Like many computer panel displays in the 1980s, the most prominent features of the X-wing’s interior are its simple computer graphics. We get a really good look at this aiming display in A New Hope when the rebel squadron is engaged in its climactic assault against the Death Star.

While there are many people to credit for the look of Star Wars (especially Ralph Mcquarrie’s early concept art) the fact is real world circumstances and compromises were one of the biggest factors involved. The film had a relatively small budget and these were the days before CGI, so the legendary aesthetics were dependent on the set dresser, Roger Christian, being able to improvise.

Christian told Esquire that while working on the film he discovered that “if I bought airplane scrap and broke it down, I could stick it in the sets in specific ways — because there's an order to doing it, it's not just random. And that's the art of it. I understood how to do that — engineering and all that stuff. So George said, 'Yes, go do it.' And airplane scrap at that time, nobody wanted it. There were junkyards full of it, because they sold it by weight. I could buy almost an entire plane for 50 pounds.”