Star Wars Ships

Faster-than-light-capable, the Millenium Falcon was reported to be one of the fastest ships available, a useful attribute for a smuggler's vehicle and one that stood Solo in good stead. At sublight, she was surprisingly manuveurable, and could lead Imperial chasers into traps with ease.

The Millenium Falcon, perhaps because of the excessive modifications to make her more suitable for smuggling goods, has an unfortunate propensity for breaking down at dramatically useful moments.

Death Star I and II

While perhaps not 'ships' in the strictest sense of the word, the Death Stars weren't exactly 'space stations' either, since Space Stations are, by name and nature, stationary. The Death Stars were mobile and could be moved to wherever they might be needed - supposedly indestructable, neither survived long enough to be used for their original purpose, with the notable exception of the destruction of Alderan.

The closest modern-day equivalent to the Death Star is the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. A self-contained 'city', aircraft carriers aren't the speediest things afloat, but can transport a fleet of fighters to whatever part of the world they might be required. The Death Stars were meant to house and deploy not only fighter craft but ground armies. And of course there was that whole planet-busting ion cannon thing.

TIE Fighters

The fighter of choice of the Imperial Fleet, the TIE fighter has the appearance of an eyeball suspended between two tiles. TIE stands for Twin-Ion Engine, and does not refer to their 'bowtie' appearance, a similarity the Empire would not even recognize. The side tiles are heat-exchangers, not power collectors, designed to radiate the excess heat from their powerful engines.

They are single-pilot vehicles meant to be launched en masse against an enemy fleet - without shielding, they are easy to destroy, but when swarming, can be overwhelming.

Darth Vader's vehicle of choice, when he drove himself, was a modified TIE Fighter.

X-Wing Fighters

The preferred choice of the Rebel Alliance, the X-Wing Fighter is a single-pilot vehicle with four laser cannon in the wings, which open into an X in flight. These require an onboard astromech droid in the "copilot's" seat outside the canopy.

The Rebellion launched X-Wings against the Death Star in the original Star Wars movie, in aerial battles highly reminiscent of vintage World War II Battle of Britain footage. Proton torpedoes skillfully placed (with an assist from the Force) sparked a chain reaction which destroyed the putatively indestructable battle station.

X-Wings are, unusually, faster-than-lightspeed capable; this is the equivalent of a carrier-based fighter of today being able to fly to the moon.