Star Wars R2-D2 787 Dreamliner Jet Release Date and First Flight on All Nippon Airways

Apr 17, 2015 08:57 PM EDT


The Star Wars Jet
Taking off in Fall 2015. ANA

Star Wars is always on franchise that will always have a following, and there is now a new development that will keep George Lucas creation, now owned by Disney, flying high.  If you are the type of person who looks up whenever a jet flies overhead, you might be surprised to see a Star Wars themed jet painted to look like everyone's favorite protocol droid, R2-D2. 

According to CNET, Japan's All Nippon Airways is planning to paint the nose of a 787 Dreamliner jet with R2-D2, the famous protocol droid from the Star Wars films.  The purpose of the painted jet is to promote its new service that travels from Japan to Houston.  For whatever reason Star Wars has been tied into this, I honestly do not know. 

In the meantime, the Internet is going crazy because a new trailer for Star Wars Episode VII:  The Force Awakens has been released to the Internet.  It has just about is much clarity of the plot of the movie as the first teaser trailer did when it was released a few months ago, but it does have something (or someone) that we all want to see. 

Most people have commented on the trailer have one take away with Han Solo telling Chewbacca that they are home.  I'm not certain if this film is going to bring the glory that Star Wars had back in the seventies and eighties, but seeing Han and Chewie is enough fan service to make them want to see this.  Personally, the hype feels the same as back in 1998, when the Star Wars Episode I trailer was released, but these prequels were not well received as the original trilogy. 

As far as when you can fly on this R2-D2 plane, it will probably be landing in the fall.  I suppose that if you want to do that, I'm guessing that the plane doesn't look any different on the inside from any other 787.  Now, if it looked like you were traveling in a transport ship from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, that would be something. 

I am pretty certain that this R2-D2 plane isn't the first plane to be painted elaborately, but it probably is the first one with a Star Wars theme.  Fortunately, the round nose of an airplane is the perfect shape of R2-D2's dome-shaped head, but it would be kind of difficult to design a plane that looks like Darth Vader without changing the nose so it is aerodynamically bad.