It is...your d-e-s-t-i-n-y...now, whether Daddy Darth Vader would have been quite so keen to prove his fatherhood had he known what his son was driving is debatable, but nonetheless, the Landspeeder was a perfectly respectable little motor for Tatooine.

At a young age, Anakin Skywalker was brought to Tatooine as a slave, and toiled away in Mos Espa before being discovered by Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn.

A generation later, Anakin’s son, Luke Skywalker, below, grew up on the Lars homestead moisture farm.

And clearly the two were destined for greatness far beyond the desert planet and its driveway vehicles.

The Landspeeder first popped up in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, and doubtless would have just as quickly disappeared had the film not broken box office records.

Durable if not stylish, the X-34 featured holographic displays, a computer for ground navigation, and a number of ‘repulsor’ counterbalances for smooth and steady travel over rough terrain.

Its maximum altitude was one metre, but its usual cruising altitude was roughly 10cm above ground level.

The X-34 retailed for roughly 10,550 ‘credits’ new, 2,500 used.

It was light, unarmored, and featured no weapon mounts and was thus unsuitable for military applications.

Just like an Allegro.

Low-power repulsorlifts allowed most landspeeders to constantly hover one to two meters above the ground, both when stationary and while traveling.

Turbine jet engines were responsible for propelling the vehicle forward. Some landspeeders also mounted weapons which were usually placed either at the front of the craft or above and behind the pilot and/or passengers.

Of course, like Neil Armstrong landing on the Moon, some people doubt whether Luke and Han and C3P0 genuinely existed.

And so as a nod to them, we consider how footage of Luke driving his Landspeeder might have been achieved.

In fact, one of the major challenges the Star Wars production crew faced was disguising the wheels to create the illusion that the craft was hovering.

For certain shots, they shot from camera angles that masked the wheels; for long-distance shots, they used reflective material, gelatin on the camera lens, and shadow effects (indeed, a small blur can be seen under the speeder, which George Lucas calls ‘The Force Spot’).

Production designer Roger Christian used an angled mirror and a broom attached to the vehicle’s underside to create, at certain angles, the illusion that the craft was hovering and kicking up dust.

Lucas then went on to use digital technology to enhance the landspeeder effects in the Special Edition of A New Hope.

May the Force be with you...