AN 'EMPIRE' AT 40: THE BESPIN OPERATION!

A 'city in the clouds' like no other, this terrific ILM conceptual art from Ralph McQuarrie shows us the full length of the Bespin facility and further details linked to its Tibanna Gas mining operations

Cloud Cars and Air Whales fly the skies around the city.

AN 'EMPIRE' AT 40: THE OTHER FLYERS OF BESPIN!

Originally, it wasn't just the Twin Pod Cloud Cars that enjoyed the colourful skies of Bespin. There were also to have been pilot-ridden Air Whales too, as seen in these early thumbnail sketches by Ralph McQuarrie. Though abandoned for Empire (and later for Jedi, as another form of flying transport), the creatures would finally make it to the screen in adapted form, used by the spindly alien Kaminoans in atmospheric establishing shots during EPISODE II.

The flying whale beasts of Kamino, as seen in EPISODE II.