Y-wing

Growing increasingly outdated with the advent of sleeker, more powerful starfighters, the Y-wing nonetheless has a proud track record of service in the Rebel Alliance. The sturdy fighter-bomber gets its name from its shape: a reinforced central spar connects the cockpit to a cross-spar. At each end of the cross-spar rests a powerful engine nacelle, which houses the fighter's sublight and hyperdrive engines. Just aft of the cockpit module is the astromech droid socket.

The Y-wing's primary weapons are twin forward-firing laser cannons, housed in a recessed slot in the front of the cockpit module. A secondary weapon is a turret mounted paired set of cannons. Though many Y-wings fly as single-pilot fighters, some sport a two-seat configuration with a rear-facing tailgunner operating the turret canons.

The Y-wing also carries proton torpedo launchers. During the Battles of Yavin and Endor, Y-wing squadrons were influential in helping defeat the Death Star threats. A Y-wing brandishes its squadron colors and markings on its main cockpit module and the forward tips of the engine nacelles.

Y-wing starfighters hold the dubious record of being the most-destroyed military vessel in the Alliance arsenal. This is not due to any design flaw in the Koensayr starfighter. Rather, it is the result of it being the most common starfighter the Alliance had at its disposal during the Galactic Civil War.

Predating the Incom X-wing, the Koensayr Y-wing figured prominently in the Rebellion's early skirmishes. They proved their value in the Battle of Vnas at Duro, and the Battle of Ord Biniir. During the Siege of Ank Ki'Shor, Y-wing fighters saved thousands of lives by holding off attacking TIE bombers.

The Alliance maintains two basic types of Y-wings, the single-seater BTL-A4 and the double-seater BTL-S3. In the two-seater S3, the gunner sits facing rear, controlling the turret-mounted ion cannon. Both pilot and gunner are protected by a pair of Koensayr ballistic ejection seats that automatically eject both crew members. The A4 features Guidenhauser ejection systems like their X-wing counterparts.

The twin massive Koensayr R200 Ion Jet engines (rated at 250 KTU) propel the starfighter in realspace, and each engine nacelle is topped with sophisticated sensor arrays. In an atmosphere, these ion fission engines work in conjunction with recessed repulsorlift generators to attain speeds of 1,000 kilometers per hour. The Y-wing's maneuverability comes from a pair of thruster control jets in the aft-face of the central spar. Additional agility is afforded by disk-vectrals set in the end of the engine nacelles to redirect thrust.

The Y-wing's R300-H hyperdrive motivator yields a Class One performance on standard astrogation routes. The S3 model does not have a hyperdrive backup. In the BTL-A4 Longprobe variant, the gunner's station is replaced with a nav computer and backup systems. The slower backup is equivalent to a Class Six hyperdrive.

Hyperdrive, repulsordrive, and sublight systems are controlled via the Subpro NH-7 flight control avionics package. The Y-wing draws power from Thiodyne O3-R cryogenic power cells which fuel the internal ionization reactor.

Perhaps the one thing fighter jockeys on both side of the war will agree on is that the Y-wing can take a beating. Its durable titanium reinforced Alusteel alloy hull proved a surprise to early enemy pilots who, confident that they had lined up the Y-wing in their targetting crosshairs, failed to destroy it with a snap-shot. Only by repeatedly dogging the Y-wing will a pilot's lasers cut through its hull.

This reputation for being tough, as well as its ground-hugging attack bomber mission profiles, have caused faster fighter pilots to nickname the Y-wing a "wallowing pig."

The Y-wing is designated an attack fighter, giving it a wide range of combat applications. Capable of respectable performance in one-on-one fighter engagements, its durable spaceframe is also well-suited to carry heavy-armaments. With little or no modifications, many Alliance units use Y-wing fighters for bombing craft. In the later years of the Galactic Civil War, Y-wings began to be replaced by B-wing starfighters. This newer fighter boasted similarly strong shields and hull, and devastatingly powerful projectile, laser and ion weaponry. The B-wing took years to replace the Y-wing, however, since there were so many of the older craft in service.

Y-wings were relocated from front-line combat service to base protection and on raids on outlying Imperial convoys. Many Y-wings have been pushed into courier duty for Intelligence services. This is where the most interesting Y-wing variants can be found. Some courier Y-wings have done away with the ion weapons, replacing the cannon power systems with luggage space. These fighters feature special split canopies for faster ingress or egress when landed (or even, as reported by some, high-altitude exits). Some modified Y-wing fighters have detachable cockpits that served as repulsor-powered escape vehicles.

Y-wing componentry has made itself into other Alliance hardware. The cockpit of the modified T-47 snowspeeder is a modified Y-wing fighter cockpit refit. This expedites training due to the familiarity most pilots have with the control layout. The T-47 also features refitted sections of Y-wing armor along its hull.

The early Colin Cantwell concept models built of the Y-wing featured an immense bubble turret dome for a gunner to sit in. The limitations of bluescreen technology at the time made such a dome impractical --- it would be impossible to shoot a miniature with a clear dome and have that dome register properly on film. Subsequent iterations of the Y-wing concept did away with the fragile-looking compartment.

The book, Star Wars: Incredible Cross-Sections, revealed that brand new off-the-assembly line Y-wings feature smoother coverings over its otherwise exposed cross-spar and fuselage. The text explains that Alliance engineers removed the cosmetic coverings to better service the fighter.