Fighter Pilot Slang
3-9 line | A line across a fighter's wings, based on an imaginary clock in which 12 is ahead of a fighter and 6 is behind. The goal of dogfighting is to keep bandits in front of one's 3-9 line. |
ACM | Aerial Combat Maneuvering, better known as dogfighting. |
Bandit | A hostile fighter or starship. |
Big L | Lightspeed barrier. |
Bingo | Having enough fuel for a safe return. |
Bird | Spaceship. |
Bluelined | Disabled by an ion cannon blast. |
Blue milk run | An easy hop, an ordinary and uneventful mission. |
Bogey | An unidentified fighter or starship. |
Bone | A Y-Wing fighter |
Bright | A TIE/Advanced fighter. |
Bumping | Engaging in ACM. |
Burn sky until we see lines | Fly until you get into hyperspace. |
Burnout | Spacer slang referring the loss of power in a starship's power plants. |
Cargo hold | Spacers' slang for backside, bottom. |
Centurion | A pilot with one hundred landings on a carrier or fighter base. |
Check your 6 | "Be careful, watch out behind you." |
Clear skies | "Be well," a traditional spacer's farewell. |
Clutch | A squadron of TIE fighters. |
Cold nose | Operating with sensors down. |
Connecting the navpoints | A comprehensive attempt at illustration or explanation of a subject. |
DIE-wing | A TIE-Wing Ugly, referring to its alarmingly low combat survivability. |
Dirt flier | An atmospheric fighter pilot. |
Dirtside | On a planet's surface. |
Dragship | An Interdictor-class cruiser. |
Drift factor | A measure of a pilot's flakiness or inability to follow orders. |
Drunken Mynock School of Instruction | The place where one with minimal piloting skills might have bought his or her pilot's license. |
Dupe | A TIE Bomber |
Easy chair | The pilot's seat in a fighter. |
Edge | An A-Wing fighter. |
Eyeball | A basic TIE fighter. Often shortened to simply eye. |
Fangs out | Eager for a dogfight. |
Few starships short of a fleet | Insane. |
Final Jump | A euphemism for death, used by spacers. |
Flat-hatting | Showing off or engaging in dangerous maneuvres. |
Flyboy | A starfighter pilot. |
Flying the same vector | Thinking along the same lines. |
FTL | Faster than light. |
Full DSW | Having enough power for drive, shields, and weapons. |
Furball | A hectic dogfight. |
G-burp | Spacer slang for a sudden surge from a starship's drive system. |
Gain angles | Maneuvre for a better shot in a dogfight. |
Get lines | Disengage and jump to hyperspace. |
Go black | Head from a planet's atmosphere into space. |
Go blue | Head from space into a planet's atmosphere. |
Goes away | What an enemy fighter does when you hit it. |
Gripe | A mechanical problem. An up gripe is a problem that allows continuing operations; a down gripe does not. |
Hangar queen | A fighter that is often unable to fly because it needs repairs, and thus is raided for parts. |
Hawk circle | A formation of fighters waiting to land. |
Hop | A mission. |
How do you plot that course? | A phrase meaning "how did you come to that conclusion?" |
HUD | Heads-up display. |
Impstar | An Imperial Star Destroyer. |
Judy | Comms call indicating you are intercepting a bandit. |
Klick | Kilometer. |
KM | "Kriffing magic," a pilot's all-purpose explanation for how technology works. |
Latch | Get into position to destroy an enemy fighter. |
Loud handle | The lever that triggers a fighter's ejection seat. |
LTS | "Likely to survive," indicating approval of a pilot's skills. |
No décor | "Speak freely," without worrying about rank. |
Old Spaceman's Home | Retirement; to a spacer. |
Painted | Scanned by sensors. |
Peeper | A TIE fighter used for reconnaissance. |
Pointer | An X-Wing fighter. |
Punching up a jump | Spacer's slang describing the act of entering coordinates into a navigation computer prior to making the jump to lightspeed. |
Raising ship | Spacer's slang for leaving a planet in a starship or the act of lifting off. |
Roof | A carrier's flight deck. |
Reading the g's | Term used by fighter pilots in reference to dialing down an inertial compensator to get a tactile feel for the movements of their ships. |
Rocketjock | A starfighter pilot. |
SA | Situational awareness. |
SD Vic | A Victory-class Star Destroyer |
Senth Herf | An admiring assessment of another pilot's abilities. |
Set-down | Spacers' slang for the act of landing a starship. |
Shock | To hit a bandit with a blast from an ion cannon. |
Shocker | An ion cannon. |
The Show | ACM; dogfighting. |
Skull | A Z-95 Headhunter. |
Skyboy | A term used to address starfighter pilots. |
Slim | A RZ-1 A-Wing interceptor. |
Snubfighter | Small spacecraft like X-wings or TIE Fighters that are seen as expendable. |
Spacer | An individual who lives most of his or her life in space. |
Spinner | A B-Wing fighter, also known as a cross. |
Splash | Shoot down. |
Squint | A TIE/ln Interceptor. |
Star-hopper | Another term for spacer. |
Suicide sled | A starfighter, particularly one with weak shield. |
Trip | A TIE Defender. |
Ugly | A starfighter made from parts of varying origins. |
Vape or vap | Short for "vaporize." Starfighter pilot slang for destroying a target, especially in a dogfight. |
Vapebait | A poorly skilled fighter pilot who is an easy target. |
Victim | A Victory-class Star Destroyer. |
Warp-lagged | Spacer's slang for the feeling of tiredness after traveling in hyperspace. |
Wishbone | A BTL Y-Wing starfighter. |
Woke up on the wrong side of the starship | Spacer's slang for feeling grumpy, irritable, or to be easily annoyed. |
Zero angle | The position behind the stern of a bandit. |
(Sources: Star Wars - The Essential Guide to Warfare; http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_phrases_and_slang)