Small wedge-shaped one-man starfighters, these vessels were used by the
Jedi order in the waning days of the
Galactic Republic. While the ship does employ weapons, most Jedi pilots preferred to rely on their cunning and attunement to the Force to avoid disputes and aggression.
A truncated astromech droid was hard-wired into the starfighter's port side, providing repair and navigation information to the Jedi pilot. The vessel was too small to carry a hyperdrive, and instead relied on a separate booster craft for transit through hyperspace.
The Jedi Temple maintained a well-stocked hangar of Jedi starfighters within one of its many spires. A retractable landing pad slid forth from the tower, extending to its length to allow the fighter clearance from the Temple.
Obi-Wan Kenobi piloted a Jedi starfighter while investigating the Separatist-funded assassination attempts on Senator Padmé Amidala of Naboo. Equipped with a hyperdrive booster ring, Obi-Wan voyaged to the distant worlds of Kamino and Geonosis while searching for answers.
With the outbreak of the Clone Wars, the Jedi saw themselves pressed into the forefront of military activity, serving as Generals in the campaign against the Separatists. The demands of combat saw advancements in the Jedi starfighter arsenal, resulting in modifications and a new generation of fighter craft.
Though the wedge-shaped starfighter design was still in use by war's end, a newer model had earned the spotlight for its use by renowned Jedi heroes, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
This new model was much more compact, cutting away a large portion of the forward spaceframe to have a forked front, bracketing a bulbous cockpit pod. Lining the inner edges of the ship's "tines" were powerful long-barreled laser cannons. The ship also had secondary cannons recessed on the outer edge of each tine. A full-size astromech rested within a spring-loaded socket on the port wing, and the craft's wingtips could fold open, revealing hexagonal panels when the ship entered combat mode. The hexagonal wings and the spoke-windowed cockpit were strong indicators of future starfighter designs to be adopted by the galactic government.
This new model also lacked a hyperdrive, so it too had to rely upon a hyperspace transport ring to achieve superluminal velocities. During the war, bigger more robust rings were used, with multiple lightspeed engines increasing their speed and range.