Poe Dameron's X-Wing Will Be Featured In The Smithsonian
It looks like a trip to the Smithsonian may be in order for Star Wars fans. Poe Dameron’s X-Wing Starfighter from Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker will be displayed late next year at the Smithsonian, near the Albert Einstein Planetarium in the newly renovated building at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall in Washington D.C.
Smithsonian Magazine revealed in early May that the X-Wing Starfighter, the actual full-size prop, with a wingspan of 37 feet, is in the process of being outfitted for its public debut. The X-Wing Starfighter is currently inside a hanger at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virgina. It is undergoing conservation in the Restoration Hanger and is now available for the public to be able to watch this restoration process as the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center reopened to the public on May 5. If you wish to see this process before it is complete, a ticket will need to be purchased beforehand.
Lucasfilm (via Industrial Light & Magic) is lending the Rebel ship to the Smithsonian in part of a long-term arrangement. The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum has many ships, planes, and rockets already on display both from real life use and from TV and movie appearances. The X-Wing Starfighter will hang from the ceiling along with other ships, planes, and rockets in the National Air and Space Museum.
Margaret Weitekamp, the space history chair at the National Air and Space Museum, said the following about why they are including a fictional spaceship in a museum that mostly houses planes and spaceships that actually worked:
“Despite taking place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Star Wars introduced generations of fans here on Earth to outer space as a setting for adventure and exploration. All air and space milestones begin with inspiration, and science fiction so often provides that spark—the iconic X-wing displayed amid our other spacecraft celebrates the journey from imagination to achievement.”
The X-Wing Starfighters were first introduced in Star Wars: A New Hope and were designed as one of the main ships to be featured in that film. It is the X-Wing Starfighters that are the only ships small enough to fly alongside the “canyons” of the Death Star and release the proton torpedoes to blow it up. Luke Skywalker flies one expertly and ultimately saves the day with a little help from Han Solo.
The name “X-Wing” comes from the distinctive shape of their strike foils when in attack position. The artists at Industrial Light & Magic created many spaceships and starfighters for Star Wars: A New Hope and subsequent films. They created both full scale vehicles and cockpits, like the X-Wing that will be displayed, and miniatures of the spaceships and starfighters as well that were used for all of the scenes where we saw a full size ship flying through space.
Part of the excitement of finally having a full-scale movie prop X-Wing on display is that fans can finally see the true proportions of the starfighter. Even though this X-Wing is not the same exact one that was introduced in Star Wars: A New Hope, it still features a lot of the same things. This particular one, flown by Poe Dameron, is the Resistance’s later generation, a T-70 series. It features an engine on each of its X-foil wings, which split, of course, into separate hemispheres when in attack formation. Luke’s model was slightly different since it was an older model, a T-65B series.
Margaret Weitekamp also commented on the restoration that is taking place over the next year that is carefully going over bumps and scrapes that are supposed to be intentional battle damage vs. those that are damages from shipping, filming, and just general bumps and scrapes from reassembly and such.
“This is a battle-scarred X-Wing fighter. We want to distinguish between any scratches that occurred during shipping versus something that was built into the vehicle. I was on the floor looking at it and I pointed out a place where it looked like it had what pilots would call ‘hangar rash.’ That’s where you get scrape marks on the side of aircraft when they are moved around. I pointed it out to the conservator, who had a big smile and said, ‘No, that’s simulated. It’s part of the detail by the artist!’”
This X-Wing Starfighter will be the first Star Wars movie prop to be displayed at the Smithsonian museums since the 1997 Star Wars: Myth of Magic exhibit. The National Air and Space Museum also has a studio model of the Star Trek’s Starship Enterprise.
The X-Wing Starfighter is available for viewing now during conservation and will be available, fully restored, at the National Air and Space Museum in 2022.
Source(s): Smithsonian, Syfy