During an era many consider to be the Dark Times of Star Wars, a time that stretches from the end of the Ewoks and Droids cartoons, the completion of the first Marvel run of comics and the last issue of Bantha Tracks to the arrival in 1991 of Heir to the Empire, one of the most popular of all things connected to Star Wars was launched. On this day in 1987, Star Tours welcomed aboard its first passengers, taking tourists on a whirlwind blast through the Star Wars galaxy.
While later and amended versions would continue to delight visitors to Tomorrowland at Disneyland and later Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris, that first iteration held a very special magic. Optical and analogue rather than digital, it grabbed fans in a visceral way when there was nothing but the original trilogy and hurling them into an adventure that saw riders disembark and jump into the queue to ride it again and again and again until the last ride to Endor at Anaheim on 26th July 2010, the final ride at Orlando on 7th September 2010, the end of the Tokyo adventure on 2nd April 2012 and the last Jango in Paris on 16th March 2016.