The V-wing starfighter, seen at the end of Revenge of the Sith, also makes the distinctive TIE fighter sound when flying by a Star Destroyer. The Jedi starfighter, created for Revenge of the Sith (2005), was designed to bridge the appearance of the Jedi starfighter in Attack of the Clones (2002) and the TIE fighter design from the original trilogy. Darth Vader's distinct TIE Advanced x1 in Star Wars was designed to make it instantly recognizable, and the TIE Interceptors developed for Jedi were designed to look fast, deadly, sleek and frightening. Combat scenes between TIE fighters and the Millennium Falcon and Rebel Alliance X-wing fighters in Star Wars were meant to be reminiscent of World War II dogfight footage editors used World War II air combat clips as placeholders while Industrial Light & Magic completed the movie's special effects. This could have been a possible inspiration for the sound. In the book The Sounds of Star Wars, the engine roar is likened to German Junker Ju 87 'Stuka' bombers, who used sirens to frighten civilians on raids. Sound designer Ben Burtt created the distinctive TIE fighter sound effect by combining an elephant call with a car driving on wet pavement. Initially given a blue color scheme, the TIE fighter models for the first film were grey to better film against a bluescreen TIE fighters in The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983) shifted back to being a muted blue. Joe Johnston created additional details, such as the cockpit window and the attachment points between the solar panels and the hull. Star Wars creator George Lucas liked the basic design consisting of two panels connected by a stick with a ball-shaped cockpit, but Cantwell's concept had few details.

Colin Cantwell created the concept model that established the TIE fighter's ball-cockpit and hexagonal panels design for Star Wars (1977).

Star wars clone fighter concept art