Why is the X-Wing shaped like an X?

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Does anyone know why the X-Wing in Star Wars is shaped like an X? Pretty stupid if you think about it. It's a flying target because it shaped like a target which is an X.

Fake reason: So that its 4 lasers can be employed to maximum effect.

Real reason: Because it looked cool in George Lucas's head.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/T-65_X-w ... references

Well, if the target is shaped like an X, and it fits perfectly on top of the X-wing, the X-wing will have almost effectively disappeared. Of course the target would be dead on, but maybe it would cause a moments confusion...

Anyway, it's better than being shaped like a big ball. And really the X-wing doesn't stand out any more than a fighter jet would, in my opinion it looks neat, which is of course the real reason the X-wing is shaped like an X.

don't feel bad; Lucas got the design for the Millennium Falcon from his dinner and plate...no lie...

A better question would be why wasnt the B wing shaped like a B? It looks like a giant " t" to me? Never could get that one.

Same reason a Star Fury from Babylon 5 is X winged, 4 laser
turrets that are aimed at a common point, concentrating the
firepower on its target

Babylon 5 was a TV series in the US, aired on TNT, and produced by J. Michael Straczynski (who also created the Rising Stars comic, and has been writing Amazing Spider-Man since late 2000). The Star Fury, an EarthForce space-superiority fighter, had a cockpit and fuel tank in the center, with the engines mounted on a set of booms shaped like an X in order to increase maneuverability. (The maneuvers used were all plausible zero-gee moves, too - none of this "banking turns in empty space" crap. Need to go over that way? Kill thrust, orient your craft along the axis you wish to follow, apply thrust.)

The B-wing fighters were used by the Rebel Alliance in the Battle of Endor, in Return of the Jedi. They're the ones where it looked like a Millennium-Falcon-style cockpit with a short wing on one side, and a long wing on the other - until it unfolded its "S-foils", whereupon the cockpit now stood at one end of the crossbar on a lower-case "t". Dunno why it wasn't called a T-wing...

And hey, as long as we're asking the logical questions about space fighters, when Lee Adama was put in command of the Battlestar Pegasus, which had facilities to produce new Viper fighters, why didn't he have them make a squadron or two of Laura-class Blackbird stealth fighters, for recon missions? Cain didn't think the Galactica had done anything noteworthy, Fiske didn't live long enough to do anything, and Garner had the imagination of a rock - but Lee saw with his own eyes how effective the Laura had been at stealthing, and had in fact suggested to Starbuck that she promote the ship to run recon on the Cylons following the Rag-Tag Fugitive Fleet, so he knew the value of the craft. They were sitting in orbit around New Caprica for a year before the Cylons found them there, and another four months while the fleet practiced how they were going to rescue everyone - why didn't Lee have his fabricators set up an assembly line for stealth ships??

you have B wings , Y wings , A wings since the dark horse comic series you have E wings , it is the shape that says the name.

Because if it wasnt in the shape of an X, it would just be a Wing