The Fredösphere

You can download Stanley Kubrick's 2001:  A Space Odyssey right here.  Well, actually it's not Stanley Kubrick's.  It's just like Stanley Kubrick's, except it's about 10% of the length, it's got helpful subtitles so you know what the heck is going on, and it's realized in flash animation. Then there's also a cool site for fantasy aircraft.  Most are old-fashioned futuristic visions, but in a few cases inventors made serious (and frightening) attempts to build these things.  (And why is it the French were behind so many of the very weird designs?  I think I just answered my own question.)  For the short version, just have a glance at my personal favorites:

The Gyroptere - based on the shape of a winged maple seed, it was to be capable of vertical take off and landing. The Bel Geddes Airliner - with a dining room, bar, solarium, games deck, and staterooms for 606 passengers (plus a crew of 155!).  I was nevertheless dismayed to find no evidence of an on-board swimming pool anywhere in the design drawings. Rotary Zeppelin - just look, it's too weird to describe (but not too weird to have been proposed by two different inventors). Miss May - another air liner.  "With Space for Hundreds of Passengers, the Air Liner It  Is Predicted, Will Be Built Entirely of Metal and All Parts Will Be Enclosed Including the Motors."  But what will enclose the enclosing parts?  Oh, never mind.

(Tip o' the hat to Ghost of a Flea.)