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Back in April Japanese airline ANA announced that, as part of a new partnership with Disney, they would be painting one of their planes with a Star Wars themed livery. Specifically, they said that they plan to paint a 787 Dreamliner to resemble the droid R2D2 and will fly it on a route (yet to be announced), later this year, ahead of the release of the new Star Wars movie (The Force Awakens).
Artist’s impressions courtesy of ANA
Well, it appears that ANA plans to have a little bit more fun with their Disney partnership.
Australian Business Traveller is reporting that the latest ANA inflight magazine shows a new addition to the ANA fleet – the Millennium Falcon! Towards the back of the magazine (the bit you usually overlook unless you’re an aviation geek) is a list of all the various aircraft that ANA flies and, sitting below a very ordinary Bombardier, is the most-definitiely-not-ordinary Millennium Falcon.
Boasting a wingspan of 25.6m, a length of 34.75m, a maximum speed of 1050km/h (652mph) but a seating capacity of just 6 the Falcon does stand out a bit amongst the other craft.
What’s with the very earthly speed? 652mph doesn’t exactly sound fast!
Well, it would appear that the guys at ANA have done their Star Wars home work and taken the specifications of the Millennium Falcon straight from the Star Wars Wiki (no, I didn’t know there was one of those either). The low speed is, apparently, the Falcon’s “in atmosphere” speed – it goes considerably faster when not constrained by all things planetary.
Screenshot from the Star Wars Wiki
So, if you’re flying on ANA anytime this year, take a look at any of the publications they provide on their planes – there’s no knowing what else they’ll throw in before “The Force Awakens” is released on 18 December.
Featured image: Kory Westrhold via Flickr
[…] I’ve been following this aircraft (on and off) ever since I found out about it back in April and watching ANA having a bit of fun with their new relationship with Disney (they added the Millennium Falcon to their fleet back in June). […]