# Can an X-Wing escape Earth's gravity? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 25, 2003, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-x-wing-escape-earths-gravity/184230 "2003-06-25T04:57:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mecaenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/91b2a8/32.png) [@mecaenas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mecaenas)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2003, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-x-wing-escape-earths-gravity/184230/21 "2003-06-28T06:09:18Z")
Debating the validity of the technology seems to be a moot point since, afterall, it is from a movie. It is make-believe. George Lucas isn’t a scientist. Shouldn’t this thread be in Cafe Society or something? ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2003, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-x-wing-escape-earths-gravity/184230/22 "2003-06-28T06:34:51Z")
Uhmm, well; I´ve got to admit that posting on this thread has increased my Geekness Index by 24.7 % ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2003, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-x-wing-escape-earths-gravity/184230/23 "2003-06-28T07:37:21Z")
If you watch the movies, you see that in ANH the squad of X-wings crosses the distance from Yavin IV to the Death Star in five minutes. That’s a distance of a couple hundred thousand miles - assuming a pretty stable orbit of the moon around the gas giant Yavin - in five minutes. That’s some pretty insane acceleration, on the order of a couple thousand G’s, if I recall correctly. And Smiling Bandit is right about the order of Canonicity… especially since Lucasfilms recently declared the ICS (Incredible Cross-Sections) books to be canon, subservient only to the movies. The material you’ll find in games or on toys are often half-assed efforts, invented by some random toymaker or game programmer, or based off of West End Game’s material which has, quite conclusively, proven to be focused more on gameplay than on accuracy (for example, they say that the _Executor_ was only 8000 meters long, when we can see in the movies that it was far greater than the length of just five Imperial Star Destroyers). ---
**Author:** ![Ficer67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c57346/32.png) [@Ficer67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ficer67)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2003, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-x-wing-escape-earths-gravity/184230/24 "2003-06-28T18:17:53Z")
As far as acceleration is concerned… In the movies, you see Darth Vader and his staff (generals, admirals, subordinates…) all pacing the decks of star destroyers and other space-ships. Since by and large, there is no gravity to speak of in outer space, there must be some kind of artificial gravity system on each ship that would keep people from floating about inside the star destroyers. So, would it be a safe speculation that some kind of artificial gravity system is on board the x-wing? It would be there to counter extreme g-forces due to acceleration, banking, and turning, etc. US fighters employ a system, the G-suit that keeps blood from flowing out of a pilots head during high-g manuevers. Why wouldn’t the x-wing have the latest development of this system? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2003, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-x-wing-escape-earths-gravity/184230/25 "2003-06-28T19:20:54Z")
I seem to recall reading in the _X-Wing Series_, the last book, if I believe, that X-Wings do have an advantage over TIEs in atmosphere. ---
**Author:** ![Phage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a4c791/32.png) [@Phage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phage)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2003, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-x-wing-escape-earths-gravity/184230/26 "2003-06-28T19:54:30Z")
**Ficer67** , actually the system you were talking about are called “inertial dampeners”. Geek factor 9, captain. ---
**Author:** ![Ficer67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c57346/32.png) [@Ficer67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ficer67)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2003, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-x-wing-escape-earths-gravity/184230/27 "2003-06-29T08:23:39Z")
Purdy high geek factor to be sure… But it seems that all the high tech and nifty gizmos in the x-wing are not the lasers, shields, and engines, but all the things that keep the human being alive in that craft. I mean, put a robot in there and all of a sudden the craft is not so mysterious. ---
**Author:** ![ModernGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e79b87/32.png) [@ModernGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ModernGeek)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2010, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-x-wing-escape-earths-gravity/184230/28 "2010-12-25T23:23:43Z")
1050 Km/H is about the top speed of a 747. For the X-wing to reach escape velocity, it would need a “mothership” that could rocket it into orbit, and then detach itself as a second stage. You can’t get something into orbit or into deep space by shooting it “straight up”, or else it will fall back down to earth. It’s obvious that the X-Wing is designed to be flown mainly in space, and possibly as a reusable reentry vehicle, but it doesn’t seem that it have the capability to fly from earth into space without assistance. To orbit the earth, one must be traveling 17,500MPH, to escape earth’s gravity, one must travel at 25,000MPH. You can’t just go 600MPH and “eventually get to space”, as you’d just keep going around circles around the earth. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-x-wing-escape-earths-gravity/184230/29 "2010-12-25T23:37:45Z")
If you absolutely must chime in after seven and a half years, you might as well not be blatantly wrong. Assuming that an X-wing can maintain thrust indefinitely, it can head straight up at 600mph or even slower. Escape velocity is the speed you must hit if you are then going to go into free fall - you will continue to decelerate as you move away from Earth but your speed will never go all the way to zero. But if you have a propulsion system able to keep you moving upwards at 600mph then it doesn’t matter that you’re short of escape velocity - keep the needle at 600mph and you’ll be out of atmosphere in less than a quarter of an hour. You _could_ keep ascending at the same rate once you’re in vacuum but more likely you would accelerate further once there was no risk of atmospheric drag ripping your X-wings off. Still, even if you don’t, keep moving at a nice steady 600mph and you’ll be passing the Moon in a mere 400 hours, a bit more than two weeks, and eventually you’ll reach a point where Earth escape velocity really is only 600mph - for ir decreases with altitude. (Obviously. By the time the Apollo ships reached the Moon they had bled off enough speed to be poking along at a mere 2000mph - but if they were over escape velocity near Earth, they were still over escape velocity three days later and 240,000 miles higher - or else their prior “escape velocity” would not have been escape velocity at all.) ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2010, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-x-wing-escape-earths-gravity/184230/30 "2010-12-25T23:45:30Z")
> [@ModernGeek](#): > > 1050 Km/H is about the top speed of a 747. For the X-wing to reach escape velocity, it would need a “mothership” that could rocket it into orbit, and then detach itself as a second stage. You can’t get something into orbit or into deep space by shooting it “straight up”, or else it will fall back down to earth. It’s obvious that the X-Wing is designed to be flown mainly in space, and possibly as a reusable reentry vehicle, but it doesn’t seem that it have the capability to fly from earth into space without assistance. To orbit the earth, one must be traveling 17,500MPH, to escape earth’s gravity, one must travel at 25,000MPH. You can’t just go 600MPH and “eventually get to space”, as you’d just keep going around circles around the earth. If you shoot an object “straight up”, it will fall back down. If you shoot it fast enough and high enough, the Earth will be in a different position by the time it “falls back down”. Of course the object will always fall towards Earth but it was fired high enough it will pick up enough speed on the way back down such that it will overshoot the Earth before it strikes it. That’s what happens to an object in “freefall” (AKA “orbit”) around the Earth. The fictional anti gravity technology allows spaceships to “hover” much in the same way a helicopter or VTOL jet does. But since Star Wars technology does not require atmosphere and can run for much longer than a chemical rocket, there is no reason why a ship could just hover off the planet at a nice leisurely speed. The reason Earth rockets need to go thousands of miles an hour is that they run for a relatively short time and the rocket needs to be in the correct position at the correct speed when they shut down. If the X-Wings “repulsorlift” were to shut down in flight at sub orbital speeds, it would just drop (mostly) straight down like a meteor. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-x-wing-escape-earths-gravity/184230/31 "2010-12-26T04:26:28Z")
Could an X-Wing reach escape velocity in less than 12 parsecs? What if it was on a treadmill? ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-x-wing-escape-earths-gravity/184230/32 "2010-12-26T08:19:17Z")
X wings don’t have wheels, they can’t move on a treadmill. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-x-wing-escape-earths-gravity/184230/33 "2010-12-26T08:25:16Z")
Several people mentioned that it is unaerodynamic. I’d like to point out that given that it has invisible shields we don’t actually know what shape it is aerodynamically speaking. Using the shields or other similar technology to divert airflow in the desired fashion makes the physical shape of the vehicle largely irrelevant; look how well the _Millennium Falcon_ flies despite being awkwardly shaped with a large dish sticking up on top. It’s not even that implausible, techniques using lasers or microwaves to to blast aside air for aerodynamic purposes are supposedly possible. As for canon policy, perhaps the rules have changed since this thread was made, but I’ve always heard that pretty much _everything_ is canon, unless contradicted by a higher level of canon. Star Wars fanboys often make a big deal of that. Usually so they can do things like use something called “Incredible Cross sections” to claim that turbolasers have 200 gigatons of firepower per shot. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-x-wing-escape-earths-gravity/184230/34 "2010-12-26T08:29:15Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > Could an X-Wing reach escape velocity in less than 12 parsecs? > > What if it was on a treadmill? I laughed…at both. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-x-wing-escape-earths-gravity/184230/35 "2010-12-26T18:13:52Z")
An X-Wing fighter could not escape Earth atmosphere which is why you don’t see too many of them around here. However, they have no problems taking off from Coruscant. One of my favorite lines in _The Day the Earth Stood Still_ is when Klaatu explained to Bobby that his ship could travel a million miles per hour! Light travels at around 670 million miles per hour which would classify Klaatu’s ship a “Klunker”. At a mere million miles per hour, it would take three hours to go to the Sun and back. Traveling to the closest star would take over over 2,500 years. Science fiction writers don’t necessarily get their “facts” get in the way when writing exciting tales of [space amebas](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Immunity_Syndrome_(Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series)). ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-x-wing-escape-earths-gravity/184230/36 "2010-12-26T22:27:23Z")
The X-wings seemed to lift off from the surfaces of the moon of Yavin and from Hoth without any problem - pretty much as a current jet fighter would - and then soon afterwards were in space. So I’d say the answer is “Yes.” Perhaps the better question would be, how did Luke pee while he flew all the way to Dagobah? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-x-wing-escape-earths-gravity/184230/37 "2010-12-27T02:29:04Z")
Do X-wings have FTL drives? Well, obviously they do, if Luke was going to be able to transit from Hoth to Dagobah (not to mention the rest of the fleet bugging out). While I recognize that traveling through hyperspace isn’t like dusting crops, does a craft necessarily need to be out of a planet’s gravity well before engaging the drive, or is out of the atmosphere good enough? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-x-wing-escape-earths-gravity/184230/38 "2010-12-27T02:59:37Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Do X-wings have FTL drives? Well, obviously they do, if Luke was going to be able to transit from Hoth to Dagobah (not to mention the rest of the fleet bugging out). While I recognize that traveling through hyperspace isn’t like dusting crops, does a craft necessarily need to be out of a planet’s gravity well before engaging the drive, or is out of the atmosphere good enough? Gravity affects hyperdrives, they even use ship generated artificial gravity wells to yank ships out of hyperspace in the EU. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-x-wing-escape-earths-gravity/184230/39 "2010-12-27T03:06:53Z")
Can X-wings be flown by zombies? Doomed, doomed we are! ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-x-wing-escape-earths-gravity/184230/40 "2010-12-27T03:21:32Z")
This suggests that a large ship in orbit about Hoth might have been able to assist in the evacuation of the fleet, but how would Luke have left Dagobah to get to Bespin? P.S. My universe is not expanded; only the movies exist. Appeals to novels to explain technical issues go right past me and explain nothing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-x-wing-escape-earths-gravity/184230.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-x-wing-escape-earths-gravity/184230.md?page=3)