From Wired Magazine

Star Wars-Obsessed Rocket Geeks Build and Launch an X-Wing Fighter

Mary Jane Irwin 11.27.07 | 12:00 AM

The Force must be strong with these geeks. (It would have to be.) This is an actual, working Star Wars X-Wing, built by the San Diego Tripoli Rocket Association. Of course, in this context "actual" means it exists and "working" means it's able to get off the ground. At 23 feet long, it's impressive but not the kind of craft you'd want to take into battle against a Death Star. Sure, the R2-D2 beeps, but the laser cannons don't work.

Amateur rocketeer Andy Woerner led the 2,500-hour, $7,000 effort to get the thing airborne. His 40-person crew of doctors, mail carriers, construction workers, and other Star Wars obsessives labored without a blueprint, guided mainly by memories of George Lucas' magnum opus, scaled-up measurements taken from a 15-inch model, and their own high midichlorian counts. The biggest challenges: figuring out how to make the hinged wings lock into attack position and ensuring that all four class-M rocket engines would fire at the same time.

They did, but seconds after liftoff the fighter pitched wildly and blew up - just like Red 10. And Red Leader. And Biggs (poor Biggs). The wings, built to the proportions of the model, just couldn't take the force. "We were afraid the wing panels would fold up," Woerner admits. On the bright side, prior to its flight to oblivion, young Rebels got to clamber around the cockpit. "We do this for the kids," Woerner says. Because, you know, it's not like these guys are geeks or anything. By the way, the club's next project: a Klingon D7 Battle cruiser. And if this one blows up, well, that's how the Klingons like to go out, anyway. K'plah!