What If?

Its always interesting to take a retrospective look at vintage magazines and books dealing with aerospace subjects, especially those which deal with 'near-future' or conceptual projects that were expected to appear within the next five to ten years of publication.

Newsstand magazines like Popular Mechanics, Aviation Week, Colliers and Air Progress all proclaimed that the next big thing would be nuclear powered aircraft, continent hopping airliners and flying cars. Whilst the vehicles may have existed on the drawing board, very few actually saw any kind of development into actual service. The artwork however, is always dynamic and sleek, with streamlined aircraft and jetstreamed spaceships depicting a gleaming future that would never arrive.

Whilst some of the craft seem entirely science fiction, some elements did find their way into production aircraft, such as the ducted fan engines and variable geometry wings.

One or two magazines show experimental aircraft such as the HL-10  and X-24B Lifting bodies in dynamic shots, speeding through space, whereas the reality is actually very different, as neither craft were ever designed to leave the upper atmosphere. 

The much more sedate and serious journals such as Aviation Week, showed a much more sober rendition of the actual craft in their own coverage. 

However, it was nice to dream about being able to board a nuclear powered airliner and streak through the heavens to the other side of the globe in a matter of hours, as opposed to chugging along n a conventional prop driven airliner and the fantastic designs really went a long way towards furthering the dream and selling magazines.