In my experience, Xyphos have a pretty similar life expectancy to Talons. They're slower, bigger targets with about the same armor and hull. Their weapons make so much flux that they overload their shields almost on their own and end up unable to fire back as something empties bullets/missiles into them.
Try putting Elites in Thunders or Broadswords if you want 'em to stay alive.
Interesting - I've never seen one of my Xyphos wings overloaded, let alone destroyed, although my lack of fighter use thus far may be contributing to that - I believe I've had a total of two, simply from captures. They lasted from near early-game, picking on wounded TT, all the way to the end where I started a new file.
Thunders, however, have been highly successful as well from what I've seen. Their Ion Cannons seem to be the largest factor there, however, knocking down most of their target's subsystems within moments. The difference being it takes one less pilot to field them, and trying to stack Elite squads every crewmember counts.