Sentimental Spaceliner

Ruminating on the Orion III

    For those who were fortunate enough to see 2001 when it was first released, you know that one of the things that film created was an incredible desire to see this future when it got here. Well, 2001 has come and gone and that space wheel in the sky isn't there yet. Still the look of that future with its space stations had an air of reality that had been unmatched by anything we had seen before, except perhaps by those that read the famed Collier articles by Werner Von Braun and Willy Ley and illustrated by Chesley Bonestell. Oh well, the fleets of Mars ships have not materialized either.

    The imagery of 2001 came to mind again because of a small discussion on new color schemes for the Orion III shuttle on the Starship Modeler Forum  with regard to ideas for additional schemes besides those seen in the film. The reason for this discussion is partially due to the release by Moebius of a retooled version of the old Aurora space clipper kit. For reasons that are not readily apparent, it was released without Pan Am decals (copyright issues with either MGM or the rail company that inherited the name). Given that the completed model will give you a blank slate, it can be interesting to play around with the idea of how to color the ship when done. I drew up a couple of blank profiles to see if anyone wanted to contribute. After all, by the time 2001 came around, Pan Am didn't really exist anymore anyway. What about other contemporary airlines - and by contemporary I mean 1968, so...

TWA, based on the livery on the Moonliner rocket that was on display at Disneyland

or more defunct airlines, how about the flying colors of Braniff

BOAC, pre British Airways

I did do an actual British Airways Orion profile, and getting that tail flag flash is really tricky given that the Orion is essentially tailless aircraft.

Besides the blank passenger profile I made a quick cargo profile (detail note, the curvy fuselage makes fitting a Space Shuttle-like set of cargo doors problematic, so instead I drew in two

separate cargo hold sections). A figured commercial cargo version might have been used under contract by Flying Tiger lines, the air freight carrier of the 60s, or perhaps their successor...FedEx.

ANA airlines likes putting anime on their aircraft. I figured for 1968, what better anime character than Astroboy.

The alternate world of 2001, there was no NASA but rather AASA, the American Astronautics Space Agency. I based their colors on the later paint schemes of the shuttle.
    How about a presidential Orion III?

After all if Babylon 5 can have an

Earthforce 1, why not a Space Force 1 for 2001. Should look nice with that gold and blue trim.
    You could have an Orion III used to convey shadowy figures of an international movie corporation, which seems to have a huge budget for location shots on the moon. Could they be hiding something? For another Gerry Anderson reference, I also considered it as the seed aircraft by an airline in frequent need of international rescue.

A colorful one can be along the lines

of a Chris Moore'ish, Peter Elsonesque, Chris Foss-like, TTA universe Orion. A kind of industrial tropical fish look.

Starship modeler forum poster Justin "Bluesman" Miller posted a couple of contemporary airline profiles (posted with permission)

In spite of some apprehensive remarks about budget spaceflight by
fellow posters (well me) he replied that you can't beat the price and service with a stick. Well last time a flew a major airline, I recall the price and service couldn't be beaten with a stick either. No, wait, I got that backwards. I got beaten with a stick, that's right.
    Still a private sentimental version would be LAN Chile. I flew on them as a wee child back in '68, with cockpit tour! (Below Lan '68 and '01):

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...yes I have one,...and in the end it will probably just be a Pan Am (for 2001, would have likely been a "billboard" version below), like the one I built in '75 (find references here)