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One of the most iconic ships in all of Star Wars, the B-Wing resembles more of a t than a b. Other than that, its cockpit is located at one end of the ship and can be seen to being able to change orientations.

Q: Is there any source describing how the cockpit changes its orientation and how it decides what the correct orientation is?

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  • Wookiepedia says it's gyro-stabilised...which seems logical
    – Paulie_D
    Commented Jan 7, 2017 at 13:40
  • The Return of the Jedi Sketchbook showed that it could rotate, but it did not address how that was controlled.
    – Buzz
    Commented Jan 7, 2017 at 13:41
  • 1
    With a weight. Since it was made in the early 80s, now I'm left wondering if it was made out of lead...
    – Mazura
    Commented Jan 7, 2017 at 20:39
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    I thought I saw somewhere that the B stood for blade, so I went looking and found an answer to this question which contains a link referencing Rebels that supports this.
    – eshier
    Commented May 13, 2017 at 18:08

1 Answer 1

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Per the Star Wars Databank article on the B-Wing, the pilot decides whether to lock the gyro to a local horizon or, presumably, to let the cockpit align itself with the orientation of the ship itself.

The B-wing's command pod has a unique gyroscopic control system. The pilot can orient it so that it always stays level with a horizon line. No matter which way the B-wing may maneuver laterally, its pilot remains upright.

B-WING FIGHTER - StarWars.com


This is discussed at some length in the (Legends) video game Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader

Because the cockpit is surrounded by a unique gyro-stabilization system, the pilot always remains stationary, even as the rest of the ship rotates during flight.

And in this image from Star Wars: Card Trader. Note that the image was originally taken from a set of Legends blueprints found in the Essential Guide to Vehicles factbook.

enter image description here

And you can see how it would work in practice.

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  • 1
    That toy is sick
    – Petersaber
    Commented Jan 8, 2017 at 17:11
  • @Petersaber - I had one of those, along with this bad boy. A few years ago I tried to locate them in the attic only to find out that my mother had sold them at a yard sale for a fiver each.
    – Valorum
    Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 19:50
  • Appereantly every (at that time) kid geek had a mom who sold/gave away his toys/collectibles without his knowledge for nothing... I feel your pain.
    – Petersaber
    Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 21:34
  • @Petersaber - In fairness she also sold a metric ton of other plastic crap from China that I had up there. How was she to know that that particular piece would be worth thousands just a few years later?
    – Valorum
    Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 21:55
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    Monetary value was not my point - shotgun approach to throwing stuff away was
    – Petersaber
    Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 22:00

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