Feb 102010
Now that it is abundantly clear (see comments HERE) that this series of Boeing artwork was cribbed from artwork for children’s books, I’m much less impressed and interested. But what the hell, here’s another one, showing some sort of largish spacecraft being serviced by two astronauts in suits and a third in a “space taxi.”
11 Responses to “Space Promo Art: 3”
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Sure it goes that way, and not the other way around – with the kid’s books artists seeing the company artwork, and putting it into their books?
Note that the company artwork seems a lot more detailed than the stuff that shows up in the kids books.
This combo in particular comes to mind:
http://dreamsofspace.nfshost.com/gifs/pst1.gif
Note the spaceship on the Moon at the bottom middle of the painting.
…and the thing you found:
http://up-ship.com/blog/blog/?p=4114
That’s the same spaceship, weird wingtip engines and all.
That picture is also ano
> Sure it goes that way, and not the other way around – with the kid’s books artists seeing the company artwork, and putting it into their books?
The spaceships shown in both series – kids and “pro” – work well enough for kids books, but they’re remarkably sucko for an actual aerospace company with real designs. Without further documentation – and I have none – I have to assume that the kids book art came first.
…ther one that shows up in those kid’s books illustrations, I’ll get on this tomorrow and link to it.
It reminded me of the British X-Craft minisubs and their side-mounted explosive charges.
I think it’s exactly the other way around, although without getting the precise dates on the paintings it’s impossible to tell.
You can see the the aerospace company paintings being used in magazine ads for their “Gee-Whizz” factor, and they would have cost a few bucks to turn out.
If they weren’t being used in such a manner, it’s hard to explain why they were made, particularly given the fact that anyone seeing them might say:
“Oh, that thing! That’s in my kid’s book.”
Not exactly the way to reinforce a company’s image as a real industry leader.
BTW, did you go through all the artwork in that website, and see the ways you can stick a X-15 onto a Atlas ICBM, and in some versions get it clean out to Mars with the core stage still firing?
😀
We’re going to get back to this sort of fantasy over the next few years. The real engineers are going to find something else to pay their bills.
Although I wasn’t able to find the space taxi painting, I did find the origin of the Martin Moonship with the what’s-it drive on its wingtips:
This: http://up-ship.com/blog/blog/?p=4114
Is from here: http://dreamsofspace.nfshost.com/rktotm.htm
Now what exactly the relationship between Martin Company and that book is is a good question.
Some of the other paintings on that website seem to indicate that the transparent spheres on the wingtips are solar energy collectors, probably to power some sort of ion engine.
In that case the ring around the engine is used to remove the electrical charge from the ions as they leave the engine nozzle, although this seems like a pretty anemic propulsion system to use, even in the low lunar gravity.
> it’s hard to explain why they were made
You don’t seem to understand just how *vast* was the amount of art produced by major corporations Way Back When.A lot of it was pretty generic, just showing Neato Space Stuff. If you’re an illustrator witha deadline and a vague handwavy directive, you’ll just slap some crap together.
A good example of “neato stuff” that appeared in the 1980’s was the stealth fighter painting by Loral that got everyone buzzing when it appeared in AW&ST: http://ultraclearance.com/f19/Loral-f-19.jpg
The painting became the basis for the Monogram F-19 stealth fighter model kits, although the canards got redesigned on the model:
http://www.fantastic-plastic.com/MONOGRAM%20F-19%20STEALTH%20PAGE.htm
I found the space taxi painting BTW: http://dreamsofspace.nfshost.com/spafl.htm
less “promo art”, more general “creative” space art.
posted as it includes the “winged cone” about half way down the page.
http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2010/02/retro-future-to-stars-part-3.html