Category: Aircraft

Cutaway views of aircraft.

  • Martin Ocean Transport Plane Cutaway, 1936

    martinoceantransport

    A great airplane cutaway from Fortune Magazine 1936 (Large Size Image):

    The revolutionary fact about the Martin is that more than half of its gross weight of 51,000 pounds is useful load, instead of about a third, which has hitherto been the limit.  In flying across an ocean useful load is the decisive factor, not only because vast quantities of fuel must be carried, but also because the requisite equipment is more elaborate than the equipment of land planes.  The Martin carries such things as an anchor and winch, lifeboat and belts, boat hook, bilge pump, and ropes, besides all the regular aeronautical equipment such as two radios, fire extinguishers, flares, and flying instruments.  In addition there is a galley complete with icebox, grill, sink, and dishes.

  • Closeup of Flying Boat (Generic) Cutaway, 1935

    Closeup of Flying Boat (Generic) Cutaway, 1935

    Looking inside the Popular Mechanics 1935 “Flying Boat”:

    Kitchen

    Welsh rarebit coming right up.  Note the ladder leading up to the wing.

    Popular Mechanics airplane kitchen

    Bar

    The cover is sharp and crystal-clear.  It’s my scanner that blurred the picture.  A real-life bartender whipping up a gin gimlet for a guy in a suit.

    Popular Mechanics airplane bar

    Sleeping Quarters

    Except for those bunk beds, which you are undoubtedly sharing with a stranger, a most civilized way to travel.

    Popular Mechanics airplane sleeping quarters

  • Flying Boat (Generic) Cutaway, 1935

    Flying Boat (Generic) Cutaway, 1935

    I reproduce this Popular Mechanics cover of April 1935 in all of its ball-throbbing glory–because that is the only way to describe the muscularity of 1930s popular journalism.  There is nothing I don’t like about this cover.  I love the orange and blue contrast, the NRA Code logo in the bottom left, the typography, and most of all, the cutaway airplane.

    Cutaways – you can get lost in them, imagining yourself inside.  Models, miniatures, cutaways – pretty much a lost art today.

    I will pick apart this cutaway in separate posts.  See here to look further inside the Flying Boat airplane.

    Popular Mechanics airplane