Death Star
Although details, such as the superlaser's location, shifted between different concept models during production of "Star Wars", the notion of the Death Star being a large, spherical space station over 100 kilometers in diameter was consistent in all of them. George Lucas gave the original task of designing a "Death Star" to concept artist and spaceship modeler Colin Cantwell, who had collaborated with Stanley Kubrick on the 1968 film "". In a 2016 interview, Cantwell related that "I didn't originally plan for the Death Star to have a trench, but when I was working with the mold, I noticed the two halves had shrunk at the point where they met across the middle." As it "would have taken a week of work just to fill and sand and refill this depression," Cantwell suggested a trench to Lucas to save the labor. Lucas liked the idea, and the Death Star model was created by John Stears. The buzzing sound counting down to the Death Star firing its superlaser comes from the "Flash Gordon" serials. Portraying an incomplete yet powerful space station posed a problem for Industrial Light & Magic's modelmakers for "Return of the Jedi". Only the front side of the 137-centimeter model was completed, and the image was flipped horizontally for the final film. Both Death Stars were depicted by a combination of complete and sectional models and matte paintings.
White Star Line
White Star began its North Atlantic run between Liverpool and New York with six nearly identical ships, also known as the 'Oceanic' class: "Oceanic" (I), "Atlantic", "Baltic", and "Republic", followed by the slightly larger "Celtic" and "Adriatic". It had long been customary for many shipping lines to have a common theme for the names of their ships. White Star gave their ships names ending in "-ic". The line also adopted a buff-coloured funnel with a black top as a distinguishing feature for their ships, as well as a distinctive house flag, a red broad pennant with two tails, bearing a white five-pointed star. In the initial designs for this first fleet of liners, each ship was to measure 420 feet in length, 40 feet in width and approximately 3,707 in gross tonnage, equipped with compound expansion engines powering a single screw, and capable of speeds of up to 14 knots. They were also identical in passenger accommodations based on a two-class system, providing accommodations for 166 First Class passengers amidships, which in those days was commonly referred to as 'Saloon Class' and 1,000 Steerage passengers.