The X-Wing is the real star at Wings Over the Rockies
denver» f this thing is supposed to fight Death Stars in the vacuum of space, why did they put wings on it?” I asked museum volunteer Hugh Greenwood.
“We’ve all wondered that,” the retired Air Force pilot admitted. “I think they just put those wings on there to make it look more like a conventional fighter. Hollywood doesn’t make documentaries, as we know.”
I’m at the Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum, staring at an X-Wing Starfighter from “Star Wars.” More than 50 additional aircraft and space vehicles worthy of their wings surround me in a hangar at the former Lowry Air Force Base.
Lowry Field began as a training center for aerial photographers, gunners and bombardiers. They expanded into training crews how to load bombs, missiles and nukes into the planes of the day, which meant they held samples of a wide variety of aircraft. Those phased out of service became part of an outdoor exhibit.
“Pretty soon there was a nice little aircraft garden with all these planes in it,” says museum curator Matthew Burchette.
When the base closed in 1994, a public museum was proposed and Wings Over the Rockies was born. Naturally, military jets comprise the majority of its displays.
Greeting visitors out front is a hulking, 1955-vintage B-52 bomber similar to the ones that dropped their explosive loads from Hanoi to Baghdad.
Inside towers what was to be the B-52’s replacement, a prototype B-1A, painted stealth black and sporting retractable wings. Traveling at twice the speed of sound, these planes were designed to fly high and quietly surprise the Soviets with our nuclear gifts. Four prototypes were built. Two crashed, one sits in the SAC museum in Omaha and Wings displays the other.
Other aircraft in the museum include a Colorado-built 1929 Alexander Eaglerock biplane, a World War II-vintage B-18, a Korean War-era F-84 and a variety of jet aircraft that served time in Vietnam and beyond, including an F-14 similar to the one Tom Cruise’s character flew in “Top Gun.”
In addition to the planes and samples of the weaponry they carried, the museum offers space and rocketry exhibits that include a wall honoring Colorado astronaut Jack Swigert. There are films to view, flight simulators to test and through September, a hands-on DaVinci Machines Exhibition featuring 65 handcrafted inventions built from his 500-year-old designs to explore.
Still, the most popular item for most visitors is one that has only soared in our imaginations. It’s a 3/4-scale model of the X-Wing Starfighters flown by Luke Skywalker and his compatriots in the “Star Wars” films. Autographs from George Lucas, Harrison Ford and other cast and crew members who worked on the early films grace its side.
“Lucas Film contracted with a German company to build five of these for the re-release of the original movies,” explains Burchette. “This is the only one left that you can view.”
Once a month, the museum hosts Cockpit Demo Days, where guests can sit in the cockpits of a few aircraft. Once a year, on the Sunday prior to May 4, they hold a “Star Wars at the Hangar” event where 250 randomly chosen, preregistered guests will get to do the same inside the X-Wing Starfighter.
“What’s special about May 4th?” I naively ask.
“Oh, that’s Intergalactic Star Wars Day,” Burchette says with a grin. “May the Fourth be with you.” Dan Leeth is a travel writer and photographer; more at LookingForTheWorld.com.