A.S.V.S Headline News
"All the spam that's fit to print"

SSD Maneuvering

Many people believe the Star Destroyer, particularly the Super Star Destroyer, has all the maneuverability of a dead fish. Sure, they say, it's got hyperdrive and all, but in sublight drive, we've never seen it perform any radical maneuvers.

Maybe we have and we just didn't notice it.

Take a look at the photo below. (Also available: SSD.mpg  10 seconds, 3Meg recorded at 1/8 speed)

This is from Return of the Jedi just prior to Lando delivering this line: Only the fighters are attacking. I wonder what those Star Destroyers are waiting for?

The green dot is fixed upon the top center of the cockpit forward viewport. The red dot is fixed upon the top center of the SSD bow. The blue dot is fixed upon the bow of the ISD. The yellow dot is fixed on a star in the background.

Now let's look at a photo 32 frames (1.33 seconds) later

Yes, it would seem that the points have changed position.

But wait, you say, isn't the change in position due to the movement of the Falcon and not the Imperial ship's? The answer is yes and no.

Let's overlay these two pictures and see if anything odd stands out.

As we should expect, G1 and G2 match up perfectly since that point is our perspective. Don't believe me? Copy and past the second photo on top of the first at 50% opacity and see for yourself. Go ahead, I'll wait...............

Finished? Good. Let's continue.

Since the stars in the background are relatively fixed in position, we will use the points Y1, Y2 as  reference points. If all the apparent movement is cause by a change of our perspective from the Falcon, then things will match up nicely.

The following calculations are based on photos 10.667" x 4.615" at 96 pixels/inch. The coordinates 0,0 are located at the top left corner of the photos and increasing in value going right and down. Not exactly Cartesian but try and bear with me. The original source photos are available upon request.

Used Coordinates and slopes [m=(y2-y1)/(x2-x1)]

G1 (5.073, 1.688)   G2 (5.073, 1.688)    

Y1 (5.969, 1.346)   Y2 (5.268, 1.099)     m= 0.35 (The following slopes should match this)

B1 (7.047, 2.385)   B2 (6.516, 2.135)     m = 0.47  

R1 (5.318, 2.156)   R2 (4.729, 2.266)    m = -0.19 

Obviously, things do not match up nicely. If the slopes of the ISD and SSD had matched the slope of the star then we could assume that any observed motion was imparted by the change in perspective of the Falcon. Pay special note to the slope of the SSD. This indicates that there is independent movement on the part of the SSD. But how much movement?

First we must solve for the change in position of the star. This will be used to qualify the results from the ISD and SSD.

Yx2-Yx1 = 5.268-5.969 = -0.701      Yy2-Yy1 = 1.099-1.346 = -0.247

Rx2-Rx1 = 4.729-5.318 = -0.589      Ry2-Ry1 = 2.266-2.156 = 0.11

SSD's real   movement: x =+ 0.112     y = +0.357  (remember:   inverse Cartesian)

Now if the Falcon had never moved, the SSD's and ISD's coordinates would be listed as

R1 (5.318, 2.156)   R2 (5.430, 2.513)   m = 3.188  Distance between  R1,R2 =  0.37 inches

B1 (7.047, 2.385)   B2 (7.217, 2.382)  m = -0.018  Distance between  B1,B2 =  0.17 inches

On screen the points would look like this:

Now to take in the full motion of the SSD we plot the three corners of the Executor ABC from both photos, taking into account the movement of the Falcon.

Note: C1 is an approximation and has an error margin of +/- 0.12

A1 (5.318, 2.156)   A2 (5.430, 2.513)  Distance A1A2 = 0.37 inches (0.95 cm)

B1 (7.474, 2.462)   B2 (7.701, 2.698)  Distance B1B2 = 0.33 inches (0.83 cm)

C1 (3.609, 1.995) C2 (3.688, 2.648)  Distance C1C2 = 0.66 inches (1.67 cm)

Measurments and Ratios:

Many of the following calculations are derived using numbers and photo measurements from Dr.Curtis Saxton's site. Those numbers will be indicated by this color. My numbers will be shown in "( )"

Length of SSD: 17.6 km

Width of SSD bridge: 270 m

Ratio of bridge width to wingspan: 21.06  (24.55)

SSD Wingspan: 5.6862 km  (6.55 km)

Ratio of measured wingspan (B2C2) to actual wingspan: 1cm=557.81 m (1 cm = 642.86 m)
These ratios will be used to estimate the actual distances traveled by points B and C.

Width of trench: 122.06 m

Width of measured trench: 0.4 cm

Ratio of trench: 1 cm = 305.14 m
This ratio will be used to estimate the distance travelled by point A.

Distances Travelled:

"( )" indicates alternate ratio

A1A2 = 290.01 m

B1B2 = 463.95 m (534.68 m)

C1C2 = 931.93 m (1074.02 m)

Summary:

This is not intended to set either lower or upper limits on the sublight maneuverability of a SSD. Dr. Curtis Saxton's site does a far better job of establishing those. However, I think I've proved through canon evidence that these immense ships don't just sit there like slugs. If they want to, they can move.

I fully realize that there may be errors in the method used to acheive these numbers. If you have corrections or suggestions I will be glad to update this page.

Back to Contents