Star Wars TIE Fighter Gets A Real Owner’s Manual

The TIE fighters from Star Wars are one of the most iconic spaceships in cinema history – they stroke fear in the hearts of those who were chased by them and it was their appearance that generally indicated some serious space fighting was about to go down. 

It’s understandable why any Star Wars fan would want to try and fly one, at least once. While that’s not possible just yet, you can now learn everything about its inner workings and more thanks to Insight Edition’s Star Wars TIE Fighter: Owners’ Workshop Manual. 

The manual’s front cover is designed the same way every Haynes Manual for cars, scooters or motorcycles is so even I did a double take the first time I saw the image. 

It’s worth noting Haynes has published a few other Star Wars manuals before, including the YT-1300 Milennium Falcon Owner’s Workshop Manual and the Death Star Owners’ Workshop Manual. 

The manual contains everything you’d ever want to know about the spaceship, from early concepts and prototypes to pages saturated with art and technical specs. 

You’ll learn how to fly the TIE fighter too: the manual contains details about the controls, labeled in diagrams as well as the best maneuvers that would help a pilot bring out the best out of their TIE fighter. So, technically, if you could build the spacecraft, you’d have all the information you could ever need on how to fly it. 

In this manual, we have strived to provide the most thorough technical description and operating guide available for the various TIE fighter variants, making it essential reading for all Star Wars fans.

Ryder Windham

There’s a lot of information about the origins and the development of the spaceship and the readers will be able to compare the Imperial and First Order TIE fighters to see how the upgrades have changed the ship through the years. 

Illustrators Chris Reiff and Chris Trevas took inspiration from NASA’s real engine designs and worked out how they could blend in the theoretical technology present in the Star Wars universe into creating a believable machine. 

Thanks to their and author Ryder Windham’s hard work, Star Wars fans will read all about the evolution of the Sienar Fleet Systems’ twin ion engine and all the weapons the TIE fighter holds, its defensive systems and the way the pilots need to be trained and what gear they’re supposed to wear. 

The manual is already available for sale and retails for $24.99