Hello from an old man who created the Death Star

Thank you very much, Mr. Cantwell, for helping to bring such imagination, inspiration, and memorable designs into the Star Wars universe.

Your work is nothing short of legendary, and we, as fans and fellow storytellers, are ever grateful for your incredible contributions to Star Wars.

 

Welcome here Mister Cantwell.

Something always mesmerized me : where are the death star thrusters ? When I was younger, I couldn't understand how this big ball was able to move in space without any reactor. Look at the enormous ones who propel an Imperial Star Destroyer or the Tantive!

 

Wow, just wow! Welcome mister Cantwell! To virtually meet the guy who created so many designs for the Star Wars universe is truly an honor. Thank you for your creations!

 

Welcome, Mr. Cantwell. We are excited to have you here. So excited, in fact, that this is our thread of the week.

 

Great!
I was very suprised the post Mr Cantwell left in "Random Chatter" had not yet been followed by any other.

 

Wait a minute, I'm confused. Didn't Ralph Mcquarrie help Lucas figure out the designs with his illustrations or am I missing something?

 

This is absolutely awesome that you are here in the cantina, one of the best star wars fan sites out there. I'm going to admit it's one of those times where you don't know you're a fan until you realize who the person is that make what you liked for a life time. It's awesome to tell the person that contributed many things to your life that they've done that, you've helped on inspiring what I enjoy in life from my job to my hobbies to a lot of things (I'm a huge X-wing fan). I'm glad you're here and I hope you like the cantina

 

By the way, Colin, I just took a really good look at that delta-winged starfighter design you posted at the end of your initial post here. That's a completely new one on me! I've seen a couple drawings of the early X-wing design with the wider spread between the wings, and of course your early star destroyer concept shows some fundamental similarities with the final design in the movie (and of course, they later took the extended aft section, rotated it 90 degrees and added it on to the design for Vader's command ship in Empire Strikes Back.

But that delta-winged ship... such a cool early concept! It looks like there are a couple of them in that Star Destroyer painting - were these an early concept for the Imperial starfighter, before the TIE design came along?

It actually reminds me of the description of the "Headhunter" fighter in the Han Solo novels that Brian Daley wrote in 1979 or so - a swing-wing delta-shaped atmospheric design with a high cockpit, which at the time I read the Daley books all those years ago made me think of a fighter jet like an F-14 Tomcat.

Your design, though, looks more like a prototype for the F-117 stealth fighter. VERY well anticipated, my friend!

(I love that it even has a pitot tube mounted to the nose! A great little ship design there.)

 

Mr. Cantwell,

Thank you for joining us at The Cantina. I echo the sentiments of others when I say the creativity that you contributed to George Lucas' film helped shape my life. The story of good versus evil set in space and fought by brave pilots pushed me at the early age of five to decide that I was going to fly fighters and that is what I do. As someone that studied engineering as an undergraduate and spent years doodling starship and fighter designs, I wonder what your own educational background is. Based upon some of your comments to Dekka129 you appear to have some engineering history or at the very least, you are an outstanding student.

A related question, when you were designing the starships, specifically the smaller ones, were there any real-world aircraft whose roles inspired particular vehicles?

Thank you again for your creativity and contributions.

 

Hello Mr. Cantwell!
I love learning about the behind the scenes stuff (stories, details, ...). The stuff that really adds to the already immortal tales.
Thank you for stopping by!

 

From Jason DeBord Youtube channel:

 

I'm a little late to this party, but as others have said, thank you for coming here and sharing all this information. It takes so much talent to make any given movie, and it's people like you that helped create the world of Star Wars as fans have known it and loved it for the last 40 years.

I hope you have a good time here.

 

It was awesome seeing you at FanX here in salt lake city, I hope you liked it here. Utah is the nerdiest state according to times magazine so, I know you ran into a lot of fans

 

One of the interesting things, IMHO, is that Mr. Cantwell also provided the basic design for Vader's Super Star Destroyer.



In Mr. Cantwell's original concept (top) bow and stern were reversed, but the essential arrowhead shape is hard to overlook.

Now, Vader's Star Destroyer originally began as a modified standard Star Destroyer but ultimately evolved into the unique arrowhead shape we saw in the film. The way it still looks to me Mr. Cantwell's design stuck in the back of the head of Mr. Lucas who wouldn't authorize the final Super Star Destroyer design until it resembled what he remembered.

And here is a sketch with annotations of Mr. Cantwell's original TIE fighter design:

 

Star Wars AND 2001 A Space Odyssey?? You're a LEGEND! Welcome!

 

Thank you for stopping by and Sharing your story with us!

 

I just want to simply say, Star Wars and your work has been an inspiration to me. Including 2001: A Space Odyssey.

 

Wow. This is so cool that he posted here!! Cool pictures!