"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
08/26/2020 at 12:35 • Filed to: wingspan, Planelopnik
10
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"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
08/26/2020 at 12:35 • Filed to: wingspan, Planelopnik | 10
| 25 |
When I was in high school, I took a drafting class. I loved the precise measurements, learning the line weights, making a gentle curve, the importance of a good arrowhead, all of it. And I think I was pretty good at it. I was inspired by the illustrations and hand-drawn maps that I saw in my WWII history books, and I hoped to parlay that into a career in cartography, but that didn’t pan out. To this day, I have a deep love of mechanical and technical drawings and illustrations.
These drawings are from a collection titled Convair Negatives held in the San Diego Air and Space Museum Archives. They are part of a large trove of drawings and photos surrounding the development of the Convair 240, the pressurized airliner that Convair created to take on the dominance of the Douglas DC-3 after WWII. The initial 240 had seats for 40 passengers flying in pressurized comfort, and the 240 eventually spawned a whole family of “Convairliners” with increasing capacity, power, and range. The converted 240-21 Turboliner was the first commercial airliner in the US to fly with turboprops, and the 580 turboprop variant was flown widely by US airlines and helped start up Frontier Airlines.
What I love so much about these drawings is that they are more than drafting. They are art. They hearken back to a time of pencils and brushes and rulers and French curves, when perspective was more than an algorithm and words were written by hand. They have a warmth and humanity that feels lost to me in the modern era of computers and laser printers. I wish I knew the artist’s name. I’d love to see more of their work.
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Connecting Flights
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If you enjoy these Aviation History posts, please let me know in the comments. You can find more posts about aviation history, aviators, and aviation oddities at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .
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BaconSandwich is tasty.
> ttyymmnn
08/26/2020 at 12:57 |
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I find it interesting how close that interior is to a modern aircraft - the one with the man in the lower left corner. The seats really haven’t changed much. I guess if it ain’t broke...
phenotyp
> ttyymmnn
08/26/2020 at 12:57 |
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I love this era of design and drawing.
Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available
> ttyymmnn
08/26/2020 at 12:59 |
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These are really something. I think you summed up their appeal pretty well in saying they have a warmth and humanity. Take this for instance:
The artist (because that’s what he was to create these) analysed what the view from different windows would be like. I’m not sure why that matters but the precision and attention to detail here is breathtaking.
Thank you for sharing these with me.
Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom
> ttyymmnn
08/26/2020 at 13:00 |
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The converted 240-21 Turboliner was the first commercial airliner in the US to fly with turboprops
Huh. I always thought the Electra was the first US turboprop airliner.
user314
> Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom
08/26/2020 at 13:15 |
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The Turboliner beat the L-188 by seven years, though problems with the Allison T38 meant that the Convair plane was converted back to a piston engines.
Thomas Donohue
> ttyymmnn
08/26/2020 at 13:40 |
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I quickly jumped into the opening of the rabbit hole, but I am crawling back out to let you dive in.....
There’s a 1957 Convair brochure up on Ebay.....as luck would have it, there is a high-res pic of the first page, which lists Dick Henderson as the cover artist.
Not sure if he’s the guy, but it’s a good start. The artwork in the brochure looks similar....
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ttyymmnn
> BaconSandwich is tasty.
08/26/2020 at 13:42 |
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Only so many ways to put people in a plane, I suppose.
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Thomas Donohue
> Thomas Donohue
08/26/2020 at 13:43 |
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Bonus pic of a Convair 990
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ttyymmnn
> Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available
08/26/2020 at 13:44 |
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Glad you liked them. I think those view angle drawings are my favorite. I imagine some of this was to help sell airplanes before they were finished with a prototype.
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ttyymmnn
> user314
08/26/2020 at 13:45 |
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I wondered if it was a reliability issue or more of a proof of concept thing.
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ttyymmnn
> Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom
08/26/2020 at 13:46 |
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The Vickers Viscount was the world’s first turboprop airliner. Funny how it bears a resemblance to the 240. Of course, all aircraft manufacturers were going with standard design practices.
Only Vespas...
> ttyymmnn
08/26/2020 at 13:46 |
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Ooh. Nice! I love the way the artist uses while crayon/pencil. I am a sucker for aircraft cutaways...my two favorites are Max Millar who drew both cars and planes in England and his protege James Clark. They drew for Flight and The Aeroplane respectively. Below is segment of Max’s Lystander.
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ttyymmnn
> Thomas Donohue
08/26/2020 at 13:47 |
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Looks like a slightly more commercial and less technical style, but still awesome. Thanks for the tip!
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ttyymmnn
> Only Vespas...
08/26/2020 at 13:52 |
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I think the white outline might even be chalk. I’m not sure. I’m also a sucker for a good cutaway. This one is going in my next post.
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Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available
> ttyymmnn
08/26/2020 at 14:00 |
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Yes, but since when did airplane companies care about the props blocking passengers’ views?
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ttyymmnn
> Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available
08/26/2020 at 14:15 |
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Blocking the view? Hell, I’d sit there just so I could watch the prop.
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Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available
> ttyymmnn
08/26/2020 at 14:32 |
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Is it a selling point though? Maybe.
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user314
> ttyymmnn
08/26/2020 at 14:33 |
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Yeah, Wiki doesn’t say what the problems were, but given that none of the aircraft that received T38s kept them, and that the T40 , which was two 38s driving a common gearbox, also failed spectacularly, I’d say the design itself was flawed. It was only after the design was reworked into the T56 (which is still being produced , almost 70 years later!) that they managed to bottle lightning.
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ttyymmnn
> Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available
08/26/2020 at 14:37 |
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Or else it’s just, “Here’s what it looks like.”
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Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom
> ttyymmnn
08/26/2020 at 14:48 |
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Back in April 2007 I was in San Juan PR filling in as a PC-12 relief pilot for the charter co I flew for. The maintenance hangar we were in was at the ass-end of SJU and where the local freight company operated from. Every day I saw 240s/440s starting up in a huge cloud of smoke and taxiing out. A bunch of DC-3s too; some were the Basler turboprop conversion. Cool place to be if you’re an aviation nut. I recall walking across the ramp to my plane one day checking messages on my phone when I happened to look up and see a 767 taxiing past uncomfortably close by (I prob should’ve been paying closer attention). I bet the F/O was probably thinking “Is this idiot going to walk right into one of my engines? ” Who knew those things were so quiet?
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Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available
> ttyymmnn
08/26/2020 at 14:54 |
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Here is what the view is from all three passenger seats. OK.
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Only Vespas...
> Thomas Donohue
08/26/2020 at 15:31 |
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Smok y CJ-805s!
glemon
> ttyymmnn
08/26/2020 at 16:25 |
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Golden era for airplanes and engineering drawings as well as marketing and advertising. I remember an episode of Mad Men, taking place sometime around the mid sixties, and the art department guy says basically no one is doing drawings anymore, it is all photography. Sad end of an era.
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Thomas Donohue
> Only Vespas...
08/26/2020 at 18:36 |
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Back in the good ole days when chemtrails were black!
shop-teacher
> ttyymmnn
08/27/2020 at 00:38 |
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Those are magnificent drawings!
I really should write a post one of these days, about how the ability to draft on maps got my grandfather out of digging ditches, and started him on his career path that would have him working for 70 years in the same industry.