Star Wars Y-Wing Fighter, workhorse of the Rebel Alliance

The two main spacecraft used by the Rebel Alliance in Star Wars, released in 1977, were the nimble X-Wing Fighter and the bomber known as the Y-Wing. They were also two of the ships designed by Colin Cantwell before Ralph McQuarrie began featuring them in his pre-production paintings.

buy AUTOGRAPHED PRINTS

Colin’s Y-Wing model on a table (click to buy)

Another version of Colin’s Y-Wing against a planet (click to buy)

The final version of the Y-Wing, as seen in Star Wars¹

Buy a Y-Wing Print

I think it’s pretty amazing that he designed the Y-Wing from nothing, with so many seemingly disparate parts coming together as if they were meant to fit in that arrangement.

Model-maker Jason Eaton

It wasn’t until later Ralph McQuarrie paintings emerged, depicting slick-yet-accurate versions of Colin’s nascent Y-Wings and Death Star, that we’d an inkling Mr. Cantwell’s work was more seminal to our obsessions than we even knew.

Peter Briggs, co-writer, Hellboy (2004)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about the Star Wars Y-Wing Fighter

Who created the Y-Wing Fighter?

Colin Cantwell was the designer of the first version of the Y-Wing. He was the first Lucasfilm employee hired by George Lucas, and his Y-Wing model can be seen in several of the pre-production paintings created by Ralph McQuarrie. The ship was designed to be a bomber, like the TBF Torpedo Bomber and other similar aircraft that flew during World War II. Learn more about the origin of the Star Wars Y-Wing Fighter in this blog post.

Who was the most well-known Star Wars Y-Wing Fighter pilot?

Angus McInnes, who died on Dec. 23, 2024, portrayed the Y-Wing pilot Gold Leader named Jon “Dutch” Vander in the first Star Wars movie released in 1977. Thanks to the magic of modern technology, he actually reprised his role in the 2016 movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. You can learn more about him in this blog post. That film takes place before the original movie and features many X-Wing and Y-Wing pilots who also fought in the battle to destroy the Death Star. (Fun fact: A pilot using the Red 5 designation dies in Rogue One, thus paving the way for Luke Skywalker to use that handle.)

Which other Star Wars movies featured the Y-Wing Fighter?

A Y-Wing cruises by the medical frigate where Luke Skywalker recuperates at the end of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, and that ship is one of the stars of the Rebel Alliance’s assault against the second Death Star in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. An upgraded version of the ship can also be seen during the climactic Battle of Exegol in Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker.