Last Starfighter Inspiration for Wing Commander

[Sylvester]

I saw "The Last Starfighter" for the first time in a while recently and I started noticing some things that reminded me of Wing Commander. The Gunstars remind me of Raptors a bit, as did the launch tube sequence when they head out to fight. But the thing that most drew my eye was the insignia on the side of the Gunstars:

Looks a little familiar, eh? It seemed to be very similar to the insignia pattern on the side of the Raptor in WC1:

I was wondering, perhaps from those of you who have more knowledge of the series' development, whether this movie was an acknowledged source of inspiration for the games.

 

[AD]

I know this has come up before... The 'last starfighter' connection has been brought up several times, though I have no idea if we have any official sources confirming that it was indeed the inspiration for the Raptor, much like the similarities between the WC1 Rapier and the movie Firefox:

 

[LeHah]

WC is pretty obvious in where its influences come from. I'm a huge, huge fan of The Last Starfighter but never made the connection until someone on this board pointed it out. Funny how things work out like that.