Incom's T-16 Skyhopper is a high-speed transorbital pleasure craft: it's the kind of vehicle that every young hot-rodder wants to have in his garage. The T-16 has been a huge success for its manufacturer, Incom Corporation, and the speeders are popular across the galaxy. Luke Skywalker owned a T-16 Skyhopper and often raced his friends through Tatooine's Beggar's Canyon. Since his ambition was to become a fighter pilot, Luke practiced his marksmanship by "bull's-eyeing" the womp rat burrows at the end of the canyon with his stun cannons. Impromptu speeder races were a great test of Luke's natural skill, as the winding canyons forced him to fly to the limit of his abilities—and sometimes beyond them. Just before he left Tatooine, Luke ripped the stablilzer off the Skyhopper while trying to maneuver through the infamous Stone Needle in Beggar's Canyon. Only luck allowed him to walk away from the accident, but the skills he picked up in those hair-raising races served him well when he maneuvered his X-wing starfighter down the Death Star's trench. The T-16 Skyhopper has been expressly designed to be fast and easy to handle. Relying on a high-powered Incom E-16/x ion engine for thrust and two DCJ-45 repulsorlift generators for lift, the T-16 has a top speed of nearly 1,200 kilometers per hour and can reach an altitude of nearly 300 kilometers. The distinctive triwing design helps stabilize the vehicle at high speeds, although the forward stabilizer fin blocks the pilot's field of view. Advanced gyro-stabilizers help the pilot keep control, even in complex high-gee maneuvers. The ship is amazingly maneuverable allowing it to twist through tight turns and make amazing vertical climbs. Civilian T-16s seldom carry mounted weapons. However, optional upgrades offer four forward-firing stun cannons, or a cheaper pair of pneumatic cannons with the top pair of stun cannons stripped down to be targeting lasers. The T-16 is also a mainstay in planetary militias and police forces across the galaxy; such units are typically armed with two or four laser cannons and have heavier hull plating. The laser sighting system is used to train pilots for gunnery and bombing runs. The bottom of the T-16 has molecular-magnetic clamps and computer interfaces that can be used to mount add-on attachments, including extra fuel slugs for added flight range, or a heavy-duty laser cannon for military duty. The T-16 depicted here has the military-grade laser attachment. The T-16's cockpit has two sections, with room for a single piilot and one passenger. The cabin is pressurized for low orbital flight. The forward airfoil splits the windshield; this can unsettle a new pilot, but a holographic heads-up terrain display system provides complete, true-to-life detail.
