photos courtesy: www.moma.org
The 1965 Porsche 911, designed by Ferdinand Alexander Porsche and Erwin Komenda. The 1990 Ferrari 641/F1-90, designed by John Barnard. The Self-Aligning Ball Bearing, 1907, designed by Sven Wingquist. The Side Chair (model DKR-1), 1951, designed by Charles Eames.
All of the aforementioned are iconic and outstanding examples of industrial design. And all are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.
I believe it is time to add another of the finest examples of industrial design from the modern era to the permanent collection at the MoMA :
The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II
David S. Lewis, Chief of Aerodynamics at McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, led the design effort of the F-4. In his youth his artistic bent, perhaps unknowingly, was informed and nourished by his enthusiastic building of model airplanes. This in similar vein as the architect Frank Lloyd Wright (FLLW). As a child his mother filled his room with images of the great cathedrals from around the world. These experiences no doubt formed at least part of the later expressions of genius from both men.
So, as I continue and for the sake of clarity and continuity, Mr. Lewis will be referred to as the Artist. Or rather, the Artistic Author of the Phantom.
This should not be taken to denigrate or reduce the contributions of all of the brilliant minds who worked on the aircraft. As it is today with Artists who work on large scale projects most of the actual heavy-lifting, so to speak, is done by Studio Assistants. Often uncredited, their hard work nevertheless comprises an important part of bringing a work of large-scale art to fruition.
“The F-4 was the last fighter that looked like a fighter”. - Major Michael Barnstable, USAF (retired)
In true artistic fashion, the Phantom looks built not only for a purpose but also to make a statement. From the aspect of frontality it evinces the merciless gaze of that other well-known (and indeed, also beautifully designed) hunter, the Gyrfalcon. Similarly, and as with the F-4, any prey caught in the sights of the largest of the true Falcons is surely doomed.
Gyrfalcon - photo courtesy: Bruce McAdam from Reykjavik, Iceland - Gyrfalcon, CC BY-SA 2.0
Allow me the liberty of commentary as brief digression on the design aesthetic of current in-service fighter aircraft. The military aircraft of today, with rare exceptions, are broadly speaking, mediocre in appearance. Uninspired and vague, if you will, their designs represent an exhaustion of creativity. Clearly, the creators of these boundlessly banal machines have lost, or perhaps, never even had, a truly art-based frame of reference insofar as design aesthetic. When Artists complained to FLLW about his design of the Guggenheim Museum in New York City being unsuitable for display of their art, his reply was: “Then make better art”. Indeed.
To wit:
With its large box-like engine air-intakes and generally ungainly appearance, the F-15 appears thrown together in haphazard fashion made up of pieces from the leftover parts bin.
The F-18 can easily be dismissed as nothing particularly inspired or original. It has the overall appearance of a common marlinespike.
Last and decidedly least. The F-35. In appearance, the flightless Kiwi of present-day U.S. fighter aircraft.
While, of course, the design of the F-4 overall, bespeaks the modern machine-age aesthetic, there are fine nuances to be noted.
The elegant curvature of its engine air-intakes are as delicate yet as finely wrought as the Torqued Ellipses of Richard Serra. Concomitantly, the severe angularity of parts of the aircraft bring to mind some of the designs of Alexander McQueen. The tipped up wing tips harken to similar wingtip attributes of the Northern Harrier.
Northern Harrier - photo courtesy: Len Blumin - Mill Valley, California, United States - Northern Harrier, CC BY 2.0
It’s overall solidity reminds one of the COR-TEN steel I-Beams used in the work of Mark di Suvero. In energetic flight the Phantom can appear as boisterous as the Ravens in the Tower of London. And, the audacious combination in form of anhedral and dihedral declaim Piet Mondrian. Even when parked, standing still, the F-4 seems almost as unbearably light as an Alexander Calder Mobile.
“Our F-4(s) were equipped with sophisticated cameras used for high altitude imagery around the world before the widespread use of satellites. It was a beautiful sight to watch them take off with the glow of their afterburners in the night sky”.
- SGT. Vince Mastrianni USAF, Medical Service Specialist, Shaw Air Force Base (Retired)
The Phantom pilots in their work were almost as Performance Artists themselves. Much like Choreographers, they demonstrated not only the capabilities of their Titanium Steeds, but the way in which they did so was similarly sublime.
The Artist and particularly their creations are rarely perfect. But imperfections are often part of the beauty of artistic endeavors. When complaints about some of his buildings having developed water leaks were relayed to him, the great Architect Frank Lloyd Wright famously quipped: “If a building doesn’t leak you’re not pushing the architecture hard enough”.
Perfection is often thought to be able to be brought about by rules and models. But to quote the English Controversialist William Hazlitt: “Rules and models destroy genius and art”.
The F-4 Phantom II is not perfect. Nonetheless, it is a work of genius and truly a work of art. As such, it is fully deserving of recognition on both of those counts. It has earned its place in the pantheon of the Museum of Modern Art.
In Thomas Gray’s poem ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’ there is the phrase:
“Paths of glory lead only to the grave.”
This has brought some to the philosophical conclusion, incorrectly as it were, that there is no glory in war. Or beauty for that matter. But of course there is.
In the case of the Phantom, the glory of having designed and built such a magnificent, monumental, work of art and having had the privilege of flying it, would lead to a different conclusion. That one could die happy.
Photo Courtesy: USAF
Photo Editing: © James Fitzjames 2020
Title: Warhol at War