The Aircraft of Things to Come

Things to Come is a major Science Fiction Flick filmed in 1936.  While the movie runs long, and the dialogue tends to the preachy, the Lazlo Maholy-Nagy sets of Everycity in 2036 are justly famous, the distopia is distopic. and if you have a jones for futuristic aircraft, real futuristic aircraft as conceived in the 30s,  you should enjoy it.

I’ve gathered up some stills , some model stuff and even a plan so you can partake of the fascinating flying wing future that didn't happen. 
The Stills
The stills are quite fuzzy and appear to be scanned directly from the movie film.
If any one has more , or if anyone lives close to me in Southern New England and can capture images off a video,  it would help fill out this page.
About half way through the movie, we find England reduced by a world  war to  barbarity and rubble. The citizenry is afflicted with the Wandering Plague and petty warlords. 

Into this nastiness flies Raymond Massey as an envoy of the Air Dictatorship , a technocratic  island of future progress located,  in  Basra in Iraq.  He has this sexy one seater flying wing. This is the only picture I could find.. But never mind it gets better towards the bottom of the page. 

I read that this plane was designed for the film by Nigel Tangye, Air Correspondent for the Evening News,
He is captured, escapes (I think that's right) and leads a fleet of Peace Bombers, huge Flying Wings of the Norman Bel Geddes ilk,  that reduce the population to happy common sense with Peace Bombs.  . 

Dialogue
Wings Over The World soldier: “Now we've got the chance to try the new gas of peace on  somebody”

The Peace Bombers are attacked by a motley airforce of ancient ratty biplanes. I don't remember what these were  but a fan of ancient ratty airplanes will enjoy them. If anyone identifies them. I'll post the information. 

There are fine scenes of the fleet in flight. They sure do look strange. The interiors are fun..The peace bombs are spherical  And once the population is subdued, an army  parachutes down to restore order and give nobel speeches.
The movie marches forward to 2036 and  a  technological paradise, where we find this fine Autogyro/Helicopter flitting about the far future Moholy Nagy sets, . If you look closely you can see it  flying over the the angry mob, bent on destroying the "Space Gun". 

Note the pusher propeller set in amongst empennage.
Stick and Tissue models  of  Raymond Massey’s one man flying wing.

First we have these fotos of a free lance built from the movie. Graham Knight graciously allowed me to post them. This was built by “Spike (No relation) Knight. Graham found it hanging from the ceiling of  a  loft he rented.. Spike is a professional model maker but he knows little about the arcane art of Free Flight. The model has a Clark Yish airfoil and is innocent of  any of the necessary washin.  It failed to fly. In the photos, you can see  the makeshift ailerons added in the effort.
Last but by no means least we have this. Pretty neat Huh?   Graham Knight ,who seems to be everywhere Free Flight and fun, sent it to me. Thank you Graham. This is the cover of a rare magazine and within were plans for your very own model of Raymond’s bolide.

I have no idea if it can be made to fly. This is not for beginners. Note, that  there is no washin shown on the plan. (Washin is a twist to the wing such that the angle of attack at the tip of the wing is less than it is at the root.)

The text suggests that you “See cover for detail of finish.”  I guess this means that the plane was black and white. This seems OK. The Movie was shot in Black & White .. 

To reach the plan give the clicker a click. !CLICK ME!  It consists of 6 GIFs and the text of the article which seems to have been telegraphed in , or maybe the editors were paying by the published word

The GIFs are on the Enlarge M Yourself  and Tape Them Together Plan and I put a ruler on each GIF.. 

If someone has the courage to build it,  PLEASE let me know

It seems Jim Norfolk has. 

He sends this pic snapped with his trusty meterless Spotmatic. ( a nostalgia hit for me ) 

He reports that it has done well in short yard flights and he is looking forward to the large fields of summer (aren't we all) For more of his work [Klick] and check the bottom of the page

Party on!

Plan

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I  found the stills at  http://www.sciflicks.com/things_to_come/  and they are accompanied by the following.....
MGM/ UA All Movie Material and Media Copyright © 1936 – MGM/UA.
All Rights Reserved. For Personal, Non-Profit Use Only.

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