I may be way off base here but it looks more like some sort of exhaust for some sort of industrial engine or machine, than a jet engine.
look like boat exhausts in a way, or a really mangled air conditioning intake
I'm open to it being anything, but we know the crew pulled a lot of parts from aircraft junkyards. Not ruling it out though.
Tried looking at the Vulcan?
hmm, looking at parts of the Vulcan's engine, a rolls olympus, nothing quite matching...
What is a well known donor for SW props?
The Vickers Viscount.
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And for those who do not have access to the Making of SW book, there is this snap shot on page 117:
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Compare with this:
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I would say that is the same engine.
Cheers,
Falk
That snapshot from Making of Star Wars looks very close.
I keep finding a ton of images of the vickers engine itself, but none of the exhaust system, which I think it where we need to see...
I see the vague resemblance with the crisscross tubing, but I don't think that Making of SW photo is of a Viscount engine.
The Vickers Viscount had 4 Rolls Royce Dart turboprop engines. Google "dart turboprop" and you'll find lots of good pics like these...
http://www.terrafirmajets.co.uk/image_files/dartlinkedpic1.jpg
Indian Air Force | Dart 6 under servicing (July - Aug 1963) [www.bharat-rakshak.com]
There are definitely some Dart parts around ANH, but I don't think that droid uses any major parts from one.
It does look like part of an exhaust system though.
the dart turboprop does have an interesting part on the end of the engine, almost the right profile for the R1's "foot"
Was this droid made to be worn as a costume? If so then even more likely it is not part of that engine.
The piece on the Voidspider speeder looks like the exhaust system for the Vickers and the panel(the one with the large circle) looks to be a piece for the R1 but I dont think the entire system was used for the Droid prop.
Just FYI, the R1 isn't based on any jet parts... its a made up illustration
Chris Foss painting that precedes Star Wars by a few years... Here is a quote:
the book was first published in 1957 but this book cover for a re-issue of the novel came out in 1973
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I agree its based on the Foss painting. I don't mean they based the design on a jet engine, but that they used jet engine parts to get the look they wanted from the painting. Very cool!
Thanks! I had seen part of that video in the Star Wars Begins unofficial doc, but its really useful to have it isolated.
thanks for your replies folks! Got a rough model in the works.
while we're at it, and looking at turboprops, does the R1's head look like it might be the nose cone from one of the props itself?