“ Friede ” was the first real starship in the movies . It was designed by one of the founders of modern astronautics and was an Art Deco masterpiece so scientifically accurate it give way the Nazis nightmare .
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Frau i m Mond ( missy in the Moon ) was the originative space traveling film of the prewar period . It premiered on October 17 , 1929 . Directed by the fabled Fritz Lang , this over three time of day epos detailed the construction and flight of a Eruca sativa ( the Friede ) to the Moon . Our heroes are trying to gain access to a legendary hoard of “ lunar amber . ”
The projectile was designed by Hermann Oberth , who also acted as the film ’s expert advisor . He based the movie Eruca sativa on the Model E starship from his book , Wege zur Raumschiffarhrt ( Ways to Space Flight ) .
Oberth print Wege zur Raumschiffahrt in 1929 . This book , an blow up and revised edition of his circumstantially popular Die Rakete Zubird hideaway Planetenraum , is quite mayhap the most influential single oeuvre on spacefaring ever published . Oberth covered in awing detail virtually every aspect of the problem , from engineering and ballistic trajectory , to space music .
The “ Model E ” was a blunt , bullet - shaped garden rocket 35 m tall and 10 m in diam .
The two - level rocket was fitted with the four large fins fit out with steering vanes that characterized most of Oberth ’s designs at that time . The nose of the second stage turn back a lowly passenger compartment . The gang , who laid in couches for take - off , could follow the outside through . The compartment was also outfit with leather loop topology for use in free fall . The crew could exit the rocket through an air lock tunnel . The return to earth was to be by parachute .
Other than the serendipitous discovery of a breathable atmosphere on the Moon , Frau i m Mond was the most unquestionable depiction of spaceflight to reach the screen until Destination Moon in 1950 . Among the nifty many prescient moments in the photographic film - such as the roll - out of the starship from its vertical meeting place building , in a scene that might have been taken at Kennedy Space Center - is the first launching countdown in film chronicle .
When Frau i m Mond was first point in Britain it was line as pall the member of the Foreign Office “ witless . ” All mark of the film are seclude from distribution by the Gestapo , who also seized the 5 - foot alloy poser of the spaceship , which was either destruct or fall back during the war .
The model spaceship was built so it could be opened , reveal all the details of its inside . This appears only very briefly in the film . It ’s a gorgeous matter and a tragedy that it was destroyed . blithely , some fantabulous photos were take of it from various angles—-including its incredibly detailed interior . Some of these rarefied photos are evidence here for the first time .
Recently , passe-partout model God Almighty Lee Staton was commission by the Foundation Museum of the History of the Federal Republic of Germany to recreate the model of the Friede .
It was to be part of a display in a extra exhibition devote to the scientific discipline fiction films of Fritz Lang . It was to prove to be one of the most challenging task he had ever undertook .
Oberth had published detailed plans of the Model E in his book , but the movie rendering differed considerably . A careful screening of the motion picture , however , revealed a few frames in which plan appeared . enhance in Photoshop , these revealed the new item , but some things were still changed during the construction of the sets . Staton had to go through the flick , frame by frame , to make his modelling jibe with what was date in the movie . The terminal model would finally melt the miniature seen in the film with the band used during take . “ The flick toy , ” Staton says , “ did not reflect the full - size cabin fix used by the actors , while my model will . ”
Hundreds of manus - made parts were replicated by vacuum - form and laser - cutting off , some of which are scarcely seeable in the ruined simulation . Since the final model is only 30 inches grandiloquent , the fine detailed interior had to be assembled with tweezers and a magnifying crank . Since the picture was shot in B&W , Staton had to guess at colors , finally decide on an Art Deco palette he feel was most realistic .
“ One cause I get the stage set compelling , ” sound out Staton , “ is that it was a well - designed inside for a spacecraft , with seats and table that fold up into the walls and handhold and beachhead for zero G. It was a 2 - fib place with ‘ savage ’ wall that could be displace for film . It was also gimballed , which can clearly be discerned during a roiling sequence of shaft in the moving-picture show . ” This was a proficiency used by George Pal in construct “ Destination Moon ” and most unforgettably by Kubrick in “ 2002 . ”
“ Not bad for 1929 , ” says Staton .
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