Retrofuture Transportation Showcase, Part 2

"QUANTUM SHOT" #618
Link - by Avi Abrams

Do not allow anybody to steal your excitement about the future!

It seems that in the early 1950s and well into the 1970s many (if not the majority) of designers and engineers still felt the unbounded optimism about developing technology and man's ability to conquer the unknown - and this exuberance was gloriously reflected in many wild designs from leading futurism concept artists of that period.

We feel compelled to continue with our retro-future series, and today we present the next installment in "Futuristic Transportation" - read the first part here. Wait for images to load, then scroll to enjoy:

CARS...

Feast your eyes on this wild sketch for an automobile, a product of Ford design studio in 1954:

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Firebird III concept by GM, 1958:

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Another "Advanced Styling" rendering from Ford:

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Goodyear's "Amtronic" concept vehicle:

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Left: W. C. Jerome's pretty strange prototype - on the right is very futuristic concept by Alex Tremulis:

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General Motors traveling Futurama was a sort of technological circus that was meant to excite people about motoring possibilities of the future:

(images via, bottom: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Bill Cotter, via)

Lots of cars needed a lot of multi-lane highways: the image below is from the World Fair 1939 in New York, called Citta' Del 1960:

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Even cooler: "Endless Belt Trains for the Future Cities", 1932 -

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You gotta love this automobile, with production scheduled for 1942!.. if not for the war... It has the classic aerodynamic shape that we wrote about in this series: Part and Part 2:

(cover of the "Popular Science" magazine, June 1940 - fragment, see the whole cover here)

Syd Mead is probably the best industrial designer to emerge during the early 1970s boom of futurism. His vehicles still look exciting after decades, and there is something in his "luminous space" and vibrant colors that speaks dearly to our heart and eye:

(art by Syd Mead from his book "Sentinel")

Syd Mead's student work from 1958 looked pretty groovy already:

As a side note, 1958 was pretty wild year for outrageous car concepts: here is the atrocious LAND BOAT -

UPDATE: this is actually an exaggerated concept - spoof of the excesses of the 1950s car design (from a book "The Last Dream-o-Rama").

As for some future scenarios... in case of apocalyptic shortage of gas, for example, try the solution from occupied Holland, 1941:

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More recent solution: 2008 British Steam Car, capable of reaching 170 mph (more info):

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Modular truck with extending cabin:

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TRAINS...

A fragment of futuristic train (possibly Russian in origin... similar to some Luigi Colani's designs):

(image credit: Marcin Jakubowski)

Soviet monorail trains - and American cars? - on the cover of Communist scientific magazine from the 1960s:

Russian designers did indeed dream about American cars at the time, here is proof (below left). In the meantime they were coming up with prototypes for screw-drive off-road vehicle (below right):

BOATS...

Don't miss the Screw Ship, 1939 - better than a submarine! (more info)

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Even weirder are the Turbo-Wheel Liners...

Interesting concepts of cruise ships (and mega-yachts):

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AIRPLANES...

Some of the VTOL (vertical lift-off and landing planes) concepts were quite radical looking (see our article covering most of them here). One concept we missed is this Adam Vought's plane, designed in 1965 - Vought V-460/V-485:

(images via 1, 2)

Not many people remember Bill Horton's "Wingless Plane" - see video - basically a lifting body concept, quite radical for 1952:

(images via Popular Science magazine)

Even stranger is the unknown prototype plane (below left), or rather just a flying turbine:

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The VTOL plane on above right is the infamous SNECMA - Coleoptere from France (more info).

Concepts of some heavy bombers from the 1970s:

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Supersonic planes "New York Brunch - Paris Lunch" from Vanadium Corp. of America, 1958 -

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Don't miss "Strange Lifting Force for A Huge Airplane" idea from old Modern Mechanix, click here. A gyro-plane on a humongous scale. And the imposing Atomic Plane from the same source.

MISC...

Why move only the furniture? You can transport the whole house inside this truck (and the moving crew can travel in double-decker comfort, too):

Sectional Buses, 1948 - more info:

Unnamed hybrid vehicle. Wait... it actually has a name: "The Rad" - and, it's a concept for Batman Returns!

(image via)

Desert bus replaces camels - provided there is a thriving tourism industry (more info):

(image credit: Modern Mechanix)

(left: the wood cutter of the future, via - right: rubber-footed mountain busses, via, bottom: Curtis-Wright's Bee, via)

Very strange method of lunar transportation, suggested by Mattel Inc. Toymakers:

Other vintage toys still retain some charm:

(bottom image: "Operations in Antarctica", by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Bill Cotter, via)

The Mars Liner concept, by Christoph Anczykowski:

(image credit: Christoph Anczykowski)

The Ultimate Transport, of course, is your private asteroid - hollowed out and outfitted with stellar drives (the idea proposed in John W. Campbell's Analog way back in the 1950s):