If you get around to watching a commercial dating back to the late 1940s and 1950s, you can’t but be amazed at how naive humans of that era seemed to be.
Fresh out of the devastating years of war, humans were once again free to dream about their future, and sure as hell they didn’t hold back on their imagination. They envisioned flying cars, space exploration, means of transportation that would open up whole new worlds to explore.
In themselves, most of these ideas (still) have all the chances of coming true. But they never did in the timeframe our grandparents, fueled by their newfound exuberance, envisioned them possible.
The three vehicles we have in the gallery above are the kind of ideas that popped into the heads of the age’s humans. Contraptions so insane they would be better suited for some type of science-fiction work of art.
All three are renderings coming our way courtesy of Australian insurance company Budget Direct, and are based on concepts that at one point in human history were drawn up by a real someone.
So, we have the 1957 Cross-Country cruise ship based on an idea of sci-fi illustrator Frank Tinsley. It was supposed to be ideal for traveling across the arctic or the desert with equal prowess, a sort of multipurpose Snowpiercer with no need for tracks.
Then we have the amphibious campervan from 1947 envisioned by industrial designer Robert Zeidman. It’s name says it all: it was a camper meant to be used both on land and on water.
The 1932 underwater tour bus (yes, that predates the war) was supposedly the work of a French engineer, because French love underwater things and this one could double as a submarine. Oh, how Cousteau would have loved this!
For whatever reasons, none of the above (and many others like them) came to be. They seem like machines coming from a parallel universe, one where whatever you dream about can come true.
In themselves, most of these ideas (still) have all the chances of coming true. But they never did in the timeframe our grandparents, fueled by their newfound exuberance, envisioned them possible.
The three vehicles we have in the gallery above are the kind of ideas that popped into the heads of the age’s humans. Contraptions so insane they would be better suited for some type of science-fiction work of art.
All three are renderings coming our way courtesy of Australian insurance company Budget Direct, and are based on concepts that at one point in human history were drawn up by a real someone.
So, we have the 1957 Cross-Country cruise ship based on an idea of sci-fi illustrator Frank Tinsley. It was supposed to be ideal for traveling across the arctic or the desert with equal prowess, a sort of multipurpose Snowpiercer with no need for tracks.
Then we have the amphibious campervan from 1947 envisioned by industrial designer Robert Zeidman. It’s name says it all: it was a camper meant to be used both on land and on water.
The 1932 underwater tour bus (yes, that predates the war) was supposedly the work of a French engineer, because French love underwater things and this one could double as a submarine. Oh, how Cousteau would have loved this!
For whatever reasons, none of the above (and many others like them) came to be. They seem like machines coming from a parallel universe, one where whatever you dream about can come true.