Ah. Spoke to a TIE engineer about that?

Again, none of the vehicles in any of these movies make sense. It’s fine. They’re there to look awesome.

EDIT: I want to impress I’m not arguing “It’s a dumb movie! Turn your brain off!” If you have plot or character issues, sure, criticize those as many others have. But any argument regarding the accuracy of ships or technology in this universe is rigged to implode before it’s even posited. Star Wars is not hard sci fi. It was never meant to be and unless Rian Johnson takes a hard left turn it never will be. Lightsabers don’t make sense. Lightspeed doesn’t make sense. The Death Stars would be next to impossible to build and power. And yeah, those TIEs probably wouldn’t be able to maintain their structural integrity while positioned on their solar panels. And that’s fine. Sometimes–a lot of times–it’s nice to have a ship that just looks cool. Complaining about this stuff here, in regards to The Force Awakens specifically, is dishonest and inconsistent.