Surprised no one’s commented on this so far. It’s a justifiably Big Deal in Britain!
Two great tastes in one candy bar:
ttps://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-36297590
Here she is, in delightful detail, as built in 1923:
Just like a Spitfire or a Mosquito, function and form blended superbly!
Beautiful machine!
I have to add the Routemaster bus, the orignal RMS Mauretania and the Mini Cooper. Function and form, indeed!
Or an Adrian Squire
The Flying Scotsman is 100 years old and England’s Poet Luareate has written a tribute. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/entertainment-arts-64760727 The myth and magic of steam.
Honestly I think the “Olympic” class of liners were even more impressive, too bad two of them came to a bad end.
I’d nominate the Lockheed Blackbird series where form and function blended smoothly. Kelly Johnson’s designs usually looked as good as they flew.
You can’t argue with the Mauretania holding the Blue Riband from 1907 to 1929 but I see your point. The three Cunarders were about speed, not luxury.
The Squire- I’ve seen them in books but have never seen one in the flesh and I’ve been to a fair amount of classic car shows in the U.K. Adrian Squire built them, but the car is a Squire. Me, I’d go for a chain gearbox Frazer Nash but that’s just me.
Aeronautical engineers have (had?) a saying, “If it looks good it’ll fly good!” and Kelly Johnson’s airplanes all looked good! Although for top looks I don’t think he ever surpassed the P-38.
The P-38! My favourite WW2 aircraft after the Spitfire. The next time you see a 1949 Cadillac, think of the P-38. It was a major influence on its styling. Look close, you’ll see it.
Really? I’ll remember that!
Erik – we’re limiting this to British designs in this context. Not that there aren’t breathtaking high-speed British designs, of which the Barnes Wallis Swallow is one, and yes, the Avro Arrow counts as another.
There were only ever 10 Squires, even counting the later examples after Adrian Squire left the production company. Nine of them survive, but even so it is not surprising that most people haven’t seen one. I only knew about them from an article in one of the classic-car magazines in the early 1970s that considered one of the van den Plas-bodied examples to be one of the most beautiful cars, line for line, ever built.
The Avro Arrow was a strictly Canadian aircraft. The plants that built them near Pearson airport were demolished about 15 years ago. There is a large front section of one in the aviation museum in Ottawa; you can see how the fuselage was torched just behind the cockpit. DeHavilland had a plant here too but it was taken over by Bombardier.
Speaking of Barnes Wallis, at the Brooklands museum in the U.K. there is a big exhibit about the dam buster bombs and a lot of the original equipment is there. I’ve been by his house in South London and there is a blue historic plaque on it. At Brooklands, they are restoring a Vickers Wellington bomber there.
For purposes of this discussion, I consider the Commonwealth countries to be effectively “British”. While I admit the Canadians might have been institutionally naive regarding effective security of all the advanced wonder in the CF-105 and the Orenda, it was nothing more than vandalism to destroy all the prototypes and tooling. To the not-inconsiderable extent the United States participated in and incited that farrago, it ranks as one of our greatest national shames.
Something appropriate in context is the fad in the United States for “British” styling, in no small part inspired by this locomotive class and the King class displayed here in 1927. Loree in particular somewhat overdid the simple styling, cab appearance, etc. during his tenure at a couple of you-know-who-they-are railroads.
What I like is the styling of the A4 pacifics like the Mallard. Compare them with the Bugatti “tank” racing car and you will see what I mean.
I just looked up some images of the '49 Caddy. I see what you mean!
A while back I worked with a guy who said “There’s nothing uglier than old Cadillacs!” Not in this case! Wow!
It took me a very long time to ‘warm’ to the A4 styling, particularly the fake airplane-wing styling of the skirts and the ‘fadeaway’ styling back through the firebox and trailing truck – something the British love too much in automotive styling, particularly Hooper. Then again, I didn’t like the skirted PRR T1s, and downright disliked the ponderous N&W J until I learned more about the features of its design and balancing.
Better yet, compare it with the Bugatti railcars of the very early Thirties from which the A4 styling directly derives!
I’m tempted to buy one of these but I really can’t afford it:
https://www.dm-toys.de/en/product-details/Fulgurex_1160-1.html
I like how they say it’s diesel powered when they ran with 4 type 41 Royale engines. Strictly powered by gasoline.
I prefer the A4s without the side skirts, myself. And I see what you mean about the fadeaway styling. Hooper-bodied cars I’ve always found to be ostentatious, especially the Docker Daimlers.
Overmod- this one’s for you:
Norton 750 Commando.
