This "futuristic" plane was:
1) conceived in the 1920s to occur in the 1940s
2) conceived in the 1930s to occur in the 1950s
3) conceived in the 1940s to occur in the 1970s
4) conceived in the 1950s to occur in the 1980s
The answer is here.
This is what Jack Charipar, director of Plymouth's product-planning team, imagined in 1961 that cars would look like in 1980. Source:
Newsweek - Jan 23, 1961.
Why can't Google do a fun ad like this for their robot cars?
Original ad here.
Now we know where the sound of the 1966 Batmobile came from.
Be sure to watch until they open the hood.
Details here.
From the
Hattiesburg American - Feb 18, 1964
Many of the engineers' dreams are soon to become realities. Plans are now under way for twin 110-story towers in New York City which will dwarf the Empire State Building. The tunnel under the English Channel now seems assured. Covered, air-conditioned baseball stadiums are being built to do away with the need for rain checks. And the engineers soon hope to place a man on the moon, the first major step toward the exploration of our own galaxy and the galaxies beyond.
He got all this correct!
Fifty years from now some writer will look back and reflect that the in the 60's an engineer who dreamed of the weekend trip to Mars, the University of Space located on Jupiter, the completely automated home where housework consisted of pushing buttons, the aerial highways and helicars, and other commplace things in the year 2014 was considered a "screwball" by his fellow citizens.
An automated home is the closest to being a reality. The rest of it—not even close.
Here's a prediction that did the rounds of many newspapers and magazines (including
this one) back in 1915 and 1916:
The
current world population is approximately 7,137,616,500.
Milford Barnes was the Head of the Department of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine at the University of Iowa from 1930 to 1952. The annual Milford E. Barnes Award for Academic Excellence in Biostatistics was established in his honor. He made this prediction in 1934. Evidently, he was an optimist.
Predictions from 1928 of how women would be dressing in 1978 and beyond, modeled at the "Dream of Fair Women" charity ball. From the
San Antonio Light - May 6, 1928:
"It is taken for granted that the honeymoons of that period will be spent in airplanes, and Mrs. Campbell's outfit is distinctly designed for aviation."
"Miss Faith Celli, of London, wore her conception of what the nun of 1980 will wear. It is immediately recognizable as a convent garb, but shown unmistakably the influence of Reinhardt's "The Miracle," particularly in the tall headgear and collar forming plane formation. Several clergymen who saw the costume pronounced it an ideal one, expressing splendidly the simplicity and seclusion of life in a convent of the future."
"It seems to be the more or less general opinion of the women who participate in the ball that the women of the future will go in less and less for skirts. Mrs. Donald Armstrong Jones appeared in a charming walking suit consisting of loose jacket of soft, clinging material, and breeches marking a complete departure from the present day 'plus-fours.'"
A prediction from 1956 of how people would be dressing in the 1980s.
Here's another prediction of yesteryear that never panned out. Found in the
Kingsport News - Apr 2, 1959:
J. McLaren Thomson, president of the National Hairdressers Federation, predicts that both men and women will have their hair short by 1999 so that they can wear space helmets. He said women will have a collection of wigs to wear with special dresses for gala occasions.