This WWII Fighter Plane Inspired Star Wars' Y-Wing Starfighter
The real-world analog for the "Star Wars" Y-wing starfighter is less obvious than for other spacecraft in the series. B-29 Superfortress cockpits clearly inspired the Millennium Falcon, and X-wings are basically space Spitfires. Even many of the weapons in "Star Wars" are built around real guns, like Han Solo's blaster (Mauser C96) and the Empire's stormtrooper blaster rifle (Sterling Mk.4 submachine gun), and seeing them side-by-side makes this obvious.
It might seem odd trying to suss out which 70-year-old Earth airplane forms the basis for a spaceship in a galaxy far, far away. But remember that "Star Wars" owes its existence to George Lucas' love of World War II films as much as it does science-fiction movies like Fritz Lang's groundbreaking "Metropolis" and the work of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. This is why the ships and blasters in "Star Wars" are often based on WWII and pre-WWII planes and guns, because those would have had the right aesthetic for the type of story George Lucas wanted to tell.
Moving from film nerdery back to airplane nerdery, the most likely candidate as the inspiration for the Y-wing starfighter is the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt. Powering the P-47 was a 2,400-horsepower Pratt & Whitney Double Wasp R-2800, which essentially stacked two nine-cylinder radial engines on top of each other to create the coolest, most insane-looking 18-cylinder engine this side of the strange Napier Deltic triangle-18. Another plane powered by this engine was the Grumman F6F Hellcat, which inspired Chrysler/Dodge's Hellcat name.
At first glance, second glance, close inspection, and a dismissive, furrowed-brow stare over the top of reading glasses, "Star Wars" Y-wings and P-47s don't look anything alike. But just as the Spitfire influenced the agile X-wing, the inspiration is more in purpose than form.
Why Y-Wing? Why not Y-Wing!
They're both tough. German WWII pilots learned that trying to shoot down a P-47 was like firing BB guns at a bear. Pilot Robert Johnson's P-47 gained 200 bullet holes like it was designed to have them and ignored 20mm cannon shells like they were mosquito bites.
P-47s featured bullet-resistant glass and thick armor plating to protect pilots. Fuel tanks were self sealing thanks to rubber layers that would swell and seal holes once they touched gasoline. Y-wings use an alusteel hull reinforced with titanium and a Chempat deflector shield generator. Backup batteries, redundant life support systems, and plenty of freshwater storage ensure pilots survive time-consuming long-range missions and extensive damage from fights.
And they're both armed to the teeth. The P-47 is a dang heavy airplane that could weigh up to 17,500 total pounds! For contrast, Spitfire max was a relatively airy 6,418 pounds. But then, the Thunderbolt was loaded with 3,400 rounds for its eight .50-caliber Browning machine guns and up to 2,500 pounds of rockets, napalm, or bombs. Consider it this way: Thunderbolts are single-person fighter planes that can deliver half of a B-17 Flying Fortress's payload. Republic did try its hand at fast, more responsive planes, too, but that effort unfortunately resulted in the "Spın̈al Tap"-loud, seizure-inducing XF-84H "Thunderscreech" experimental fighter plane.
Weaponry for Y-wings includes KX5 or IX4 laser cannons (of course, wouldn't have it any other way), which can easily punch through the hulls of battle cruisers. A rotating turret with SW-4 or SW-5 ion cannons mounts above the cockpit (depending on the model) and can be controlled remotely by a gunner or the pilot. Two MG7 proton torpedo launchers fire from six-round magazines, and if needed, extra ordnance can be mounted to the hull.
Thunderbolt of lightning, very very frightening
They're both powerful. That 2,400-hp radial-18 pushed P-47 Thunderbolts to a max speed of 433 mph. That's faster than Japan's prototype jet-powered Nakajima J9Y Kikka (432 mph) and even Germany's formidable Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter (426 mph). Y-wings, meanwhile, host a pair of massive Koensayr R200 Ion Jet engines, allowing for a solid 621 mph in atmosphere. But their R300-H hyperdrive engines allow for traveling through hyperspace, which is, in technical terms, "stupidly faster."
And each had fat trimmed. Though both the P-47 Thunderbolt and Y-Wing starfighter were heavily armored, that didn't stop attempts to make them lighter and less prone to inertia keeping them on existing trajectories. In other words, they maneuvered with the ease of a cruise liner missing a rudder. To make the Thunderbolt more spritely, Republic redesigned the plane from the ground up, increasing engine output with larger turbos, removing two .50-caliber machine guns, reducing the amount of ammunition, deleting the aft fuel tank, and chucking the radio equipment. This new version was called the XP-47J Superbolt.
Weight loss for the Y-wing was similar. Proton torpedo launcher magazines went from six rounds to four, the fuel reclamation system was discarded, and the pylons that supported the engines were shortened. Removing the armor plates over the cooling system likely reduced considerable weight, too, but this was done to make cooling system maintenance easier. Plus, since it's a fictional ship in a sci-fi story, the engineers just added power to the deflector shields.
So there, World War II buffs, this space opera is for you! Your next step is making a "Star Wars" art car and going to conventions. Don't scowl like that — dressing up as Darth Vader would be awesome, and you know it.
