Idiot sci-fi question: Why do X-Wing fighters have…um…wings?

[Kazuaki Shimazaki II]

Originally Posted by SUBMAN1

Clearly, the wings have nothing to do with aerodynamics, as there is nothing aerodynamic about 99% of the vessels in the Star Wars universe, and almost everything short of the Death Star makes controlled landfall and takeoff. (Seriously, how does the Millennium Falcon do it? It’s a stunted frisbee! Eh, a question for another day…)

With the raw power of SW engines, it is possible to make a brick fly through the air, and dissipate or withstand the friction heat with shields and uber-hulls. This does not equate that aerodynamics does not help.

As to the suggestion that the so-called “S-foils” are used to generate deflector shields, that doesn’t explain how the other fighters in the Rebel fleet create defensive energy screens (well, maybe the B-Wing). It just doesn’t add up.

That the X-Wing employed a certain technical solution to a common problem does not equate that other technical solutions are impossible.

Now, I grant you, looking for science in Star Wars is a largely a futile gesture (Parsecs are a unit of distance, not time!)

They actually retconned this one in the EU by saying that Han Solo, flying a difficult course and cutting corners, managed to reduce the total distance of a trip by what must have been a tiny fraction, just enough to get it under 12 parsecs of distance.