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Thread: what are these flap thingies on the jsf?
Supermite wrote:
They are like the S-foils on an X-wing. The JSF is the precursor to tie fighters. Those little flaps were an artistic thing to make them look more like tie fighters.
Actually, from a design standpoint, the wings serve more than just an artistic purpose. When the wings are folded in, it provdes a smaller profile which in turn decreases the drag allowing the ship to fly at a higher rate of speed. When deploied, the wings cause a small amount of drag, and slightly increase the profile of the ship, but in turn provides and stable platform for firing any attached weapons as well providing better control in turns, rolls, banks, ect. at the cost of overall speed.
Currently, they serve no purpose in game, but this is the thoery behind the wings for all ships.
Official comment from lucasarts is that the TIE panels and the ETA-2 panels are radiators. Neccesary because all the equipment is mounted in such a small volume. The S-foils on the ARC, X-wing and B-wing had a function in power distribution. Closed meant more power to the engine, open gave more power to the guns.
yeah, i saw a blown up tie, and i was able to see the interior of the panels, and it had copper cooling lines going through, so they must be for cooling...
thing is, space is vacuum, there is no airflow to cool'em down lol.... woulda made more sense if they were solar panels 
which is another reason why they wont do any good in space for stability.... but ifu get that much into detail, there would be no sound of blasters/ion engines etc either
razorseal wrote:yeah, i saw a blown up tie, and i was able to see the interior of the panels, and it had copper cooling lines going through, so they must be for cooling...
thing is, space is vacuum, there is no airflow to cool'em down lol.... woulda made more sense if they were solar panels
which is another reason why they wont do any good in space for stability.... but if u get that much into detail, there would be no sound of blasters/ion engines etc either
Airflow isnt the objective, they're designed to provide a larger surface area for the heat to dissipate I think.
What I want to know is why we cant fire the secondary, outer cannons on the JSF with fins closed, as Anakin did in Episode 3. His fins are clearly flush with the wing when he fires on the landing bay shields on Grievous' ship, however only the outer cannons fire, so I assume the technical fluff reads that the more powerful hull cannons require the fins open to dissipate the additional heat put out by the reactor when firing both weapons.
Anakin was notorious for tinkering with electronics. It is possible that he overrode the safety systems that would have prevented him from firing his guns with the s-foils closed.
In the EU books, tie fighters have a greater maneuverability than x-wings in space, but their panels create too much drag in atmosphere. Also, apparently the reason we hear the whine of the TIE engines is because their engines interfere with comm signals and that is what we're hearing.
These are all just theories that I've heard though.