Thread by @TheSpaceshipper

Promised thing for the 10,000 followers, here is a long thread devoted to the Y-Wing. It will also be my last long thread here, being frustrated by the limitations of Twitter.

Enjoy it, especially since it literally took days of research and work 🥳

BTL Y-wing, starfighter-bomber - Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)

Manufactured by Koensayr Manufacturing, the Y-Wing is a multi-roles starfighter, but mainly a bomber. During his long career (we can now see the Clone Wars to Episode IX, almost 60 years), it has seen many models. We will focus on the best known.

SW Complete Cross-Sections:

Models:
1/ BTL-A4 (A New Hope/Rogue One)
2/ BTL-B ( two-seater, The Clone Wars)
3/ BTL-S3 ( two-seater, comics)
4/ BTA-NR2 (The Rise of Skywalker)

Despite many variants, all Y-wings have the same basic configuration.

From the old @starwars Databank: "Growing increasingly outdated with the advent of sleeker starfighters, the Y-wing will nonetheless stand proudly when history recalls its role in the Rebel Alliance. It was the "work horse" of its starfighter arsenal".

Fan art by @TysenJohnson

1974. George Lucas knows his movie (then far from the one we know) will need a few starfighters.

To create the designs, his friend Hal Barwood (future LucasArts game designer) makes him meet @colincantwellcb (2001, A Space Odyssey) and Ralph McQuarrie, who are hired in November.

20th Century Fox had given 15 000 dollars for the development of Lucas’s idea : less than needed to pay only one artist. Lucas paid them out of his American Graffiti profits.

Cantwell: « George said that he wanted to do something very different from 2001".

Cantwell: "He wanted the movie to be as immersive and as new as 2001, but George wanted to make this action saga with comic-book nobility ».

To help him move forward, Lucas draws rudimentary sketches of the ships.

The "RF-3 (WWII Torpedo fighter) will become the Y-Wing.

Cantwell: "I had initial discussions in which George described the storyline. At that point, I used my imagination to create the ships. We collaborated on the concepts. and there was very little guidance from George."
tinyurl.com/yxms53zp

Cantwell: "In SW, each ship was created for its unique role in the massive and complex adventure . . . even into future films. Each ship had specific characteristics and details to make them come alive on the screen." @StarWarsNewsNet

Fan art by Felipe Yoon ( @FelipeY_Art ?):

Cantwell: "George wanted the Y-wings to be like a WWII Grumman TBF Torpedo Bomber, which had a gunner in the belly, facing back to cover the tail, and on top, then the pilot facing forward. So the Y-Wing could have that kind of interaction between three people on it".

According to "The Making of SW" written by @jwrinzler (from which some of the quotes are taken), the first concept model approved was perhaps Cantwell’s Y-Wing.
"I met with Lucas to ask mostly about the role of the ship storywise. He seldom made suggestions on design changes."

Cantwell: "Most of these photos were taken in my backyard in 1975 after kitbashing the pre-production models for the the X-Wing, TIE, and others. Kitbashing is a method of model building that myself and a few others pioneered in the early 70's."
tinyurl.com/y3sps476

Cantwell: "Essentially, you take pieces from cannibalized model kits (cars, planes, trains, etc...) as well as shapes from around the office and house. Look closely and you will see pill bottle engines and Easter egg fuel tanks".

Cantwell: "Most of these ships would be used with only minor modification. All of these designs are original, although I did work closely with Ralph McQuarrie in the early days of the project (what a genius!)."

McQuarrie works from the Cantwell's study model.

As Colin Cantwell would finish approved concept vehicles, such as the Y-Wing, McQuarrie would implement them into his paintings.

January 28 1975: Lucas has finished the SW second draft : Adventures of the Starkiller.

Early Y-Wing sketches by McQuarrie (with the bubble turret):

22 feb 1975
One of the very first Ralph McQuarrie's production painting, based on Lucas’s description (which was inspired by a John Berkey illustration). Ralph confirmed that the inverted Y-Wing, as it appeared in the original SW portfolio, is in fact the way he conceived it.

A John Berkey illustration made later by John Berkey for the Star Wars soundtrack.

3 april 1975
Another one of Ralph’s favorite paintings was the Rebel base on the Yavin 4 moon. He liked that “everything is in full light reflected from the planet above.” But there will be budget cuts, later. (tinyurl.com/y2xvdo6p)

Another one of Ralph’s earliest paintings, the view from inside the Imperial ship would also go through the greatest number of known revisions. These changes represent the evolution of the scenario between 1975 and 1976.

Summer 1975
At @ILMVFX , founded in May 1975, model maker Grant McCune and his team Bill & Jamie Stout realized that than Cantwell's concept models, while fanciful and ornate, were by the same token impossible to photograph. (Making of SW)

Sketches by McQuarrie:

The models were subsequently « heavied up » so they would work with mattes, and made large enough so they’d have room for essential motors, lights, etc. (MSW)

McCune : «The basic idea for the Y-Wing was nailed down tight within the first thirty day».

ILM model shop:

Models needed to be approved fast because cockpits were soon going to be built in England based on the miniatures. To supervise the redesign of the models, @jjsketchbook was hired to start the art department in August 1975.

Joe Johnston:

Joe Johnston: «My 1st thought was ‘Oh no. I don’t want to work’. I changed my mind, though, after i got there. It looked like a fun job. It looked like a good project. Lucas wanted all the Rebel ships to look second hand, old and beat».

Sketches by Joe Johnston:

Joe Johnston: "George wanted them to look like they weren’t as well built or well designed as the Imperial ships. If he didn’t like a ship, he’s say, ‘Do more sketches’."

Art by Johnston:

Johnston : «The Y-Wing was supposed to seem like an old, stock space fighter that was just barely flying. They’s taken everything off of it».

A transparent turret was originally included in the design, but was removed when it was realized that blue screen technology was not yet advanced enough to composite correctly with the turret. It will come back 30 years later.

Sketches by McQuarrie:

To translate Joe johnston's concept drawings into orthographic shematics for the model shop, Steve Gawley was hired.

Steve Gawley : "I drawed the front of the machine, the top, the other views".

After the scale of the models was established, the model shop, lead by Grant McCune, embellished it from their own head.
The Y-wing was made by the ILM modelers, including Dave Beasley, Steve Gawley and John Erland.

David Beasley.

Joe Johnston painted them.

End of 1975 : ILM need then the SW fourth draft to make the battle of Yavin.

Jan 1 1976.
George Lucas; « It wasn’t until this draft that I described the dogfight in detail ».

Joe Johnston posited that the Y-wing was once a sleek vessel that was chopped and stripped like a hot rod by Rebel Alliance technicians. The Y-wing's sole remaining touch of sleekness was the smooth shape of its cockpit.

That section was a rare early instance of injection molding, allowing it to be "cleaner" than some of the more complex forms seen in the film. (Sculpting a Galaxy: Inside the Star Wars Model Shop, written by ILM model maker Lorne Peterson).

The massive engines were sections of Apollo Saturn V rockets, 1/144 scale; the domes capping them were pantyhose containers.

Budget cuts led to the Rebel starfighters were moved inside on Yavin 4 to save money. By this time, Joe Johnston’s X-wing and Y-wing designs had replaced Colin Cantwell’s original versions.

Steve Gawley: "I gave Ralph several of my drawings / Ralph made a painting of a lethal view of a Y-Wing by using the version I drew. I had the impression that he had grabbed my line drawing and brought it to life. It was so fantastic that I could not believe it.” (Art of McQ)

McQuarrie: "I saw a Navy pilot that was running across a flight deck with a clipboard in a WWII photograph. I took him, and repeated the same gesture, but changed the uniform and put a helmet on him. The ships of course were Joe Johnston’s design".

McQuarrie: "George thought it was fine to have the fighters inside, because it solved some problems of shooting them, because the overhead would just be black, instead of a jungle".

Making movies is teamwork.

George Lucas (Making of SW): «I described it and we worked on that together, but I would say that’s about 70 or 80 percent Ralph’s design».

But the case of the Y-Wing is different : "This ship was more or less the creation of Cantwell". (art of McQ)

This thread will come back in a few hours :)

That's only the beginning. 😅

Aaaaand we're back! Again? Hello, we're still in 1976. 43 years ago 😁
That's my last long thread here, so be it.

To start again, a comparison between the 2 production paintings of the temple of Yavin 4 by McQuarrie. That is 9 months of evolution even before filming.

We go on with the storyboard. Because how do you do this kind of movie without storybards?!

They come from many versions, corresponding to successive versions of the Lucas script.

Image from Prop Store.

This storyboard by Alex Tavoularis must date from early 1975, because the ship still has its old design, and is placed outside.

Storyboards by Joe Johnston.

Here they comes!

Storyboards by Ronnie Shepherd & Joe Johnston (X2).

Storyboards by Joe Johnston and Paul Huston (X2).

The Death Star is destroyed!

Yes, that's the old Falcon design, the "Pirate ship".
==> you can open a new tab 😅 (

https://twitter.com/spaceshipsporn/status/1173025064113061888

)

Apart the Grumman TBF Torpedo Bomber, three other real aircrafts that could have inspired the Y-Wing. Not necessarily its design, but also its role (bomber / ground attack).

1/ Lockheed P-38 Lightning
2/ Republic P-47 Thunderbolt
3/ airchild A-10 Thunderbolt II

Back to the models.
We don't have time to speak about the Dykstraflex motion control sytem (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dykstrafl…).

Model makers concentrated their efforts on the scene-stealing X-wing, building the Y's in smaller numbers.

Paul Huston: "There would be an art department sketch by Joe, and for some of the models Steve Gawley would do a three-view plan with the dimensions. And then Joe would say, “Well, just disregard all that [Laughs] and make it better.” That was his way". (tinyurl.com/y45xmsqg)

Huston: "He wanted people to have input and try to make things better. It was fun working that way, too. You couldn’t go wrong at all by just following what he drew, but there was freedom to make things up."

ILM ships size comparaison.

Huston: "Then there would be a phase of building an armature, which at the time was various kinds of aluminum. When that armature was built, then we would start kind of assembling plastic parts around it that were supported by it."

(sorry I don't have many pictures)

"For the Y-wing, the armature would be a pipe from the front to the back of the center engine piece, and then a cross brace of aluminum between the two rocket engines. The engines were plastic kit parts from some rocket kit and then the front egg shape was a L’eggs container".

Huston: "We just bought a bunch of those and stuck them on. That’s part of model making. Half the time you’re just trying to find something that’s already been made that is the shape that you want".

Here's Grant McCune:

Huston: “The Y-Wing is actually a Saturn V rocket kit. This is the main fuselage of the rocket kit, but it actually was used directly to make the engines of a Y-Wing.” (tinyurl.com/yyj7xlqr)

No i don't know if this is the right model kit 😉

"And then there’s a really long phase of adding tiny, little details from kit model parts to make the bigger shapes look like they actually do something or are connected visually to the other pieces."

You can see here the model kits:

"You know, we’re supporting actual on-set mechanical devices that had a certain weight and size and everything, so things tended to get a bit thicker and more sturdy. The Y-wing had a really delicate little neck where the cockpit fuselage joined on to the main engine part".

This "Red Jammer" was perhaps the fist ILM Y-Wing Model. Never seen onscreen.
Photos by Steve Neisen (NICE-N Model Designs) modelermagic.com/?p=2801

It seems that this model was sent in an incomplete state in England for the prop builders to mock up the 1:1 set piece.

The ILM models have a long story. It would take a long time to tell, but if you are interested in the subject, I advise you to click:

keeperoftheforce.com/viewtopic.php?…

modelermagic.com/?p=70776

June 1976 : Filming of the pilots chatters during Death star attack, at Shepperton Studios (UK).

At the time, ILM completed only 2 shots from the opening scene! The movie will be released in May 1975.

Here's the Y-Wing cockpit:

Filming the Yavin Rebel base.

September 1976 : Joe Viskocil & Bruce Logan (Nine-Ten) were employed to destroy miniature ships in a spectacular fashion.
Viskocil : « we had only one day to shoot something like eight or nine X-Wings and Y-Wings exploding at the Producer’s Studio – it was really something ! »

Yavin 4 base Mattepainting by Harrison Ellenshaw : «They had one complete X-Wing, a Y-Wing, and some bit and pieces, painted ships».

Sound designer Ben Burtt : « I went on a hike in the Poconos of northern Pennsylvania, which has a huge radio tower on the top of the mountain. The wind is very strong there, which makes for a very eerie singing in the wires, almost a minor key sustained note».

Ben Burtt: "It was hard to record but ultimately it was used for the sound of the Y-Wings and the howling sound they make".

At last, ILM has finished handling over shots of the trench Run in april 1977.

Paradoxically, Y-Wings have already been introduced to the general public. Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, the original title of the novelization by Alan Dean Foster, was first published on November 12, 1976, by Ballantine Books.

They are, then, the Red Squadron, because the X-Wing were the Blue Squadron in 1976.

https://twitter.com/spaceshipsporn/status/1091743049657475072

Star Wars was released in the United States on May 25, 1977. You know the story.

But after this hard work, John Stears, John Dykstra, Richard Edlund, Grant McCune, and Robert Blalack with the Oscar for Visual Effects for Star Wars at the 50th Academy Awards.

Bonus: The Joe Johnston's concept made in 3D by Jason Eaton.

And the Ralph McQuarrie's concept painting by Mike Hanson.

One of the ILM models was offered to 20th Century Fox's Alan Ladd Jr, without whom Star Wars would never have seen the light of day.

And for the record, in the Legends universe, the Gold Squadron Y-Wing pilot who survived the Battle of Yavin was Keyan Farlander, the hero of the X-Wing video game (1993). It is now Evaan Verlaine.

End of the (biggest) chapter.

The two-seater BTL-S3 Y-wing first appeared in the 1st "Expanded univers' novel: Splinter of the Mind's Eye, written by Alan Dean Foster, published by Ballantine Books on February 12, 1978.

But we see it on November 17, 1978.

Yes, the Nelvana cartoon in The Star Wars Holiday Special!

Welcome back in 1978!
(I think the cartoon is great)

The BTL-S3 Y-wing returned in the canon with recent books and comics, as Marvel's Poe Dameron.

Aaaaand it's over for today. The continuation and end very soon.

And don't forget:

Forgot to tell something.

In the Yavin Rebel base set, there was in fact only one X-Wing and one Y-Wing replica (if I'm not mistaken). And on most plans, the other ships are simply cardboard cutouts.

This is noticeable here:

And to show the X-Wing take off? "Nothing's easier". 😂

A hole in the soundstage roof + a crane, an idea by production designer John Barry.

Return of the thread later in the day, with the counterattack of a certain Empire.

Okay, here we go again, again.

With a Y-Wing featurette from the Star Wars Complete Saga Blu-ray.

And a last one for Star Wars (1977), with the great Dennis Muren 😍

Comes 1980. Comes my favorite SW, The Empire Strikes Back. Only a pyrotechnic Y-Wing model, which had not been destoyed, appears briefly in 2 shots of the last sequence of the film, within the Rebel fleet.

This music! 😍

But we have a storyboard of the talented Nilo Rodis-Jamero for that. As you can see, it was very late in production.

But let's not forget that the T-47 Snowspeeder originally had to be made from pieces of Y-Wing (and X-Wing). In the Rebel Alliance, we have a sense of recycling.

Art by Joe Johnston.

@HamillHimself was probably sad when the filiation with the Y-Wing was abandoned. A heartbreaker. 😏

Three years later, the Rebel Alliance needs all its ships to destroy the Death Star, overthrow the Emperor and resurrect freedom in the galaxy. Including the Y-Wing.

What a space battle. What a compositing work of art.

Who says a space battle to choreograph, says storybaords.

Image from Propstore.

Storyboards by Joe Johnston, Nilo Rodis-Jamero and Dave Carson.

Storyboards by Joe Johnston.

Storyboard by Nilo Rodis-Jamero.

Before the battle.

Storyboard by Joe Johnston.
Matte painting by Michael Pangrazio.

Even more before the battle, there is the sandstorn deleted scene. After defeating Jabba on Tatooine, our heroes separate in the middle of a storm. In addition to Falcon and Luke's X-Wing, there was a Y-Wing piloted by Leia.

Storyboard by Joe Johnston.

The sandstorn deleted scene.

Now, the models. For the Battle of Endor, ILM needed more Y-Wing. But as the model artist Lorne Peterson explains in his book Sculpting a Galaxy, there just remained the pyrotechnic model seen in the ESB, and the model offered to Alan Ladd Jr. It was necessary to build others.

One was made by Bill George. Way before this movie. Wait, what?

Bill George was a SW fan. When ILM expanded in the early eighties for E.T., Star Trek II and Poltergeist, they hired more model makers. And Bill George came with his old home-made Y-wing.
(modelermagic.com/?p=2722)

"We were impressed", wrote Person. 😂 It is now part of the traveling museum exhibit of original trilogy models.

By the way, Bill George made the B-Wing, too.
(yes, that's a thread for the B 🤫)

https://twitter.com/spaceshipsporn/status/1082323018532163585

Made by the team at Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), this particular model was crafted for use in the film's visual effects sequences and was rigged with lights in the nacelles to simulate the appearance of burning ion jet engines. (from Propstore)

The model was mounted on a rod for use in the extensive motion-controlled filming sequences the film required.

The Y-wing is made of resin, with an array of metal and plastic detailing components running across the fuselage.

Many of the components attached to the body of the starfighter are acquired from other model kits, with model engine blocks, radiators, traffic lights and street lights used to imply detail across the surface. Lightbulbs for illumination are situated at the rear of the nacelles.

Contact posts for electrical wires are present on the top of the fuselage, but the bulbs no longer function. A panel at the rear of the fighter is removable, revealing a motion-control mounting point within.

More about this model:

And a Kenner commercial:

Aaaand we have finished the original trilogy!

Next time: Expanded universe & Disney renaissance.

Adding this one for ROTJ because it's really nice.

https://twitter.com/Leaky_cheese/status/1186359062126039041

Third time I try to continue this thread in 4 days. Twitter didn't work the first 2 times once I had everything ready, making me lose 4 hours. Third time's a charm, I hope.

But it's really the last time I write a long thread here😅

Now, here we go again, again.
We have 36 years left to go. We won't tell the whole story of the Y-Wing in all media, just the most notable (mostly, but not only, in video games). But the old ship still has some surprises to reveal.

But before, the Star Wars license will disappear in the shadows for almost a decade...

The Dark Times.

With the exception of a few TV movies and cartoons for children, Star Wars fades from screens. The second half of the 1980s is totally empty.

In short, it's my childhood.

Notable exception: From 1987, a Y-Wing is seen perpetually, thanks to the Star Tours attraction at the Disneyland Anaheim park.

Yes, this thing is a Y-Wing by @ILMVFX ILM , during the Death Star attack scene. 😌

And soon, this Y-Wing is seen every hour of the day, somewhere in the world.

#StarTours will open in 1989 in Florida and Tokyo Disneyland, then 1992 at Disneyland Paris.

It will remain open until 2016 in France (2010 in USA, 2012 in Japan).

Apart that, it was not until 1991 that we could witness the spectacular start of the revival of Star Wars. Heir to the Empire (novel) and Dark Empire (comics) launch the SW Expanded Universe.

George Lucas will start working on his Prequels in 1994.

For its part, Lucasfilm Games becomes LucasArts and regains control of the video game license.

And LucasArts starts very strong by publishing in 1993 on PC and Mac an exceptional flight simulator: X-Wing.

Developed by Totally Games, this game allows us to put ourselves in command of several starfighters of the Rebel Alliance, among which obviously the Y-Wing.

The unforgettable scene of Rogue One (2016)? I lived it since 1993 😇

This game adds a whole backstory for the ship (modeled in AutoCAD), with historical missions.

The Y-Wing BTL-A4 has lived and saved many lives.

Save the prisoners from Kessel!

Intercept and capture the Death Star design team!

Oh no! In 1994, LucasArts and Totally Games allow us to DESTROY many Y-Wings. It's so sad.

In 1995, 12 years after Return of the Jedi, the Y-Wing is back in live-action! Well, sort of. It was a 3D model (from this era).

But there is live-action scenes somewhere, directed by Hal Barwood.

It was Rebel Assault II.

Y-Wing? Action!

Oh yes, there are some Y-Wings on the PC & PlayStation cover arts, by Bill Eaken and Richard Green. 😍

Wait, what, who shot the Y!

Storyboard by Paul Topolos.

Paul became later lead artist on Rogue LEader (2001), worked on titan A.E. (2000), then joined @ILMVFX (Attack of the Clones) and @Pixar Pixar (Wall-E, Up).

One last thing for this game: did you pay attention?

Hal Barwood, who directed Rebel Assault II's live-action scenes... You saw his name before. In this thread. Two decades sooner.

That's what I call "a full circle"

https://twitter.com/spaceshipsporn/status/1185963692917252096

For the youngest, the 3D cutscenes of RA2 (1995) could appear ugly. But it was so great, back then. It was no longer even models! What a technological leap.

Same for live-action scenes: the first for a decade!

Here @JamisonJ0nes as Rookie One & Hal Barwood on the set:

In 1996, the BTL-S3 Y-wing starfighter is back for an important part of Shadows of the Empire, the Lucasfilm multimedia project (video game, book, comics, soundtrack...)

Half of the Bothan Y-Wing Blue Squadron were destroyed on an attack on the Suprosa. You know, these bothans.

@DarkHorseComics 's Shadows book was written by John Wagner and illustrated by Kilian Plunkett (later SW Rebels art director).

Since then, we think the Bothans mentioned in Return of the Jedi stole the plans of the DS2. This is not the case in the current canon.

In 1997, Y-Wings are more beautiful than ever thanks to the Special Edition.

In 1998, Y-Wing join Rogue Squadron (Factor 5/LucasArts).

First on-screen appearance of the BTL-A4 LP "Longprobe", in SW Rebellion (Coolhand/LucasArts, 1998), a reconnaissance and scouting variant.

It will be back in Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed (2004). And that's all.

Yes, that's 2 designs, for 2 games.

In 1999 (as in Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, 1997), you can fly a Y-Wing again. And this game by Totally Games/LucasArts crosses over with Shadows of the Empire, so you can play the attack on the Suprosa. Many bothans died again. And Dash says hi.

The Prequels Era.

The eyes are mainly turned to the past of this universe, but the ships of the original trilogy are not totally forgotten.

https://twitter.com/stabbed_jawa/status/1186340774662811648

And then comes 2005. Star Wars is over. Farewell.

Unless George Lucas oversees the production of a new TV series...

In september 2008, a few days before the broadcast of The Clone Wars 3D series, the BTL-B Y-wing starfighter is introduced in "The Clone Wars: Shipyards of Doom" comic book, written by Henry Gilroy and published by @DarkHorseComics

In october 3, The Clone Wars: Procedure, a six-page @starwars webcomic written by @pablohidalgo , tells how Anakin obtained many new BTL-B Y-wing starfighters.

This story led into an episode in Season One of The Clone Wars...

..."Shadow of Malevolence," third episode of the series, written by @stevenmelching

From now on, this Y-Wing BTL-B will appear in about twenty episodes of the series.

Why this new model? You have to remember what Joe Johnston said over 30 years ago. 😏

We're now "once", a few decades before the Death Star attack! Before the Dark Times.

https://twitter.com/spaceshipsporn/status/1185969993554518021

For The Clone Wars, Russell Chong oversaw the creation of this new design.
"The Y-wing was a really fun project, bringing it back fully faired. We back-engineered the Y-wing and turned it back into a bomber." (archive.is/os3EO)

Russell Chong: "I took the actual model of the Y-wing from the files at Lucasfilm, and I overlaid our new version. We revitalized the bubble turret that Colin Cantwell and Ralph McQuarrie had developed. All the body panels are very much the same as the original Y-wing."

"I didn't want to use the actual bubble turret with the single laser cannon in the original Ralph McQuarrie illustration because it was too bulky and interrupted the sleek lines of the ship so I opted for a more aerodynamic design similar to the WWII B-17 and B-25 top turret."

Republic Y-Wing texture variant, art by Kilian Plunkett (illustrator of the Shadows of The Empire comics, in 1996, as we saw above!)

One last BTL-B, by @JeffCarlisleArt for a "Folded Flyers" book:

Soon, in 2012, Disney will buy Lucasfilm. This will initiate the last part of this story.

Time for a card art (X-Wing Miniatures: Most Wanted expansion pack) by Leonid Kozienko.

Forgot a TCW video.

Here is the BTL-B in action.

And now, ladies and gentleman, let's start the first part of the last part.
In 2013, TCW is canceled, or "winding down" as they said (for a few years...) and Dave Finoli and his Lucasfilm Animation team begin work on SW Rebels. A series broadcast on @DisneyXD XD from autumn 2014.

2015: There is no Y-wing in The Force Awakens.

However, thanks to the excellent Art of The Force Awakens written by @PhilSzostak , we can see the wreckage of a Y-Wing in Kira (Rey)'s garage, in a concept art by Luis Carrasco (May 2013).

Or in April 2013 (way before the script was finished), this Kira's ship made of starfighters parts. Art by Yanick Dusseault.

In june 2013, a Y-Wing was parked in a Rebel base. Art by Ryan Church.

At last, in July 2014 (the film was being shot), during the development of the Resistance transport ship, the design of the Y-Wing was sometimes mentioned. As can be seen in these production drawings by Vincent Jenkins and Thom Tenery.

A Y-Wing as retro as possible.

But the Resistance transport ship will eventually look like a Chinook helicopter.

(Whose cockpit comes from a repurposed B-wing Mark II:

https://twitter.com/spaceshipsporn/status/1082550826281914368

)

Finally, there is no Y-Wing in SW7. But the U-Wing from One (2016) partially takes up the idea of a transport ship close to a Y-Wing.

Now back to Rebels.

Season 3 (2016) takes place two years before the events of A New Hope (1977).

It is therefore time to introduce the BTL-A4 in the one-hour long premiere, Steps Into Shadow, written by @stevenmelching & @MattMichnovetz , with @JustinRidgeArt as the supervising director.

First a question: @stevenmelching , you wrote the episodes introducing the Y-Wings in The Clone Wars and Rebels. Is it an incredible coincidence? Or do you like this ship as much as we do? 😏

In short, our heroes manage to steal 5 Y-Wings, which they will then entrust to the rebel cell of General Dodonna (seen in Rogue One and A New Hope). Ships that will serve a lot in the rest of the story...

Concept art by @screamingzen & Pat Presley.

Presley: "The assignment was to find a bridge between the Russell Chong version from TCW and the Johnston/Cantwell/RMQ version from the Original Trilogy as well as refit it for an animated show". (artstation.com/artwork/BeWar)

Later, the new Gold Squadron will be present when Mon Mothma announces the official formation of the Alliance to Restore the Republic ("Secret Cargo").

Green Squadron Y-Wings will take part in the Battle of Atollon ("Zero Hour").We are getting closer to the events of the movies.

And then: december 2016. Rogue One. The Battle of Scarif.

Never have the Y-Wings performed so well, bombarding Star Destroyers (which will allow to steal the famous Death Star plans later).

The Y-Wings used proton bombs, which is a reference to the bombs from the animated series.

To give the digital ships a model feel, @ILMVFX VFX supervisor John Knoll (who pitched this story for the Underworld canceled TV series, then this movie) came up with an ingenious plan.

As all the original ships were made from bits of various commercial model kits (remember, kitbashing?), the new team bought large quantities of new model kits and scanned the pieces. When building any new ship the modelling team started with scanned pieces of actual kits!

So while there are no actual models used in the film, the new digital ships are in some round-about way linked to the older model ships. (fxguide.com/fxfeatured/par…)

I don't know how much of these CG Y-wings were made like this, but it is always a great idea.

Rogue One concept arts by @andreewallin & @fmacmanus :

The best easter egg: 39 years after Star Wars (1977), the reappearance of @AngusMacGold as Gold Leader/Jon "Dutch" Vander (and the late Drewe Henley as Red Leader, too).

As if the actor had not aged. And without digital rejuvenation.

After all, the battle of Scarif takes place very shortly before Yavin's battle.

From @jamistangroom : "They contacted me sometime in early October and said they wanted to use the footage, and could they? And I said, "Well yeah."

Only 2 months before Rogue One's release!

Director Gareth Edwards: "We got the neg documents and found the clips from ANH that hadn’t been used. And there’s pilot photography and lines that were never featured. Through the magic of @ILMVFX , they cut round them and manipulated them and stuck them into our cockpits".

@AngusMacGold : "We re-recorded the dialogue for the sequence. Just little tweaks here and there – but it was important to change it, because obviously you couldn’t use the same dialogue at Yavin as you could with this sequence.”

Gareth Edwards: "It’s the sort of thing you think, ‘how many people will notice?’ Do you know what I mean? It’s like, is this a lot of effort for very little reward?” (radiotimes.com/news/2016-12-1…)

To finish with Rogue One: the stylistic resemblance, very successful, between the Y-Wing and the U-Wing.

As showed by Jalopnik (jalopnik.com/how-do-the-new…)

And no, it's not laziness. Hundreds of designs have been produced for a rebel transport ship design that could have appeared in A New Hope.

https://twitter.com/spaceshipsporn/status/1080470109100142593

So much for today. Tomorrow, we'll finish this thread of a week. As they say:

Forgot to add 2 Rogue One pics and to remind that the SW canon was restarted in 2014. Everything that came before (the Expanded Universe) is now "Legends" (as a fictional universe parallel to a fictional universe), apart the movies and The Clone Wars.

Time to sleep, bye.

Tell me about a coincidence. The same day oO
Happy Birthday Gold Leader!
@AngusMacGold

https://twitter.com/GMasterGMarek08/status/1188355658321682432

@AngusMacGold Before continuing, @stevenmelching was kind enough to talk about the coincidence that led him to write episodes introducing the Y-Wing in The Clone Wars and Rebels TV series. Thank you !

https://twitter.com/stevenmelching/status/1188346422954885120

@AngusMacGold @stevenmelching Just lost 3 hours to (not) finish this thread.
I hate Twitter. So much.

@AngusMacGold @stevenmelching Another day, another try.

It's time for the Jedi to end. No. No! It's time for the Y-Wing thread to end!

Back to 2016. Rogue is on screen, and #Playstation4 owners receive a gift.

Or more exactly, the owners of PS4, the game Star Wars: Battlefront (released a year earlier) and the #PSVR ony privilege to settle in the cockpit of Star Wars Battlefront: Rogue One: X-wing VR Mission.

An immersive experience developed by @CriterionGames (Burnout Paradise).

Where we see some Y-Wings, near the Rebel fleet.

This extension offers us a nice overview of what could be a modern "X-Wing flight simulator". Hello @EAStarWars 😘

In 2017, @CriterionGames criterion takes charge of the Star Wars: Battlefront II space battles. A game created by @EA_DICE which, after a very difficult start, has become a safe bet.

You can fly a BTL-A4 Y-Wing.

And a BTL-B Y-Wing!

2019. That's... now?

Hello Y-Wings in the wonderful Galaxy of Adventures episode: "R2-D2 - A Pilot's Best Friend".

During the summer, we learn that a new Y-wing model will be (soon) introduced in #StarWarsTheRiseOfSkywalker : the BTA-NR2.

If it does not have armor like his ancestor, it's just fan service! But not just any fan service, since it's in-universe.

As "the starfighter that broke the Empire's back".

But wait, I need to publish these news tweets before a new Twitter crash 😅

Here's the #LEGO set:

Thanks to the "Rebel Starfighters Owners’ Workshop Manual", published by @insighteditions , we already know well this ship.

This new book was written by @ryderwindham
Artworks by @Chris_Reiff and @christrevas

Ryder Windham: "The moment Chris Reiff and Chris Trevas noticed a Y-wing starfighter on an advance poster for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, they became obsessed with including the Resistance Y-wing in the book, even though we had no idea whether Lucasfilm would provide..."

"...information and high-resolution images of the new Y-wing in time for us to meet our deadline for Haynes Publishing. Fortunately, Lucasfilm came through, and we’re all very pleased that our manual offers Star Wars fans something of an exclusive preview of the BTA-NR2 Y-wing."

Chris Trevas: "Drawing and labeling the new Y-wing blueprints gave us a chance to note its similarities and differences compared to the classic Y-wing. Since the ship doesn’t have visible torpedo launch tubes, we’ve marked those as optional extras."
(starwars.com/news/rebel-sta…)

Chris Reiff: "Drawing the blueprints for the new Y was a blast… With the reference we use and the level of detail we are including I could really get a sense for how hard the modelers and designers worked to make these new designs reference and complement the..."

"...the classic trilogy ships, as well as early [Colin] Cantwell and [Ralph] McQuarrie design cues. PLUS all those digital greeblies! Who doesn’t want to see greeblies in Star Wars?"

I don't know?
What I want to know is: who are the designers and modelers? Send me a PM please 😎

Looking forward to meet again that good old Y on the big screen, next month. Especially after devoting such a long thread to it 😇

(No, this is not a tribute to Ralph McQarrie).

While waiting for information on the creation of this new model, this thread will FINALLY conclude.

And for that, we thank all the sites and writers that we quoted in this thread (as often as possible).

Oh, a @HobbySite 1:72 scale model 😍

But we could not have done anything without a number of books, starting with the unmissable:

1/ Sculpting a Galaxy by Lorne Peterson.
2/ The Making of Star Wars by @jwrinzler
3/ SW Storyboards: The Original Trilogy by J.W. Rinzler.

@jwrinzler 1/ The Art of Star Wars.
2/ SW Chronicles by Deborah Fine.
3/ Star Wars Technical Journal of the Rebel forces.
4/ From Star Wars to Indiana Jones: The Best of the Lucasfilm Archives by Mark Cotta Vaz & Shinji Hata.