Early 20th century science fiction and space futurism featured a vast menagerie of fanciful-looking spacecraft that, today, we consider implausible at best. We’ve even coined a term to denote the anachronistic impression these past designs create when contrasted to the technology of the present day; retro-futurist. But one should be mindful of the fact that these designs were not all simply fantasy. They were derived from the known and anticipated technology of their day and their apparent visual anachronism comes as much from the evolution in design style as by the evolution in technology and science. Form doesn’t quite strictly follow function in aerospace engineering and the sleek streamlined forms, the fins, the monolithic monocoque structures, the non-modular industrial design approac