HYPERDRIVES ARE propulsion systems (rarely also called Warp Drives) were vital starship components that allowed starships to enter hyperspace to traverse the vast distances of space at faster-than-light speeds, and thus were a key technology in the foundation of intergalactic society, trade and war. The construction and working principle of hyperdrives is based on Hyperdrive Theory. The term was used to describe the engine and all components required for its use, such as the hyperdrive motivator or hyperdrive field guide.
In numbers, the hyperdrive allowed travelers to traverse a galaxy spanning over 120,000 light years in only a few hours or days, the exact travel time depending on a number of factors including destination, point of origin, route, and class of hyperdrive.
The hyperdrive was generally built from a titanium-chromium compound. This compound was specially designed for hyperdrives to allow them to stand up against continual stress put on them jumping between the dimensions of realspace and hyperspace.
After receiving commands from a ship's pilot via paralight system, the process of a hyperspace jump began with the collection of gamma radiation by the field guide. A motivator would build up and modify the energy in a fusion generator through several kilometers of looped superconducting wire. To enter hyperspace, the hyperdrive's horizontal boosters would provide energy to the ionization chamber to begin ignition that would release the radiation, causing ripples in the time-space matrix and allowing the ship to propel off the ripples into hyperspace. Inertial dampers were used to protect the ship, crew, and cargo from being crushed by the tremendous acceleration of the jump. Once in hyperspace, null quantum field generator helped stabilize the vessel and keep it from prematurely emerging from the alternate dimension. Shields also protected the ship from fatal collisions with interstellar gas and dark matter particles. To prevent the relativistic passing of time while in hyperspace, starships used stasis fields attuned to hyperdrive levels to keep organic onboard crews or cargos "in time" with the standard galactic dimension.
Upon exiting hyperspace an unknown technology was used to decelerate the starship. Both entrances into and exits from hyperspace created wake rotation and Cronau radiation that produced a detectable signature often used to reconnoiter fleet movements or by planetary customs authorities. Other technologies, such as the 4-axial stabilizer and hyperdrive regulator kept the ship from being ripped apart by the physics of hyperspace travel. To prevent overheating, some hyperdrives made use of overheat fail safes, like a hyperspace shunt or transpacitor, or alluvial dampers to regulate the flow of ion particles used to provide superluminal thrust.
A hyperdrive could only initiate a jump into hyperspace when free of the gravitic pull of a major celestial body. Sublight engines were used to liberate the starship from a body's gravity well before the ship could jump. Hyperdrives included an automatic failsafe that cut out the hyperdrive when a gravity well was detected in the navigational path. While this was used to prevent a collision in the event of an astrogational error, the failsafe was manipulated by engineers to create artificial gravity wells, such as those used on Imperial Interdictor-class cruisers or Hapan pulse matter mines, to either pull starships from hyperspace at a specific location or to prevent them from fleeing into hyperspace. This, of course, relied on either knowledge of a starship's travel pattern or being situated along a particularly popular hyperspace route. Some systems allowed an override of the failsafe, but it was known to have disastrous effects.
It is unclear if the Yuuzhan Vong's "Superluminal Transit" used the same principles as hyperdrive technology with mechanical parts replaced by organic creatures, or if it relied on an entirely different extragalactic method of travel.
Operational history
The earliest hyperdrives would be considered slow by the standards of the early third decade ABY. Limited in range and often unreliable, hyperdrives gradually advanced to allow increasingly large ships to travel increasingly longer distances with greater safety, ease and speed.
The development of navigational computers to handle complex astrogation calculations did away with the need for hyperspace beacons and jump gates, and ended the reliance on established routes; as long as a pilot knew where he was going, the NavCom could take him there.
Despite rapid advances in hyperdrive technology, the systems were too large to be practical for most small space faring vessels. Even by the last century of the Republic, many starfighters made use of hyperdrive rings and hyperdrive sleds to achieve superluminal travel. By the end of the Clone Wars, it became more common for starfighters and freighters to make use of onboard hyperdrives.
During the establishment of Palpatine's New Order, hyperdrive enabled ships commonly carried backup hyperdrives and few space worthy vessels relied upon larger, hyperdrive-enabled starships for transport.
The superluminal speed of a hyperdrive was rated on a decreasing scale; the faster the hyperdrive, the lower the rating. These ratings were generally referred to as "Classes" and provided a quick, although often inconsistent or inaccurate, idea of a ship's hyperdrive speed. In 30 BBY, Class 3 drives were experimental, and by the end of the Clone Wars most military starships were using Class 3 or Class 2. During the Galactic Civil War, military capital ships and starfighters were generally equipped with Class 1 or Class 2, industrial freighters and haulers with Class 3 or Class 4, and civilian starships with Class 5 or above.
Some starships, such as the Millennium Falcon, underwent after-market modifications to achieve ratings of Class 0.5, and Dash Rendar's Outrider also had a hyperdrive Class 0.75, which was also achieved by modifications, although tampering with the generally stable technology of a hyperdrive was considered a dangerous activity. Hyperdrives built by those outside the sphere of the Galactic Republic, Galactic Empire and New Republic, such as the Hapan Froond-class hyperdrive, were not classed in the standard system, as controlled comparisons were difficult to attain.
Additionally, some spacecraft, like the Theta-class shuttle, had backup hyperdrives of Class 15.
