early jets

It seems that the greatest aesthetic designs usually occur just after technological breakthroughs. Take for example the automobiles of the late 1940s, which began to utilize the new methods of aerodynamics and monocoque body construction. Cars on the leading edge of that movement, such as the first Porsche coupes, have a "rightness" of form about them that usually only diminishes as the vehicle undergoes later development and the obligatory updates.

Another example is that of jet aircraft which had been in development since the middle of World War Two. At that time, Britain, the US and Germany were all feverishly competing to be the first to exploit the engine. Apparently, Britain's Frank Whittle made the first operational jet engine, which was put into a test plane for the Gloster Aircraft Company, but was not ready in time to see much use during the war. The German company Messerschmitt won that race, getting their beautiful Me-262 into combat just in time for the last period of the war.

What is it about these aircraft that is so impressive to me? Part of it is historical significance, part is because they were breaking new design trails. Mostly it's because they were beautiful even though they didn't need to be. Compare them to the Eurofighter and the F-18, the Airbus and the 767–the newer planes are grotesque; all awkward angles and bulges. The leading and trailing edges of the early jets were smoothly faired into the fuselages, noses are rounded, streamlining shows. They look like they were designed with an eye for aesthetics and drawn with French curves, rather than designed with computers and drawn with plotting machines.

Developments in the USA
The American efforts were progressing well, at least as far as the fuselage went, but their engine was being troublesome. It would take until after the war to work out the problems, but eventually, Lockheed's P-80 "Shooting Star" emerged as the first–and best–jet fighter of the immediate post-war era. It was a "clean sheet of paper" design, with little carry-over from propeller-driven planes about it. It was startlingly futuristic-looking and had an almost zoomorphic quality, especially around the "nostrils" that served as intakes for the engine.

It was also perhaps the most beautiful aircraft ever made. Its form possessed a perfect balance between delicateness and muscularity, and there was hardly a straight line to be found. Amongst designers there is a dictum that goes something like "if it looks right, it will work right". The Shooting Star proves this to be true: besides being beautiful, it performed far better than any other aircraft would for at least a decade, and it stands as a landmark in the convergence of form and function.

The Shooting Star was not the only jet fighter being developed in the US. The Northrop company was continuing its research into flying wings and it came up with this amazing manta ray of a jet. Never ones to think small, Northrop also developed several huge flying wing bombers. Sadly, neither large nor small versions were sufficiently developed to interest the government to place orders, so they were stillborn.

The American bomber type has been dominated by the Boeing B-52, but there were some others that were noteworthy. Take a look at this amazing Consolidated-Vultee prototype. The long sweep of the vertical stabilizer, those impressive, long engine nacelles with the puckered mouths–everything about this jet says "purposeful, yet stylish". It looks like it was machined out of a single billet of astronium.

          

America won the global passenger jet race by the late 1950s, with the Boeing 707. The 707 is surely one of the most perfectly-shaped of vehicles, with not a bad line to be found on it. McDonnell-Douglas tried to catch up with its DC-8, but it was simply an imitator. 707s in Pan-Am or TWA livery were icons of the jet age, promising swift and luxurious travel to exotic places. They were signifiers of the American dream and potent propaganda for the American way.

           

Great Britain
When the British finally sorted out their own jet engine and its platform, they had a remarkable variety of designs. The conventional shape was well represented by the Gloster and Armstrong-Whitworth variants of the Meteor (which owed a debt to the Me-262).

           

They also found expression in two remarkably different fighter projects from the deHavilland factory: the dH-108 Swallow and the Vampire family. The Swallow was a lovely, swept-wing, tailless prototype, similar to the German Lippitsch prototypes, that sadly never saw series production. Rarely has there been a more futuristic looking design; it would modern even today.

           

The Vampire looked a bit like a jet version of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, and it did indeed see production and much use.

           

British jet bombers were also an interesting area after WWII. The Short Sperrin was a unique design from one of the world's most individualistic aircraft works. Its jet engines were stacked double-high on each wing.

          

Stranger still was the jet-powered Saunders-Roe flying boat–surely one of the oddest fuselages ever.

           

In the more conventional passenger plane field, the British led the way with the deHavilland Comet-the first passenger jet to go into service. The Comet was an elegant design (let down somewhat by the unusually thick chord of the wings at their roots). The nose and tail are particularly graceful, as is the way that the four engines are enveloped in the wings. Unfortunately, the Comet had some teething problems that caused three fatal crashes in the space of a year, and the type was grounded.

           

Canada
Canada is not the nation that springs to the mind of most people when they think of progressive design, but in the realm of postwar aircraft design, they were home to some fine aircraft-and more than a few truly eccentric projects (see the AVRO flying saucer page). Their first postwar passenger jet was the AVRO Jetliner, a fine design that looked more than a bit like the contemporary Fokker Friendship series.

          

France The French have not been known for their military vehicles after WWI up until the 1960s when they got serious about such things. Their first small jet of note was the very strange looking and named "S.N.C.A.S.O. 6000N TRITON". Sure, it looks sleek, but ten points to you if you can find the intakes for the jet engine!

          

The Dassault Ouragan was the first postwar jet fighter from France and served in the air forces of many other nations as well. From the canopy aft, it is a handsome design. The intake in the truncated nose is somewhat a disappointment, and it prevented the use of a forward radar dome in that position as well. In all, it is a half-well-done design, but noteworthy nontheless.

          

No criticism applies to the fine Aerospatiale Caravelle. The nose and tailplanes are second only to the ill-fated deHavilland Comet for gracefulness. That is partly because the nose section of the Comet was copied for the Caravelle. And you've got to admire the individuality of those triangular passenger windows!

           

Sweden
The Swedish company SAAB may be best known for their automobiles, but they were originally an aircraft manufacturer of some reknown. Their J-21R was the first postwar jet fighter, and an interesting variant on the deHavilland Vampire plan.

           

I've found some other pictures on-line that I can't identify, but deserve to be shown. If you have any idea what they are, please drop us a line.

          

           

As a boy, I used to ride my bicycle every summer day to the county airport a few miles away. They had an old Lockheed Shooting Star which had probably not flown for twenty years. Every day, I would climb up on the fuselage and imagine I was flying. The narrow blade of the plane's nose was almost like the stylized head of a horse, and I used to hug it as I left for the day (OK, I was a little weird). I once crawled into the exhaust vent at the tail, in an effort to see if I could get into the cockpit, and nearly succeeded in getting stuck. While I have yet to fly a Shooting Star, or even being a passenger on one, I have never lost my appreciation for their ageless beauty.