Category:Millennium Falcon

Han Solo's legendary spaceship and the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy.

Overview
The Millennium Falcon was originally a Corellian YT-1300 Light Stock Freighter which was one of the most popular and successful product lines of the Corellian Engineering Corporation for several decades. Part of the model's enduring success is the radical modularity and hardiness of the rugged design which has made this vessel a familiar sight throughout the hyperlanes with hundreds of thousands still plying their trade. The Millennium Falcon has a long and rich storied history (along with an infamous reputation) along with numerous rebuilds, aliases, modifications, and n'ver-do-well owners. It has taken part in numerous conflicts in the Galactic Civil War and played a pivotal role in the destruction of the original and second Death Star.

Due to extensive and incredibly illegal modifications, the Falcon is one of the fastest starships in the galaxy. It's surprising speed far exceeds those of other ships of its class, outstripping even capital warships. It pays for its impressive capabilities by being a finicky and temperamental ship with a tendency to require constant maintenance and adjustments to maintain its flight worthiness.

Technical Specifications

 * Model: YT-1300 Series
 * Sub-Type: F Version (Freighter)
 * Overall Length: 34.75 meters (114 feet)
 * Overall Beam: 25.61 meters (84 feet)
 * Overall Draft: 8.27 meters (27.1 feet)
 * Maximum Cargo Capacity: 100 metric tons
 * Crew Complement: 2 (normally), 4 (maximum); 6 passengers
 * Maximum Atmospheric Speed: 1,050 kph (650 mph)
 * Hyperspeed Classification: Class 0.5 Lightspeed
 * Serial Number: YT 492727ZEDFalcon interior specs.jpg

Design Features
The Millennium Falcon was a YT-1300 F model when first built, specifically a freighter transport configuration; one of the most popular types of this particular class. Only the passenger model, the YT-1300 P which replaced the cargo holds with luxury living quarters or the YT-1300 FP which was a balance both passenger and freight cargo capacity were built in similar quantities. Even experts can't usually tell the difference from a look at the exterior of a YT-1300 which particular version it truly is.

In the case of the Millennium Falcon; many of its owners including Han Solo takes a perverse pride in it's battered, scarred, and rusted exterior. This is part camouflage to throw off a visual inspector from taking a closer look at the interior which reveals it is most definitely not a run-down tramp freighter but a expensively customized and heavily illegally modified hot rod of a spaceship.

The YT-1300 has a saucer-shaped hull with two forward mandibles and an externally-mounted cockpit on the starboard side. The basic layout of the ship consists of a circular corridor radiating from a central core with various modular compartments accessible from the corridor including the port and starboard universal docking rings for other spaceships and a hydraulically lowered boarding ramp for passengers and personnel access. When raised, the ramp itself becomes part of the central corridor. As a freight transport, the Falcon consists of fairly minimal crew and passenger comforts although it does have a private cabin with bunk beds for the crew and a shared refresher (bathroom).

The main cargo tractor beam and cargo elevator is located between the two mandibles. The Falcon has three storage holds and combined can carry approximately 100 metric tons of cargo.

One of the earlier owners of the Falcon was an outlaw tech who specially souped up the ship's "streamlining" profile which is the true secret of the ship's remarkable speed in hyperspace.

Lando Calrissian added his own touches to the Falcon, particularly a series of specially refitted smuggling compartments that are shielded against the best sensors available, even Imperial ones. These compartments are underneath certain floorplates of the central corridor and are relatively small, enabling the Falcon to carry only a limited amount of contraband; although it proved sizeable enough to allow Han Solo and his companions to hide within when they were tractored by the first Death Star. Another of Calrissian's contributions was an autochef due to his lack of culinary skills.

In order to improve the speed and efficiency of the Millennium Falcon's computers, Solo slaved together three separate droid brains; a military issue R3-series astromech droid, a V-5 transport droid, and a corporate espionage slicer droid. The Falcon can routinely calculate a hyperspace route and compute for a jump in approximately three minutes, which is insanely fast for most navi-comps. This trio of mismatched droid brains function amazingly well together considering that none of them were designed to work in tandem in Solo's justifiable opinion. Not all are convinced however; Leia Organa believes that the brains all hate each other and have caused the Falcon to have schizophrenic arguments with itself, even to the point of sabotaging one another which contributes to perhaps one-third of the technical glitches and problems that the Falcon routinely suffers from. Others who have attempted to study Solo's innovations are dumbfounded and attempts to replicate it have failed miserably.

Among the various modifications that other owners have added to the Falcon include armoring various key sections with duralloy, a material typically used to fashion armored bunkers. Special attention has been made to specifically reinforce the rear hull of the ship which contains the engine housings and the passenger compartments. Solo and Chewbacca have further increased the level of protection by adding armor plating that Solo "liberated" from a damaged Imperial Star Destroyer along with its deflector shield generators giving it warship-grade armor and shielding. The Falcon also has an oversized sensor rectanna dish that gives it increased sensor range as well as the capacity to generate a massive jamming field to block out hostile communications and sensors.

Armaments
Like many spaceships that ply their trade on the borders of Known Space, the Millennium Falcon is armed for self-defense. However, it is much more heavily armed than many would suspect.

Although he preferred to talk his way out of trouble, Lando Calrissian realized that sometimes heavy firepower has its own unique style of diplomacy. For that reason, he significantly upgraded the Falcon's regular armaments with a pair of dorsally and ventrally mounted AG-2G quad laser cannons as potent anti-starfighter weapons.

Solo and Chewbacca further modified these weapons heavily with enhanced power cyclers, high-volume gas feeds, and enlarged energization systems to boost the power and lethality of each shot. In addition, enhanced cooling packs and compressors allow for increased fire without overheating and varies the energy frequency of each shot which increases the stresses on an enemy's shields and the odds of overloading them. These modified AG-2G quad cannons are capable of destroying a TIE Fighter in a single direct hit.

Although the quad cannons could be operated by computer control from the cockpit of the Falcon, they could also be manually controlled via a rotating gunner's station located either below the dorsal cannons or above the ventral ones. Each station was accessible by an access tube shaft with a ladder in the central core of the Falcon. A skilled gunner could increase the accuracy of the quad cannons over the targeting computers.

The Millennium Falcon has also been outfitted with a pair of Arakyd ST2 concussion missile launchers mounted between the forward mandibles by one of its previous owners. Each launcher can fire 2 separate missiles before requiring reloading. Technically illegal for a civilian to possess, these launchers have been further modified to allow them to utilize missiles from a wide variety of manufacturers. The ST2 concussion missiles are fast moving, armor piercing projectiles that are anti-capital ship weapons that have limited shielding to protect them from interception. It was a pair of these ST2 missiles that destroyed the reactor core of the Second Death Star.

Han Solo also added a concealed AX-108 "Ground Buzzer" light repeating blaster cannon near the personnel boarding ramp for when the Falcon was grounded and under hostile fire. The "Ground Buzzer" was mounted on a telescoping rod with swiveling gimbal that enabled it to cover most axes of approach and can fire 12 shots per second.

Equipped with a threat matrix and targeting sensors that would determine and prioritize hostile threats; the "Buzzer" would lock onto a group of soldiers setting up a heavy blaster cannon over a soldier armed with a handheld blaster for example. The "Buzzer" was also programmed not to hit the Falcon itself such as the landing struts and its crew members or anyone designated as allied forces. The "Buzzer" has its own dedicated energy generator so that even if rest of the Falcon is shut down or damaged, it can still fire. The "Buzzer" could be activated by the cockpit and landing hatch controls or by a small remote that Solo carried on his person. The "Buzzer" was also part of the anti-theft system and could be automatically triggered by the Falcon's computers to prevent unauthorized personnel from attempting to board the vessel as well.

History
Built by the Corellian Engineering Corporation at Orbital Assembly Facility 7; the YT 4927272ZED was a standard YT-1300 light freighter model that was purchased sight unseen by Corell Industries Limited before it was even completed. The YT 492727ZED suffered a major accident before it even left the factory floor when a fuel droid malfunctioned and began fueling the ship's engines which ignited. The ship went rocketing across the assembly line, severely damaging several YT-1300s before workers were able to regain control of it. Amazingly enough, the YT 492727ZED suffered only minor cosmetic damage that was easily fixed, but it appeared that the ship was just "lucky"; a hallmark of its lengthy career.

For the next twelve years, Correll used the ship as a shipping vessel throughout the Corellian system under a series of pilots and names including the Corell's Pride, the Fickle Flyer, Meetyl's Misery, and the Jackpot. The YT 492727ZED earned a reputation for being a surprisingly fleet and agile freighter but occasionally unreliable and "quirky" according to several pilots who flew her. One pilot was successful in making a shipping run in record time ... while another pilot found himself marooned in orbit with a cargo hold of defrosting fish.

Correll was eventually pushed out of business by the Trade Federation, forcing it to sell off its assets including the YT 492727ZED. Ownership was passed on to a pair of brother and sister freelance traders, Kal and Dova Brigger who renamed it the Hardwired. The pair upgraded the ship's hyperdrive and made various cargo runs, drifting into more and more illicit deals in order to make ends meet. However, they eventually ran afoul of the Smuggler's Confederation when they reneged on a deal not to transport slaves on the Hardwired.

Dova was subsequently killed by a bounty hunter and Kal managed to flee, renaming the YT 492727ZED as the Wayward Son before his criminal associations resulted in him being eaten alive by carnivorous insects. The Wayward Son was seized by the Republic law enforcement agents and ultimately passed into the hands of the secretive Republic Group, a special intelligence wing of the Senate and the Jedi Council who used it as a courier under the name of the Stellar Envoy for over a decade including during the Clone Wars. The Envoy was delivering a cargo at Coruscant during the final days of the Clone Wars when the planet itself came under attack by General Grevious and was nearly destroyed when the Invisible Hand came crashing down, nearly clipping the freighter.

The Stellar Envoy was prepping for its next mission when Order 66 was unleashed upon the Jedi Order. The crew fled in the resulting chaos, uncertain of what was happening and was damaged escaping Coruscant. Traveling to the smuggler's world of Nar Shaddaa, it crashed into a bulk freighter resulting in the death of the crew and leaving the Envoy a mangled wreck which was subsequently towed to a scrapyard. It languished for about a month before an enterprising technician, Bammy Decree bought it and rebuilt the entire ship with various salvaged YT-1300 parts and was renamed the Second Chance. As a result, the YT 2927272ZED incorporates components from several different ships including a YT-1300 P model. The various different serial numbers and indentiplates all contribute to the confusion in the ship's registry and history. Chance however did not favor the new owner and on its first smuggling run was promptly impounded by Imperial custom agents.

Several years later, a thief known as Zenn Bien stole the Second Chance from the impound yard and quickly sold it to Quip Fargil who would resell hot ships with new registrations. He had just finished rebranding the Second Chance as Gone to Pieces when he was conscripted by Luufkin, a Verpine who was an agent working for Rebel Alliance in need of a pilot and a ship. Afterwards, Fargil was swayed to serving the Alliance willingly and subsequently rechristened the YT 492727ZED by the name that it would carry for the rest of it's storied career; the ''Millennium Falcon. ''

Fargil flew the Falcon for a little over a year but on a suicidal mission, his nerve broke and he abandoned his comrades and fled. Unable to live with the shame, Fargil gave his beloved ship away to a young doctor, Parlay Thorp. Thorp used the ship as her private transport for medical missions throughout the Tingel Arm of Known Space, bordering Wild Space and the Unknown Regions.

After several years, Thorp sold the ship to Molpol's Traveling Circus before it was used as collateral in a sabacc tournament and was lost to a young gambler known as Lando Calrissian who was a bit befuddled at his newest acquisition. Soon afterwards Calrissian ran into Han Solo, a Corellian and ex-Imperial officer down on his luck after getting court martialed for saving the life of a Wookie slave known as Chewbacca. Taking pity on the Corellian, Calrisian helped him out from a jam with Boba Fett and the two became fast friends. Learning that Solo was a skilled pilot, Calrissian decided to ask for piloting lessons as he had his own private spaceship. Solo didn't think much of the dilapidated freighter in the beginning but after his first time behind the controls; he left Calrissian a shaking wreck at his stunts and had fallen in love with the battered old ship. Solo schemed to acquire the Falcon for himself but Calrissian saw the value of the Falcon's agility and swiftness. After gaining sufficient proficiency with it, Lando launched his new career as a freelance trader and part-time smuggler intent on winning enough money to furnish a lavish lifestyle and retirement.

Calrissian had a number of misadventures over the next few years captaining the Millennium Falcon which saved his life on several notable occasions, but his fortune eluded him. His losses often balanced things out his few successful gambits, although he usually came out a little ahead. For example, shortly after winning a huge used spaceship dealership; Lando was forced to donate most of the inventory to create a ragtag fleet to fend off an Imperial capital ship. After the battle, few of his spaceships were in any decent shape to sell off.

After a disastrous investment in a mining consortium left him nearly bankrupt, Lando sought to recoup his losses. Entering a sabacc tournament, Lando ran into his old friend Solo at the tables. Solo was now an enterprising smuggler alongside his Wookie companion Chewbacca. Lacking liquid capital, Lando proffered a marker for 'any starship' at his dealership; forgetting that he had parked the Falcon on the lot to save from paying a docking fee. When Solo won, he claimed the Millennium Falcon as his prize much to Lando's consternation.

Solo and his stalwart companion Chewbacca quickly became smuggling legends among the underworld along with their new ship as they outran Imperial blockades and security forces with ease, running everything from weapons to the fledgling Rebel Alliance to contraband spice for Hutt Clans. Solo constantly upgraded and modified the Falcon as well; improving the sensor jammers, armor, weapons, shielding, and engines. In exchange for aiding the tech outlaw Doc Vandangante escape from the Corporate Sector Authority, Vandangante modified the Falcon's "hyperspace streamlining profile" which transformed her into the fastest starship in the galaxy. Solo and the Millennium Falcon also became deeply involved in several of the Rebel Alliance's early missions as a former lover of his, Bria Tharen was now a high ranking member. Han had hopes of rekindling their relationship but it ended when she ultimately betrayed him for the Rebel cause. Han had been instrumental in convincing several smugglers and friends of his to participate in a joint raid with the Rebels, including Lando Calrissian against the Besadii Hutt Clan with the Millennium Falcon leading the smuggler's ships. A number of them were killed or had their ships and livelihoods destroyed but worse, the Rebels seized the smugglers' share of the booty and stiffed them as they were dire need of war funds. Lando in particular was enraged and swore that their friendship was over, proclaiming that he never wanted to see Han ever again. Han vowed never to trust the Rebel Alliance nor Bria again.

He further discovered that the surviving smugglers had spread the story far and wide of their betrayal and blamed Han for it. As a consequence, Han's stellar reputation as a smuggler took a major blow and found himself blacklisted by many underworlders. In the end, the only individual willing to offer him employment was Jabba the Hutt; a former business rival of the Besadii and his employment also shielded him from retaliation from the other Hutt Clans.

While running glitterstim spice for Jabba, the Falcon was boarded by an Imperial customs team and Solo was forced to dump the cargo and was unable to retrieve it. Jabba was furious and as a sign of his displeasure and seriousness that he wanted reparations, sent Greedo the Bounty Hunter after Solo. Greedo was killed but Solo was able to convince Jabba that he would soon be able to repay him thanks to a short charter run he had scraped together; delivering a pair of passengers and their droids to Alderaan.

That fateful charter flight proved to be a lot longer than Solo anticipated and once more reunited him and the Millennium Falcon with the Rebel Alliance.

Production Notes
Created by George Lucas as part of the Star Wars franchise; the dilapidated freighter has played a major role in the first trilogy; A New Hope, the Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. It also had a minor cameo in the Revenge of the Sith.

Lucas envisioned it as a spacecraft version of a World War II aircraft such as the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and the B-29 Superfortress with elements such as the rotating ball turret inspired by the B-17 while the Falcon's cockpit was heavily based upon the B-29. As far as the rest of the interior of the ship, production designers John Barry and Roger Christian created an set based on a submarine and was forced to improvise due to the limited budget they were laboring under with difficulties and delays thanks to severe weather that forced the rebuilding of several important sets in Tunisia. Christian found airplane scrap metal and broke them down into specific pieces and then stuck them back together in different ways to created a heavily used, utilitarian workspace for the interior sets. At the very last minute, George Lucas discovered the Eagle Transporters in Gerry Anderson's Space: 1999 bore a strong resemblance to the original design model of the ''Millennium Falcon.  This belated discovery prompted Lucas to have the Falcon'' hastily redesigned and reputedly took inspiration from a half-eaten hamburger and declared that they would build a model based upon that. As a result, the new Falcon model received the unflattering nickname of "The Porkburger" by the crew. The original Falcon's model underwent some minor changes and was recycled to serve as Princess Leia's private transport, the Tantive IV in the original Star Wars movie.