Blacknight wrote:In contrast there's many shots of A-wings + their pilots dogfighting, going into the death star, and of course the iconic attack on the Executor.
I agree on those points. But that doesn't mean the ship itself is necessarily iconic. As I said earlier, the a-wing design is very generic and derivitive. Go to just about any sci-fi franchise, whether its comics, tv, movies, video games, toys, artwork, etc. and chances are you'll see ships very similar looking to the a-wing.
Of ALL the ship designs in the OT, the a-wing is probably the least likely for a non-star wars fan to instantly recognize as "oh, that's a ship from star wars". Tie Fighter, definitely. X-Wing yes. Falcon - yes. etc.