Star Wars hero Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon was secretly builtin a Welsh shipyard
STAR Wars hero Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon was secretly built — in a Welsh shipyard.
Scores of workers were sworn to silence over what they were making.
Joiners, welders and metal-platers spent three months in 1979 constructing the 25-ton spaceship in a project codenamed The Magic Roundabout.
It became the last “ship” to be built at the historic Royal Pembroke Dockyard in West Wales.
The Falcon was made in an old aircraft hangar, then transported in 16 pieces to Elstree Studios, Herts, for the sci-fi series’ second movie The Empire Strikes Back.
Welsh involvement in the development of the iconic intergalactic cruiser was then forgotten.
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Now a National Lottery-backed exhibition is to tell the Falcon story using models, photos, film props and costumes.
It opens at Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre on Monday.
Lynwen Brennan, general manager of Lucasfilm, said: “The force must be strong with Pembrokeshire.”
