Star Wars Episode Vii Pictures: Millennium Falcon Images Captured By UK Pilot

As Darth Vader once said: The force is strong with this one.

A pilot working for a U.K. flight school who was shooting aerial publicity photos returned to base with more than he bargained for: pictures of the iconic Millennium Falcon and X-Wing fighter ships, which are being used in the production of the upcoming Star Wars movie.

The J.J. Abrams-directed movie, provisionally titled “Star Wars: Episode VII,” is currently shooting in Pinewood Studios in England.

Matthew Myatt, of the Airborne Aviation flying club, was on a flight from Popham Airfield in Hampshire, England, and passed over the Greenham Common facility. Greenham Common is a former Royal Air Force base, which was the site of significant controversy in the 1980s due to protests about U.S. nuclear-armed cruise missiles stationed there.

Instead of military equipment, Myatt encountered an altogether different type of aerial equipment.

Speaking to BBC News, Myatt said, "I didn't know it was there, and we flew down and did some orbits. It was based around the old cruise missile silo. It wasn't until I got back last night and started going through the images that it just jumped out at me.

"I had to go and grab my son, who's a big Star Wars fan and get him to come and look at the picture and pinch me and make sure I'd seen what I'd seen.”

The Millennium Falcon was the ship used by the character Han Solo, portrayed by Harrison Ford in the original films. The X-Wing was a fighter used by the Rebel Alliance, who battled forces of the Galactic Empire personified by Darth Vader.

Ford is joining other stars from the original three films, including Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, in the upcoming sequels.

Filming for the production took an extended hiatus when Ford broke his ankle while filming in the U.K. Filming on the project, which is reportedly set 30 years after 1983's "Return of the Jedi," has since resumed.

J.J. Abrams directed two installments of the Star Trek franchise, as well as monster movie “Super 8,” and he was a co-creator of the hit TV series "Lost."