In October this year, the German automaker announced that it had teamed up with Lucasfilm, the production house of the Star Wars films, to create a promotional spacecraft. Since then, Porsche Lucasfilm designers at their respective design studios in Weissach and San Francisco were working on the initial ideas and drafts before finally coming up with a concrete concept.
The collaboration resulted in the Tri-Wing S-91x Pegasus Starfighter, a spacecraft inspired by the Star Wars universe. Although not appearing in the latest film, the 1.5-meter-long model will be presented at the December film premiere of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in Los Angeles.
While legal requirements impose certain restrictions on creativity in the classic design process for a serial production vehicle, in the creation of this aircraft, designers were free to let their imagination run wild.
It was a real challenge for the Porsche design team to create this model because they ensure that creating a virtual-only design is demanding, in addition to the ship being seen only in two dimensions, unlike vehicles that are virtually designed in three dimensions. Another of the great challenges they had to face is that because the spacecraft in the movies usually go to the box only a few seconds, they had to give life to a product that was instantly recognizable and caused an instant impression.
The design of the Tri-Wing S-91x Pegasus Starfighter is really symbolic; the front reminds of the air inlets and headlights of the Porsche Taycan, the four-point daytime lights characteristic of Porsche at the tip and the rear of the current generation Porsche 911.
The interior also took the German family vehicles as inspiration: the instruments in the cockpit are clearly aligned with the driver’s axis, while the low seating position is reminiscent of the sporty ergonomics in the Porsche 918 Spyder.
For now, it is still unclear what will happen to the Tri-Wing S-91x Pegasus Starfighter after its exposure at the Rise of Skywalker debut. Only time will tell if the space fighter can be bought by any movie-saga enthusiast whose wallet has enough padding.
