Star Fox Dossier: Human starfighters

The first human starfighters were not purpose-built, but rather existing Earth fighters that had been converted for exoatmospheric use. These fighters were fast, but lacked the anti-gravity cores and warp drives that later fighters did. As human technology improved, however, mass-produced hyper-maneuverable starfighters capable of faster-than-light travel emerged, quickly becoming the forefront in their galactic colonization and conquest.

Early starfighters like the XL-01 "Dark Star" and others originally had cramped, pressurized cabins that would house pilots to man them, but later starfighters like the X-49 and others featured "pseudo cockpits" which housed only a drone + camera unit that could be operated remotely via neural link or autonomously.