The new Millennium Falcon exhibition at Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre welcomed a very special visitor recently, one whose major support and contributions made the unique project possible.

Lynwen Brennan, Executive Vice-President and General Manager of Lucasfilm Ltd – who was brought up in Pembrokeshire – had a first hand insight into the Pembroke Dock Falcon exhibition, which opened earlier this year.

Detailing the construction of the first complete version of the iconic Millennium Falcon for use in the Oscar winning ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, the exhibition has been an amazing success over the summer, attracting thousands of Star Wars fans to West Wales. The spaceship was constructed in a Pembroke Dock aircraft hangar over 40 years ago.

Brennan was welcomed by Trust Chairman Graham Clarkson and Exhibition Project Manager Mark Williams along with Trustees Rik Saldanha, Gareth Mills and Martin Cavaney.

When viewing the many images on display, most of which had been kindly supplied by the Lucasfilm Archives, Brennan paid special attention to the photos that had been taken by some of the workers at the time of the construction. She remarked: “This is such a wonderful personal story to the people of Pembroke Dock; I am so happy that this has finally been made possible.”

She also praised the scale model of the Falcon that takes centre stage in the exhibition, demonstrating the stages of construction, “This is a very clever way to show exactly how the Falcon was put together,” she added.

Brennan was given a special preview of the centre’s plans to develop and expand the exhibition by integrating both virtual and augmented reality experiences. Her son particularly enjoyed playing with the virtual Falcon model.

Project Manager Mark Williams commented: “This visit means so much to us all at the centre. After all of the hard work put in by everybody, it was a pleasure to show the results to the person who effectively made the whole project possible. We look forward to when we can welcome Lynwen and her family back to her home county again.”