Millennium Falcon

The fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy and Han Solo's legendary spaceship. It is one of the most iconic starships in history and a central part of the original Star Wars trilogy.

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 (CEC) 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) with numerous repairs, rebuilds, aliases, modifications, and n'ver-do-well owners.

Captained by Han Solo and his first mate, Chewbacca who originally won the ship from Lando Calrissian; it has taken part in numerous conflicts in the 'Galactic Civil War' and played a pivotal role in the destruction of the first Death Star, its successor, the Death Star II, and the First Order's Starkiller Base.

Despite its otherwise battered appearance and the fact that its internals look like they're held together by spit and wire, the Falcon is one of the fastest starships in the galaxy. This is despite its own navigational computers insisting that the ship should not be able to take off much less attain speeds that far exceeds those of other ships of its class and outstrips even capital warships. In addition, it has an insane level of agility and manueverability which causes the ship to behave more like a starfighter than an out-of-date light freighter. 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 Version)

• 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)

• MAXIMUM SUBLIGHT SPEED: 75 MGLT (Megalight)

• HYPERSPEED CLASSIFICATION: Class 0.5 Lightspeed

• PRIMARY MANUFACTURER: Corellian Engineering Corporation

• SERIAL NUMBER: YT 492727ZED

  

Design Features[]

The Millennium Falcon was a YT-1300 F Model when first built approximately 60 years before the 'Battle of Yavin', specifically a freighter transport configuration; one of the most popular types of this particular class. The other type was the passenger version, the YT-1300 P Model which replaced the cargo holds with luxury living quarters; although only a fraction of the Passenger Models were built in comparison to the much more popular freighter types. Even experts usually can't tell the difference from a look at the exterior of a YT-1300 which particular version it truly is.

All YT-1300's have the same basic external layout consisting of a saucer-shaped hull with two forward mandibles. It has a series of deployable landing gear legs that allow the ship to land on the surfaces of planets and liftoff as well.

Internally, there is 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. A personnel airlock/elevator is located in the central corridor that allows the crew to access the exterior upper hull. A pair of rotating light laser cannon with a turret was mounted on the dorsal side of each YT-1300 for self-defense and to deter pirates.

What truly defines the YT-1300 is that it was the first freighter that embraced the concept of radical modularity. The CEC produced a wide range of customization kits that owners could purchase to personalize each ship to their own unique needs and specifications. The externally-mounted cockpit could be located on the port or even centrally mounted in-between the two forward mandibles; or in the case of the Falcon, the starboard side of the ship. Other modifications include optional external cargo pods, a secondary hydraulic boarding ramp, and a ventral gun turret. Many entrepreneurial motivated owners took to modifying the YT-1300s with a balance of cargo holds for freight and sacrificing freight for passenger spaces allowing them to serve as both. It became so popular that CEC simply began building it as the stock model which became informally known as the YT-1300 FP in the later decades of its manufacturing cycle.

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 souped up hot rod of a spaceship.

The Millennium Falcon however is far from a typical YT-1300 and has been extensively modified over the decades by its numerous owners, typically cobbled and illegally together as a smuggler's spaceship. The result is the Falcon requires nearly four times the normal maintenance of a regular ship and is sometimes known to fail spectacularly at critical junctures. Protocol Droid C-3PO had mentioned that the ship's computer has "an unusual dialect" as the various jury-rigged components holding the ship together are frequently and amazingly incompatible with one another which contributes to its all-too frequent maintenance cycles.

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). Due to the dangerous nature of their criminal profession, Han Solo also equipped the lower bunk bed with an emergency auto-doc and life support equipment. Should it prove necessary, Solo also included a cryogenic hibernation capsule that can be used to store live or perishable cargo or alternatively, keep a critically injured individual in statis until suitable medical facilities can be reached. The main hold of the ship also doubles as a crew relaxation and eating area and is outfitted with a special Dejarik holographic game table that was installed by Chewbacca for his personal use.

The main cargo tractor beam and cargo elevator is located between the two mandibles. The Falcon has three storage holds that combined can carry approximately 100 metric tons of cargo. The forward mandibles also contain the main navigational deflector array and support equipment that shields the ship from space debris or micro-meteorites while in transit.

The Millennium Falcon's greatest claim to fame however is it's amazing hyperdrive. The unit is of unusual size, one more suited for a capital class ship that are typically over 20 times the size of a light freighter like the Falcon. The hyperdrive engine enables the Falcon to enter hyperspace; an alternate or parallel dimension of existence that allows for faster-than-light travel. The Falcon's hyperdrive has been heavily modified over the years including by one outlaw tech who specially souped up the ship's "streamlining" profile which is the true secret of the ship's remarkable speed in hyperspace. The Millennium Falcon has a Hyper Class 0.5 Rating, which exceeds any known ship. Even most Imperial capital ships have only a Class 2 Rating and only a rare few may have a Class 1 allowing the Falcon to outrun anything in the Galaxy as long as it can make it to hyperspace.

Lando Calrissian added his own touches to the Falcon, particularly a series of special 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 sizable 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.

To cut down on additional crew members, the Falcon has been extensively rewired by Solo and Chewbacca so that various status updates, displays, and controls systems have all been routed to the cockpit. Although this greatly complicates the instrumentation, Solo prefers being able to monitor and adjust things on-the-fly not to mention effectively control every aspect of the ship from the cockpit. The Falcon can be flown by one person if necessary and all of the manual control systems such as the yokes, dials, and levers have been reinforced to withstand even Chewbacca's greater-than-human strength so he doesn't accidentally damaging them.

In addition, due to the illegal activities of its various owners; the Falcon has a vastly simplified start-up procedure for a quick escape if necessary. A regular YT-1300 will require 30 minutes to prep for take-off from a cold start. The Millennium Falcon on the other hand; can be readied for launch in under 5 minutes.

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, in Solo's justified opinion; considering that none of them were designed to work in tandem. 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. This contributes to least one-third of all of the technical glitches and problems that the Falcon seems to routinely suffers from ... perhaps more. Organa is further convinced that one day; one of the brains will inadvertently catastrophically destroy the entire wretched ship by sheer accident.  Others who have attempted to study Solo's innovations are dumbfounded and attempts to replicate it have all failed miserably ... or explosively.

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 as well as specially reinforcing the frame of the ship itself. Solo and Chewbacca have further increased the level of protection by adding armor plating that Solo "liberated" from a damaged Imperial Star Destroyer. This warship-grade armor plating was macrofused to the rear hull of the ship from the engines cowlings to the docking collars. This section not only contains the main engine housings but ensures that the main power plant, the hyperdrive, and main passenger compartments are the most heavily armored and protected section of the ship.

In addition, the Falcon has been equipped with a set of highly advanced Novaldex and Nordoxicon shield generators that give the ship the ability to generate shields equivalent capital-class ship shielding. The immense energy demands of these shields force the Falcon to only maintain them for brief levels, but the Falcon can briefly take on a pounding that would have reduced any other civilian ship to scrap.

The Falcon 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.

One of the illegal modifications to the Falcon include the ability to falsify their ID beacon; a feat accomplished by one of the ship's previous criminal owners. Considerable unhackable and impossible to fool, this capacity along with the large percentage of YT-1300s still in active service enable the Falcon to bypass most blockades and security checks as even those run by Imperials tend to rely on such ID beacons. Solo maintains dozens of forged aliases in various systems including: the Argos, the Close Shave, Sunfighter Franchise, Sunlight Franchise, Regina Galas, the Longshot, Sweet Surprise, Shadow Bird, Princess of Blood, Victory Ring, Naboo Duckling, Star Tripper, Star Princess, and Thrall's Tale.

Once Han Solo became a frequent associate with Luke Skywalker and the Rebellion, he and Chewbacca also added a pair of mounting brackets that enabled Luke's personal X-Wing to dock with the Falcon, enabling it to carry the starfighter into hyperspace with them.

Armaments[]

Originally a civilian freighter model, the Millennium Falcon is far better armed than one 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 and replaced the light laser cannons with a pair of dorsally and ventrally mounted AG-2G quad laser cannons as potent anti-starfighter weapons. Unlike civilian caliber weapons, these much heavier quad cannons are typically used for capital warships and are directly fed power from the ship's power core for a stronger punch.

Solo and Chewbacca heavily modified these weapons further 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 an increased rate of 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 also can 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 significantly.

The Millennium Falcon was also 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 for a total of 4 missiles. Technically illegal for a civilian to possess, these launchers have been further modified to allow them to accept missiles from a wide variety of manufacturers. The ST2 concussion missiles are fast moving, armor piercing projectiles that are true anti-capital ship weapons that have limited shielding to protect them from interception. Larger and more powerful than proton torpedoes carried by X-Wings, the concussion missiles unleashed a powerful explosion and propagating shockwaves for increased damage to the surrounding area. A well placed strike can quite literally cripple a capital starship. It was a pair of these ST2 missiles that destroyed the reactor core of the Death Star II.

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 "Buzzer" is 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 or sabotage 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 freelance traders, Kal and his sister 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 subsequently 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 secret courier under the name of the Stellar Envoy for over a decade including during the 'Clone Wars' while pretending to be a regular cargo freighter.  It was apparently during this period that the ship was refitted with a military-grade circular rectenna dish.  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 Grievous 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; 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 from various components and sections all contribute to the tangled confusion in the ship's registry and history as well as its atypical internal configuration.

Decree renamed the ship as the Second Chance. Chance however did not favor the new owner and on its first smuggling run was promptly impounded by Imperial custom agents along with Decree who languished in prison for decades.

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 due to the ship's already incredible agility after the legendary Bat-Falcon and its ruggedness which Fargil boastingly proclaimed "would last a millennium".

Fargil only 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, Calrissian 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 and he might as well use it for something.

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 as a mutual friend of theirs was killed in the battle. He swore that their friendship was over, proclaiming that he never wanted to see Han ever again and Han vowed never to trust the Rebel Alliance nor Bria again.

Han further discovered that the surviving smugglers had spread the story far and wide of their betrayal and blamed him 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 jettison 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. Jabba warned him that if Solo didn't pay him back and soon, he would place a price on his head that there wouldn't be anywhere in the Galaxy that Solo could hide from him.

That fateful charter flight proved to be a lot longer and costlier than Solo anticipated and once more reunited him and the Millennium Falcon with the Rebel Alliance. Forced to hastily flee from their docking bay at Mos Eisley by a garrison of Imperial Stormtroopers, Solo and Chewbacca along with their passengers; Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, R2-D2, and C-3PO were able to make the jump to Alderaan. They belatedly discovered that the planet however was no longer there thanks to the superlaser of the original Death Star and were captured by the space station's incredibly powerful tractors beams.

Thanks for the Falcon's smuggling compartments, they were able to evade capture by Imperial boarding parties. Afterwards, Kenobi stealthily made his way to shut down the tractor beam controls, Solo was talked into helping Luke Skywalker save the captive Princess Leia Organa. Kenobi sacrificed himself to buy the group time to escape and they promptly fled to Yavin 4, the Rebel Base where the Death Star's blueprints were downloaded from R2-D2. Pursued by the Imperial Forces, the Rebels mounted a desperate attack on the sole weakpoint to the seemingly invulnerable battle station; a thermal exhaust port that directly led to the main reactor. The Millennium Falcon played a key role in the battle, destroying Darth Vader's wingman and sending the Sith Lord into an ignoble spin that allowed Luke Skywalker to successfully complete his attack run and destroy the battlestation.

Solo and the Millennium Falcon were thus inevitably tied to the Rebellion thanks to their instrumental role and were became one of the most infamous ships of the Rebel Alliance. Despite his insistence that he was not officially a part of the Rebels; the Falcon and her wayward captain and first mate flew some of the most important and dangerous missions for the Rebel Alliance over the next three years. Solo also found that Jabba was as good as his word and he found an increasing number of bounty hunters popping up and his very presence was endangering anyone around him.

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; Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. It also had a minor cameo in the Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and reputedly will once more play a major role in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens.

Lucas envisioned the Millennium Falcon 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 just before Star Wars was to be submitted to the studios to be released; Lucas discovered the existence of the Eagle Transporters in Gerry Anderson's Space: 1999. These craft inadvertently bore a strong resemblance to the original design model of the Millennium Falcon.

This belated discovery prompted Lucas to have the Falcon hastily redesigned. Instead of a more elongated design, Lucas 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 itself underwent some minor cosmetic changes and was recycled to serve as Princess Leia's private transport, the Tantive IV in the original Star Wars movie.

This hasty revision is the reason why some have noticed apparently inconsistencies in the general layout of the Falcon's interior sets and it's apparent exterior design. For the first movie, only the exterior landing gear and boarding ramp were actually built and the interior compartments such as the cockpit, corridor, secret compartment corridor, the forward hold, and the gun turrets were constructed with matte paintings used in the film for the ship itself with digital models were created for the 1997 "revised" film.

For The Empire Strikes Back, a new set design was built that better fitted the dimensions of the "Porkburger" and a 65 feet diameter full scale model was actually built with air hover pads that enabled the 25-ton model to float roughly an inch above the ground and enabled the crew to maneuver it around the set. This model was reused for Return of the Jedi as well. This model was retained by George Lucas who has occasionally used for display purposes although all of the interior sets were scrapped following the completion of the Return of the Jedi filming.