Every Star Wars fan knows how it felt to watch Luke Skywalker strap into his X-wing and take on the Empire in his first run-in with the Death Star. Fans felt fear, excitement, and then utter euphoria when he pulled off that all-important shot, kickstarting one of the Rebellion's first major victories with a massive bang.

Luke's success in making that impossible shot has been attributed to his use of the Force. However, Lucasfilm Publishing and DK Books, in an exclusive excerpt with Polygon, have shared information from Dr. Chris Kempshall's newest book, Star Wars: Star Pilots, which confirms that Luke's success came from more than just his strength in the Force and his flying skill.

Kempshall's newest novel takes the same grounded, real-world historical approach to unpack Star Wars' ships, weapons, and the psychology of warfare as he did in his previous foundational text on the Galactic Empire, Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire.​ In Star Pilots, Kempshall delivers a gritty, authentic account of what it took to fight in the Galactic Civil War from behind a starfighter's controls. Wedge Antilles, a fan-favorite Rebel fighter ace from his first appearance in the original 1977 film, narrates this account-driven book and offers insight through unreleased interviews and New Republic archive data.

The exclusive excerpt shared with Polygon comes from Chapter 2, "Enlistment and Training," where Antilles highlights how enlistment works differently for the Rebellion and the Empire. Yet the most crucial information appears in the opening paragraphs, where Antilles explains that Rebel Command felt pilots needed to know a variety of starfighters before jumping into battle for the first time, and to go through several protocol checks to ensure they weren't Imperial spies.

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