The Rocket Plane was built to replace an old hallway lamp. It is actually three lamps in one. The bright light in its tail replaces the function of the original lamp. Christmas lights are used to light the cabin, and a 24 inch Black Light mounted in the top of the fuselage illuminates phosphorescent stars in the ceiling. At night, when the Cabin and black lights are on, it produces a very nice visual effect. This turned out to be a great lamp replacement. The Story: The Rocket plane was built in a remote fieord on South Island, New Zealand. It was funded by Australian shipping mogul; Sir Charles Lewes Limpid and was the brain child of Edward Chan an extremely gifted engineer/designer from Hong Kong. In Chan's honor the rocket plane was christened the Silver Dragon. Chan was discovered by one of Limpid's employees: Sea Captain David Ralston. Upon completion, the Dragon was transported to the shores of Antarctica. From there, it flew south on an exploration mission.
The original design intent for the Falcon landing craft was to create a flying ironclad. It was to be the first craft to land on Mars. I came up with the idea of a Jules Verne Bullet type spacecraft that was much larger and had a spinning cylindrical section. The center of that section was a landing bay for the Falcon. One outside, it would extend its wings and descend from Mars orbit. The year was 1885. The model below was built in 1978 and was lost during a move. The Falcon worked its way into another fantasy of mine where it served as a shuttle for a Typhoon starship.
This model of the Endeavor was based on a drink napkin sketch. It is an interplanetary class space craft. It accelerates at 1-G then decelerates at 1-G until it reaches its destination. For example: it can reach Mars orbit in 2.08 days and would achieve a speed of 1,978,944 MPH at the midpoint of its journey. The heart of this space craft is the Centrifugal Engine. Many fantasy stories have some sort of magical means of transportation; medieval teleportation gates, hyperspace, or even closing your eyes and concentrating, to name a few. For my fantasies it was the Centrifuga Engine. By providing the means of interstellar travel it opened many doors. The basic thought behind it was to come up with an explanation for what was known as space drive or any means of space travel that is not based on Newton’s action re-action principle. Although it has yet to be developed, I always believed the possibility existed that someday a way would be found to make a spinning gyro where the rotation masses not equal on the plane of rotation, but it would have a single portion of the circular path where the mass is greater there by creating a greater outward driving force. Early on, the thought was to have spheres spinning around a central axis and at one part of the rotation path the sphere (made of expandable material) would expand outward. A few years ago I heard a theory that normal matter and dark matter appeared to be trading places in some parts of the universe. Put more accurately, normal matter was being exchanged for dark matter and the exchange was between this universe and a place unknown; call it a parallel universe for lack of a better explanation. With this in mind, I thought what if a way could be found to control; the time, place, and amount of this matter being exchanged it might be usable for this application. I changed the engine. Instead of spheres, atomic particles would spin around a central axis much like a fusion reactor, and to increase mass, there is an area in the fusion chamber that is defined by two transporter exchangers. The first exchanger trades normal matter for dark matter and after traveling a short distance on the rotation path the second exchanger trades dark matter for normal matter.
The Idea for the Penn Dragon was basically to create a land steamer model generally based on the NAUTLIC land steamer drawing I did back in 1980. The Model location is a land port approximately 30 miles away from Tanagers. I’m my Diorama; I wanted to slow the hustle and confusion one might expect to see at any port prior to a ships departure, and have both day and night lighting. The Story: First commissioned in 1860, the H.M.S. Penn-Dragon served England by ferrying passengers and freight across the Sahara desert throughout North Africa. For over 30 years it endured the harshest sand storms and survived many attacks from pirates and raiders. Finally at the end of its service life in 1893, the Penn Dragon was de-commissioned and became a stationary hotel. Part of it became a high end brothel and serviced many world leaders. The final end came when it caught fire burned to the ground during a thunderstorm. Today only the massive iron drive shaft remains half buried in the sand. It is a reminder of a time when these mammoth dinosaurs made of wood and iron roamed the vast deserts.
The Idea behind the Fulton Balloon Ship was to have a steerable balloon with a gondola like the one depicted in the movie Five Weeks In A Balloon. Another inspiration was the Moon Ryan Balloon Ship. This was a modification of an existing model. The hard part (the balloon and its netting) were already done. It was made by a company called Authentic Models and they make excellent quality product for the price. All I had to do was replace the basket with a scratch built Gondola (with lights). Most of the Gondola was built from spare parts left over from the Penn Dragon land steamer model. The story: The balloon ship was the creation of Samuel Edward Fulton of Mid-Summer England. He worked in London, but he spent much of his time just outside of a small village called Basingstoke to the southwest. There in a remote area, he built the world's first Balloon ship. It was christened "Isabelle" by his only child, Marianne. In honor of his late wife, Fulton flew the French flag. On the early evening of May 25, 1868, the Isabelle departed England to make the first Atlantic crossing by air. Also shown are drawings of the Moon Ryan balloon ship I did back in 1980.
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Marty's Airship: Like the Isabelle, Marty Leeland's Airship started with a Hanging model purchased at a shop down at Dana Point harbor. The intent was to make the model similar to airship like those of the turn of the twentieth century when the gondola, power, and all control surfaces hung below the gas bag. It was the first model built for our Victorian Space Age room. It also lights up at night. The Story: Marty came from a rich family that spent a small fortune constantly bailing him out of trouble. He was sent to live with his uncle who lived in a small remote town. Marty's involvement with airships came about as an attempt to escape the boredom of an isolated environment. His involvement ended when he accidently crashed the airship into a swimming pool while observing sun bathers. He's younger cousin John Leeland purchased the airship and founded the Leeland Airship Company. John had a fascinating career that spanned six decades. John Leelands story will be posted in segments at the Alternate History section of this site.
Ralston's Ice Steamer: This model was built in a very short time. It is a rescue ship built by Sea Captain David Ralston in New Zealand 1857. It was built for the express purpose of finding his friend Sir Charles Limpid when his expedition deep into Antarctica failed to return.
The Subterranean Steamship: This model is built in 5 months. The original intent was to build a Terra Steamer launching from a stationary platform. While building the platform, I decided to make it mobile, and got what looks like a Roman siege machine. Thus, the Carriage Steamer was born. While coming up with the story I decided not to go exploring a new underworld as in Edgar Rice Burroughs, "At the Earth's Core" Instead, decided to have several Terra Steamers piloted by people who hate each other. The result is a story that takes place in the Ural mountains overlooking the western Siberian plane in 1856, just after the Crimean war. It is a remote castle setting and the two brothers that run it are very powerful, so much so, they could be considered an ultraviolet part of the Russian Empire. They control all the mining in central Russia and have a small army. Even the Tsars are unaware their activities. As long as ore flows to the west, the brothers are left alone. Their mining operations have created great wealth. One brother is interested in future technologies, hence the Terra steamers to improve mining operations. The other brother (the dangerous one) is interested in weapon development and conducts biological experiments. The leading character of the story is a young engineer from England who, along with two others, are lured to central Russia by the chance to work with new technologies that have unlimited funding. After a short time, there is goal is to get out alive.
The Rocket Plane
The Falcon
The Endeavor
The Penn Dragon
The Fulton Balloon Ship
Marty's Airship
The Ralston Ice Steamer
The Subterranean Steamship
