Ideology and technical choice : the decline of the wooden airplane in the United States, 1920-1945

Author

Schatzberg, Eric

Document type

Article (journal)

Language

English

Source

Technology and culture. 1994, Num. 1, Vol. 35, 34-69

ISSN

0040-165X

Abstract (en)

Author states: "In the 1920s, the technical evidence favored neither wood nor metal overall. Technical criteria thus cannot explain the aviation community's enthusiastic support for metal construction. In addition to technical arguments, supporters of metal invoked a nontechnical rhetoric that linked metal with progress and wood with stasis. Using this rhetoric, aviation engineers expressed their belief in the inevitable triumph of the metal airplane, a belief I term the progress ideology of metal. This ideology insured that research and development resources went overwhelmingly to improving metal airplanes".

Subject (en)

• General history of art -- 1800-1945 -- Decorative arts -- Other media and forms -- United States
• Airplanes
• United States
• 1900-2000
• Wood
• Metals
• Ideology
• Technology
• Progress
• Aviation

Subject (fr)

• Histoire générale de l'art -- 1800-1945 -- Arts décoratifs -- Autres formes d'art -- États-Unis
• Avion
• Etats-Unis
• 1900-2000
• Bois
• Métal
• Idéologie
• Technologie
• Progrès
• Aviation

Origin

DatabaseBHA (Inist-CNRS/GRI)

Identifier19941001-00347655

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