How to hide an aircraft plant - amazing 1940s photos show you how
To paraphrase fictional British magic-trick-designer-cum-sleuth Jonathan Creek, what’s often most amazing about illusions is the lengths the tricksters go to to pull it off (he was referring at the time to a trick which involved identical-twin trained gymnasts). The point is that with imagination, organisation and a mammoth effort, it’s possible to do the seemingly impossible – like making an aircraft base disappear.
These images found over at Stories-etc show how the Lockheed Burbank Aircraft Plant in California was disguised from a possible Japanese air attack during the Second World War. It’s not only a magnificent glimpse of an unusual moment in American history, but also a testament to the power of creative thinking.
The plant before the disguise (Picture from stories-etc.com)
The plant after being disguised (Picture from stories-etc.com)
A close-up of one of the disguised areas (Picture from stories-etc.com)
An airplane hangar (Picture from stories-etc.com)
A picture of the carpark (Picture from stories-etc.com)
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Rob Alderson is a freelance writer, editor and strategist. He was previously editor-in-chief of It’s Nice That and WePresent, and editor of Design Week. He publishes the newsletter Undo, which tries to make sense of how AI is changing design work, the design process and the design industry.
