From the Movies
It takes a dedicated warrior with unending loyalty to strap in behind the control yoke of a TIE fighter and pilot the fragile, speedy craft into battle. Imperial combat pilots are well trained to overcome the inherent design flaws of the TIE fighter, and turn it into a formidable and deadly vessel.
TIE fighter pilots wear a flight helmet reminiscent of the stormtrooper design, with breather tubes affixed to provide necessary life support in the cramped quarters of their starfighters.
From the Expanded Universe
TIE fighter pilots represent the elite of the Imperial Navy, having undergone grueling physical and psychological testing to achieve their ranks. Only 10 percent of prospective candidates are chosen for duty. The rest are reassigned throughout the Navy as combat gunners and other personnel.
TIE fighter pilots are drawn from the graduates of the Imperial Academy, a proud institution that trains the men and women who will serve in the Imperial Navy. An important part of TIE fighter training is psychological conditioning that produces unswerving loyalty to the New Order's tenets.
To a TIE pilot, the success of a given mission is paramount, eclipsing personal safety and even the safety of fellow wingmen. TIE pilots learn to view themselves as individually expendable, yet an integral part of the Imperial war machine. Since most TIEs lack deflector shields, ejection gear or life support systems, Imperial fighter pilots are an incredibly brave and loyal force willing to die for the Emperor.
It came as a great shock, then, that one of the greatest TIE fighter pilots should ever defect from the Empire. It happened years after the Empire's demise at Endor, when the squabbling warlords attempting to fill the Emperor's throne became corrupt. Disgusted with the state of the Empire, Baron Soontir Fel of the 181st Imperial Fighter Wing, defected and joined the New Republic for a time.
Behind the Scenes
An interior shot of a TIE fighter's destruction is never seen in the original trilogy, though behind-the-scenes photos prove that such shots were filmed.
Although a costumed TIE pilot isn't seen in The Empire Strikes Back, effects artists animated a gruesome tumbling corpse being hurled from a TIE-asteroid collision at one point in the film.
