Imagination of the future from the past

[Stargazer2006]

If you're into that sort of faux passé kind of thing, you ought to check out New York's 1939 International World's Fair. I've got plenty of stuff on this but no scanner unfortunately. It must have been a dream to grow up as a kid and visit that sort of place. Everything seemed possible then.

[Stargazer2006]

Aerotropolis
Skyscraper Airport for City of Tomorrow

"What the metropolitan skyport of tomorrow may look like, as conceived by Nicholas DeSantis, New York commercial artist, is shown in the illustration below. His remarkable proposal, embodied in a model that he has completed after five years' study of the project, calls for a 200-story building capped by an airplane field eight city blocks long and three blocks wide. A lower level of his "aerotropolis", as he has named it, offers a port for lighter-than-air craft. Hangars for planes and airships occupy the top fifty floors.

Commuters living 100 miles or more from the city would fly to work in their private planes. Landing on the roof, they would descend by elevators and moving platforms to an indoor parking space for 250,000 private cars and taxis, whence they would be whisked without delay to their destination. Similar facilities would serve passengers arriving by transport planes and airship lines. By centralizing air and land terminals in one building, the "aerotropolis" would save time now lost in journeying to and from airports far from the heart of a city.

Other parts of the building provide space for offices and light industrial plants, theaters, two enormous arenas for football and baseball games, restaurants and cafes."

Drawing by B. G. Seielstad

Source: an old issue of Popular Mechanics or such

NOTE: this was a two-page illustration which was missing a strip in the middle because of the spine. I have reconstructed the missing part digitally for your enjoyment. Hope you like it! I know I do... At present time it's my desktop background!

[Michel Van]

the only build Skyscraper Airport

is the Empire State Building

Art Deco spire was originally designed to be a mooring mast and depot for airship
but test with airships show it almost impossible to dock, due to updrafts winds caused by the building itself.

sad

the movie "Sky Captain and World of Tomorrow" show how it had work

[hesham]

Hi,

the Armstrong Whitworth flying wing aircraft ad.

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1948/1948%20-%200414.html

[mz]

The airships are always pictured too small.
Even in Sky Captain. In reality the Hindenburg was about as long (300 m) as the Empire State Building is tall (380 m). We're talking Titanic size. The Graf Zeppelin wasn't much smaller.

http://lh6.ggpht.com/abramsv/R84_unH54DI/AAAAAAAAKsA/yDsicGc-evA/s640/sdfadsfafgfvcx.jpg
http://www.airships.net/hindenburg/size-speed

[Stargazer2006]

Yes, but not all airships are or were the size of the Hindenburg! Most Goodyear blimps are much smaller. Also don't lose track of the size of the imaginary building in the picture, which completely dwarves the Empire State Building! See the airfields and parks at the top, read how it is supposed to host sports arenas and so forth... Truly an amazing project.

[The Artist]

Source: Out Of Time - Designs For The Twentieth-Century Future
by Norman Brosterman, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2000

This book was published in conjunction with a Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition. Notice in the American Weekly illustration that the bi-planes are launching from the tower.

The caption with the aircraft carrier image is quoted below

An actual idea from the Navy to protect aircraft carriers by washing them with sea water during nuclear attack.

Mike

[The Artist]

the only build Skyscraper Airport

is the Empire State Building

What about the Pan Am Building? Sure, I'm talking about heliports but if you're counting an airship port as an airport then heliports should also be counted. The McDonnell Douglas Headquarters Building (now part of McBoeing) has (or had) a heliport on the roof and a hospital not far from my place has a heliport on its roof.

For a while, it seemed that roof top heliports would become a common thing but that changed after the crash on the roof of the Pan Am Building back in (I believe) the '80s.

Mike

[FutureSpaceTourist]

For an unqualified newbie (so please be gentle  ) I find it interesting that "Supersonic 1.jpg" has pretty much the same mission as Concorde (London-NY, 100 passengers, mach 1.9) but a similar configuration to Reaction Engine's hypersonic Skylon / Lapcat designs.

I guess just only so many supersonic/hypersonic design concepts?

[SaturnCanuck]

Source: Out Of Time - Designs For The Twentieth-Century Future
by Norman Brosterman, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2000

This book was published in conjunction with a Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition. Notice in the American Weekly illustration that the bi-planes are launching from the tower.

The caption with the aircraft carrier image is quoted below

An actual idea from the Navy to protect aircraft carriers by washing them with sea water during nuclear attack.

Mike

The lower picture looks like something out of Gerry Anderson...

[stevoe]

From Germany: http://www.retro-futurismus.de/index.htm

[Tophe]

Thanks Stevoe for this goldmine...
Among many marvels there, my favorite may be the Römer Ozean-Riesenflugzeug
at http://www.retro-futurismus.de/roemer_poster1.htm
(art “of the future” 1941, rather close to the Republic Super Clipper, while different with 3 propellers only)

[The Artist]

Another roof-top airport idea - from back in 1967.

[airman]

interesting thread aka how our grandfather imagined the future !

[The Artist]

These are from Future Life, December 1980.

From a 1976 exhibit designed by Boeing for the Smithsonian. "Air Travel in the Tricentennial 2076"

The captions for pictures 1 and 2 are with picture 1 and the captions for pictures 3 and 4 are with picture 2.