Theory of why Star Wars fighter craft act like atmospheric fighters.

[Augustus Lucius Flavius]

A while ago I was watching a documentary about the science of Star Wars.  In it they said that Star Wars dogfights, while incredibly awesome, were incorrect in that the ships would need thousands of miniature thrusters all over the crafts body to allow the acrobatics seen.  I say that since Star Wars has seen literally thousands of years of space combat, that a gas/liquid atmosphere has developed in the space between planets from the debris and emissions of destroyed vehicles.  Anybody else have a theory?

[Eclipse]

Noup, gravity would have bring all those gas and liquid particles to the nearest planet and combined it with it's own atmosphere. And even if that "atmosphere" you call would exist, the ships would still need moving parts such as a wings, flaps, a tail and all that stuff you see in modern fighters and altough cool looking, most of star wars ships don't look aerodinamic to me 

[Settra]

The theory of it's fiction they can do whatever they want works pretty well

[Pali]

Star Wars fighters do have maneuvering thrusters, so I don't see the problem.

[tlmiller]

The theory of it's fiction they can do whatever they want works pretty well

Yup.  When they wrote star wars they weren't attempting to be scientifically accurate.

Although as Pali says, they have stated in several books that the fighters have maneuvering thrusters.

[Mat8876]

Is this really needing to be ask? I mean star wars is a FILM it doesn't need to be the same as real life.

[Augustus Lucius Flavius]

Mat I was bored and tired.  In this tired state I remembered this theory I had so yes it had to be posted.  Also a better word for it would be "ocean" not "atmosphere" I could not come up with the word now I did. Second also, Pali are you talking about repulsor lifts? I thought those were just on the bottom.

[tlmiller]

No, actual maneuvering jets were used on most smaller vessels in the Star Wars universe for the Z axis.  Both up and down.  That's also how they roll the craft.

[Pali]

As TJ said, I meant actual maneuvering thrusters, though repulsorlifts could easily also be used during flight even in space - the x-wing books have tons of examples of creative repulsorlift use.  During the Death Star battle, for example, repulsorlifts could have been used against the station to provide extra lift.

[Augustus Lucius Flavius]

WHAT! Something about Star Wars I did not know!?!!?!  How dare I be wrong. Very well I yield to your higher knowledge.

[Desih]

The real question to ask is; Why does everything point up in space?

[tlmiller]

Because it looks better to the viewer.

[Slornie]

Not everything. There was that one upside-down Tector-class at the Battle of Endor:



Besides, there are very good tactical reasons for ships to all be the same way up.  It's much harder to keep things straight if you're all oriented differently - "enemy ships off the port bow" is a completely different direction when you're upside down!