system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Could you ever have a highly maneuverable spaceship (like Sci-Fi's X-Wing or Tie Fighter) in real life?

Could you ever have a highly maneuverable spaceship (like Sci-Fi's X-Wing or Tie Fighter) in real life? And what are some theories on how it would fly?
gpt
Any real star fighter would fly more in the sense of the ship in asteroids (the classic 2D video game) but in 3 dimensions.  A burn would give the ship velocity in one direction whilst manoeuvring thrusters could re angle the ship whilst still on its trajectory and make for another burn. With clever enough manipulation this could make for a pretty manoeuvrable space craft as it could change to any direction particularly quickly but it would not fly in the conventional sense you see In movies.  

As jaa101 pointed out the motion of the x-wing and tie fighter is typical of atmospheric flight where interaction with a fluid medium is needed to generate lift to keep the aircraft airborne. This doesn't translate to space at all.