Boeing Builds Real Flying X-Wings for Disney's Star Wars Ride Opening
Boeing collaborates with Disney to fly life-size, unpiloted X-wing drones at the grand opening of the Rise of the Resistance ride. The vehicles are based on Boeing's experimental Cargo Air Vehicle design.
Boeing teams up with Disney to bring science fiction to life by building full-scale, unpiloted X-wing starfighters for the grand opening of the "Rise of the Resistance" ride at Disney World. Roughly the size of a family van, these impressive drones ascend vertically, hover, and rotate in the night sky without any pilots on board. Boeing confirms its involvement in the project, though the aerospace company keeps the specific technical details under wraps.
These flying X-wings draw heavily from Boeing's existing Cargo Air Vehicle (CAV), an industrial drone that features six rotors and is designed to carry up to 500 pounds of cargo. Astute Star Wars fans notice that the vehicles sport the split-engine design of the T-70 variant flown by the Resistance in the current trilogy, perfectly matching the timeline of the new theme park attraction.
The appearance of these sci-fi aircraft is particularly notable because Boeing's CAV is still in the testing phase, having only recently completed a short outdoor hover and forward movement test. By adapting this experimental cargo technology into a movie-accurate X-wing shell for Disney, Boeing demonstrates both the versatility of its drone platform and a highly effective marketing strategy.