From memory I can sketch a fairly accurate Otto Cycle internal combustion engine...even though I am not an automotive engineer.Rogue 9 wrote:I somehow doubt that Palpatine, a career politician and Sith Lord, could reconstruct a hyperdrive from memory, even assuming that the Federation's manufacturing base is up to making one.
Hell, on Junkyard Wars / Scrapheap Challenge contestants build things like cannons, jet turbines, seige engines (catapults, trebuchets, battaring rams) out of junkyard parts in eight hours flat!
You don't need to be an engineer, just hire one.