Tyrphanax said:

I know I'm dredging up old shit here, but on the old topic of X-Wings/Pilots/Luke/w/e, if you wanna argue the EU side, the X-Wing was originally an Incom design for the Empire. The Rebels stole some of the prototypes and then stole "several squadrons" of the production fighters right before Yavin, which makes it feel like they did indeed have more ships than pilots.

If you wanna argue straight films, it's shown in the films that Y-Wings have top turret that's controlled by someone in a rear seat. I feel like if they had more pilots (or even personnel) than ships, they'd have put people in those turrets because it would have bought the Y-Wings more time in the trench (I assume they could have taken out Vader's escort TIEs if not the man himself).

But then, of course, at the medal ceremony you see about a hundred more people in pilot gear so either they were just in training or they didn't have enough ships or the Rebels are dumb.

It's all kind of a weird situation.

All the photos I've ever seen of the OT Y-Wing make it look like what would have been the rear seat area is crammed full with electronics.

The Holiday Special incarnation does have a back seat, as does the "factory fresh" Clone Wars version with a bubble turret that seems inspired by Ralph McQuarrie's early renderings.