In 1932, the time of this cutaway, this two-story Pullman berth intended to offer four rooms: two up and two down. Each room would have its own daybed, sink, and toilet.
The article implied that this arrangement was still in its testing phase, and that if it met “with favor,” the company would build more.
According to Rails West, this so-called duplex car was eventually built in large quantities.
Click to Enlarge to 631 x 634 px:
Source: Popular Mechanics August 1932
When this cutaway first appeared, the intended structure was still called the International Music Hall, as part of Rockefeller Center, New York, NY. Later, it became known as Radio City Music Hall.
Quite a juicy early Thirties two-color cutaway spread across two pages. I tried my best to mate the two pages, and I got the top and bottom fine but the middle doesn’t meet up very well.
This is one cutaway that really needs to be seen in its full, blown-up grandeur, below.
Click to Enlarge to 1613 x 1045 px:
The symbol and centerpiece of the 1939 New York World’s Fair was its combination trylon and perisphere. The trylon was a 610 foot tall tower, whose bottom section provided entrance for the adjoining 190 foot diameter perisphere.
This circa 1938 cutaway was drawn prior to completion of the trylon and perisphere. It shows how visitors would take escalators up through the trylon and be deposited on two “doughnut-shaped moving platforms,” as LIFE puts it, to watch a 6 minute show focusing on a futuristic, utopian City of Tomorrow.
Source: LIFE Aug 1, 1938
Click Here For Large (1353 x 1200 Pixels)
In an issue of LIFE magazine from October 30, 1939 that I have is a great cutaway drawing of Admiral Byrd’s snow cruiser. Admiral Byrd was a naval officer who was the first person to reach the North and South Poles by air.
At 55 feet 8 inches long and 16 feet high, Byrd’s Snow Cruiser was intended to ply the snowy wastes of Antarctica at 30 mph max. Snow crevasses would be surmounted by retracting the massive Goodyear front tires, sliding the front over the crevasse as if the cruiser were a sled (back wheels pushing). Once the front was fully across, the back tires would retract and the front tires would pull the cruiser ahead.
Above, detail of cutaway of Byrd’s Snow Cruiser, showing operating room, engine room, and chart room.
Above, mounting snow chains to the approximately 10 foot diameter Goodyear tires.
This cutaway drawing shows the PanAm Yankee Clipper (B-314), which was built by Boeing on the base of an XB-15 bomber fuselage. On December 21, 1937, Boeing delivered the first Yankee Clipper to PanAm.
The Yankee Clipper was the result of over 6,000 engineering drawings, 50,000 parts, and one-million rivets. But with such complexity came problems. First, it was the spark plugs. Then Boeing discovered that when the plane was loaded light, it was no match for the admittedly weak winds blowing across South Lake Washington (Seattle, WA).
And when the test pilots got the B-314 up in the air, then had yet another problem. As pilot Eddie Allen succinctly put it, “The plane won’t turn.”
But Boeing ironed out these wrinkles and eventually the Yankee Clipper became a graceful, reliable craft. Each Clipper cost $668,908; needed 3,200 of clear waterway to take off; and weighed 84,000 pounds gross.
Boeing eventually stamped out six of these Clippers for PanAm.
