The Synergy of Art and Science Part 2

I want to start this post with a question. How has scientific progression influenced the way we design the things around us? I think that a clear answer to this lies in a personal passion of mine, aviation. I'll use 3 notable aircraft since the first flight in 1903 to generally compare how much things have changed and how the balance between art and science has shifted.

Image Source

Humble Beginnings

Its December 17th 1903 and the Wright Brothers have just taken the machine you see on the right into the sky for 120 glorious feet. This aircraft lies at the bottom end of the scale where science and engineering dominate and artistic merit is irrelevant. Just getting the thing to fly was 100% of the challenge and so 100% of the plane was function and not form.Wood, Canvas and pulleys were the materials used during this time and this further limited the shapes and forms an aircraft could take to small and boxy designs.

Art Claws Back Some Ground

Before I go on I want you took look at the two images below. The first image is of a Spitfire from WW2, the second is a faithful scale model, one of which now sits on my desk.

Image taken from the Daily Mail

Image taken from Tailwinds

To many aviation enthusiasts this is one of the most evocative and beautiful machines ever constructed by man. Here is what I thinks is the quintessential example of art fighting back against functional design. Not a single component of this aircraft looks like the 1903 Wright Flyer above apart from that it has wings. The incorporation of lightweight and strong metals allowed for single wings to be built, engines went from modified car motors to powerful generators of horsepower and overall size increased. Aircraft designers could finally experiment and produce planes (that were essentially aerial gun platforms) that pleased not just the engineers' eye but the eye of the general public. The Spitfire shows how changes in materiel sciences changed the path of aviation, and don't forget, only 33 years separate these two aircraft.


Artistic Freedom Arrives

While the final aircraft in this lineup does not yet exists, it hints towards the potential future of aeronautical design. The AWWA Sky Whale Concept (yep you read that correctly) incorporates both current and future materials such as carbon nantubes, advanced ceramics and alloys to create shapes never seen before. While Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder, there's no doubt that the blending of sharp angles and curvaceous undulations and sweeps makes for an catching aesthetic. None of the looks of this future concept would be possible without the aforementioned mediums providing strength gains and weight reductions improving efficiency - the ongoing golden term of current and future aeronautical development.



We are now looking at a future where if it can be drawn, it probably can be built and flown. This is a world away from those flimsy wooden aircraft that first took to the sky 112 years ago and only time will tell where plane design goes next.

This marks the end of a 2 part blog series on the blending of science and art but don't worry, more content on many other topics will be coming soon.

Thanks for reading!