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Docking Bay 39 Bonestell's Luna Chesley Bonestell was hired by George Pal to paint all the Backdrops and moonscapes for his great blockbusting movie, Destination Moon. While working on the art, he proposed his own design for the rocket ship that was the centerpiece in Destination Moon. It was a variation of the Transcontinental Transport and Moonship that had appeared in his and Willey Leys’ book, Conquest of Space earlier.
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Like both of those designs, it had a strake down its back leading from the forward area to the tail. However, instead of a swept wing, he used a delta wing design. He also included two rear fins at acute angles that, along with the tail fin would support the ship vertically. He did a lot of artwork on the ship and even produced a short movie clip for the producers to review. Unfortunately his design was not used for the movie.
However, Bonestell’s work on his moonship was not destroyed, its original design has survived and is shown here. A strikingly beautiful ship in red and silver it would've made a very interesting centerpiece for the movie.
What makes this spaceship important is what happened next.
As it turned out, Bonestell’s Luna proposal wasn’t dead. It became well known in Hollywood at the time. Being rejected for Destination Moon meant it was available--cheap. Other lesser wealthy producers picked it up. Being adopted by other moviemakers made it the design of a series of spaceships that appeared in “B” movies throughout the ‘50s.
This influenced a whole generation of movie-goers proving that you don’t have to star in a blockbuster to be important.
Links to Additional information available in the Trade Zone.
A Precision Design Drawing of this Spaceship -----------------------------------------
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Complete background information is available in the Spaceship Handbook
Click on Image to LEARN MORE or BUY NOW.
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This Spaceship is also featured in “Ad Astra per Aspera”
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