- “What a piece of junk!”
- ―Luke when he sees the Millennium Falcon for the first time.
The Millennium Falcon is a spacecraft that appeared in the Star Wars franchise, commanded by Han Solo and his Wookiee first mate, Chewbacca. After Han's death at the hands of his son, Kylo Ren (Ben Solo), Rey became the new owner of the Millennium Falcon.
The highly modified YT-1300 light freighter first appeared in the original Star Wars trilogy made a cameo appearance in Revenge of the Sith. The Falcon also appears in a variety of Star Wars Expanded Universe materials, including books, comics, and games. In particular, James Luceno's novel Millennium Falcon focuses on the titular ship.
Description
Luke Skywalker couldn't hold in his reaction upon first seeing the Millennium Falcon, the battered freighter that was somehow to transport him, Obi-Wan Kenobi and the two droids R2-D2 and C-3PO from Tatooine to the planet Alderaan. Luke doubted that the ship would be able to lift off from Docking Bay 94. much less make it halfway across the galaxy.
The Falcon's dilapidated appearance was part of spice smuggler Han Solo's game plan. The best way to avoid "Imperial entanglements" was to give nosy Imperial Customs inspectors nothing to suspect in the first place. The Falcon appeared to be no different from the thousands of other Corallian Engineering YT-1300 light freighters plying the star routes of the Empire.
Millennium Falcon schematics.
Beneath the Falcon's battered exterior hides a fast, tough smuggling vessel. It has a Class 0.5 hyperdrive, which is nearly twice as fast as the fastest imperial warships. It is fitted with a top of the line sensor suite system to detect incoming Imperial ships long before those crafts notice the "lowly freighter". And Solo has shielded smuggling compartments hidden throughout the ship's interior.
When combat is necessary, the Falcon is ready. It sports a deflector shield system "liberated" from the Imperial maintenance facilities at Myomar. Two quad laser cannons are enough to stop TIE Fighters and pirate ships, while concussion missiles provide short-range punch.
Solo's modifications push the ship far past the manufacturer's original specifications, but both the sublight drives and the hyperdrives are as finicky as they are fast, and Solo frequently has to crawl around inside the hull making last minute repairs to get the ship flying. The Falcon's three droid drains often predict that the ship won't fly but somehow Solo and Chewbacca manage to get the Falcon through countless scrapes, from evading irate Imperial Customs ships to dodging vengeful pirate corvettes.
Gallery
Trivia
- The full size Millennium Falcon in The Empire Strikes Back measured sixty-five feet in diameter, sixteen feet in height and weighed twenty-three tons.
External Links
Millennium Falcon on StarWars.com (backup link on Archive.org)
