Idea for a Super Airliner by designer Norman Bel Geddes, conceived in 1929 as a flying boat with a gymnasium and a 200-seat dining room
Norman Bel Geddes (1893-1958) was an American theatrical and industrial designer. He opened an industrial-design studio in 1927, and designed a wide range of commercial products, from cocktail shakers to tear drop cars to radio cabinets. Bel Geddes designed the General Motors Pavilion, known as Futurama, for the 1939 New York World's Fair, which was an enormously influential installation.
Bel Geddes's book "Magic Motorways" (1940) promoted advances in highway design and transportation, foreshadowing the Interstate Highway System ("there should be no more reason for a motorist who is passing through a city to slow down than there is for an airplane which is passing over it"), along with aspects of driver assist and autonomous driving.
But Bel Geddes' most amazing design was the Flying Hotel, or The Bel Geddes #4 (shown above). It would sleep 606 passengers in comfort, could be refueled in flight and fly between Chicago and London in 42 hours. It was planned to have tennis courts, showers, dressing rooms, a solarium, doctor's office, barber shop, hairdressers, veranda cafe, 9 decks, 3 kitchens, a dance hall, even a machine and repair shop to change and repair engines in flight. It was the most luxurious airplane ever thought up and a detailed study at the time indicated it was commercially practicable. [Source: Wikipedia and flyawaysimulation.com/news/3322/]
Idea for a Super Airliner by designer Norman Bel Geddes, conceived in 1929 as a flying boat with a gymnasium and a 200-seat dining room
Norman Bel Geddes (1893-1958) was an American theatrical and industrial designer. He opened an industrial-design studio in 1927, and designed a wide range of commercial products, from cocktail shakers to tear drop cars to radio cabinets. Bel Geddes designed the General Motors Pavilion, known as Futurama, for the 1939 New York World's Fair, which was an enormously influential installation.
Bel Geddes's book "Magic Motorways" (1940) promoted advances in highway design and transportation, foreshadowing the Interstate Highway System ("there should be no more reason for a motorist who is passing through a city to slow down than there is for an airplane which is passing over it"), along with aspects of driver assist and autonomous driving.
But Bel Geddes' most amazing design was the Flying Hotel, or The Bel Geddes #4 (shown above). It would sleep 606 passengers in comfort, could be refueled in flight and fly between Chicago and London in 42 hours. It was planned to have tennis courts, showers, dressing rooms, a solarium, doctor's office, barber shop, hairdressers, veranda cafe, 9 decks, 3 kitchens, a dance hall, even a machine and repair shop to change and repair engines in flight. It was the most luxurious airplane ever thought up and a detailed study at the time indicated it was commercially practicable. [Source: Wikipedia and flyawaysimulation.com/news/3322/]