X-Wing fighters to fly over Disney

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Disney's Plan To Fly X-Wings Over Star Wars Park Speaks To Perception Manipulation Tactics

Seven years ago, Disney made the fantasy of a flying dragon come true and I wrote an article about how their accomplishment has big strategic and tactical takeaways. Now the House Of Mouse's Imagineers are about to pull off a similar feat by flying X-Wings over Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, the company's newest land at both their Anaheim and Orlando theme park properties. It also turns out that a major aerospace firm and defense contractor may have helped make this out of this world experience a reality. So, I think it is time to revisit that post, which is far more relevant today, in a new age of perception warfare and a time where UFOs are a hot topic, and talk a bit about how Disney is getting a pair of X-Wings to actually fly above thousands of Star Wars fans.

Disney is planning a huge celebration for its Rise Of The Resistance ride—the centerpiece dark ride experience at Galaxy's Edge—which will be by far the most incredible theme park attraction ever created. It is also one that incorporates a number of new mind-bending and perception-altering effects, such as blaster bolts that virtually fire across the room like they do in the movies. Be sure to learn all about Rise Of The Resistance by clicking here and clicking here. A ton is riding on the opening of this ride as Galaxy's Edge has reportedly underperformed a bit since its own opening. Suffice it to say, Disney is executing a huge kickoff, and this is where the X-Wings come in.

Blogmickey.com has been on top of this story, posting shots of the X-Wing aircraft themselves, which are roughly 2/3rds the size of the ones used as props in the movies X-Wing. No need for going full scale if the night sky is your performance medium. Once again, Imagineers wield their forced-perspective wands to get away with far more by actually using less.

The X-Wings appear to be multi-rotor drones, similar to what we see with futuristic air mobility and cargo-carrying concepts, in particular, Boeing's Cargo Air Vehicle initiative. That may not be by chance, Boeing seems to actually have a hand in this project. Check out the video below for photos of the X-Wings and some cryptic evidence that Imagineers may have teamed with Boeing to make them a reality.


As you can see, the design is pretty genius, utilizing a tubular frame with translucent skins with textures printed on them, so when they are back-lit from the inside they appear extremely vibrant and solid. The multi-rotor design gives the "X-Wings" extreme reliability and maneuverability. Boeing's NeXt initiative-based Cargo Air Vehicle, which looks exactly like what is being used as the platform for the X-Wings, is capable of carrying 500 pounds, which should be plenty for this relatively genius design concept.

Beyond the possibility that Boeing, which is also one of the world's biggest defense contractors, is melding minds with Disney's Imagineer team, the idea that they can make the impossible, possible, at least from the bystander's perspective, is telling, just as the flying dragon that emerged over the Magic Kingdom the better part of a decade ago was. That was before the great drone revolution. It used a lowly manned paraglider to pull off its seemingly magical effect.

Much more at site including flying dragon video.