Why was Clone Pilot armour so Inconsistent?

attention sergeant-on-deck anyone watching this video is probably quite familiar with the mid clone wars change in republic clone trooper armor which saw the soldiers of the grand army of the republic go from using phase 1 armor to improved phase 2 armor for the most part this transition was pretty universal with there being an intermediate phase for only arc troopers but clone pilots seemingly had a rougher transition clone pilots had four different armor sets in use over the course of the war and some of them saw use simultaneously in this video we'll be exploring why the first set of clone pilot armor was the definitive one for the entirety of phase one with no other variants being shown and used simultaneously this armor set was very similar to standard phase one clone trooper armor but with modified helmets and additional life support gear the rest of the armor was identical to that of other clones and while this had no drawbacks in terms of protection there were negative consequences of this that the kaminoans hadn't thought of notably comfort sitting in a cockpit in phase one armor was quite uncomfortable and after a few hours of combat most pilots began to cramp up aside from that oversight phase one pilot armor worked well enough their helmets were different from those worn by standard clones in a number of ways most notably in that they had far superior ceiling mechanisms as a precaution against vacuum and in that they lacked fins the former allowed cloned pilots to survive emergency ejections while the latter was simply because the fins were unnecessary as pilots had no need to establish a communication link with gunships when they were the ones in the cockpit in addition to helmet changes pilots also wore chest mounted life support systems which monitored vitals and could supply oxygen directly to their helmets these provided a routine maintenance of sword during combat and whenever pilots found themselves floating in space these devices were often capable of keeping them alive for long enough for them to be rescued this was the most important component of a pilot's armor and it worked so well that the helmets of standard phase 2 clone armor were made to be compatible with them but while standard clone armor transitioned to phase 2 all in one go pilot armor did not at first phase 2 pilot arm was very similar to phase 1 pilot armor with the only major changes being different helmets the improvements made in this transition were mostly quality of life changes as with all of phase 2 armor that wasn't their hormone as it had been with phase 1 armor phase 2 clone trooper armor was identical to pilot armor in all respects save for the helmet and life support pack which of course did nothing to help the pilots comfort wise that said there were a handful of significant changes made to the helmet the ceiling and oxygen distribution systems were improved and if appearance was anything to go by the rear mounted oxygen distribution systems of phase 1 helmets were replaced with integrated breath masks for phase 2 which could mean that a breach in the helmet elsewhere wouldn't necessarily mean a breach of the oxygen distribution system while we don't know this for sure it does seem likely based on the design of the new helmet but other phase 2 pilot armor designs were soon to follow with some rather radical changes the most common phase 2 pilot armor was the one we all know and love from revenge of this sith which was a radical departure from the previous two variants the cameron owens designed this armory acknowledgement of the fact that the full body armor that had previously been in use by the pilots had more drawbacks than advantages and completely redesigned the armor used by their pilots to account for it this new pilot arm was much less of an armor than the previous two versions and consisted primarily of a blue grey flight suit similar to ones that would be used by pilots on both sides during the galactic civil war and to ones that had been in use by spaces for millennia these flight suits were much more comfortable and much more flexible and they still provided the necessary insulation against the vacuum of space that pilots often needed in emergency situations perhaps the most under-appreciated addition made by the kamen onto this armour set was pockets which as we all know are always a plus of course there was still armor involved in this second phase two pilot set several plastoid plates still protected the pilot's torso which provided an additional level of security while not restricting movement pilots also had armored gauntlets and boots which were of course a necessity these weren't the versions that come standard with clone armor however these gauntlets and boots were specially made for added flexibility and their primary function was as a safeguard against the inertial shock the breathing apparatus used by previous pilot armor types was not only retained but significantly improved for this version of the pilot's armor these new devices contained a one-minute supply of emergency oxygen which differs from the prior models which had simply recycled oxygen and pumped it back into the pilot's helmets this was on top of all the functions that such units had performed previously and unlike with previous models it was integrated completely into the pilot's chest armor while this version of clone pilot armor did retain the use of a helmet the helmet design was radically changed as well while previous pilot helmets had been more like modified versions of standard clone helmets the new model was more like a modified version of a standard flight helmet for instance like those used by x-wing pilots during the galactic civil war presumably this was done to save materials and to eliminate redundant components like standard flight helmets the new model of pilot helmet contained integrated communications equipment and tint advisors to guard against glare and they protected their head against damage from sudden jolts furthermore they were open-faced which gave pilots a wider field of view than the narrow visors the previous models allowed for something that was very necessary when it came to operating for example the arc 170. the main differences between cloned pilot helmets and standard market versions were that the clone helmet was more heavily armored and that they incorporated breathing apparatuses there was one major drawback to this change however it relied upon the life support systems of whatever starfighter the clone was piloting if a cloned pilot wearing this armor found himself in the vacuum of space he had only a minute to live as after the emergency oxygen supply ran out the open face nature of the new helmet meant that the pilot was directly exposed to the vacuum for this reason a little seen fourth variant of cloned pilot armor was created with one minor change the fourth variant of pilot armor was almost identical to the third with the only difference being in their helmets fourth variant helmets were fully enclosed and acted as a sort of hybrid between the other two phase two harmon styles obviously this solved the problem presented by the 3rd armour variant but for some reason or other this version only saw concurrent use with the 3rd and didn't replace it these last 3 versions of pilot armor were all classed as phase 2 and they all saw overlapping use during the second half of the clone wars the first phase 2 version shows up first but it continues to see use even after the issuing of the second version and is only phased out entirely when the fourth version enters the picture there is however a reason for this overlap and a very simple one of that life support not all star fighters had onboard life support systems and while the republic tended to favor those that did there were notable exceptions to the rule larger craft like the laat gunship and the arc 170 starfighter featured life support systems that were perfectly sufficient in all cases short of a full ejection of the pilot many of the republic's smaller starfighters however lacked this feature with the z95 headhunter starfighter and the alpha 3 nimbus class v-wing being the most notable exceptions there was an overlap between the different types of phase 2 pilot armor because the second phase 2 variant which had an open helmet could only be used for starfighters with onboard life support that's why pilots wearing this type of armor were more often seen flying gunships in arc 170s those ships had life support and so pilots opted for the armor variant with a superior field division pilots of craft without life support couldn't use this armor however leading to the endurance of the original face through pilot armor design and eventually the introduction of the third that said there's an easier out of universe explanation for all of these discrepancies animation to put it bluntly the animators of star wars the clone wars either didn't have the budget to animate faces for clone pilots or just didn't want to be bothered with it and so they designed a new pilot armor that kept the full face helmet which was easier to animate and probably cheaper too while the clone wars did eventually phase in the episode 3 version of clone pilot armor they used it concurrently with the closed face design as shown by season 6. so guys that's the reason why clone pilot armor varies so significantly and why it looked so much weirder in the movies than it did in the clone wars tv show so i hope that clears things up a little bit leave some questions in the comments section below if you want it clarified and as always just before you go please do click on that show more button and check out all of our links in the description below if you're into history we have a high quality history channel that you can check out and if you're into gaming or you just want to chat with star wars fans then check out our discord servers and our gmod and roblox servers anyways guys as always thank you so much for watching and i hope to see you in the next video [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Geetsly's

Views: 606,240

Keywords: Star, Wars, star wars, clone wars, clone trooper, star wars lore, star wars explained, clone armor, clone trooper armour, phase 2, phase i clone, phase ii clone, clone pilots, star wars pilots, star wars armor, clone army, republic pilots, grand army of the republic, captain rex, the clone wars, best clones, LAAT gunship, phase 1, clone armor phases, clone trooper armor differences, plo koon death, plo koon order 66

Id: Tx-Me-lW3Co

Length: 10min 3sec (603 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 16 2019