We all know how to blow up the first Deathstar: Fire a couple of proton torpedoes into the thermal exhaust port. It's ray shielded, so only torpedoes will do. To do this, the Rebel pilots had to fly down a VERY long trench, where they were vulnerable to fire from any TIE fighters to the rear. In fact they were so vulnerable that most of the pilots on this run were blown up once the Empire forces started responding to the attack.
This battle is in space, so the fighters can, if necessary, come to a dead stop and hold their position while firing. Also, when Luke fired his torpedoes, they took a 90 degree turn and went straight into the port. So the torpedoes didn't have to be fired from in the trench.
We also didn't see any gun emplacements firing at the fighters from near the exhaust port, but if there were, the Rebels could have targeted them and taken them out or ran interference to make it hard for the towers to fire at a fighter targeting the exhaust port. (They were already dodging fire in the trench as well.)
A fighter could have easily flown directly at the exhaust port, firing torpedoes multiple times on approach and, if not under fire (or if protected by other fighters), could have actually stopped and taken time to target the exhaust port before firing.
Is there any valid in-universe reason that the pilots had to fly down the trench before firing on the port? And if there is, is there any reason they had to enter the trench so early?
Just for reference, here is the briefing scene on YouTube. There's no explanation given for having to fly in the trench.
Answer
There are two in-universe reasons:
The first is that the concentration of weaponry designed to defend from space attacks is much higher above the surface of the trench. Weapons were placed in the trench specifically to defend it, but that was only a small fraction of the Death Star's firepower (excluding the main laser cannon). Attacking from above the trench would have exposed the small fighters to a larger amount of defensive fire.
Coming to a dead stop to steady their aim in such an environment, as you suggested, would have made them literally sitting targets, and would have almost certainly resulted in near-instantaneous obliteration.
The second issue is the tractor beam. Small craft such as x-wings would likely have been easy targets for the tractor beam. They were ignored when they seemed to be providing general cover fire, and once they were inside the trench they would likely have been untargetable by the tractor beam. However, if it became clear that they were the real point of the attack, and were focused on a weakness within the Death Star, it would have taken very little effort to use the tractor beam to simply smash the Y-wing and X-wing craft against the surface of the Death Star.
Out of Universe, Lucas has stated that he was inspired by a scene from the 1964 British Film 633 Squadron, as well as the 1955 film The Dam Busters.
In The Dam Busters, Royal Air Force Lancaster bombers fly along heavily defended reservoirs and aim "bouncing bombs" at their man-made dams to cripple the heavy industry of the Ruhr. Some of the dialogue in The Dam Busters is repeated in the Star Wars climax; Gilbert Taylor (Star Wars cinematographer) also filmed the special effects sequences in The Dam Busters.
In the finale of 633 Squadron, the squadron's planes fly down a deep fjord while being fired at along the way by anti-aircraft guns lining its sides. Lucas has cited this as his inspiration for the 'trench run'.
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