A Megalithic Orientable Roof-Top Airport Design From 1938

It's amazing to see the ideas of the past that never came true. While the concept of this orientable roof-top airport is brilliant in design, the dangers would far out-weigh any benifits. Air traffic has become much safer, but something like this just isn't really practical where safety is concerned. And can you imagine the noise from modern day jets that would have to be endured from the people living below?

While it's not really something that was a good idea, it's still pretty cool to look back at history and see how ideas like these were percieved.

Source

In an old (1938) issue of Modern Mechanix, we read how an unnamed "French engineer" once proposed, "as a solution to the problem of locating an airport in the heart of any big city, a design for a long orientable runway, which would be mounted on circular tracks atop tall buildings." This megalithic, concrete, aerospatial earth machine would "orient" itself along specific air routes, hurling planes aloft over the rooftops of the city.

Here's a few more cool airport designs from the past, some that made it into existence, and some that never did:

www.gizmodo.com.au...

reply to post by isyeye


Thanks for the post sir.
Flagged so others will see
I would not like to live in a city with an airport on top of me.. Imagine if there is a leakage or an explosion.
It will be raining concrette and so metal.

Yeah cool find, thanks for sharing.

This kind of stuff would make a great idea for video game scenery.

Originally posted by muzzleflash
Yeah cool find, thanks for sharing.

This kind of stuff would make a great idea for video game scenery.

Just curious, but say a video game took this and it was really close in concept would the be able to be sued for it? Just hypothetical.

Originally posted by igor_ats

Originally posted by muzzleflash
Yeah cool find, thanks for sharing.

This kind of stuff would make a great idea for video game scenery.

Just curious, but say a video game took this and it was really close in concept would the be able to be sued for it? Just hypothetical.

Patents are good for 17 years (unless the law has changed) and if not exploited commercially, less time than that. Copyrights are good for 50 years after the death of the copyright holder. Check with the statutes of your country or legal council as they are sometimes different.

This is speculation of course as I haven't done any research on the author of the original idea. If this was published in 1938, presuming an age of 40 at the time of the design and another 35 years living (75 years old at death) or 1973, the copyright on the work would expire 2023.

Cheers - Dave