Digital Sculpture
Inspired by hovercrafts, spy planes, submersible cockpits, and the design techniques of Leonardo Da Vinci, the Pompeii flyer is a modular vehicle designed for exploration. A flying and hovering vehicle was chosen because it is the best way to stay safe and out of contact from the incredible heat of lava and ash. Specifically, the environment chosen was a volcanic eruption near ancient Pompeii. The vehicle is shown arriving at the scene of an ongoing eruption and navigating lava, ash, and ruins of buildings. The renderings are intended to be viewed in order, as the ship arrives, transitions, and detaches the pod. Leonardo Da Vinci’s scientific nature, gravitation toward nature, and obsession with complex, probably impossible mechanisms inspired the design. For example, the airfoils of the wings are very birdlike, but are reversed from a direction that would actually cause it to fly. Very few of Da Vinci’s inventions would actually function, and several of them are incorporated into the vehicle, including the pod’s screw-like blades.
