1. X Wing
An iconic ship, the X-Wing needs little introduction. But if you've ever wondered what one would look like flying in real life, wonder no more. In 2007 a San Diego based rocket association built a 23 foot long flying X-Wing model powered by 4 giant rocket motors. Complete with servo operated S-Foil wings and an astromech droid, its maiden flight was nothing if not spectacular. Although fitted with a recovery parachute and in theory capable of reaching an altitude of almost 1000 feet, the giant model leapt into the air on four bright red jets of flame from its rocket engines in the style of a true X-Wing but exploded shortly into flight.  Check it out here

2. Earth Directorate Starfighter
This fighter from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century started life as a concept design by legendary designer Ralph Mcquarrie for Battlestar Galactica. Originally conceived for the Colonial Viper, when the show’s producers instead decided to use the now familiar Viper design, the Starfighter was resurrected as the main Earth defence ship. The series which ran from 1979-81 will be remembered fondly by any scifi obsessed teenage boy who grew up at the time, although possibly not for the starfighter or it’s die cast model which fired little red laser bullets. Instead two words might capture the appeal of the show..Wilma Deering.. Nuff said

3. Colonial Viper
The primary space superiority fighter of the Colonial Defence Force in Battlestar Galactica has been a scifi favourite since its debut in 1978. It was so popular that the designers of the series remake decided it was the only element they wanted to carry forward from the old series virtually intact. However even if you think you’re a fan of the Viper, we're guessing you still have nothing on car builder Dean Shorey. This amusement park engineer handbuilt a street legal, pimped out, Viper car that looks just like the starfighter but with a chevy V8 engine. No word on whether it has a turbo mode or not. Check out his extraordinary ride here.

4. Gunstar
The production team on The Last Starfighter were so concerned about the realism of the state of the art CGI that they projected a still frame onto the largest screen at MGM and walked right up to the screen to scrutinize it heavily.  The ship was designed by Ron Cobb who had worked on Alien and executed by a company called Digital Productions who were famous for using a Cray supercomputer to render their animations.  Because The Last Starfighter was presented in 70mm, the CGI was rendered at a resolution higher than most movies made today, however the average polygon count per frame was 250,000, while something like an XBOX 360 averages several million, per second; this was however in 1982.

5. Jedi Starfighter
The design of this space fighter, first seen in Star Wars Episode II Attack of the Clones, was intended to be a bridge between the designs of the original movies and those of the prequels. Based around the distinctive triangular shape of the Imperial Star Destroyer from the original trilogy, it hints at the growing power and influence of the Empire in the prequels. By Episode III Revenge of the Sith, the ship had evolved further, now incorporating the look of the TIE fighters and the ship was redesignated the Jedi Interceptor Starfighter.  The design of this final ship also had expanding wings, a feature inspired by the Hasbro toys made for Episode II.

6. Lockheed Starfighter
A starfighter in name only, this cold war era jet almost became a true space borne fighter. Designed to train astronauts and responsible for numerous high altitiude records the Starfighter operated at the very edge of the atmosphere. The air was so thin that conventional flying surfaces had little effect so it used a reaction control system or RCS, similar to the ones used on the space shuttle. It was notoriously lethal to fly, earning the nickname “Widowmaker”. One such crash is documented in the film The Right Stuff as legendary pilot Chuck Yeager loses control at extreme altitude

7. X-74 
The X-74 Orbital Defence Fighter or ODV is the primary space superiority fighter of the Earth Defence Forces in LVJ. Following time honoured traditions of others on the list such as the Viper and X-Wing the X-74 is capable of both atmospheric and orbital flight, a scifi concept now being realised in the latest developments of real world spaceplanes. Its X designation comes from the legacy of experimental planes like the X-15, the first ever spaceplane. All the X-74s are named and we have been running a competition for fans of the film to get their names on the side of the jets on screen. Many have already won and more rounds of naming are expected before the films completion.

8. Star Fury
The design of this fighter from Babylon 5 pays homage to the Gunstar designed by Ron Cobb, but the primary aim of the brief was to create a ship that looked and behaved like it obeyed the laws of physics.  It's combination of thrusters pointing forwards and backwards allow for very tight turning angles and a high degree of manoeuvrability.  The Starfury was among a variety of CGI assets created for Babylon 5, all produced by Foundation Imaging using Lightwave 3D on Amiga based computers, which revolutionised the way VFX for TV was produced.

9. VF1 Valkyrie 
The 1980s Japanese anime series Macross and it’s US adaption Robotech combined an F-14 Tomcat with a transforming battle robot for this inventive fighter. Capable of walking upright, flying as a jet or in orbit, the VF1 became one of the most popular mecha for scifi fans. The series focused on technological advances gained from a crashed alien ship in the Pacific enabling Earth to defend against alien invasions. Warner Bros acquired the rights in 2007 aiming for a new franchise and attached Toby Maguire’s production company. Maguire was said to be pursuing the lead role with Lawrence Kasdan, writer of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Empire Strikes Back also on board.

10. Veryani Wasp 
We hope you will excuse us including a couple of our own ships in this list but we couldn’t omit the main enemy ship from LVJ.  This small, highly agile alien fighter started life as a more robust, blocky design but when concept designer Lee Ray joined the film he noted it didn’t appear menacing enough. So it was redesigned in its current, sharper and more angular form. When in battle, wasps attack in swarms using advanced navigation systems to prevent collisions in a similar fashion to how birds fly in flocks.

Much of the information here we found all over the internet and in books but special mention should go to the blog site of Gavin Rothery. Gavin was the VFX supervisor on Moon, one of our favourite recent scifi films and his site is a treasure trove of great blogs and superb images many of which we had never seen before. His site is where we found the original Buck Rogers concept art and it's now a permanent resident on our bookmarks. We would highly recommend giving it a look at www.gavinrothery.com

In the next article we will be showcasing the WASP fighter from LVJ in a lot more detail but for now we hope you enjoyed this little diversion of scifi trivia. Which ship should we have included? If you've got a bit of trivia you think we'd enjoy, let us know in the comments, on facebook or twitter.