AN 'EMPIRE' AT 40: INTRODUCING THE TIE BOMBER!

Joe Johnston conceptual art of the TIE Bomber, with TIE Fighter escort, unused from the original Star Wars. 

Determined to flush out the hidden Millennium Falcon, Imperial TIE Bombers start unleashing their payloads on the largest asteroids in the field. The debut of the bomber was an intriguing addition to the Imperial fighter fleet, alongside the standard TIE and Vader's personal craft previously seen in the original Star Wars.

Two bombers start strafing the largest asteroid in an effects sequence moved to a later part of the film's story than was originally scripted.

Storyboard for an additional shot added to the film by ILM later in post production.

Ken Ralston takes some kind of cinecam footage of the model on one of the ILM stages, perhaps part of an animatic prior to filming of the bombardment sequence?

Despite only a few fleeting appearances in the final film, the TIE Bomber nonetheless made for a key visual selling point in signifying the onscreen might of the Empire, prominently used in Tom Jung's exciting original release poster for Empire in May 1980, where a legion of bombers fly upwards from within Vader's outstretched cloak.