When you think of a Star Wars-inspired aircraft, you instantly think of a certain hunk of junk that can do 0.5 past lightspeed but Japan’s All Nippon Airways just celebrated the first flight of a new aircraft designed after your favorite rolly-polly little astromech droid, BB-8.
The airline’s BB-8 jet landed Monday in Los Angeles after the long flight from Osaka, Japan — it was the jet’s very first international flight. The jet — a Boeing 777 — is the latest in a series of jets the airline has developed in a deal with Disney, bringing the Star Wars aesthetic to three of their passenger aircraft.
The jet’s exterior paint job would look just like BB-8 if she were designed like a jet and not a little ball of adorableness. It’s just like the paint job on the airline’s R2-D2 jet, which, we’re told by airline officials, does not just arbitrarily shut down every time Luke Skywalker disappears. Thankfully.
The interior? Not gonna lie to you here — pretty much like the interior of any other jet but there are some Star Wars-y perks. The little headrest covers are all designed like BB-8, as are all the paper cups and napkins. The flight attendant crew also wear aprons with BB-8 on them, which is a nice touch.
After the jet landed Monday, ANA held an impromptu ceremony in the airport terminal to celebrate, joined by the real screen-used BB-8. A publicist at the event said the BB-8 droid took a break from filming Star Wars: Episode VIII in London to fly to Los Angeles just for the ceremony, only to jump right back on a plane to London as soon as the ceremony was over.
BB-8 brightened up the evening for bored travelers waiting for their international flights. The real-life droid doesn’t do much other than beep and roll around, but that was enough to captivate the entire airport terminal for about an hour.
Currently, ANA’s BB-8 jet is servicing flights from Japan to the U.S., so if you’re flying to that part of the world and you want to do it in style, ANA just might be the way to go.
Oh, and as if you forgot, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is out April 1 on digital download and April 5 on Blu-Ray (read our review), so you can re-live all your favorite BB-8 moments over and over again.
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Images: ANA/Lucasfilm
