really cool, I can’t wait for it
I'd read the differently-coloured area around the cockpit as just being the canopy frame, but this is a very fun idea. Always appreciate a grounding in real aerospace history and tech.
I love it! One of the many problems I had with Legends was how they tried to answer questions of the movies with finnicky and nonsensical answers (forcefields on an ejection seat... It's like a Wookie with a "speech impediment" talking Basic); your's is both elegant and makes sense!
The thruster nozzles being pointed down looks interesting; it almost implies that the escape module flies "upwards" relative to the pilot rather than "straight ahead". There's something about the canopy shape seen from above flying in that manner that reminds me of a coffin floating in space. There could certainly be some lore-building uses for that!
That is how an aeronautical engineer would design an escape pod, you have to remember that the the ship is flying in space so of course the pod would blast up and away from the rest of your exploding ship. Just like fighters do
@@nicholasklangos9704 I get that, but the position of the thrusters would mean that it *looks* like it would fly using all four thrusters (so thrusting "upward") because just using the ones at the back (relative to the pilot) would be misaligned to the center of mass and cause it to tumble. The image of it flying upwards (relative to the pilot's head) just gave the image of a floating coffin, that's all.
It's also possible that the unsealed flight suit covers a body glove layer that acts as a _mechanical counterpressure suit_ (look it up). In this case, you could have a conventional ejector seat without needing any handwavy force field to survive in the vacuum of space; you'd just need to don an oxygen mask before ejecting (or after, as the case may be; being exposed to vacuum still leaves you with about ten seconds of useful consciousness). The presence of a life support pack on the pilot's chest suggests that the suit is meant for vacuum use in some fashion.
Another alternative would be an encapsulated ejection seat, like the ones used on the B-58 Hustler in real life. Rather than ejecting the whole cockpit, the seat comes with a telescoping shell that automatically deploys to enclose the pilot.
Also worth noting that the X-wing's less famous stablemate, the Y-wing, are sometimes described a similar ejection system to your proposed capsule, with the whole front fuselage detaching and jetting away.
The encapsulated ejection seat could be useful for Imperial TIE fighters.
@@justindurante2554 yes, and no, the Empire wanted to encourage the TIE Pilots to fight to the end, and to think of themselves as expendable to decrease the likely hood of them defecting, just like why the TIEs lacked shields or Hyperdrives or Life Support, so i just cant see them getting any form of Ejector Seat
I alwasy assumed (until the Force Awakens) that TIE cockpits didn't have life-support and that the TIE pilot flight suit was fully sealled and did the life support. Why provide the entire cockpit with atmosphere when you can just put the pilot in a spacesuit.
@@IceWolfLoki tie fighters don't have any onboard life support, so any air in the cockpit is just what was picked up prior to the hatch being sealed
@@IceWolfLoki There's pros and cons, those suits would need to be hooked up to an air supply either way. There's also the issue that electronics don't always work reliably in a vacuum or with massive swings in temperature. So, you'd have a cockpit that's nearly all the way to being habitable with the only reason for that extra layer is if you're hit, but not so much that it destroys the vehicle.
He doesn’t eject but Luke was stuck in deep space in the Thrawn trilogy. He’s able to seal his flight suit and helmet but it takes a while. Your ejector capsule makes way more sense.
Great interpretation of the lore, loving it! Makes me want to build that portion of the ship out of bricks at proper minifig scale, would be a fun display piece, thanks!
This is wonderful. It's perfection. I wasn't aware cockpit ejections was anything beyond the seat and parachute but is most likely what they had in mind
Mr Lucas was big into aircraft I bet he knew.
The Truce at Bakura book (iirc) has someone eject into atmosphere and they have a repulsor-chute which helps them descend safely to the ground. Thinking about it now, it's probably overkill, but you never know how much atmosphere a planet might have -- the Mars rovers couldn't safely descend fully via parachute due to thin atmosphere so that's why the final stage had to be retrorockets.
WOW!! This is really very interesting to me and something I've thought about for a long time along with many others like yourself.
Last year I published some fanfiction on various Star Wars related websites that incorporated a similar idea, the main differences were that the Artoo unit came along with what I called a "T-65 Ejection Module". The little droid was strapped to his compartment you now see over a rear engine that powered the E.M. which also had small wings that unfolded and a nose that housed the pilots food and medical supplies, an idea I picked up from TESB where Luke is seen entering the X-Wing storage compartment right under the cockpit. The Ejection Module in my story is also unarmed, it only had a small role anyhow but I decided early on that, whilst this was a ship within a ship, it was still only a rescue vehicle designed to get the pilot to safety and that's all. I also did some designs for the E.M. but these were for my own use and I never published them. If you would like to know more do let me know. Another subscriber here for sure. Great video, keep up the good work. 😁
in Legends the Z95 has an ejection mechanism, but idk if the X-Wing does. But even if there is no mention of ejection mechanisms on the X-Wing, I can't think of a reason why it shouldn't have one, considering it's predecessor does. Great video, as always.
Babe wake up HE dropped another video
At least in bsg2003, the pilots were full space suits so that a normal ejectiob seat is enough
And in babylon 5 their taking no chances having both and escape capsul and a full space suit
Ejection capsule + full space suit is definitely the way to go. No reason to not have that extra redundancy.
@@ECHenry you should talk about babylon 5 one day
@@ECHenry have you ever tried to do anything in a space suit? the suckers weigh like 200 pounds and move like the wacky inflatable flying arm man. Plenty of reasons not to have a full suit
I’ve always wondered what Star Fighter ejection would look like in space. Though I imagine the pilot would basically screwed if they ejected near any sort of Imperial enemy.
EC, I want you to know that you have my favorite narrative of Star Wars. The stuff you come up with EASILY becomes my head cannon. Thanks for being an awesome Star Wars fan.
I don't know if I 100% agree, however I do really like the idea, and perhaps your take on ejection and the comic and other instances of ejection don't have to contradict, perhaps your method is the main ejection method, and if the canopy is breached or damaged the seat with a force field is the secondary option. Great video, love the animations!!
I liked the idea of an ejection seat force field bubble, but I really like this idea when I actually put myself in the boots of an X wing pilot. I think a cockpit with thrusters and more air sounds better than a stupid jetpack force field seat
Maybe its like with Cars... depending on how much you pay the manufacturer you get heated seats and electric windows, parking distance sensors... or just the base model.
@@SP-sy5nq
Better shields and combat capabilities sound better than this clunky thing.
@@SP-sy5nq Ejection make sens in the atmosphere. In space it's necessary to have a special suit with life support for some hours, or how you would be evacuated from a bubble?
You can't actually surviving in open space, like on the surface of a planet with atmosphere, so you simply don't need supplies and tools there. If nobody came - you dead. On the planet with atmosphere and life, theoretical you could survive for years.
I'd been thinking this was canon since ever just looking at the spacecraft, glad to see I'm not deranged.
In a way, I'm reminded of the replaceable bridge modules on Federation ships in Star Trek. The separate cockpit module could even be a way to update the X-Wings with newer tech
Always felt the X-wings and ones like it uses a B58 collapsable escape pod system like the one you posted at @2:24. But this does make far more senses...
I always get excited when EC Henry drops another banger.
I'm thinking it might be a combination system. Like a couple of layers of ejection. If you're in close proximity to a support vessel, and you're in the middle of a battle, taking just the seat leaves both you and your X-Wing easier to recover. However, if help is more than a couple of minutes away, or if you're entering a hostile environment, take the whole pod. So, most of the time, you will eject the whole pod. This would be especially true in the early Rebellion, when capital ships with hangars that could simply scoop you up would be few and far between. Later on, ejecting just you and the seat would become more viable and common, though it would still remain rare.
Using the whole pod still makes more sense as it simplifies the system. Rather than having two or three ejection systems to make and care for, you only have one. That and there's still the problem of keeping the pilot alive in space even if there are other ships nearby. You don't know how long that fight is going to last, and rescue crews might not get to you in a while. A good example would be pilots shot down during the Yamato's sinking. Three planes were shot down during the attack, with another 7 being downed when Yamato's forward magazine detonated as it was sinking. It would not be until after the rest of the IJN task force was dealt with that rescue planes could start rescuing those in the water. In the case for Star Wars, staying in a pod also protects you from any debris that might be flying around at high speeds.
@@airplanenut89 I'm thinking of it as layers of redundancy, which solves my one issue with EC Henry's concept--what happens if a stray laser bolt gouges a big hole in the canopy window, leading to total loss of pressure?
1. Whole-pod ejection: every pilot's preference, if possible. Atmospheric pressurization, best protection from debris, and controlled atmospheric re-entry. Longest-term survival period (days?)
2. Seat-ejection with magcon bubble: If the pod's pressure was compromised, or if its structural framework or thrusters were damaged, the pilot could still get clear and potentially survive, at least for a short time (30 minutes?). To me, the Rogue Squadron comic panel EC Henry shows in the video suggests this circumstance due to the angle and force of collision impact we're seeing. Ideally, the pod should have ejected prior to the crash, but perhaps the system was damaged or malfunctioning, leaving the seat to eject at the last moment.
3. Failing all else, if the pilot can manually get clear and get hands on an oxygen mask that deploys from the life-support box on their chest within 10 seconds or so, they may be able to survive the vacuum of space for a short period of time as a last-ditch effort (10 minutes? 15?)
To me, it doesn't make sense that in a combat situation, a pilot would have no redundancy to deal with the loss of cabin pressure. True, this system would have more moving parts that could fail, but it's better than having just one system that might fail. It also doesn't contradict previous media, and resolves both the issues I noted /and/ the ones EC Henry set out to solve here.
@@davidcanavese6754 The problems with such a layered system are that it adds time, and money to the production costs, as well as in the maintenance of the equipment. All this while they are fighting a civil war against an enemy with more money, and production capability. It also ads more complexity, and room for an accident. The seat could accidentally eject due to malfunction (we've seen this in real life), or the pilot could pull the wrong handle (wants to eject pod, ends up ejecting seat). From what we have seen in SW, if a stray bolt hit's the pod/cockpit area, then the pilot is likely toast anyway since the bolts in SW act like cannon shells when they impact.
However, if you ditch the ejection seat, and keep the emergency mask, then you likely have the winning combination. Pod for normal ejection, and the mask in case there is an issue with life support. Even if the pod is damaged, I'd rather have it for some form of shelter, and power. I'd imagine the flight suit plugs into a power source for a heater in the event of life support problems.
In my head airspace craft ejects are where the cockpit ejects with a separate option to eject the seat. The cockpit uses a ribbon instead of a drogue chute for high hypersonic ejection (Mach 10+) also, during ejection the pilot's body is locked to prevent them from snaping their neck and the G-forces can knock out pilots
The thumbnail immediately made me think of the F-111, and it made me even happier when it was mentioned in the video itself.
This takes me back to the time of the first X-Wing game, where you could be either captured by the enemy after ejection or get rescued and cared for in bacta tank.
The thought process and reasoning is really great in this video, as is the research of real-world examples. The main drawback of the whole cockpit ejection is the added weight and complexity it adds to the aircraft frame.
You could fare better as a fleet with having smaller time windows for search and rescue with only ejection seats and force fields, but more nimble and maneuverable fighters than with cockpit ejection systems. Critical systems like ejection seat force fields can have multiple levels of redundancy whislt still being lighter than the cockpit ejection.
But your angle on this topic is highly interesting and incredibly well rendered.
So much better than the force field nonsense.
Pin this man.
This has always been cannon
Your content is unmatched. I will look forward to the fan film
Remember
In canon, the only time we see a pilot injct(sorry for mispronunciation) their ship is in the Force Awakens when Fin and Poe crash into Jakku. We see that Finn survives because he did a parachute injection on the Tie Fighter.
only that he is sure it was not suitable for space
IIRC canonically TIE fighters didn't have pressurized cabins and the pilot suits had full life support, so ejecting from a TIE is not an issue when you're not stealing it in your street clothes.
Very interesting and cool video. I'm absolutely interested in Trial on the Island Moon! Looking forward to more info on that. I love your work and would definitely want to see a fan film featuring your effects (and meticulous attention to detail!).
So, kinda of off-topic, there was a graphic novel/comic book that had some rebels flying modified tie-fighters that had hyper drives, astromech Droids, and an Ejection seat. They did wear a fully pressurized flight suit. I just can't remember the name of it
How is it that your intro looks far closer the the original feel of star wars space battle scene/shots then the sequel trilogy, amazing. I agree with your conclusion of a enclosed sealed cockpit for ejection. great video.
Now that we have the ejection module, I'd love to see how it'd interact with your patrol / search and rescue Y-wing from way back. Even if it's as simple as having the stranded pilot pop the hatch and EVA his way over to the Y-wing.
I like the idea of the astromech controlling the vehicle.
But I also like the idea of the astromech being able to eject/survive with the pilot. In a larger pod similar to the B1 concept.
Is this the only video on CZcams where every word in the title isn't all capitalized or all lowercase? I have great respect for you.
Brilliant. I love the kind of story possibilities this would open up.
Having watched the whole thing now - Really good video. Especially the bits about the astromechs. Also I liked how you had that F-111 testing footage, and I believe even a B-58 capsule diagram lol.
Man I wish this had always been part of Star Wars, it's a great idea! Showing Tie Fighters blow up escape pods would really show the Empire's character.
It would've been great at the Battle of Endor, showing that the Empire considers that battle as the final battle. No need to take prisoners
I love it when you take inspiration from real world fighter plains and military aircraft.
Many years ago I wondered the same thing. As I inspected my X-Wing model I also noticed the lines which indicate the entire cockpit could be the injection module. Great job on the video and your explanation
Absolutely Amazing concept. If I ever get around to building a new Lego X-wing I'd love to incorporate this into the ship.
Ya! I was thinking the same thing about the escape pod. You nailed it perfectly! Also the fan film looks amazing! 😊
always love your space ship videos
I remember seeing something like this Although it was just the pilot for the ejection seat on the X wing it wasn't one of the older Star Wars comics
And if they were ejected into space although you don't see it really all that often they do have space suits attachments for their helmets to survive a short period In space Check out the air to the Empire comics it shows Luke with a fully covered helmet
the only thing I am missing on the outside of the pod (and this might be literal mind you, I could have just missed it by not seeing it) would be the contact plate where the ships computer is connected to the rest of the ship, if that is even inside the pod. Either way there should be a multitude of contacts where cables would get in the way of detaching the pod.
If you look at the model rotating, you can see a bunch of recesses that look like contacts. You could imagine they work like the contacts for some rechargeable batteries where you just have two metal pieces touching instead of actually being screwed together.
The concept art in your videos continues to blow me away.
I remember a very in-passing and indirect mention of the ejection pod in the original Incredible Cross-Sections book. It didn't outright say that it was an ejection pod but the cross-section made mention of a number of cockpit features that would only make sense if the entire cockpit ejected from the hull.
huh, now i need to go check my copy, thanks for pointing that out =D
This is a great, fun and technically convincing video. I'll look forward to the kickstarter launch.
Great video and your X-Wing ejection solution makes perfect sense! Thanks!
I can't tell you how much I love your work. Keep up the great content!
Top notch video Henry! In my mind this is the ONLY way the escape or ejection seat of the X-wing could work. Nicely explained; and as always - the visuals you guys provide or excellent!
I still have my Lego X-Wing from 2004. Set # 4502. And the set was built and constructed with the "nose" and "wing" compartments being seperate. I always imagined as a kid that the front half of the ship would split from the rear-end and serve as an ejection pod. Sadly, the astromech would also be left behind in this version, but conveniently left enough of the droid exposed to possibly eject itself from the deteriorating rear-end of the fighter. And since R2 was known to have little rockets attached to his legs, it wasn't much of a concern to me as a kid. 😅
This is a great solution. Well done on the concept and animation. Love it!
Always a good day when you upload
In The Clone Wars the T-6 shuttles have survival capsules, a weird airbag like bubble unfolds from the chair to seal the occupant and has an oxygen mask built in.
I think the main reason we no longer heard about escape pods on starfighters is the fact it raises the stakes. The rebels have limited ships but throughout the series I always had the impression they're lacking proper pilots even more (also considering how quickly they got Luke into the attack run on the Death Star for example). A newbie might be a significant risk, even if pilots know each other otherwise. As such, losing (or not getting new) pilots was a serious concern. Just being able to eject and possibly instantly switch to another craft would have allowed for far riskier moves and strategies not necessarily befitting the tension building. (And I'm intentionally ignoring the bombing run in the sequels, while I understood the homeage, that felt just stupid, especially how there was obviously no safety/backup stuff for bombers being hit, even though these were dedicated heavy bombers… wtf?).
Damn hyped for that Fan film