How US Army Technologies Influenced ‘Star Wars’

By Tactical-Life

The following is a release from Jacqueline M. Hames, Soldiers, Defense Media Activity:

The Army has a flying saucer — a real, honest-to-goodness flying saucer. It also has a jetpack, a hover car and an all-terrain walking vehicle. If that sounds like something out of a “Star Wars” movie, that’s because Hollywood is influenced by the Army’s experimental technologies.

• RELATED STORY: Army Tech Team Fields Robot with CBRNE Detection Capabilities

Those technologies, developed in the 1950s through the 1970s, were public knowledge, and concept artists and directors could take inspiration from them. Army veteran and artist Ralph McQuarrie, known as “the godfather of the Star Wars aesthetic,” created stunning concept art of hovercraft, androids and cybernetic walkers for George Lucas’ films.

A combat veteran of the Korean War who survived a bullet wound to the head, McQuarrie would have known about the Army’s experiments, said Command Sgt. Major Dennis J. Woods, the command sergeant major for initial military training and senior enlisted advisor on Fort Eustis, Virginia. And some of those technologies that inspired McQuarrie can now be seen at the U.S. Army Transportation Museum on Fort Eustis.

“[The museum] represents the Army’s attempt at problem solving over time,” Woods said, “And …Read the Rest

Source:: Tactical Life