Why Vulture Droids are Actually GENIUS - The Best Designed Starfighter in the SW Universe?

[@marielawrence468]

I’ve always found it funny how the B-1s would treat the spider droids and vulture droids like pets in the clone wars tv show!

[@zacharyweaver276]

I never noticed that but I love it

[@TheWarmachine375]

They were adorable outside battle

[@Dovah_Slayer]

Honestly if the entire clone wars was just about the droids I'd still watch it

[@zacharyweaver276]

@@Dovah_Slayer I'd love a series about some Clone Wars battle droids going off to do their own thing. Like the ones in Rebels who never shut down and escaped.

[@Dovah_Slayer]

@@zacharyweaver276 ooh that does sound cool

[@mattguy1773]

Vulture droids are not only practical but fun to draw

[@THESLlCK]

The REAL reason they’re so deadly. Looks that could kill

[@CC--jk6cr]

Vulture droids almost single-handedly caused the GAR’s shortage of clone pilots. Their numbers neutralized most advantages clone pilots could have enjoyed.

[@legoferrari14]

It's quite telling that the few organics that were capable of outmatching the Vultures on a regular basis were force sensitives like Anakin, and even then they needed the super-light Eta-2 to keep up consistently.

[@GradythaStudips]

That and Tri's! Don't forget those Bad Boys

[@HungPham-qq6me]

It's really convenient that logistics are not at play. To sustain a prolonged repair and refit operations for such a delicate piece of hardware is going to be a nightmare. Remember, the more moving parts there are, the more chances you have of a malfunction or damage that needs immediate care. This is why with guns, the simpler ones that gets the job done, like the ubiquitous AK, is so loved.

[@krosskreut3463]

@@HungPham-qq6me its the CIS, if it dont work, they will throw it to die in the battle no matter how, even if it has to ram or used as bombs or decoys, same for b1 droids

[@HungPham-qq6me]

@@krosskreut3463 and this would be their down fall. The Japanese did this to their own detriment. WW1 generals learned it the hard way that wasting potential fighting force in a seemingly bullheaded attack is a good one way trip to losing the battle due to lack of staying power. The ancient goths also learned of this the hard way too. Repair and refit is there for a reason. If a unit is capable of sustaining damage, leave the fight, get repaired and then get back to the action instead of being wasted, like so many of our ancestors found out, that unit is worth tens of disposables. With proper cycling, you can infinitely prolong your combat operations with unrelenting pressure as you replenish and repair your forces, fighting a battle of attrition. In contrast, disposables forces may seem great in their initial numbers, but without staying power, they would be quickly phased out unless serious reinforcements are inbound.

[@TheWarmachine375]

The Vulture Droids have a unique language they speak that stands them out from the other Battle Droids of the Separatist Army.

[@sideburngthepeacebringer27]

It’s the language of there creators the Xi Charrian.

[@MasatakaEbina]

Nah man it's the Minions from Despicable Me

[@RaynmanPlays]

Clones: "We choose quality!" Droid ground army: "We choose quantity!" Vulture droids: "Why not both?"

[@Nerobyrne]

This was also mirrored in real life during WW2. The T-34 tank was this design philosophy in practise, although it's strength was in simplicity, not versatility. It is largely considered to the the most effective tank ever produced, because while it was simple enough to be produced in very large numbers, it's arms, armor and engine power could compete with most other tanks in 1v1. But because there were so damn many of them, it didn't matter that some German tanks were better by comparison. So the quality was good, but the quantity is what allowed the USSR to kick Nazi ass all the way to Berlin.

[@sugdolomar]

Droid Tri Fighters: I put the laughter in slaughter.

[@interpl6089]

@@Nerobyrne Quality of T-34s Was Notoriously Bad, They Were Also Unergonomic, Firing 2 Shots a Minute Because no Turret Basket, Thier Optics Sucked and So On and So On... Of All T-34s Made, 82% was Lost, And That's Really Shit

[@Nerobyrne]

@@interpl6089 you should go correct Wikipedia then, please.

[@interpl6089]

@@Nerobyrne I should, but i prefer books made by profesional historians, wikipedia is wrong about most tanks due to "biased" views...

[@ohuckabee]

A cheap, effective multi-role fighter where the roles are space superiority and anti-infantry ground support *while the craft is on the ground*, able to be transported and deployed from non-carrier ships, effectively turning any given cargo bay with a fuel rod dispenser into a hangar, and able to pull maneuvers that humans are simply physically unable to keep up with? I can't think of a single fleet-based sci-fi game where these guys wouldn't be worth their weight in gold.

[@andrewcopple7075]

I can. Literally any one where maintenance and upkeep would be a requirement for any period of time. The high number of moving parts on both the droids and their ships are avoided in almost all cases with actual military technology, and with good reason. You'd basically have to make the joints and supports on those fighters out of the same material you'd make a space elevator, with all the force you'd be putting them under. There's a reason there was no successor to the F-14, and that the Concorde/B-1's design has not been mimicked in any way in future plane designs. The reasons humans work so well with moving parts is that we're largely self-maintaining and healing.

[@jackdenihan5333]

@@andrewcopple7075 then They just become drone missiles 🤷‍♂️ and maintaining isn’t a issue when your not using man hours Droids fixing droids as basically slave labor the maintenance cost comes from man hours also take away the walking capacity and you lose most the problems you speaking of and in space the forces wouldn’t be wearing it down like in atmosphere conditions 🤷‍♂️also it’s maintenance goes out the window when your not caring about human life and the cost is cheap They were deployed in hordes so losing them isn’t a issue at all

[@romanberkutov2592]

@@andrewcopple7075 не обязательно, шарниры могут только помогать держать форму, с остальным может справлятся электромагнит. Он не только примагничивает истребитель к поверхности, позволяет летать, но и например скреплять части вместе, помогает ходить

[@HungPham-qq6me]

Air superiority is not what you think it is. You can have all the fighter you want, but without actual bombers, which these guys should not have due to them being designed for light weight carry and high-speed maneuvers, your fighters are as good as scrap flies when faced with a serious anchoring force, say, a single battle cruiser. Multi-role fighters are, in most cases, a bad choice, not because they aren't useful, but because people tend to think 'if I throw enough of these maybe they can also do X and Y even though they're not designed for it.' If you ask me, these work best as screen fighters, running interference as well as distraction and escorts for the actual specialists like bombers and heavy fighters or maybe even for larger ships I'm interception of enemy fliers.

[@andrewcopple7075]

​@@HungPham-qq6me Normally I would agree with you, but the star wars lore didn't do fighters and bombers correctly. In the original trilogy, a few X-wings and Y-wings were able to hit and run and destroy massive installations, leading me to believe that their secondary weapons were likely massively overpowered (which was nerfed incredibly in the sequel and in video games). The specific universe rules seemed to apply differently here, and the over-fixation on applying WWII logic meant that Y-wings were slower and less maneuverable without any real explanation based on size, only payload.

[@hunterkiller1440]

Those droid space fighters were some awesome drones. Weird how Space Separatist and Space Empire factions are so much stronger than their land forces.

[@twistedyogert]

I don't understand why the Rebellion didn't use droid starfighters considering that they were strapped for manpower and could use droid starfighters as cannon fodder to protect their organic pilots which are far more valuable.

[@hunterkiller1440]

@@twistedyogert Perhaps most of the droid manufacturers were turned into Imperial warmachines during the rise of the Empire. And maybe many harbored anti Droid sentiments, like Din Jarin.

[@whee38]

​@@twistedyogert the galaxy feared droids quite a bit after the Clone Wars. they were associated with Grievous's atrocities

[@CC--jk6cr]

The Separatist navy was so much more effective than its ground forces because ground based droid units were not as effective as organic units. But droid star fighter units make more economical sense and are often more effective when compared to manned star fighters.

[@RedArmyShogun]

You don't need to be stronger on land if you can nuke them from orbit and all they can do is screech. A bit like early Halo with the UNSC vs the Covenant. You can be the best fighter on the ground with tanks and planes against silly slow fighters and mortar tanks, but doesn't much matter when you kill them on the ground and a Cruiser Captain goes "Lol Nice Match. Start the glassing."

[@TheWarmachine375]

Imagine if the Rebel Alliance have gotten their hands on the Vulture Droids and reprogram them to be part of their fighter forces as they have to take what they can get from Clone Wars-era weaponry and equipment to fight the Galactic Empire.

[@hebercluff1665]

Too bad they didn't have pappa palatine supporting them from behind the scenes

[@thimovijfschaft3271]

They have used them in some battles both in legends and Canon. But they just had limited amounts of them because they weren't produced anymore

[@smartfrenandromax6651]

Secret Space Program. Dune…

[@Soundwave142]

That would have been awesome!

[@calebbarnhouse496]

Rebels didn't really have the hanger space to field them properly, they used starcraft with hyperdrives for that reason

[@alexanderhouser8793]

This is probably my favorite type of droid and I don’t think the clones wars gave them enough credit on how effective and deadly they really were

[@alphacommander428]

like the series did with the whole CIS

[@hectorzero8545]

I wish we had a republic commando series to really highlight the dangers of CIS droids and villains

[@jimjam5570]

I think my favorite are the rollie boys.

[@indianajones4321]

Geetsly’s: This ship was actually genius Creator of the ship: My genius, it’s almost frightening

[@LaughingCrowcorp]

Yeah you can tell they are truly menacing because every time they are dealt with in the Clones Wars they are taken as pretty much the biggest threat in the battle. (Other than someone like Grievous or Ventress )

[@leandersearle5094]

A couple technical inaccuracies: the solid fuel slugs *were* the propellant, making the actual drives very compact. Most of the fuselage was power cells and associated equipment, with a fraction of the space used for various mechanical systems and the energy torpedo launchers. The rest of the video was fairly accurate.

[@simonsaysdie3155]

Sure buddy

[@memeprez1281]

Lemme guess since he doesnt have a huge channel that invalidates what hes sayin?

[@leandersearle5094]

@@memeprez1281 Read the last sentence. You may wish to avoid inferences, I'm subbed and I like this guy.

[@platyhelminthes2877]

I don't see how that's relevant. They're both most likely getting most of their info from the "Incredible Cross Sections" books. I would tend to believe that leandersearle is correct here - I don't think the IRL creators of the vulture droid ever really made a distinction between fuel and propellant.@@memeprez1281

[@solarissv777]

Imagine if this were used instead of TIE fighters by the empire: always ready to deploy, perfect for overwhelming numbers tactic, and you can carry lots of them even on a ship with relatively small hangars. But even more interesting possibility would be developing TIE Vultures, basically vulture droids, but with TIE fighter propulsion, eliminating the 20 minute flight limit, while remaining relatively cheap. Another advantage of such a droid is that they could be a substitute for AT-STs.

[@richardched6085]

I think the Empire actually did produce a Tie Droid Fighter. Combat Droids were considered taboo under the Empire which is why it didn't see mass deployment.

[@solarissv777]

@@richardched6085 TIE Droid wasn't nearly as versatile

[@brainplay8060]

TIE fighters would have been able to keep up with the Vulture droids no problem. Note that the best general purpose non-Jedi ship at the time was the V-19 for most of the war which could be matched by the fricken Ywing. Later came the Alpha Nimbus 2 Vwing which had no issue keeping up with even Tri-fighters. The TIE/Ln would surpass all of them. Ship tech just continued to get better and you see that in all later upgrades such as the Delta-7's upgrading into A-wings and Z-95's would be developed into Xwings.

[@solarissv777]

@@brainplay8060 that's why I say: keep vulture geometry, but add TIE propulsion and possibly, better brains or the option to be controlled remotely. The main advantages of vultures are: they don't need hangars and they are always ready to be deployed.

[@brainplay8060]

@@solarissv777 Better brains might be a possibility but considering how hated combat droids (or any droids) are by many, it's unlikely that anyone would research them. Vultures absolutely need hangers. Remember that their fuel only lasts like 35min. Refueling becomes the bottleneck for them so you need large hangers or at least many stations to keep up combat tempo. Hanging off of a ship is a slightly faster deployment gimmick but I wouldn't put too much credit to it.

[@inquisitorgarza312]

Really the Confederacy was clever when using so many different droids to combat the Clone Army and they were extremely effective.

[@SonicSanctuary]

Oh yes very

[@Nerobyrne]

The problem is that the shows don't match the lore. That's why I liked the Battlefront games, even the more recent ones now that the predatory monetization was patched out. I loved them because they much more accurately showed off the strengths of the CIS. In the Clone Wars show, the Droids are basically helpless cannon fodder. Even though Jedi can block laser blasts, the sheer amount of plot armor in that show is actually ridiculous. Not that I dislike the show, it has a lot of great stories. But I wish the Droid army was more like an actual army, and less like the XP farm minions in MOBA games.

[@evandugas7888]

@@Nerobyrne Well the show follows the best fighter in the galaxy. It does not show how poorly the Jedi did on average. Anakin is just amazing

[@Nerobyrne]

@@evandugas7888 yeah but he's not that amazing. There's plenty of battles shown where he would have to have been hit. Not to mention the clones are also OP. So much do that the show mocks it themselves in one scene.

[@evandugas7888]

@@Nerobyrne I am not under crediting the clones. Simply stating out of wars commanders Anakin is just stated to be the best.

[@marshalllatta2073]

vulture droids are one of the coolest and interesting droids in Star wars

[@arrowheadlock8774]

Allways wondered why we havent seen Vulture Droids used by the Rebel Alliance more often. Stripping some Gallofree transports undersides to make room for some Vulture Droid racks seems like a great way to counter Tie Fighters (And would finally give the GR-75's a better reason to accompany Rebel Warships into battle)

[@MonkeyJedi99]

You just fixed an entire class of ships in one paragraph!

[@pretzelbomb6105]

Vulture Droids would be cool, but unfortunately would be ill-suited to the rebel alliance. Lots of moving parts, specialized components, high-quality fuel? Any rebel cell trying to maintain even one of these without major modification could be tracked down by by the trail of stolen spare parts alone.

[@ParkerWarrior1]

@@pretzelbomb6105 And that is why rebels used X-wings, B-wings and AR-170s (and maybe some other). They all have changing wings, and have much higher price than vulture. (For price of 5 X-wings you could get like 40 vultures and some spare parts for them + you do not loose manpower when you loose droid...)

[@pretzelbomb6105]

@@ParkerWarrior1 The only one of those with a number of moving parts even remotely close to a Vulture droid would be the B-Wing. There’s a big difference between wings that pivot and wings that spin and act like legs. Nonsensical production costs aside, that price is only taking into account the droids themselves and not the powerful computers and communications arrays required to use them at full power. An expensive asset like that on the front lines would be a hard sell for rebels early enough to get large amounts of vultures AND rebels late enough to have more accessible options like the A-Wing available. And then there’s the fact of the matter: they’re droids. A lot of rebels, especially in the early days, gained the majority of their combat experience in the Clone Wars. They lost homes, loved ones, even entire worlds to armies of droids, so it makes sense they’d have a few issues with using them. The ones willing to use them would then have to deal with the fact that the Empire would have gained full access to the CIS’s encryption and computer codes after the war ended, thus requiring the Rebels to either make entirely new command encryptions and software for the droids or accept the risk that, at any moment during a battle, their droids might suddenly turn off, or worse, on them.

[@nonyabisness6306]

The effectivness of Vulture-Droid's has to be seen in contrast to going up against highly-trained elite clones of an ideal genetic template. And where it takes a lot of time even to make clones, nevermind a natural organic up to the point of defeating Vultures...Vultures can be built in Factories rather quickly. I think the coolest thing about them is how they will sit on the hull of their carriers and launch en masse like a swarm of bats.

[@lerneanlion]

If Disney decided to make a movie or a series with the Separatist protagonists, how should the Battle Droids be portrayed? For one thing, the people might find the Spider Droids and Vulture Droids actually adorable when they are not attacking anyone and the Battle Droids are quite not that bad and even nice to have conversation with.

[@RJALEXANDER777]

If the Separatists could show that their machines had a more endearing, gentle side to them, like in public broadcasts/meet and greets or something, it would honestly make for a pretty powerful propaganda tool. Makes me wish we saw more of the good Seps who wholeheartedly believed in their cause.

[@DonaldWWitt]

@@RJALEXANDER777 Man did you see The Clone Wars?! B1's were used so much for comedy they had to phase them out of the later parts because of how much sympathy people developed for the poor things!

[@Swiff-RR]

I've watched this once and I'll say this, if the vultures were shielded, sentient, and creative then 15 (individual unit) of them will be more deadly then even a squadron of TIE Defender (in my opinion). Also vulture droids can communicate with each one another via mechanical clicking which is identical with the way their maker communicate to one another

[@dareka9425]

The B1s and the Vultures are my favourite droids from the prequels. They are just such great designs: easy to mass produce, easier to transport and quite versatile. Too bad their were held back by less than stellar AI and commanders and practically designed to fail from the very start.

[@drunown9756]

literally designed to fail

[@cellianexurianity5021]

Since you mentioned the "less superior starfighters" used by the seperatists, could you also do a video on the trade federation scarab starfighters?

[@brickandmortor1251]

In both design and use in the clone wars, the vulture droids were one of the best combat droid that the seperatist created. Also they have a sort of crazy quality to them when seen in non-combat scenes. Also, it was one of the first LEGO Star Wars sets I ever owned.

[@codename618]

I'd love to see a video on the Tri Fighter, as well as any other underrated starfighters (I'm wondering if the TIE Fighter is secretly genius).

[@suicidemnk3y186]

Its not. The only advantages it really had was how cheap they could be made and its overall speed and maneuvering. No shields, terrible armor and verry little weaponry. Its pilots carried it.

[@ajitaumesh]

nope mate

[@leandersearle5094]

@@suicidemnk3y186 It's advantages weren't as a fighter, but as an ideological tool. They were portrayed as the menace that Vulture Droids actually were.

[@zigzaghyena]

@@suicidemnk3y186 To be fair that "Little weaponry" could punch straight through an X-Wings shields like they weren't even there. The rest of it though, yeah those pilots had to be either brilliantly skilled or downright suicidal.

[@RJALEXANDER777]

The TIE fighter has a few pros to it, but is essentially what the vulture droid was done worse.

[@RelativelyBest]

You know, if you scale it up a bit and replace the head with a canopied cockpit, it's basically a way better version of the TIE fighter concept.

[@EVA-UNIT-13]

I've always loved the design and just the idea of it going from flight to ground on a dime, I just love it!

[@brainplay8060]

Fun fact: Most modern day aircraft have G limiters not because of the pilots but because the frame can't handle them that well. The F-16 and F-18 both have limiters at around 7.5G's. These can be removed during combat with a simple button push but note that the frame is under immense stress. After a heavy dogfight where they hit those G loads the aircraft has to undergo a thorough inspection for any frame damage. While is cute to imagine that an AI powered aircraft could survive 30G's, the fact is that the wings would sheer off first and that's only assuming there are no moving parts in the AI's brain. Softer metals & superconductors used in robotic brains would collapse under that kind of pressure. They would need to have the same tensel/inertia fields used by biologicals to prevent ship damage. Any sort of flowing substance such as fuel or gas for blasters would need to have an extra heavy pump as well or risk massive over or under pressure happening. People have this weird idea that fighters are hunks of solid metals when in fact they have to make compromises for weight/mass or lose much of their maneuverability.

[@kerbalairforce8802]

Modern aircraft record their G loads throughout the flight so maintenance can see exactly how much those dirty officers abused there precious babies

[@thepowerofluck2432]

Ahh interesting. Would such an issue take place on space? I'd imagine no because of the lack of gravity, so maybe the talk of speeds is max space speed

[@brainplay8060]

@@thepowerofluck2432 Gravity isn't an issue but inertia is still deadly. Moving at speed will still put stress on components and fuel. That's why solid fuels and few moving parts are best for space travel. The Expanse does a good job of imitating the effects.

[@zacharyweaver276]

Now I want a video on the tri-fighter droid if that hasn't been done yet

[@Dovah_Slayer]

I love the vulture droids and would love to command a swarm of them

[@ericzaiz8358]

Honestly imagine a Vulture droid with tie engines and a Tri fighters brain. Be a fun deal.

[@rakaydosdraj8405]

The Vulture is basically an Early Legends Tie Droid (from Dark Empire) anyway.

[@StrikerFX47]

By far one of my favorite starwars vehicles of all time. I love their sleek and elegant design.

[@kawliga_the_plastic_indian1673]

I love how the “heads” on these and b-2s are almost identical to the og b-1

[@minicle426]

I like how you can see shades of the Tie Interceptor in it.

[@garrettwilson8471]

Imagine Darth Vader having his own personal vulture droid, that would be just as horrifying as Darth Vader having his own personal magna guard droids on top of that.

[@Idkidkidk716]

What is been interesting if the republic had remote piloting for all of their starfighters it would not only be less risk for their pilots but there would be no death if the starfighter was destroyed then they would not have such a pilot shortage for a galaxy far far away it doesn’t seem that would be too far-fetched then they could have a starfighter that could be turning that could make turns like the vulture droid and go to detail with it even if they couldn’t be a gas planets away they could still have VR or remote piloting on board of the venotor class star destroyer

[@Ett.Gammalt.Bergtroll]

The prequel trilogy really had some amazingly memorable designs when you think about it.

[@jacoblamica4534]

Vulture droid is by far my favorite starfighter and space bound droid, simply for how versatile it is.

[@sebieffer8595]

The way vulture droids walk reminds me to pterodactyls

[@ronjon7942]

Yes! I could never quite out my finger on it…

[@darkfire321000]

In all honesty, the vulture droid was under utilized by the cis, you could turn any large frigate or even civilian craft into a carrier for these things

[@zexalbrony4799]

You talk about the Vulture Droid but don't mention the craziest thing about them, you can slice off the top of their head, put your hand into the wires, and take direct control of it. The Mace Windu manvour. lol.

[@dukethighwalker6839]

That's actually called the Starbuck maneuver, as it's clearly lifted directly from the BSG reboot. I don't recall coming across this before, is it Disney SW?

[@zexalbrony4799]

@@dukethighwalker6839 No, it's from the 2003 Clone Wars Micro series.

[@dukethighwalker6839]

@@zexalbrony4799 Oh yeah, so it is. I stand corrected.

[@Trash_Cat21]

The Vulture droid is my favorite starfighter. I love their personalities as well as their versatility in different combat scenarios.

[@dboi5582]

Damn the vulture droid really does have a space engineers esque speed cap. It's a shame too, with an acceleration of 38000 m/s^2 in the time it would have taken an organic pilot to see the droid aim and fire at it (roughly one second and thats being generous), it could have been anywhere within a 19km radius.

[@chrisblake4198]

I always felt one of the unstated reasons the GAR went through so many different starfighter types was that their squadrons kept getting shredded throughout most of the war. Without Jedi support, there seemed to be few times where clone pilots came home after an unambiguous victory in space.

[@joekerr22]

Please make more tech based videos. Let’s get a breakdown of all the blaster models in a multiple part series. Love the channel.

[@wordze]

I always loved how the Vulture Droids chatted with eachother in thier cute, highpitched gibberish :D

[@kola2551]

Vulture Droids have such a cool, sleek looking design, reminds me of the TIE Interceptors but more streamlined. Would love it if you did a similar video on the Droid Tri-Fighter. It's unique appearance (and amazing performance in Battlefront 2) makes it my favorite starfighter in Star Wars

[@Tenchi212]

Droids like these are exactly why i wanted a Clone Wars era movie based on a CIS perspective, it would have been glorious to see. Unforunately i'll never get to see it, as i certainly won't touch any Star Wars stuff made by Disney after the Obi-Wan travesty.

[@supercharged5-39]

What was wrong with obi wan? I think it was good

[@theknight1573]

@@supercharged5-39 Id say dont bother, people just want to crap over new SW stuff wether it is based on truth/logic or not... Disney did ruin things (and the sequel thrilogy contains imo the worst movies) but I think they did nail most of the intermediate movies and shows. Rogue One and the Mandalorian especially I like, and Obi-Wan also works very well imo.

[@phalamy9180]

I could imagine one of these babies with a really high class AI in them could cause a rediculous amount of damage. One of them work at maximum capacity would truly be a sight to see.

[@firepower7017]

Then you would need to modify the ship to accommodate such an upgrade. Not to mention it would lose its cost effectiveness. Besides, the tri fighter was just that. But nobody sing praise to such a thing.

[@sharkmano1138]

@@firepower7017 machine learning?

[@firepower7017]

@@sharkmano1138 The issue is mostly fitting each fighter with an independent AI and packing it with advanced fighter knowledge? I know that the CIS has managed to cram such tech into smaller droid types. But the heavily streamlined body seems to be an issue.

[@sharkmano1138]

@@firepower7017 and there's Palpatine's demonization of the battle droids

[@Mizzle420420]

On a side note the term variable geometry wings comes from real world aircraft design in which the wings can change configuration, positions, or retract to better suit high or low speed handling (in some cases independently of eachother as on the F-14). Most commonly seen on the US Mulitrole Fighter - Grumman F-14 Tomcat and Super Tomcat (which most people know from TopGun as flown by Tom Cruse). Other examples are the US Fighter - F-111 "Ardvaark" (which not only had variable geometry "swing-wings" but also a variable geometry air intake spike), US bomber - Rockwell B-1 "Lancer" (funny it shares the name of the B-1 Battle Droid), European Mulitrole Attacker - Panavia Tornado ADV, Russian Fighter - Mikoyan MiG-27 "Flogger", and Russian Bomber - Tupolev Tu-22M "Backfire". The video game series Ace Combat famously created many of its own concept aircraft models with more advanced styles of variable geometry wings such as the X-02 Strike Wyvern (which has what's called switch-blade wings) , XFA-27 (similar to an advanced version of the F-14), and ASF-X (Which has a BatWing type that appears to "flap" up or down when transitioning). Variable Geometry Wings have also seen a fair amount of use in Japanese Anime such as the VF-1 Valkyrie from "Macross" (also known as Vertitech Fighter from the north American adaptation "Robotech"). There are some funny stories of F-14 pilots expanding and retracting just one of their two variable geometry wings to "wave" at eachother mid flight as a way of jokingly saying hello to other pilots.

[@ravenwisha]

The Vultures always bring to mind Cylon fighters from the “recent” series revival…

[@johannesbuchholz3293]

My favorite ship in all of Star Wars. You can keep your Millennium Falcon, your X-wings and TIE fighters. I'll take these guys any day.

[@thelegitpilot135]

1:14 Is that a Vulture Droid from SimplePlanes? Hah! That’s awesome!

[@akumaking1]

I just realized the Xi Char act similar to the Adeptus Mechanicus in terms of treating technology as holy

[@Generalphoenix8438]

I'd love to see these made in real life. I'd imagine so many applications this design could be effective for.

[@Arbiter22J]

I love the CIS and it’s great to see it get the attention it deserves

[@K41-g6p]

considering the scale of those things, i'm guessing that the 'solid fuel slug' is either REALLY small or weirdly flat to fit in that main body. if it's just a small slug, which would explain the short combat duration, couldn't an 'autoloader' attachment be rigged up to extend the droid's operating time? i assume that there was either that or an external battery pack considering that they could even be used on ships without dedicated hangers(where the refueling bays would be).

[@jonathan4158]

One of the best battle droids of Star Wars.

[@schishne7546]

Always thought that especially the vulture droids and commando droids were badass The commando droid is basically a way more athletic arc trooper that does flips, is able to use blades and seemingly any kind of ranged weapon aswell Vulture droids flyby sounds badass, is basically AA and AG, has a way smarter profile than for the Torrent or ARC Fighter, its able to launch vertically in just 3 secs and since its a something organic it isn't really G-Locked and can theoretically pull crazy moves

[@danielknowles3051]

1:12 Wasn’t expecting a Simpleplanes screenshot in this video lol

[@therealfreshswobo6443]

Back in the days, a VultureDroid was my first lego set

[@stampybird742]

0:12. Did anyone else notice he used a Hyena bomber instead of Vulture droids

[@Josh_Hammond]

I always think the vulture droids were cool and made sense because droids don't need oxygen and other stuff living beings need. The design was cool and can be walkers was cool too. Plus droids could be big or small in design.

[@zachelkins1229]

I would love to see a similar breakdown of the trifighter. That said between the two I would likely take more vulture droids, especially if I could get them refit with a proper shield generator and maybe a better droid brain. Keep them in smaller numbers and give them intellect to really abuse their resistance to acceleration. Now if I were more restricted in hanger space yeah I'll pay the premium for trifighters, but if I have the bankroll and hanger space to do so rocking swarms of vultures is probably the way to go. The fuel problem is the only major hurtle I see myself regularly complaining about

[@nicholaswalsh4462]

Honestly, the Vulture Droid's best aspect is its affordability. It didn't need to be the best at anything. It could afford to be lackluster, since it cost far less to operate, maintain, and replace than a manned craft.

[@edwardstevens80]

Yes !!! Yes !!! Please do a video on the Droid Tri-Fighter as well. You rock GeeeeeeeeT

[@shanenolan8252]

Vulture droid was very effective in the ryloth arc . Even as canon fodder. The took out the republic task force ( squadron)

[@teleportedbreadfor3days]

Trade Federation: *introduces Vulture Droids to replace battle droid-piloted ships* Battle Droid Pilots: “THEY TOOK OUR JERBS!”

[@Americandragonrider333.]

Vulture Droids are a peace of engineering genius, I’ve always liked them!

[@luisdoyer3260]

It would've been interesting if the rebels were able to reprogram squadrons of vulture droid, definitely would have helped.

[@furballproto3596]

Keep in mind there is a variant of the vulture droid that's double even triple the normal vulture's size

[@GMadrigal-q7h]

Vulture droids have a good design to them and built for space combat and with their incredible speed and heavy armed weapons made them very lethal. Can believe they are so fast that a human couldn’t survive piloting this droid star fighter

[@jeffagain7516]

Thanks again Folks! I've always considered the Vulture Droids an extremely cool looking design and they were certainly formidable in any actions they got tangled in. Next to the Malevolence and Buzz Droids, probably my fave of all the Droid flight weaponry. :)

[@IRMentat]

cool design, neat features and "multi-role", certainly VTOL. It just needed at least 1 centrally mounted regular gun tho (ideally mounted on the droid "head" for CIWS), all those wing based weapons lead to numerous problems, even if you can articulate them mid-flight.

[@Jeartozer]

The walker mode is even more dangerous when you consider they could land, take a few steps while unloading missiles into an enemy force, then hop up and zip away at 1000kph... Then come back around to provide air support/strafing runs on enemy positions... If only the Seps hadnt been handicapped the whole war, to prevent them from ever winning

[@FNGof2010]

Makes me wonder what the next generation of the vulture droid would've looked like if Haor Chall decided to make one that addressed the shortcomings of the first one.

[@zeratul____1228]

Considering how later the Empire would start going cheap on their fighters without giving a damn about pilot safety its a wonder that they didn't just use Droid fighters given the success of the Vulture droid. However I can see Tarkin not liking the idea as he was a veteran of the Clone Wars and plus the political pressure from shifting their fighters to being fully Droid controlled would have been hell for the image. But given how they were bent on inducing "fear" in their enemies it would have been better resource wise to just to use Droid ships so the actual human pilots they had wouldn't keep getting slaughtered.

[@viperson9818]

Vulture droids are very unique. Not many Star Wars droids are like this one. A star fighter first and a bonus it can be quickly deployed to fight infantry on the ground. Or a insanely great capital ship defense droid. Protects the hangar, can be used to dog fight, or even invade enemy hangars like that one vulture droid in TCW movie.

[@HazopGaze]

Gotta love Vulture Droids. Definitely a favorite of mine. Also yes, bring on the Tri-Fighters!

[@deathhazard7751]

I’d love more lore on Sion. It’s my theory that Maul was contacted by Sion through the force and he’s really the one who showed him how to survive

[@Red_Ryry]

I mean I like that theory but it’s impossible for the spirit of someone attuned to the dark side to last over 3,000 years without a tether to the physical world like a holocron with their personality or a mask they stuffed their spirit in. And considering sion couldn’t die as far as he was concerned he likely never bothered setting up something like that, and didn’t anticipate that he could be convinced to let go and let himself pass on.

[@lokilaufey1189]

YES PLEASE DO A VIDEO ON THE DROID TRI FIGHTER!!!!!! Loved the video

[@NickFriends]

Most people look at CIS droids and dismiss them as useless garbage, not taking things like plot armor into consideration. Yeah those vulture droids get clapped by Anakin Skywalker, but this dude is literally one of the strongest jede and best pilots ever. Imagine being a regular pilot and having to deal with these guys

[@jtfbreedlove]

The Vulture droid & X-wing are my favorite star wars fighter designs.

[@spinejackel]

it’s also a pretty close tie between the vulture droids and the tri fighters for the most shaped separatist droid

[@FinalPenance]

I have always loved the Vulture Droid

[@l33tninj4studios]

Seek perfection: ...sounds heretical. Factory cathedrals: Shit... they're Slaaneshi Hereteks....

[@aurathedraak7909]

Well this and the tri fighters are my favorite starfighter in the starwars universe And yes do a video about the trifighter and other miscellaneous starfighters in the cis

[@vendetta9348]

One of my favorite droids, all they needed was a better software to be more intelligent and shields. They could also create some special units that had a hyper drive and more power to scape from battle and regroup

[@ronjon7942]

And range. Didn’t Geetsly mention they had about a half-hour of fight time?

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

All of the benefits of Tie-fighters, with none of the weaknesses.

[@Ptaaruonn]

These were, by far, my favorite droids of the CIS. If i had a navy i would compliment it with thousands of these bad boys. And they Hyena bombers, still are my favorite Star wars bombers.

[@admiralcasperr]

What were the "more generic starfighters piloted by battle droids" used by the trade federation prior to single droid starfighters ?

[@maxmillion3987]

It’s my favorite droid!

[@IexoPeoa]

If I recall correctly, the original ones could also close their top and bottom wings together, making them look sleeker, but more importantly, hiding most of their weapons from prying regulatory eyes...

[@CloneScavengerVulpin8389]

General grievous: "launch fighters and bring the ship around."

[@Benz2533]

Many inventions from the CIS is absolutely great design. Imagine having super tactical droid looking after you while having 8 C-B3 battle as private security. Having 6 to 8 wings of Vulture droid ( maybe upgrade mod ) to look after your ship is not a bad thing as well ( depend on the size of your ship ). Having 1 to 2 protect your ship like Falcon or the ghost is not a bad thing in this situation. Of course with this much fire power on your ship. You might have to explain to every authority figure everywhere you about to dock but if you have the phantom like VCX-100 then you can land and trade on smaller shuttle without problem.

[@Swiff-RR]

Have you make a hyena bomber video lime this or other CIS ships? If not then I'm more than happy to make this video request

[@globin3477]

I gotta say... looking at them again, these vulture droids remind me of Azdarchid Pterosaurs, albiet with a shorter neck.

[@davidragan9233]

Sounds like the best way to counter them are flak missiles, along with droid poppers.

[@mynt253]

3900 G? That's just a tiny bit insane. That would mean that, at its top speed of 1200 km/h, it could make a 180° turn with a diameter of roughly 5.8 metres. It would make that turn in just 0.027 seconds. Without losing any speed. What sort of black magic is holding those things together?

[@globin3477]

The Force, Apparently.

[@josharuni547]

Don’t forget the chin cannons, remember when they walk they can shoot from their chest

[@pktrainerpk5supersus459]

the vulture droid can also go underwater instantly

[@therisinghero1300]

This kind of stuff is what would make something like skynet scary