Raygun Gothic refers to any creative work from 1900 through about 1959, predicting the future before it became possible. Think rockets and rayguns, flying cars and futuristic cities - especially if the vision never quite panned out in reality. We find this aesthetic in product design, book covers, films, radio & TV. "A tomorrow that never was". The same style as in the Fallout games, The Jetsons and so on but focused on the time period through the 50s.
See also: Raygun Gothic at TVTropes
Post and discuss anything with these aesthetics.
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There’s supposedly a lot of truth to that in general. Vehicle dynamics wasn’t really a thing until we had well developed aerodynamics, and there were a lot of aerodynamics engineers looking for work post-WW2. So, we went from just kind of winging it in chassis/suspension development to actually systematically working out how to design it because of that knowledge transfer.
We poured so much time and money, research and will into aviation that we went from the Wright Brothers to spaceflight in a half a century. This is a great ad to capture all that momentum.
Now, with the privatization of all this knowledge procured by public means, I could easily see an ad for the opposite in the future. "We build our planes like our cars, so they only crash a handful of times, but the crumple zones will likely save you. Though, not your kids in the backseat; that's not regulated. But you'll likely survive! And think of the lawsuits for those at fault! Some of you might die, but it's a risk we're willing to take!"
There's a reason it's recommended to put kids in the back seat: it simply doesn't have the risks of the front. The other requirements for front safety and rollover have a knock-on effect of making the rest of the vehicle safer (can't improve rollover without improving the strength and energy distribution of the lower half of the car, which means improving impact protection too) . Note that cars have side airbags in the rear, they don't have forward ones because they simply aren't necessary, since there's no dash to impact in a frontal collision.
I'd much rather be in the back seat in any accident.
That is one huge hood/bonnet. Makes me wonder how it looks under there. I bet it’s a lot more serviceable than today’s automobiles. Probably enough room to step inside.
That nosecone design reminds me of the Tucker.
Doesn't remind me of a Tucker at all. Here's a Tucker front. (Also, what a gorgeous car the Tucker was).
But that rounded front is pretty much the design element of the times.
Looking at the Nash, I see "streamlining", which was a pre-war concept akin to what we'd call aerodynamic today (though it wasn't necessarily aerodynamic, just a visual style). Streamlining is more associated with art deco period to me - it appeared on things like train engine designs in the early 20th.
