To American industrial designers in the 1930s, airplanes were not simply machines of transport, but emblems of technological innovation and progress. The National Air and Space Museum's newly-redone Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight Gallery includes a unit devoted to the airplane and streamlined design. This unit demonstrates how industrial designers appropriated the imagery of the modern airliner for their products, which included everything from railroad locomotives to automobiles to buildings and consumer products.
The Ask An Expert lecture series at the National Mall building is presented every Wednesday at noon. A Museum staff member talks to the public about the history, collection, or personalities related to a specific artifact or exhibition in the Museum.
The dynamic look of streamlined aircraft captured the imagination of industrial designers in the 1920s and the 1930s, who translated that look into a new design expression. They borrowed motifs from the airplane’s curvilinear appearance and incorporated them into railroad locomotives, automobiles, architecture, appliances, and household objects.
In this case you can see: the Petipoint Flat Iron, the Firestone Air Chief Radio, the Kodak Bullet Camera, the Westinghouse Table Fan, and the Sunbeam T-9 toaster. On display in the "Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight Gallery" at the Museum's National Mall Building.