THE SPACESHIP - 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 all 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 just a bit dull. And is probably more interesting and entertaining today, as we can look back with actual knowledge of space travel; albeit limited to the Earth and the Moon and admire the very ambitious visual effects. There are some great shots of the ship travelling through space and a thrilling scene where they narrowly avoid a huge asteroid. This scene is worth the price of admission alone!

The Spaceship was designed for a mission to the moon, but during the course of the story the mission is altered to go to mars instead. sent to Mars. It is a sort of multi-stage ship. A giant rocket motor section which gets it to Mars and is jettisoned upon arrival at the destination planet. The giant wing which is used when the ship comes in to land on the Martian surface. And a rocket ship which is raised vertically to launch as a rocket and bring the crew back to Earth. (It is unclear if this was intended to re-dock with the rocket motor assembly).

As with ‘The Wheel’ I couldn’t find any information on the 'real' ship. But you do see astronauts out on the hull and there is a door in the side of the rocket ship and the size can be calculated. I estimate the wing span to be 350 feet. The rocket ship stands a little over 70 feet tall and the overall length when fully assembled with the rocket motor is 175ft.

I chose a scale of 1/400th - the same as ‘The Wheel’. The model would be about 5.5" (13cm) in length and a wingspan of 11" (28cm). This could actually make a decent kit, if all three parts were detachable, and the rocketship was moveable, There is also a retractable antenna (an optional part). The Wing has landing gear and this would be great either as an optional part, or a retractable undercarriage (although I doubt this would be possible).

I imagine the kit in white plastic. Incidentally the miniatures have significantly more surface detail than is apparent in the film, where a lot of detail is lots in the bright lighting and optical compositing process.

(Interestingly Monogram did a series of speculative space craft 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