The Completely Unofficial Star Wars Encyclopedia

Hyperdrive

Category: Technology
Type: Hyperdrive

This was the generic term used to describe the starship engine and its components which allowed the ship to travel at supralight speeds through hyperspace. It worked with the ship's navigational computer to ensure that any direction and course changes necessary to maneuver through hyperspace were executed without encountering gravity shadows. Most hyperdrives required a fusion generator to propel a ship through space. The hyperdrive was built from a titanium-chromium compound that could withstand the forces needed to push through the space-time fabric of realspace into the hyperspacial continuum. The hyperdrive used modified gamma radiation to create electromagnetic energy that, when ejected from the hyperdrive, caused the realspace time-space matrix to ripple. The hyperdrive continued to eject electromagnetic energy to push against these ripples, propelling the ship into hyperspace. However, the hyperdrive system could only work in the near-absense of gravity. This meant that a ship had to escape from a planet's gravity well before it could jump into hyperspace. Each hyperdrive system was equipped with a cutoff which returned the ship to realspace if a gravity well was discovered in an unspecified location. This principle allowed for the of gravity-well generators - such as those used on the Imperial Interdictor-class cruiser - as a way to drag starships out of hyperspace at a specific location. It was rumored that the hyperdrive was invented eons ago by a space-faring race from outside the known galaxy. When this race encountered the known galaxy, shortly before the formation of the Old Republic, it first came upon the Corellian System. There, the aliens sold the secrets of the hyperdrive to the Corellians, who studied it for decades before producing their first, working hyperdrive. Interstellar exploration and unification began in earnest. After about 20 years, the Corellians began selling their ideas to other star systems, and a huge galactic community was born, which later evolved into the Old Republic. The presence of planetary repulsors inside each of the Corellian System's planets seemed to indicate that there was a more technologically-advanced civilization in the system at some point in its history. Further investigation by xenoarchaeologists during the years following the Yuuzhan Vong invasion of the galaxy revealed that the hyperdrive was not directly related to the planetary repulsors. The repulsors had been installed by the Architects during the earliest known habitation of the galaxy. The hyperdrive wasn't invented until the Rakatan Empire rose to power, some 30,000 years before the Galactic Civil War. The Rakata developed their hyperdrive in order to allow them to conquer other planets, which led to the formation of the Rakatan Empire. However, when the Rakata people died out, all first-hand knowledge of their hyperdrive died with them. Human and Duros slaves in the Corellian System and the Tion Cluster, now freed from their masters, reverse-engineered the Rakatan hyperdrive and developed their own version of the technology. Hyperdrives were grouped according to their ability to exceed the speed of light, and ware categorized by classes. The lower the class number, the faster the hyperdrive could propel the ship. For example, the Millennium Falcon could make ".5 past lightspeed," an indication that it had a Class .5 hyperdrive. This class was considered twice as fast as Class 1 hyperdrive, and could attain speeds of 127 light-years per hour. Note that Dark Force Rising indicates that .5 was faster than .45, which seems to contradict this description of relative speed. Interestingly enough, although a hyperdrive needs a near-absence of gravity in which to operate, any open area of space that lacked at least some form of matter was also to be avoided. In these areas, where there was no resistance on the ship's shields, a hyperdrive could operate at such incredible levels that it could literally tear itself apart. Thus, starship owners often had to recalibrate their hyperdrives on a regular basis, to account for the areas of space in which they traveled most often.

Source Abbreviations Listing - E4, E5, SWSB, DFR, TT, IG1, GOF1, LCS, NECH

For more information, please read or view the following material(s):

Dark Force Rising, by Timothy Zahn, copyright 1992, from Bantam Spectra Books

Eaten Alive: Galaxy of Fear Book 1, by John Whitman, copyright 1997, from Bantam Skylark Books

Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of Thonboka, by L. Neil Smith, copyright 1983, from Del Rey Books

Star Wars: Episode I Insider's Guide, copyright 1999, from LucasArts Entertainment Company

Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, by George Lucas, copyright 1977, from Twentieth-Century Fox Film Distribution

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, by Lawrence Kasdan and Leigh Brackett, copyright 1980, from Twentieth-Century Fox Film Distribution

The New Star Wars Essential Chronology, by Daniel Wallace, copyright 2005, from Del Rey Books

The Star Wars Sourcebook, by Bill Slavicsek and Curtis Smith, copyright 1987, from West End Games

The Star Wars Sourcebook, Second Edition, by Curtis Smith and Bill Slavicsek, copyright 1994, from West End Games

Tyrant's Test, by Michael P. Kube-McDowell, copyright 1997, from Bantam Spectra Books

Legend:

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