Wookieepedia:Featured article queue/January 1, 2009

Raith Sienar was a prominent engineer during the closing years of the Galactic Republic and early days of the Galactic Empire, producing countless highly advanced designs, most well-known among them the TIE fighter; he was also the originator of the concept for the Death Star. Ambitious and keen, Sienar was raised inside the Sienar family, which had run the prominent shipbuilding concern Santhe/Sienar Technologies for thousands of years. Sienar struck off to prove himself as a teen before returning to the fold, where his father Narro Sienar trained him to take over the company. When Narro was killed by assassins seeking Raith, the younger Sienar, only in his twenties, took over the company. For the next decade, Sienar lived an aristocratic lifestyle, designing unique and cutting-edge ships on Coruscant for wealthy and secretive clients, among them the Scimitar for Darth Sidious.

In 29 BBY, Sienar's friend Wilhuff Tarkin recruited him into a scheme to take control of Zonama Sekot, a world producing advanced living ships. Sienar already knew of the world and had plans of his own, but acquiesced to Tarkin's demands. Sienar was given command of a squadron of ships and sent after Sekot, but Tarkin had designed the mission to fail, and swept in expecting to save the day with his own force. The Sekotans defeated them, however, and fled. Tarkin was only able to save himself from disgrace by presenting Palpatine with Sienar's plans for an Expeditionary Battle Planetoid; Sienar had lost interest in the design, but it would form the basis of the Death Star years later. Sienar continued developing ships, and when Palpatine declared himself Galactic Emperor, he placed Sienar in command of a new company, Sienar Fleet Systems, where Sienar designed the iconic TIE fighter and became one of the new Empire's primary arms providers, a role he held until he was cut down by assassins financed by corporate rivals.