It said "a" Death Star, not "the" Death Star, so presumably there's some leeway to fix some of the design flaws, so that it's not vulnerable to a small, one-man fighter.

I have to disagree with part of the administration's reasoning. It said "a" Death Star, not "the" Death Star, so presumably there's some leeway to fix some of the design flaws, so that it's not vulnerable to a small, one-man fighter. Why is there a vent to a central reactor essentially unguarded and on the outside of the ship? No competent engineer would say "No worries, that's smaller than a womp rat!"

By that logic, they could just buy some B-2s and just call them "Death Stars".

No competent engineer would say "No worries, that's smaller than a womp rat!"

You canNOT petition the Lord with prayer...

For that design to be exploited, they needed someone in a small fighter who could get close enough to the vent, and make use of the force to nail the shot. At the time of the attack, there were three people alive in the galaxy who were known to be strong enough with the force to make the shot. One was not a fighter pilot, and the other two were building the Death Star. That they did not design something that would protect against the possibility of a new Jedi who also happened to be a fighter pilot is not on the engineers.

For that design to be exploited, they needed someone in a small fighter who could get close enough to the vent, and make use of the force to nail the shot. At the time of the attack, there were three people alive in the galaxy who were known to be strong enough with the force to make the shot. One was not a fighter pilot, and the other two were building the Death Star. That they did not design something that would protect against the possibility of a new Jedi who also happened to be a fighter pilot is not on the engineers.

My guess -- it was that damnable Admiral Ozzel who dropped the ball... everyone knows he's as clumsy as he is stupid.

At the time of the attack, there were three people alive in the galaxy who were known to be strong enough with the force to make the shot. One was not a fighter pilot, and the other two were building the Death Star.

Here's a question...why did they let R2D2 escape with plans that exposed an ACTUAL flaw in the Death Star. Why didn't they just feed him fake plans with a fake flaw? That seems kind of stupid of them.

Classic rock radio is a plague upon mankind.

"We've analyzed their attack patterns, and there is a danger." If they already knew of the flaw, they wouldn't have had to really analyze the attack patterns to be aware of the danger. This doesn't speak highly of their engineers, I suppose.

Classic rock radio is a plague upon mankind.

It is more than a little ironic that the Doors get more radio play now, many years after Jim Morrison's death, than they did in their heyday.

Because the plans weren't about the flaw, they were about the death star itself -- the blueprints had to be analyzed by the rebels to find the flaw... and they didn't feed them to him -- the Bothan spies stole them, gave them to Leia, who entrusted them to the droid.

I have to disagree with part of the administration's reasoning. It said "a" Death Star, not "the" Death Star, so presumably there's some leeway to fix some of the design flaws, so that it's not vulnerable to a small, one-man fighter. Why is there a vent to a central reactor essentially unguarded and on the outside of the ship? No competent engineer would say "No worries, that's smaller than a womp rat!"

It seems just as likely to me that someone else failed to act... and frankly, it's entirely likely that Palpatine's preference for secrecy and playing various factions against each contributed to the lack of info sharing.

I mean Journey? Styx? Steve Miller Band post-1970? That crap is classic?

Obi-Wan was a fighter pilot, although it had undoubtedly been many years since he had flown at that point. Unless you meant Yoda, but in that case, what about Obi-Wan?

The Empire built two of them and they both had a similar flaw. It seems to be inherent to a Death Star.

Obi Wan was alive, known to be alive, and was very much a fighter pilot, at least when they were building the death star if not at the time of the attack.

The Death Star may be badly designed in details like reactor vents and so on, but that is nothing compared to the stupidity of the overall design. It is a strategic weapon designed to blow up entire planets into gravel, at an enormous cost in energy. In what way is that more terrifying for those on the other side of the barrel than a weapon that simply kills all life and sterilizes a planet? Which would be an at least ten orders of magnitude or so easier task.

a weapon that simply kills all life and sterilizes a planet

That they didn't take the attack seriously nor do any kind of planning or preparation for defending the Death Star is the flaw not some exhaust pipe

Darth Nihilius could kill all life on a planet if he wanted to (and he did!).

They had probably designed the second one without such a flaw, but at the time of its destruction 2.0 was still under construction and had gaps big enough to fit a cargo ship through.