10 Things You Didn't Know About The Millennium Falcon
4. It Sounds Like A DC-9
You might not know the name of Ben Burtt, but if you're a Star Wars fan he's had a massive influence over your life. He was the man responsible for Star Wars' sound effects. He banged a taut wire with a hammer to get the starting point for the 'vwomm vwomm' of a lightsaber and used a combination of elephant bellow and car tyres on wet pavement to create the menacing scream of a TIE Fighter.
His engine noise for the Millennium Falcon was based on the sound of the engine on a Macdonnel-Douglas DC-9 airliner, doubled up and played slightly out of sync for a more interesting noise. The sad trombone sound of the Falcon's hyperdrive pathetically breaking down started with the ignition motor of a biplane and mixed in noises from the hiss of a dentist's air jet, an arclight switching on, a tank turret motor, and the croaking water pipes of the building Burtt was working in at the time.