Words by Marcus Boothby
The first Star Wars film, A New Hope, is a cinematic classic, with it setting the stage for sci-fi movies, visual effects and epic universes. Since coming out in cinema’s in 1977, Star Wars has been a favourite for many people, including myself.
Sure, The Force is cool, lightsabers are cool and the Death Star is even cooler despite being a super-weapon but, the coolest bit about Star Wars are the star ships you see on screen. The original trilogy and prequels gave us an amazing range of ship design ranging from the the Droid Fighters you see in the prequels all the way up to the Executor-Class Super Star Destroyer you see in the original trilogy.
But, many people forget about possibly the most important ship in the saga and that being the CR90 corvette, or more commonly known as the Blockade Runner. Arguably, this ship is more important than the Millenium Falcon as the CR90 is the first thing you see in A New Hope, with it being chased down by an Imperial-I Star Destroyer. This CR90 is key to how the events of the film play out.
The most famous example of the CR90 is the Tantive IV which was originally owned by Bail Organa during the Clone wars but was more commonly seen in service in the hands of the Resistance/Rebel Alliance after the Clone Wars. The Tantive IV was key to the Rebels attaining the plans to the Death Star during the Battle of Scarif. Despite the Rebels securing the plans, the ship and Princess Leia were captured by Darth Vader in his Imperial-I Star Destroyer. After the ship was captured, it was “lost'“ for a number of decades until it turned up during the Battle of Exegol where it was part of the larger fleet taking on the Final Order.
History aside, the CR90 is a pretty normal ship in the grand scheme of things, being a corvette. CR90’s usually came in one configuration coming in at a length of 150 metres, meaning if it were appear on Earth, it would be the same size as two Airbus A380s parked nose to nose, with a fully grown adult behind. Weapon wise, it had a few turbolaser turrets but had a small hanger which could deploy three A-Wings. It was fairly fast too, with an atmospheric speed of 590mph and a Class 2 hyperdrive meaning it could get from planet to planet quite quickly.
So, long story short, if there was a key battle being fought by the Rebels or Resistance, there was probably a CR90 in the sky somewhere. We rate these ships but if Motordicition existed in the Star Wars universe, we’d angle towards a Raider-class corvette or a Arquitens-class cruiser.