Nov 1, 2010: Spacey Hood Doodad
 

This is the drawing submitted to the US Patent Office in 1951, by Alexander S. Tremulis.
It's a patent for an aftermarket hood ornament.

http://cellar.org/2010/spaceship.jpg

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OK, simmer down... In the 40's, Alexander S. Tremulis had also done the Tucker Automobile prototype designs.
They were pretty spacey, right?

http://cellar.org/2010/Tucker.jpg

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Rough crowd...

How about this design, Tremulis did later on?

http://cellar.org/2010/enterprise.jpg

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Yeah, that's what I thought, ya nerds. :p:

link

!!! That hood ornament was an earlier Enterprise.

Wow! I always wondered why there was a sensor dish on the front of the Tucker Torpedo's hood.

I immediately thought of the Enterprise when I saw the hood ornament. Pretty cool!

Yeah, I thought the story was going to be that the guy was now suing the Star Trek folks because he came up with the ship design back in the 50s.

What on Earth (or any Federation planet) is the purpose of a patent for a hood ornament? It's nonfunctional design, shouldn't it be a copyright or trademark?

I want that cool red car.

Design patent. You can patent designs. Car shapes are patented all the time.

That hood ornament would look most excellent on my Windstar.

Now I want to find my copy of Gene Roddenberry's Inside Star Trek and Making of Star Trek to see if he mentions Tremulis in the section on determining the design of the Enterprise. I don't remember his name in there, though.

I also immediately thought of the Enterprise when I saw the design drawings.

It is a nice yarn, but I think it has the making of an urban legend.
The star trek books I have do not mention Tremulis at all. they just mention the collaboration of Roddenberry and Matt Jefferies, Sam Peeples was also mentioned.
They searched Sci-Fi magazines back to 1931, no mention of any hood ornaments.

See?

Mention Star Trek and the nerds come out.

:lol:

Hey! Just because I have a pocket protector, glasses held together with scotch tape, a booger smeared on my back, and a Star Trek shirt doesn't mean I'm a nerd!

Matt Jeffries is credited with the design of the enterprise in most of the articles I've seen. Question is, did he steal the design? Hmmm?

Inside Star Trek has the original drawings ... first one looked like a baseball with a couple of engine nacelles poked into it, as I recall.

Matt Jefferies is the designer whose name I remember also. He's why they're called "Jefferies Tubes.

Here's an article with the drawings.