"Who Knew They Were French?"

Okay, the title of the post bears only the most tangential relationship to the subject matter. I just like the quote. And the post is about an SF subject, so there.

One of the ways in which I've sought to occupy my time during this second plague lockdown is by watching video. Mostly movies, it's true (and most of the movies animated, because it's not searing realism I'm wanting right now), but thanks to friends we have also had the opportunity to watch some of "The Mandalorian."

And I was struck by the amazing awfulness of the industrial design of the protagonist's ship. (And I mean this in a good way.)

Image ganked from Wookipedia, the Star Wars wiki

I'm sure plenty has been written about the role industrial design plays in SF storytelling, but one thing about this series that impresses me (at least a little) is the way design choices don't always reflect what I might call contemporary "good" taste.

The Razor Crest (stupid name, btw) is a strangely impressive example of this. Because the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw this ship was how much it reminded me of this...What you are looking at here is perhaps the leading example of French industrial design of the period between the world wars.

Image from Wikimedia Commons

This is an Amiot-143, a four-seat multiplace de combat airplane designed to a late-1920s specification for a machine that could serve as pretty much anything air combat required: reconnaissance, light bombing, and even long-range fighter escort.

Of course it did none of these things at all well, but that's almost beside the point here. What matters (to me, anyway) is just how completely lacking in grace this thing is. And even more to the point, the Amiot-143 was not an anomaly. Just about every French military airplane designed and flown between about 1920 and 1938 or '39 was as awkward and ungainly as the Amiot, and in some cases much more so.

I would not have wanted to be associated in any meaningful way with this sort of design, but I find it sort of pleasing that a school of design this abysmal could still gain purchase somewhere in the world. So while I still find a lot of Star Wars to be silly beyond words, I am grateful every time I see the bounty-hunter's goofy-looking ship out there with all the sleekness.

Here's another shot of the Amiot, to perhaps demonstrate why some called it The Flying Greenhouse.

Image from Wikimedia Commons (again)