So, it seems that X-Wing wasn’t the only craft from a galaxy far, far away clawing its way toward the sky over the weekend. A model Y-Wing also went up at the same model-rocketry event, with much the same results. Hey, nobody ever said those ships could really fly, only that they’re cool-looking. There’s a video clip of the flight — including some footage from an onboard camera — at Gizmodo. (I couldn’t figure out how to embed the clip, and none of the clips I found on YouTube were as good as the Gizmodo one.) Go check it out! And have a look at the construction gallery, too!

Following up on that item from last week about the half-size X-Wing built by some model-rocket enthusiasts, here’s some video of its spectacular (if short) flight:

Looks a lot like what happened to poor old Porkins…

(Porkins: “I’ve got a problem here.”

Biggs: “Eject!”

Porkins: “I can hold it.”

Biggs: “Pull up!”

Porkins: “No, I’m alrigh—yeaaaaaargggg!”)

Update: Here’s another clip from a different angle. Looks like it launched with the S-foils in attack position (i.e., the wings open in the X-shape), something I wasn’t clear on from earlier information. Wonder if that made any difference with the tumble?

My dad isn’t a particularly well-educated man, but I think he is, in his own way, something of a genius. Over the years, I’ve seen him modify ordinary tools to fit difficult jobs, rather than spending the money on a specialized gadget; improvise repairs to things that everyone else would say are impossible to fix; and, most impressively, build wild flights of fancy for no other reason than he thinks they will be cool and make people smile. There was, for example, the year he transformed my ’63 Galaxie into a reasonably good replica of the RMS Titanic, complete with Ken-and-Barbie versions of Jack and Rose out on the bow, for a Halloween party.

Then there are the ideas he’s had but for one reason or another never brought to fruition. He was always going to cobble together a Headless Horseman outfit and ride Thunder, our old gray nag, through the subdivisions just to see what the trick-or-treaters would do. And when I was a young fanboy, he often thought about making a float with a life-size X-Wing on it for our small-town Fourth-of-July parade. (The idea was that I’d be dressed as Luke Skywalker, riding the float alongside my “ship.”)

I was reminded of Dad’s unfulfilled X-Wing scheme this afternoon when I ran across this:

That’s a 21-foot-long (half-scale?) X-Wing built by a group of model-rocket enthusiasts; they intend to launch it next week, with four solid-fuel rocket motors mounted right where the engine pods would go on a “real” Incom T-65. And here’s the wild thing: the wings are motorized. If all goes well, the ship will “lock its S-foils in attack position” as it ascends. Or maybe the ship will start off with the wings in X-configuration and fold them closed during the flight — the two websites I’ve seen contradict each other on that. Either way, there’s a good chance the whole thing will come apart, but I hope it doesn’t. And I also hope the video of its flight makes it to the web; my three loyal readers know I’ll be posting it if it does!

Read an overview and see lots more pictures here, or go here for an obsessively detailed construction log.

Spotted this morning on the train ride to work, a college kid in a black T that read:

Come to the Dark Side. We have cookies.
–V

Understated geekery. Nice…

The blog Indexed features curious little cartoons and musings sketched on index cards. Usually they illustrate the convergence of several apparently unrelated concepts that add up to some kind of common knowledge or meme. I have to admit that I find many of them utterly indecipherable — or at least not terribly funny — but today’s entry (titled “Fantasy vs. Frustration”) struck a chord:

Oh, and if you can stand one more item on the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, I liked Javier’s remarks:

at this point “star wars” is a living thing – a highly complex and still-developing universe that goes well beyond a series of films. it’s also the guiding light for a great number of media professionals of my generation: while studying at usc film school, george lucas’s alma mater, i used to say that there were two kinds of film school students in my age category, those who freely admitted that they were there because of george lucas’s example, and damned liars.
…
if you’re like me, and your feelings about uncle george are deeply mixed because of the quality of the prequels, or because of how many damned times you have had to buy the movies in multiple formats, or because of lucasfilm’s extremely poor management of the original movies in their original forms, or the excessive merchandising, or because the “dark nest” trilogy of post NJO novels was kinda weak, or what have you…
…well, get over it and raise a glass [of] corellian noale – wherever you are.
some of the prequel trilogy haters have been heard to say “george lucas raped my childhood” but, i’ll tell you what, george lucas gave me my childhood. my life changed the day i saw “star wars” and for that – for the moment when i saw what was possible on the screen and said “i want to do that” – i can only be eternally grateful.
happy star wars day!