THE WHEEL - from ‘Conquest of Space’ (1955) Produced by GEORGE PAL and Directed by BYRON HASKIN

In 1955 George Pal made ‘Conquest of Space’, a film that depicts futuristic space travel as accurately as possible at the time. The film is based on the non-fiction book of the same name written by Willy Ley and Chesley Bonestall in 1949. The film also boasts Werner von Braun as a Technical Advisor. Unfortunately for al; its technical ambition and authenticity, the film did not connect with audiences where science fiction or Sci-Fi was giant monsters and ray guns. That said ‘This Island Earth’ (1955) and ‘Forbidden Planet’ (1956) were both thoughtful science fiction films that were very successful. ‘Conquest of Space’; is probably more interesting and entertaining today, as we can look back with actual knowledge of space travel; abeit limited to the Earth and the Moon

But the film delivers on the spectacle. The Wheel is a base of operations for space travel to and from the Earth and the rest of the Solar System.

The wheel seems to be a sort of slang term and most of the characters do not like living on it, giving the film some much needed character. It rotates slowly to generate artificial gravity and the crew all eat coloured tablets and not real food. The structure has the capacity to be sealed off from one another in order to minimize the danger to the crew. .

Small Rocket Shuttles bring crewmen up from the Earth. And the astronauts travel to the Wheel and the nearby Spaceship via small rocket sleds that tow them via tethers.

I cant find any information in the size so the space station, but in looking at the shots I have estimated it to be about 350 feet in diametre. This box art suggets a Model Kit from the late 1950s or early 1960s. At that time it would most likely have been made at a size to ‘fit the box’ and not an actual scale as such. I have chosen 1/400th scale as this would make the model about 10.5” across - a good size. The kit would come with a display stand that would allow the station to rotate and a separate support for the Rocket Shuttle that would also be included. This would be in scale with the Wheel and I estimate it would be about 3” long (about 100 feet long in real life).

I imagine the kit in white plastic, possibly with chrome parts for the upper ring detail.

(Interestingly Monogram did a series of speculative space caraft based on Willy Ley designs in the . But nothing from this film).

Special Visual Effects by John P Fulton

You can see more about this kit in ‘What If Fantasy Model Kits #22 on my YouTube channel.

Trailer for the film on blu-ray here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlyHw3mNfmA