FEATURE/Anakin Skywalker's Podracer is On Display At the Museum of Flight.

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE FEATURES)--Nov. 8, 1999--

Anakin Skywalker's Podracer from the 1999 movie Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace will be on display as part of the Science Fiction to Science Fact exhibition at the Museum of Flight, from November 21, 1999, to April 2, 2000.

The highly detailed, 46-ft.-long Anakin Skywalker Podracer replica, fabricated by Nintendo of America, Inc.(R) and donated to the Museum of Flight, is comprised of two jet engines tethered to an open cockpit. The Podracer will appear to speed above a desert landscape, suspended above other sci-fi exhibitry. The exhibition will include a video monitor playing a clip of the Podracing scene from George Lucas' Star Wars: Episode I and two Nintendo 64 game stations where visitors can take the controls in LucasArts and Nintendo's Star Wars: Episode I: Racer video game. Other elements in the exhibit include images patterned on craft from Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon and Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek(R) book series juxtaposed with models of NASA's Saturn Rocket and Space Shuttle Enterprise.

Museum of Flight Executive Director Ralph Bufano comments, "When we heard about the opportunity to acquire Anakin Skywalker's Podracer, I thought it was a wonderful way to stimulate kids to think beyond science fiction."

Science Fiction to Science Fact explores the role of science fiction imagination as inspiration to those who create actual technology. Part of the excitement surrounding the 1964 Mariner IV trip to gather the first close-range images of Mars arose from fantastical stories written about the planet, such as the 1932 book War of the Worlds by author H.G. Wells. Even today, tales of adventure, chronicles of magicians, and wild stories of voyages into eternity enchant and inspire explorers, scientists, and astronauts. The outer reaches of humankind's imagination can turn the possibilities of science and technology into reality. During the early 1990s, the NASA Lewis Research Center hosted conferences discussing the potential for faster-than-light travel using interstellar propulsion in the next millennium, based on Star Trek(R)'s warp drive.

Medical advances, useful robots, instruments, and devices are also developed from the blueprints laid by science fiction. The idea of a portable data assistant to record and monitor information on space shuttles was popularized by the fictional tricorders shown on the 1960's television series Star Trek(R). In the 1977 movie Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, a floating, remote droid object was used for lightsaber training. It inspired the creation of an aerial sensor-studded, personal satellite assistant (PSA) by engineer Yuri Gawdiak. The PSA is slated for use by astronauts aboard the International Space Station in 2002.

Please Note: The Museum of Flight will host a media opening event at 9:00 a.m., Friday, November 19, 1999. To RSVP or order an image of the Anakin Skywalker's Podracer, please contact Eden Hopkins at 206/768-7105. (c) Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All rights reserved. Used under authorization.

The Museum of Flight, located at 9404 East Marginal Way South, Seattle, WA 98108-4097, is open daily 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and until 9:00 p.m. on Thursdays. Admission is $8.00 adults, $7.00 seniors ages 65 and over, $7.00 groups of 10 or more paying adults, $4.00 youths ages 5-17, and free for children 4 and under and Museum of Flight members. Thanks to PEMCO Financial Center, all visitors are admitted free on the first Thursday evening of every month, from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.