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.
List of Romanian Navy destroyers of World War II
Between 1938 and 1941, Romania built and commissioned one minelayer which was also fitted for use as a cnvoy escort, her dimensions and armament being very similar to those of American destroyer escorts, particularly the torpedo-less "Evarts"-class. Named "Amiral Murgescu", she was laid down on 1 August 1938 and launched on 14 June 1939. Her commissioning took place on 2 March 1941. Her full-load displacement amounted to 1,068 tons while her standard displacement was of 812 tons. She measured 76.9 meters in length, with a beam of 9.1 meters and a draught of 2.5 meters. She was armed with two 105 mm SK C/32 dual-purpose naval/AA guns, two Rheinmetall 37 mm guns, four Oerlikon 20 mm guns and two twin 13 mm machine guns. She was also fitted with two depth charge throwers and could carry up to 200 mines and depth charges (135 mines and 65 depth charges). Her two main guns were initially protected by gun shields, however these were removed in July 1941 in order to facilitate anti-aircraft fire. "Amiral Murgescu" had a crew of up to 135 and was powered by two Krupp diesel engines generating 1,050 horse power each, giving her a top speed of 16 knots and a range of 3,400 nautical miles. Four ships of this class were planned, but only "Amiral Murgescu" was completed.