Disney STAR WARS ship design: Why it's ugly and how to fix it.

karmajay said:

I thought these were the Starhawk capital ships mentioned in Empire's End?

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I also like the new ships in the films as well.

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I just hope those aren't THE Resistance capital ships. I was hoping for something much cooler. They don't look large enough to take on a Star Destroyer unless they attack in a group.


I did like everything in Rogue One. The U-Wing having engines similar to the X-Wing makes perfect sense because it's made by the same company.

Sluis Van Shipyards said:

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I did like everything in Rogue One. The U-Wing having engines similar to the X-Wing makes perfect sense because it's made by the same company.

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Yes, but why have the same configuration on a vehicle with a completely different purpose? The engines on the X-Wing are connected to the wings by a very strong mid-element, if you look at the x-wing silhouette you have a coherent outline. The outline of the U-Wing breaks up in several spots, especially around the slapped-on wings.

Did we talk about this video already?

KojiroVance said:

NO. Please don't. And please stop implying things about people who cast a critical eye to spaceship design, like we don't already know this is fiction, this is fantasy, this is a space adventure genre. WE KNOW.

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:rolleyes
you've read too much into my cynical post...you just cannot please everybody; same with car design. Some space ship designs are pleasing and some are not...and if they're not, they wont sell as toys!...simple as that.
As for not involving "Real Life" in this discussion is like saying that these design were created from nothing! Of course you're involving concept, ideas that have a already a base in the World we live in. That is the base of all discussion about Fiction (or Sci-Fi) for that matter. These film were not created by an alien society:behave It has to takes its ideas from military equipment/ in Army, Navy, Air and in History of course (see Nazi-like costumes for the Empire)!

DaddyfromNaboo said:

Yes, but why have the same configuration on a vehicle with a completely different purpose? The engines on the X-Wing are connected to the wings by a very strong mid-element, if you look at the x-wing silhouette you have a coherent outline. The outline of the U-Wing breaks up in several spots, especially around the slapped-on wings.

Did we talk about this video already?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGyOenuNmIw

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People like different stuff. For me, the U-wing is a very successful design. And in my experience, most ship enthusiasts really like it too. But ya can't make everyone happy. FWIW, one advantage of that engine configuration is that they are very accessible for maintenance or replacement.

Strongbow said:

People like different stuff. For me, the U-wing is a very successful design. And in my experience, most ship enthusiasts really like it too. But ya can't make everyone happy. FWIW, one advantage of that engine configuration is that they are very accessible for maintenance or replacement.

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Absolutely true. We all have different takes on topics, different tastes, different preferences. That is why some people only wear plain white shirts and others prefer colourful t-shirts with e.g. wolves howling at the moon

But if you call a design "successful", I´d like to hear what makes it "successful". Don´t get me wrong, but successful can mean a lot of things. If you had written "beautiful", it would be easier for me to dismiss it as a matter of taste, whereas "successful" is an invitation to an all-out design concept discussion I´m and architect and former movie art director, which makes it very tough for me to not look at designs with a critical eye. Gah, atm I struggle with the width of a window sill on a house, so discussing space ship designs is more a creative valve than actually to be taken seriously Especially when your job is NOT about creating space ships

DaddyfromNaboo said:

Absolutely true. We all have different takes on topics, different tastes, different preferences. That is why some people only wear plain white shirts and others prefer colourful t-shirts with e.g. wolves howling at the moon

But if you call a design "successful", I´d like to hear what makes it "successful". Don´t get me wrong, but successful can mean a lot of things. If you had written "beautiful", it would be easier for me to dismiss it as a matter of taste, whereas "successful" is an invitation to an all-out design concept discussion I´m and architect and former movie art director, which makes it very tough for me to not look at designs with a critical eye. Gah, atm I struggle with the width of a window sill on a house, so discussing space ship designs is more a creative valve than actually to be taken seriously Especially when your job is NOT about creating space ships

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I use the word "successful" deliberately. It is still subjective, of course. In my experience, spaceships in fictional settings rarely stand up to any kind of close scrutiny when it comes to analyzing how they would perform in the real world. The TIE fighter, an iconic design by any measure, has some serious design flaws if we examine it closely. Further, real-world vehicles frequently have feature what some see as significant flaws, so it's not always unrealistic to see them. We accept such flaws for a variety of reasons... expediency, cost, availability, whatever. As an engineer in the aviation industry, I see stuff that makes me scratch my head all the time. A little handwavium goes a long way when it comes to fictional vehicles.

To clarify, when I say successful, I mean it looks at home in the setting, feels like it reasonably proceeds from predecessors, can be reasonably followed by successors, and is plausible, if not optimal, for its intended purpose. It is subjective, and in my experience, most Star Wars ship enthusiasts think the U-Wing is successful in that context. YMMV, of course.

Strongbow said:

People like different stuff. For me, the U-wing is a very successful design. And in my experience, most ship enthusiasts really like it too. But ya can't make everyone happy. FWIW, one advantage of that engine configuration is that they are very accessible for maintenance or replacement.

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The OT designs made everyone happy. The prequel designs made most people happy. And for the most part, even the opponents understood why the designs were a good artistic decision. They felt like they were from a different time in the same galaxy

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astroboy said:

The prequel designs made most people happy.

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I disagree with this.

astroboy said:

The OT designs made everyone happy. The prequel designs made most people happy. And for the most part, even the opponents understood why the designs were a good artistic decision. They felt like they were from a different time in the same galaxy

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I liked some prequel designs, disliked others. But even the designs I did not like, I did not think were terrible. I had some design issues in the PT, but the ships were reasonably solid, even if I did not prefer them (not a fan of the Naboo ship designs).