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
On 22 March 1899, just two months after "Oceanic" was launched, the first keel plates of the "Celtic" were laid at Harland & Wolff. Construction progressed on her rapidly, and as White Star had planned, the new fleet of liners would be constructed in overlapping succession, as in October 1900, while "Celtic"s hull was nearing completion, construction began on the second ship, "Cedric". When "Celtic" was launched in April 1901, there was much fanfare, as she was hailed the largest ship in the world in terms of tonnage, as well as being the first to exceed the tonnage of the infamous "Great Eastern". She took a mere four additional months for fitting out before sailing on her maiden voyage from Liverpool on 26 July of that year. Upon her entry into service, one of her most attractive features was her seaworthiness, as on her maiden voyage it was noted how while at sea, she was "as steady as the Rock of Gibraltar."