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
The losses of the "Titanic" and "Britannic" left "Olympic" as the only surviving member of White Star's planned trio of express liners. In 1922 the White Star Line obtained two former German liners which had been ceded to Britain as war reparations under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, ostensibly as replacements for the war losses of "Britannic", "Oceanic", "Arabic", "Cymric" and "Laurentic".: The former "SS Bismarck" which was renamed "Majestic", and the former "SS Columbus" which was renamed "Homeric". At 56,551 gross tons, "Majestic" was then the world's largest liner and became the company's flagship. The two former German liners operated successfully alongside "Olympic" for an express service on the Southampton–New York route until the Great Depression reduced demand after 1930.