Overview
The hyperdrive was a propulsion system that allowed a starship to reach lightspeed and traverse the void between stars with incredible speed. As a consequence, the hyperdrive was a key instrument in shaping galactic society, trade, politics and war. The hyperdrive functioned by sending hypermatter particles into a ship's engines to safely supercharge them, allowing them to safely bypass the ship's normal top speed without overloading the engines and allow it to travel at lightspeed. By traveling at this speed, ships would be able to travel thousands of lightyears in a matter of hours or days.

Due to the fact that they are generally short range vehicles deployed in combat, starfighters are not usually fitted with hyperdrives, meaning that they have to be ferried into combat zones by larger ships like cruisers and dreadnoughts.

While traveling at lightspeed it's impossible to pilot a ship manually because the reflexes required would be impossible for anyone unless they were able to manipulate the fabric of the universe itself. To safely reach and travel at lightspeed, ships use an in-built navigational computer to plot a safe course towards the destination. After jumping to lightspeed, the computer would then lock the ship on autopilot and maintain its course and momentum, making adjustments when needed to eventually slow down to normal speeds and return control of the ship to the pilot.