Y-wing

The Y-wing, built by Koensayr, is the slowest, most ungainly Rebel starfighter in the fictional Star Wars universe. In the movies, it is seen in both A New Hope and Return of the Jedi. The craft carries two laser cannons, two ion cannons, and two proton torpedo launchers. An astromech droid, such as an R2 unit, plugs into a socket in the craft, to act as a copilot.

The Y-Wing was already obsolete by the time of the Galactic Civil War, but it is still fielded by many planetary defense forces, mercenaries and pirates. It is a rugged design, but it has some design flaws requiring constant maintenance. This lead many crews to remove the superficial hull plating.

There were two common designs towards the end of their lifespans. The first, the BTL-S3, was a two-man strike starfighter. The weapons systems officer typically operated the ion cannon turret when needed. This design was supplanted in most services by the BTL-A4, which was a one-man starfighter. The ion cannon turret was typically locked forwards in this design. In addition, this varient boasted much greater endurance (as much as three times longer) over its earlier predecessor. The Rebel Alliance apparently did not consider the deletion of the weapons systems officer to be a disadvantage, nor the "loss" of a trainable ion cannon.

In the X-wing computer game series it is further explained that the Y-Wing was a relatively early design, explaining its slow speed and relatively poor manoeuvrability. However, in the games its deficiencies are partly compensated for by the heavy missile load it can carry, and its unique (until the introduction of the B-wing in later games) ability to paralyse craft with ion cannon fire without destroying them.

See also: Star Wars