A fine cutway from 1955 by famed illustrator Rolf Klep, of a Super-G Constellation. This is actually part of an amazing double-spread from a LIFE magazine, showing both this aircraft and the oceanliner Cristoforo Columbo. Accompanying text notes that the Constellation had a flexible seating arrangement. In this drawing, tourist class passengers occupied the forward… Continue reading Super-G Constellation Cutway, 1955
Category: Illustrators
Consolidated Vultee Clipper (PanAm) Cutaway, 1945
I’m not certain when this Rolf Klep cutaway was produced, but the magazine text mentions that V-E Day was upcoming, so I’ll put it at 1945. This 160 ton aircraft was expected to be able to take 200 passengers from New York to London in 9 hours. Consolidated ventured that it would build about 15… Continue reading Consolidated Vultee Clipper (PanAm) Cutaway, 1945
Rolf Klep: Crack Cutaway Illustrator
One great technical illustrator who produced many great cutaway drawings was Rolf Klep. Klep was born in 1904 in the great shipping hub of the Pacific Northwest, Astoria, Oregon. As such, Klep gravitated toward shipping and other marine-related illustration work. During the Second World War, he was in charge of graphic arts production in the… Continue reading Rolf Klep: Crack Cutaway Illustrator
Frank Soltesz, King of Cutaway Drawings
Not just cutaway drawings, but king of practically all other areas of commercial illustration through the 1930s-1960s, it seems. Soltesz’ life is told in detail by his son, Ken Soltesz (Frank Soltesz: Biography of a Commercial Illustrator). If you can somehow define the “look” of commercial illustration during that great mid-century period in the United… Continue reading Frank Soltesz, King of Cutaway Drawings
Office Ventilation Cutaway, ca 1940s
One of the great things about the old Fortune magazine was how it often treated extremely mundane subjects with great wonder and awe. Not only would they profile the high-level anticts of John D. Rockefeller, William Randolph Hearst, and Henry Ford, but they would take things down to the opposite end of the spectrum and… Continue reading Office Ventilation Cutaway, ca 1940s