X-Wing Ejection: It all makes sense now

X-wing ejection is a concept that was introduced all the way back in 1977, but it was never actually depicted. What might an ejection from an x-wing look like? I came up with a solution.

Credits:
Intro animation: Ryan Fletcher
Still renders/demo animation: Angelos Karderinis
Background music : Alcablast (Bastien Boiton)
Mastering : Studio Oleoproteus
F-111 footage restored by Jeff Quitney

Brought to you by over 250 amazing supporters on Patreon:

[LolTollhurst]

I really appreciate that you remembered the droid and took the time.
When characters overlook them in the stories it's like they're forgetting about the dog, and that gives me that John Wick kind of feeling

[coltseavers]

I would like to add that, remember right after Luke crashed his X-Wing into the Dagobah pond, it is largely submerged.
So, where did Luke get all his supplies from?
The only real answer is that he was able to lift up his seat and bring them up through the cockpit since the bottom was under water.

[chrisj]

In the Lucas Arts X-Wing simulator it showed the pilot floating in space after an ejection and I always had a problem with that. I like the F-111 style pod you depicted here better. 👍

[JonBerry]

I myself like the idea that the pilot and the droid have different ejection mechanisms, controlled by themselves respectively, and that after both have safely exited the combat area, they rendezvous.

[joshs]

In the original Rogue Squadron Novel they frequently refer to the air limitation of ejection and the effective guarantee of death if operating without friendly rescue service and acknowledgement of the limitations of ejections is not exclusive to this novel by any means. Your solution is significantly more elegant and effective than the previously ubiquitous ejection seat but its not like these problems have never been addressed.

[Tigershark_]

I really like this concept, having a pod like on the XB-70, B-58, and F-111

[Rusty_Shackleford]

I love all of the design inspiration from real world aircraft in Star Wars. One example is how similar the ARC-170 is to the real world P-61 Black Widow.

It seems like quite a few starfighters have a panel line that surrounds the cockpit that could be an ejection pod.

[Tclans]

3:40 loving the render with the cockpit being hoisted by the gantry. Awesome vibe and style there!

[HumbleHonkingEnthusiast]

the way you transition from a full view to cockpit only as the engine passed in front of the camera was incredibly slick. well done on that

[philtkaswahl]

The thumbnail immediately made me think of the F-111, and it made me even happier when it was mentioned in the video itself.

[bohemianearspoon]

4:36 have the astromech droid shoot through with bottom from where it enters

[YellowpowR]

Is this the only video on Youtube where every word in the title isn't all capitalized or all lowercase? I have great respect for you.

[Neacail]

there's an airbase near me in Australia, where we used F1-11's for quite a while, i went to the museum recently and found out about the cockpit ejection system, it's what i thought immediately when i saw your thumbnail, awesome research! and F1-11 was an awesome craft too (used until the 90s here in Aus).

[zacharyrehnberg]

Xwing ejection is one of those things I’ve googled many times and always come away with unsatisfying answers. Good to see that: a. I’m not the only one who obsessed over this and b. Came to the “cockpit pod” conclusion. Rendered here with incredible detail! Always a treat to see your work!

[HairTorque]

Nice work. Also this modular design ties in neatly with Incoms philosophy. "If you can fly one you can fly all*:ish. One standardized control module.. not a bad Idé...

[grindingbricks]

Great interpretation of the lore, loving it! Makes me want to build that portion of the ship out of bricks at proper minifig scale, would be a fun display piece, thanks!

[willkuehler]

He doesn’t eject but Luke was stuck in deep space in the Thrawn trilogy. He’s able to seal his flight suit and helmet but it takes a while. Your ejector capsule makes way more sense.

[Bridgeru]

I love it! One of the many problems I had with Legends was how they tried to answer questions of the movies with finnicky and nonsensical answers (forcefields on an ejection seat... It's like a Wookie with a "speech impediment" talking Basic); your's is both elegant and makes sense!

The thruster nozzles being pointed down looks interesting; it almost implies that the escape module flies "upwards" relative to the pilot rather than "straight ahead". There's something about the canopy shape seen from above flying in that manner that reminds me of a coffin floating in space. There could certainly be some lore-building uses for that!

[boreasreal]

in Legends the Z95 has an ejection mechanism, but idk if the X-Wing does. But even if there is no mention of ejection mechanisms on the X-Wing, I can't think of a reason why it shouldn't have one, considering it's predecessor does. Great video, as always.

[swanswan]

This reminds me of the B-wing ejection in Rebel Assault 2, where the front of the pod blasts out.

I think you nailed it.