PADME'S ROYAL SPACECRAFT
DEC 3   
You might have wondered where the design of Padme's Royal Vessel came from that you saw on the Virtual Edition. In this section I'll discuss how I combined the information from several pictures to visualize the spaceship. 

The first time I heard of a 'Naboo spaceship' was at the time that we saw the secretly taken pictures in the french magazine 'Premiere', soon followed by the pictures in the german magazine 'Cinema' (also taken without permission). These pictures showed the underbelly of a spaceship, with an extended ramp. The rest of the ship would certainly be created in CG by ILM. What immediately stroke me, was the strange, curved, round underbelly of this ship.
The same curved belly was seen in picture published by Harry Knowles of a ship being constructed in Leavesden, a ship very similar to the one seen in Tunisia.
Then TheForce.Net published a screen shot of a document on which you can read: "Naboo Queen's Spaceship.... Gangway Airlock Doors"
In the mean time, Sam Davatchi had posted on his website a picture of some storyboard pictures from Episode 1. The three pictures on the right side of the picture look like the interior of a ship with a door opening. Through the opening, you can see what looks like an orange colored landscape (Tatooine?). On the right, there is a person in a uniform (captain Panake, Padme's personal pilot?). The three pictures in the middle of the second column from the right show us something that looks like a round... airlock, opening up.
The last element that provided the 'clue' to all this information was the picture on the official website of someone working on a model of a strange craft. What struck me was, that IF this model was indeed a spacecraft, it had the same curved underbelly as the ship seen in the spy-pictures from Leavesden! And look on the left: these little 'pipes' could be engines. The relief on the top of the 'craft' could be some kind of windows.
I then went back to the storyboard pictures from Sam Davatchi. Look at this enhancement of the upper picture of the second column from the right: could this be the interior of the spaceship, with a rounded roof with windows in it, just like the model suggests? Now compare it with the 'virtual' version of the interior of Padme's ship I made: 
 
 
What I did after this research was to modify the picture of the model, color it, add some motion blur and put it in space. The interior of the ship was enhanced with a starry sky in one picture, with a blue sky in another one. I also added pictures of Padme (Portman) and Panake (Quarshie). And there it was: Padme's flight to Tatooine! 
 
 
> DEC 5 - REACTION 1 
 
Christopher McElroy wrote: "That story about Padme's ship--excellent detective work. You may end up the most hated man in Lucasfilm yet! : )"
> DEC 29 - REACTION 2 
  
Charles Bunnag wrote: "While I was looking on the page about how you figured out the design of Padme's ship, I noticed the small gray model the ILM guy was working on.  I compared that to the Coruscant scene in ROTJ:SE, the air taxi's sweeping across the screen look almost identical.  Check it for yourself . Maybe you're right, maybe I'm right. Who knows? But just check it out anyway."
> JAN 16 - REACTION 3 
  
James wrote: "I have to agree with another reader of the site in that I believe the picture you put up as being of Padme's ship is actually just a Coruscant airbus. I think that you can see Padme's ship already if you just watch ANH:SE, I am very much conviced that the ship crashed in the middle of Mos Eisley is infact Padme's ship. It would be a cool thing to add to the prequels and it would add a bit more of the "whoa look at that factor" to both Ep. 1 and ANH:SE."
> JAN 17 - REACTION 4 
 
HanSolo206  wrote: "Regarding what James commented on:  The though that Padme's ship is the wreckage in Mos Eisley is a cool thought, but that ship didn't look that big and that also means that Mos Eisley was built around the ship.  Then that theory kinda messes up the possibility that Mos Espa is an earlier less populated colony of Mos Eisley, kinda like the colony of New Amsterdam is now New York City."
> JAN 17 - REACTION 5 
  
Nathaniel Reed wrote: "The Mos Eisley crash site as Padme's ship ? Nice idea !! But ....  I suppose a pursuer, like Maul, could've shot it down, and then even left them alone thinking they had not survived. Or if he *does* investigate, he has the misfortune to stumble across Qui-Gonn first !!"
> JAN 20 - REACTION 6 
  
CrunchDec wrote: "It's actually interesting that how the rumors of the crashed site of Padme's ship in what would be Mos Eisley is true.   I have a still picture of the scene from ANH:SE when Ben and Luke stop near the wrecked ship then turns toward the 2 rontos to the cantina.  If you see closely at the top of the wrecked ship you'll see a large domed glass of what used to be what I believe is Padme's room on the ship. Now, compare it with Roderick's the SW virtual edition pic with the domed glass and Padme and the Captain. This which suggests that Mos Espa will be Mos EISLEY in 30 year's development of the town.  This proves George Lucas' promise to relate Episode I to ANH:SE!  Like Obi-Wan Kenobi said in ANH, "Very interesting..."   Interesting indeed !"