Patent drawing for an X-Wing

Avi Solomon popped this patent-drawing for a hypothetical X-Wing fighter patent into the Boing Boing Flickr pool.

If Star Wars was a patent: X-Wing Fighter

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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http://www.facebook.com/mmarlett Mike Marlett

Looks like it’s meant to be a rollar coaster car.
http://twitter.com/Lazin_Ryder Matthew Lazin-Ryder

Seems the patent is not for an X-Wing, but an X-Wing themed roller coaster.
http://www.facebook.com/joelfinch Joel Finch

Nothing hypothetical about that – it’s a six seat amusement park ride. With special effects, no less.
Jonathan Roberts

Looks like you’d need a lot of side clearance for that. The wings and nose would also have to be fairly strong to cope with the g-forces (if the ride was going to be interesting at all), and it seems like a lot of wasted space. Pretty cool idea if it could work though.
- Jason Wood
  
  It’s Star Wars; I suspect there aren’t any real g-forces involved, just CGI.
Scratcheee

Sorry, the company I represent, MZQ Holdings, Inc, has purchased a controlling share in a portfolio of technology which includes a patent for “A method or device to convey animals or machinery through a rarified medium using one or more propulsion units.” We are due a licensing fee for this depiction of a craft covered under our patent, as well as a share of any ad revenue generated by any page on which this depiction is, um , depicted.
feetleet

520 was rejected because it’s an improvement to T-16 prior art that would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in shooting womp rats.
howaboutthisdangit

X-Wings and TIE Fighters could chase each other around the track, or perhaps “fly” past each other on parallel tracks:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47222633@N05/8445011807/in/pool-boingboing
Eric Hartwell

Way back in 1980 20th Century Fox patented the orginal X-Wing toy: D254080, http://www.google.com/patents?id=HEk9AAAAEBAJ
More at Toy Design Patents http://theswca.com/images-patents.html