New Apple Designer Marc Newson Loves Planes So Much That He Designed One For An Art Gallery

Apple just hired legendary industrial designer Marc Newson.

Everyone wants to know what cool new looks he might bring to Apple products, present and future.

But Newson fans know that for many years, he's been obsessed with transportation. He's designed cars and boats and bikes.

And a jet.

But not just any jet - an art jet.

In 2010, Vernissage TV made a short video about a major show that Newson had in New York at Gagosian, one art world's best-known galleries. Prominently featured in the video is the Kelvin 40, a small jet that Newson designed on commission for the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain. It was first exhibited in 2004 in Paris.

"If I hadn't quit college, I would have become an aeronautics engineer," Newson said at the time.

You can see why.

Newson's design for the Kelvin 40 looks at home in an austere, white gallery.Screenshot via YouTubeiJet?

The Kelvin 40 is the minimalist's dream of a jet: a huge intake, a simple canopy, and room for two. It's a roadster for the sky, except that you can't put the top down in flight. Screenshot via YouTube

The tail is a simple curve. Screenshot via YouTube

It looks a lot a jet that a child would draw.

The canopy evokes the entire history of the component with a few basic design elements. Screenshot via YouTube

The intake dominates the Kelvin 40's nose.Screenshot via YouTube

The Kelvin 40 design my seem like it would never fly, but it actually looks a lot like an experimental fighter jet that Boeing created for the U.S. military in the 1990s. The x-32 flew in 2000.

Wikimedia Commons

Newson loves the idea of people moving around. It's going to be fascinating to see what he does at Apple.

Watch the entire video below: