The Aircraft of the Future
Piero Gondolo della Riva
An airborne bus, image ©Piero Gondolo della Riva
Since Icarus, man has always dreamed of flying, alone or aboard some kind of craft. Past visions of the future have always been dominated by the presence of aircraft of all kinds, designed for a wide variety of purposes.
As far back as 1670, a century before the advent of the hot air balloon, an abbot from Brescia, Francesco Lana Terzi, imagined a prototype “machine like a ship sailing through the air”, carried on four balls “with the air taken out”, in his book Prodromo, ovvero saggio di alcune inventioni nuove (‘Harbinger, or an essay on a number of new inventions’). In the 18th century, balloons became a reality, but many remained convinced that contraptions heavier than air would prevail over those lighter than air in the future. Even Jules Verne, whose first novel in 1863 Cinq Semaines en Ballon celebrated the potential for travel and exploration aboard a balloon, came up with the Albatros – a sort of helicopter with 37 blades , in his novel Robur Le Conquérant (1886). And in Maître du monde (1904), the follow-up, he imagined the Épouvante, a futuristic machine that functioned as car, boat, submarine and aircraft.
“machine like a ship sailing through the air”, carried on four balls “with the air taken out” – Albatros – a sort of helicopter with 37 blades, images ©Piero Gondolo della Riva
Throughout the 19th century and in the early 20th century, postcards and advertising offered varyingly humorous images of future flights on all sorts of vehicles: from the airborne bus, to the postman delivering mail on a torpedo, to the strangely-shaped flying car for exploration purposes. Then in 1901, at the advent of the new century (leading to the fateful date of the year 2000), the French magazine L’Assiette au Beurre published an issue (entirely dedicated to the future), entitled À nous l’espace. The wonderful drawings by Guillaume showed the hunt of the future, with eagles pursued by lean flying machines. Among the many images of the future offered in literature and graphics, flying machines rightfully occupy pride of place!
Postman delivering mail on a torpedo, image ©Piero Gondolo della Riva
