Frozen in time

I started the other day berating myself over the time it’s been since my last post. Maybe I’m still exhausted from the Merlin Mustang story – it’s not over yet, by the way – and it’s not like there aren’t more stories in the pipeline… In fact, the current iteration of my schedule includes a chance for four solid hours of writing per week, which … Continue reading Frozen in time

Cutaways 2

Beyond the limits In part one of this series, artists of the early 20th Century imagined voids in their illustrations of primordial airliners to demonstrate the comfort and complexity of mankind’s latest leap forward. By the late 1930s, however, and certainly by the end of World War II, aviation was becoming vastly more sophisticated. Engineering, on the other hand, remained tethered to the two-dimensional blueprints … Continue reading Cutaways 2

Cutaways

Under the skin These days, 3D CAD and sophisticated rendering tools mean creating images that aren’t rooted in reality is a breeze. For most commercial applications, it’s the norm.  For example, I follow developments in electric aviation fairly actively, and the fact that last night’s beer coaster brainwave can be a fully rendered, photo-realistic artefact by  lunchtime is clearly a real bonus for entrepreneurs, founders … Continue reading Cutaways