Heighliner

This article refers to elements from Original Dune
Pages for this subject as it appears in other canons:

Heighliner article for Expanded Dune

Heighliner article for The Dune Encyclopedia

A Heighliner was a starship used by the Spacing Guild to transport people and equipment across the known universe.

Guild Heighliners were usually immense in size, easily accommodating many thousands of passengers, whole fleets of smaller vessels, and the vast export of planetary goods.

Spacing Guild Heighliners could be used to fold space to travel vast distances across the universe in an instant. They were piloted by Guild Navigators and Steersmen.

Images of Guild Heighliners

Videos

Discrepancies

Heighliners were not described in detail by Frank Herbert in his original Dune releases. Both the 1984 and 2021 film adaptations, as well as the 2000 Dune miniseries, show guildships as gigantic cylindrical vessels, though the 2021 film depicts them as ovoid cylinders rather than the circular ones from earlier adaptations. The Dune Encyclopedia, however, states that Heighliners have a globular shape.

The heighliners depicted in the 2021 film also seem to have an alternate function; they appear to be tunnels from one point in space to another rather than a ship that is loaded with smaller travelling ships and cargo. These tunnels are held in orbit above a destination rather than the entire ship being moved from point to point. In the film, Reverend Mother Mohiam visits Paul Atreides on his homeworld of Caladan to administer his gom jabbar test. As she travels in her ship, she leaves her world - presumably Wallach IX, homeworld of the Bene Gesserit - and travels through the tunnel, arriving at Caladan. Her planet is still visible through the tunnel, giving credence to the concept of travelling by tunnels.

In Dune: Prophecy, earlier model heighliners are shown with a rectangular shape, though their proportions are similar to the previously depicted cylindrical designs.