The Z-28 Skywing was a starfighter model used by the Galactic Republic during the High Republic Era. These arrowhead-shaped fighters were manufactured by the Incom Corporation. The Republic directly controlled a number of Skywings, and squadrons of them were also in the possession of member worlds belonging to the Republic Defense Coalition.
For a number of years, Skywings participated in the conflict against the Nihil marauders. During the Battle of Kur in 232 BBY, Republic Skywings fought alongside the Jedi Order against the forces led by Nihil Tempest Runner Kassav Milliko; many of these fighters were destroyed. Later, the fighters saw action in the Bright Jewel system and on the planet Dol'har Hyde, where they aided in the capture of Nihil member Krix Kamerat. They were also involved in a mission to board a freighter, engagements on the planet Ballum against Hutt Clan forces and their enforcer, Lourna Dee, combat in the Ribento system where they engaged the forces of Nihil member Melis Shryke, and a mission to rescue prisoners held aboard the Korvix Vorn prison ship.
The arrowhead-shaped Z-28 Skywing starfighter was produced by Incom Corporation. It was equipped with two sublight engines at the rear, with a canopy-covered cockpit for a single pilot situated between them. The Skywing's weaponry included two frontal laser cannons located on the underside of the craft.
During the High Republic Era, the Galactic Republic operated Z-28 Skywings, and they were also used by member worlds of the Republic Defense Coalition (RDC). In 232 BBY, numerous Skywings and Longbeam cruisers supported Republic Admiral Pevel Kronara's Emissary-class Republic Cruiser Third Horizon during the Battle of Kur. They fought against the Nihil marauders' Tempest Runner Kassav Milliko and his Tempest as part of a conflict with them. The RDC member worlds also provided their own Skywing and Longbeam squadrons to assist five Pacifier-class sector patrol cruisers. During the battle, two Skywings chased a Nihil freighter, which then released a [gray](/article/color] sludge from its bay doors, coating the fighters and causing them to explode in a chain reaction that destroyed several Republic ships.
The Nihil corvette New Elite, Milliko's flagship, subsequently fired on a group of nearby Skywings. Another Nihil vessel released reactor by-products from its engines that poisoned the pilots of the affected vessels. Consequently, multiple Skywings were shot down, along with a number of Republic ships. In another instance, two Skywings and a Longbeam pursued a Nihil ship at high speed but were unable to avoid the gray-brown sludge it released. The liquid was ignited by the Republic ships' engines, engulfing them in flames.
By the time the Jedi Order joined the battle, the New Elite had already destroyed several Skywings. The fighters continued to engage Nihil forces as the battle continued. When Eye of the Nihil Marchion Ro activated the Path engines of the Nihil ships, they began appearing and disappearing in hyperspace, placing themselves in the paths of Republic and Jedi vessels, including Skywings, and colliding with them. By the end of the battle, which resulted in a Jedi-Republic victory and the death of Milliko, numerous Skywings had been destroyed, with their pilots' bodies adrift in space. Kronara later reviewed the battle via a hologram projection with construction workers Joss and Pikka Adren aboard the Starlight Beacon space station, observing the Republic ships, including Skywings, fighting Nihil vessels, as well as the Longbeam and two Skywings affected by the gray-brown sludge.
In that same year, following the battle, two Skywings were stationed on Starlight Beacon when Jedi Padawan Keeve Trennis and her Jedi Master, Sskeer, arrived in a Jedi Vector to meet with Master Avar Kriss, the station's marshal.
In 232 BBY, Skywings were stationed at the Republic Outpost above the planet Ord Mantell. After reports of Nihil activity in the Bright Jewel system surfaced, several Skywings and Jedi Vectors departed from the outpost to engage them. Despite losses on both sides, the Jedi and Republic were victorious. Jedi Master Yoda instructed the remaining ships to head for Ord Mantell's junk moon, Quantxi, and alert Starlight Beacon for reinforcements, as they had received a distress signal from a communications tower on the moon. At Quantxi, the Jedi battled and defeated the Nihil forces on the ground.
In 230 BBY, Skywings were part of a Jedi-led task force tasked with capture of Nihil member Krix Kamerat at his base on the jungle planet Dol'har Hyde. As the Jedi and Republic fought the Nihil, Kamerat was successfully apprehended and taken into Jedi custody. That year, several Skywings accompanied Jedi Master Emerick Caphtor and Detective Sian Holt when they attacked a Nihil convoy. Multiple Skywings were shot down while Caphtor and Holt boarded a freighter.
In 229 BBY, Skywings were stored aboard the Longbeam cruiser Gios. Under the command of Commander Velko Jahen, the pilots of the Republic's Firebird Squadron operated and flew them during a conflict against the Nihil at the planet Ballum, with support from the Vectors of Jedi Terec, Ceret, and Ai-Dan Yelooc. During the battle, Firebird Three, flying beside Ceret's Vector, and other pilots in the squadron were shot down by the Jedi starship Ataraxia, which had been hijacked by the Hutt Clan enforcer Lourna Dee and renamed the Lourna Dee. After an alliance between the Hutt Clan and Jedi was formed, Skywings and Hutt skiff fighters engaged the Lourna Dee to help recover the ship and prevent its escape. At least one more Skywing was shot down in this process. Trennis eventually secured the vessel and took Dee prisoner. The Republic and Jedi received orders to return to the Republic's capital planet, Coruscant, but Trennis decided to disobey those orders and take the ship into the Nihil territory of space known as the Occlusion Zone.
In that same year, eight Skywings were stationed in the bay of the Pacifier-class sector patrol cruiser Tractate. The Tractate arrived in the Ribento system to observe the Nihil bombard the planet Ribento. With the Republic and Jedi intending to capture Melis Shryke, the Nihil member leading the bombardment, Captain Amaryl Pel ordered the deployment of the Skywings, which left the ship and split into two squadrons. During the battle, one Nihil fighter and another ship fired upon the Tractate. Four Skywings pursued the fighter, trapped it in a pincer move, and destroyed it with cannon fire, while the remaining Skywings circled the patrol cruiser and chased down the other ship. As the battle progressed, four new Nihil fighters engaged the Skywings around two larger Nihil ships. The battle concluded when the Cacophony, the ship leading the Nihil forces with Shryke aboard, fled upon the arrival of RDC reinforcements.
In 228 BBY, multiple Skywings were part of an RDC-Jedi strike team deployed from the planet Eriadu that raided the prison ship Korvix Vorn. The mission's objective was to rescue the prisoners aboard. Vectors drew the ship's fire while the Skywings and the Vector of Jedi Master Fleur Ridleg targeted the shield generator, followed by the engines, and then the ship's inventory of blister bombs. However, during the mission, Admiral Kronara, who commanded the RDC forces, ordered all fighters to stop firing on the shield generator because the prisoners were on the Korvix Vorn's Yard in close proximity to the generator. The Jedi then successfully boarded the vessel and proceeded to the Yard. The Longbeam cruiser intended to transport the prisoners was damaged in the battle, so the Jedi and Republic had to use their own fighters to retrieve them. After the strike team succeeded and the Korvix Vorn was destroyed, all forces returned to Eriadu.
The Z-28 Skywings were created for the Star Wars: The High Republic multimedia project. Their first appearance was in Charles Soule's novel Light of the Jedi, which was published on January 5, 2021 as part of Phase I of the project. They were visually depicted in the first issue of the The High Republic comic-book series. This issue was written by Cavan Scott, illustrated by Ario Anindito, and published by Marvel Comics on the day following the novel's release.
The fourth issue of the 2021 comic-book series Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures, written by Daniel José Older and illustrated by Harvey Tolibao, featured a Skywing design that was originally created by a fan. When the design's creator pointed this out, Tolibao responded that he did not have any reference material when designing the ship for the comic. He created original designs for work-in-progress artwork and discovered the fan design using the Google Search search engine. Tolibao apologized to the original creator and stated that he was unaware that the design he found was fan-made.