jetpunk | It Doesn't Have To Be Right...

2012-10-08
by iansales 1 Comment

The future we used to have – special 4

Air, land, sea… and back to air. Space will come later. Here are ten civil aircraft of the twentieth century – because jetpunk is not about dropping bombs on people (it’s just that the military was often the cutting-edge of technology). The only one of the following planes I flew in is the first one, the VC10.

Vickers VC10
Long-range airliner (GB)
crew 4
passengers 151
max speed 933 kph
range 9,412 km
service 1964 – 1981

Bristol Britannia
Medium- to long-range airliner (GB)
crew 4
passengers 139
max speed 639 kph
range 7,129 km
service 1952 – 1990

Lockheed Constellation
Long-range airliner (US)
crew 5
passengers 109
max speed 607 kph
range 8,700 km
service 1945 – 1990s

Bristol Brabazon
Prototype long-range airliner (GB)
crew 6
passengers 100
max speed 480 kph
range 8,900 km
service n/a

Tupolev Tu-104 (‘Camel’)
Medium-range airliner (USSR)
crew 5
passengers 50
max speed 950 kph
range 2,650 km
service 1956 – 1986

Boeing 377 Stratocruiser
Long-range airliner (US)
crew 5
passengers 114
max speed 603 kph
range 6,760 km
service 1947 – 1963

Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde
Long-range supersonic airliner (GB/France)
crew 3
passengers 120
max speed 2,179 kph
range 7,250 km
service 1976 – 2003

De Havilland DH-106 Comet
Medium-range airliner (GB)
crew 4
passengers 81
max speed 840 kph
range 5,190 km
service 1952 – 1954, 1958 – 1997

Fairey Rotodyne
Prototype compound gyroplane (GB)
crew 2
passengers 40
max speed 307 kph
range 724 km
service n/a

Saunders Roe Princess
Prototype passenger flying boat (GB)
crew 6
passengers 105
max speed 610 kph
range 9,205 km
service n/a

Note: crew does not include cabin staff as that varied; number of passengers could also vary, depending on model of airliner and density of seating.

In 1952, the de Havilland Comet became the first jet-powered airliner in service, but it was grounded between 1954 and 1958 after a series of fatal crashes. As a result, the Tupolev Tu-104 was the only jetliner flying commercially between 1956 and 1958, although it too had a tendency to crash during its early years.

The VC10 should have been much more successful than it was. BOAC demanded an airliner than could take off from the short runways of the airports of nations in Africa, and then complained that the VC10 was more expensive to operate than the Boeing 707. The Boeing required such a long run to take off that a VC10 would be at 1,000 feet before the 707 had even left the ground.

The Boeing Stratocruiser was apparently really noisy – it was piston-engined – so when the turboprop Britannia was introduced it gained the nickname the “whispering giant”. Jets like the Comet were quieter still. And yet James Bond, in For Your Eyes Only, moans that he preferred the Stratocruiser as the Comet crosses the Atlantic too quickly…

2012-10-01
by iansales 3 Comments

The future we used to have – special 3

I’ve done air and land, so now it’s time for sea. Here’s ten sea- and river-going vessels from the last century whose lines possess that all-important futurism. Well, I think they look cool anyway. Trump-ish facts and figures added for extra nerdishness.

NS Savannah
Nuclear-powered cargo passenger ship (US)
length 181.66 m
displacement 9,900 tons
max speed 24 knots
crew 124
in service 1959 – 1972

Kirov-class battlecruiser
Nuclear-powered battlecruiser (USSR)
length 252 m
displacement 24,300 tons
max speed 32 knots
crew 710
in service 1980 – present

Trieste
Bathyscaphe (Switzerland/Italy/US)
length 18.14 m
displacement 50 tons
crush depth 10,916 m*
crew 2
in service 1953 – 1966

British Hovercraft Corporation SR.N4
Passenger hovercraft (GB)
length 56.83 m
displacement 265 tons
max speed 83 knots
crew 3
in service 1968 – 2000

Ben Franklin (Grummman/Piccard Px-15)
Mesoscaphe (Switzerland/US)
length 14.86 m
displacement 130 tons
crush depth 1,200 m
crew 6
in service 1968 – 1971

USS Long Beach
Nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser (US)
length 219.84 m
displacement 15,540 tons
max speed 30 knots
crew 1160
in service 1959 – 1995

Kosmonaut Yuri Gagarin
Space-control monitoring ship (USSR)
length 230 m
displacement 53,500 tons
max speed 17.7 knots
crew 340
in service 1971 – 1991

Raketa Hydrofoil Burevestnik (Stormbringer)
River hydrofoil boat (USSR)
length 26.9 m
displacement 25.23 tons
max speed 38 knots
crew 4
in service 1957 – 1970s

Akula class submarine (‘Typhoon’)
Ballistic missile submarine (USSR)
length 175 m
displacement 24,500 tons
max speed 27 knots
crew 160
in service 1981 – present

SS Oriana
Ocean liner (GB)
length 245.1 m
displacement 41,923 tons
max speed 30.64 knots
crew 899
in service 1960 – 2005

Displacement is approximate, as some figures are long tons, some are metric tons, and some are actually gross weight (although for a submarine that should be the same as displacement…).

* The Trieste could not go any deeper than this, of course, as that’s the bottom of Challenger Deep.

2012-09-24
by iansales 8 Comments

The future we used to have – special 2

After the last jetpunk special post on military aircraft, here’s one on cars. Again, they’re presented in a Top Trumps-like format, so you could print the page off, cut them out, laminate them and play very short games of Trumps with them…

Lamborghini Marzal
Concept car (Italy)
year 1967
bhp 175
max speed 225 kph
4-seater
number produced 1

Lancia Stratos Stradale
Sports car (Italy)
year 1972
bhp 190
max speed 232 kph
2-seater
number produced 492

Jensen FF
Coupé – four-wheel drive (GB)
year 1966
bhp 330
max speed 223 kph
4-seater
number produced 320

Ferrari 512 S Berlinetta Speciale
Concept car (Italy)
year 1969
bhp 542
max speed 278 kph
2-seater
number produced 1

Lamborghini Countach LP400
Supercar (Italy)
year 1974
bhp 370
max speed 309 kph
2-seater
number produced 2,042

Citroën SM
Coupé (France)
year 1970
bhp 188
max speed 217 kph
4-seater
number produced 12,920

Aston Martin Lagonda Series 2
Saloon (GB)
year 1976
bhp 310
max speed 239 kph
4-seater
number produced 458

Mercedes-Benz C111 IID
Concept car (Germany)
year 1976
bhp 188
max speed 290 kph
2-seater
number produced 1

BMW Turbo E25
Concept car (Germany)
year 1972
bhp 276
max speed 250 kph
2-seater
number produced 2

Alfa Romeo Stradale P33 Sport Roadster
Concept car (Italy)
year 1968
bhp 230
max speed 260 kph
2-seater
number produced 1

2012-09-18
by iansales 12 Comments

The future we used to have – special

These jetpunk posts are chiefly meant to be eye candy for those who like retro-futurist stuff, especially machines. Cars. Rockets. Aeroplanes. Submarines. Ships. Moon bases. Space stations. Stuff like that. So it occurred to me I might as well do the occasional post focusing on only one of those. And I could make it a sort of top ten. Like Top Trumps.

So, first up, it’s aircraft. These are my own choices, the ten military aeroplanes I find most emblematic of the future we used to have…

Avro Vulcan
V-Bomber (GB)
crew 5
max speed 1,040 kph
range 4,171 km
max ceiling 17,000 m
service 1956 – 1984

Handley Page Victor
V-Bomber (GB)
crew 5
max speed 1,009 kph
range 9,660 km
max ceiling 17,000 m
service 1958 – 1993

North American XB-70 Valkyrie
Prototype supersonic bomber (USA)
crew 2
max speed 3,309 kph
range 6,900 km
max ceiling 23,600 m
service n/a

North American X-15
Hypersonic research aircraft (USA)
crew 1
max speed 7,274 kph
range 450 km
max ceiling 108,000 m
service 1959 – 1970

Convair B-58 Hustler
Supersonic bomber (USA)
crew 2
max speed 2,123 kph
range 3,220 km
max ceiling 19,300 m
service 1960 – 1970

Tupolev Tu-22 ‘Shilo’ (‘Blinder’)
Supersonic bomber (USSR)
crew 3
max speed 1,510 kph
range 4,900 km
max ceiling 13,300 m
service 1962 – 1990s

BAC TSR.2
Prototype strike/reconaissance aircraft (GB)
crew 2
max speed 1,348 kph
range 4,630 km
max ceiling 12,000 m
service n/a

Avro Arrow
Prototype supersonic interceptor (CA)
crew 2
max speed 2,185 kph
range 660 km
max ceiling 16,150 m
service n/a

BAC/English Electric Lightning
Supersonic interceptor (GB)
crew 1
max speed 2,100 kph
range 1,660 km
max ceiling 16,000 m
service 1959 – 1988

Convair B-36 Peacemaker
Bomber (USA)
crew 13
max speed 672 kph
range 16,000 km
max ceiling 13,300 m
service 1949 – 1959

2012-08-27
by iansales 2 Comments

The future we used to have, part 12

We lost a bit of the future we used to have only a couple of days ago, when Neil Armstrong died following heart surgery. The US space programme of the 1950s and 1960s has always fascinated me because of its optimism for the future. It gave us “Space Age” as a term of approval, and I for one mourn the Space Age we nearly had within our grasp. Here are some photographs to remind us of lost times…

space

British Aerospace HOTOL

NASA space ferry concept

Nuclear-powered ferry to the Moon (from Look and Learn)

Von Braun design for a lunar lander

Cabin detail from von Braun lunar lander

NASA Moon colony, with LRV in foreground

roads

Ford FX Atmos concept car, 1954

Bubble cars

Still the best-looking car ever, the Lamborghini Marzal

Lamborghini Marzal – so futuristic, you have to wear a spacesuit to drive it

Ferrari 512 S Speciale, by Pininfarina

Ferrari 512 S Speciale – could only be driven by people without heads

fashion

When you wake up in the future, this is what the nurses will look like (Pierre Cardin)

In the future, everyone will wear a bucket on their head because of climate change (Pierre Cardin)

What to wear when the sea levels rise (Nina Ricci)

Even on the Moon, they will need to keep their beer cold (Paco Raban, I think; and Frigidaire)

For when astronauts go hungry (Paco Raban again, I think)

Neil Armstrong can rest easy, knowing the Moon will be kept clean

2012-07-16
by iansales 11 Comments

The future we used to have, part 11

There is apparently some neoliberal sporting festival about to take place in London in a couple of weeks – featuring events such as ethnic profiling, merchant scheme monopoly, remove the non-sponsor logo, the all-day traffic jam, spot the celeb in the VIP lane, and other such twenty-first century pursuits in Tory Britain. But since that is all a) boring, b) unethical, c) dull, and d) offensive, how about looking at some photos of cool retro-futuristic (sort of) things instead?

land

Buick Century Cruiser, 1969

Oldsmobile Golden Rocket concept car, 1956

Ford Seattle-ite, 1962

Pininfarina X, 1960

sea

SRN3 hovercraft

DSV-2 Alvin

DSV-4 Sea Cliff

air

Supermarine Type 508

Republic XF-103

BAC Lightning (and Tupolev Tu-95 ‘Bear’)

home

from Fahrenheit 451 (great film, rubbish book)

from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

2012-06-04
by iansales Leave a comment

The future we used to have, part 10

Since we’re supposed to be celebrating sixty years of Queen Elizabeth II on the throne, but watching a bunch of boats covered in bunting float down the Thames is dull, how about looking at some cool planes and cars and buildings from the last sixty years instead?

air

Hawker P.1121

Gloster Javelin

Mikoyan MiG-25 ‘Foxbat’

Mikoyan MiG-31 ‘Foxhound’

land

Supreme Court Building, Brasilia (Oscar Niemeyer)

Parque do Ibirapuera, São Paulo (Oscar Niemeyer & Roberto Burle Marx)

Ostankino TV Tower, Moscow (Nikolai Nikitin)

Observation deck of Ostankino TV Tower

water

NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered passenger/cargo ship

NS Savannah

Bridge of the NS Savannah

A Stateroom aboard NS Savannah

2012-05-11
by iansales 1 Comment

the future we used to have, part 9

I want a time machine so I can go back to the 1960s and then go forward to the future they thought they were going to have. You know, the one with moon bases, jumpsuits, jetpacks, foodpills; where capitalism actually worked and everyone was happy and prosperous; and the only thing spoiling the clear blue skies were the sonic booms of supersonic bombers and airliners crossing the Atlantic in two hours…

Until someone actually invents that time machine, feast your eyes on these:

Aeroplanes

Convair XB-46

Artwork of the Convair XB-42

Convair XB-43 (a jet-powered version of the XB-42)

Buildings

Kamzík TV Tower, Bratislava

Slovak Broadcast Building, Bratislava

The Memorial and Museum of the Slovak National Uprising, Bratislava

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Niterói (Oscar Niemeyer)

Liberty Pantheon, Brasilia (Oscar Niemeyer)

Fashion

In the future, everyone will wear beige (Space: 1999)

In the future, everyone will wear string vests (UFO)

In the future, everyone will dress like humbugs (Pierre Cardin)

In the future, everyone will wear black– no, wait… (Raumpatrouille Orion)

In the future, everyone will wear high-heeled waders (Pierre Cardin)

2012-03-05
by iansales 4 Comments

The future we used to have, part 8

There’s an unfortunate tendency for these retro-futurist posts to go all a bit boys-toys-ish. That’s understandable, given that Cold War supersonic fighters and bombers did, well, did look pretty cool. Likewise the cars. And, sadly, hunt for contemporary fashion photos and it’s almost impossible to find ones depicting men in space age outfits – it’s all women. Even the sales photographs for the giant computer brains generally have women posed as if operating them.

Anyway, this time around there are… planes, cars, some house interiors, and some fashion. A few of the fashion photos show designs by Pierre Cardin, who probably deserves a post all his own…

Aircraft