Wing Strut for the Letatlin

Over the years 1929-1932 Vladimir Tatlin was engaged in realizing one of his most bold and bizarrely utopian designs: the construction of a flying machine, a winged bicycle which he named Letatlin (a compound made up word of the artist’s own name and the Russian verb letat’ – to fly). From the moment of its conception the Letatlin was seen as a machine to be driven solely by human power. Tatlin’s flying bicycle was intended to liberate mankind from the bonds of gravity and offer him the sensation of flight enjoyed by the birds. In constructing this machine Tatlin laid great emphasis on organic design, using materials such as wood, cork, silk, leather, steel threads etc. Progress in the field of aviation, various studies on the laws of flight, his own research into the “culture of materials” and a profound study of natural forms and structures constituted the foundations of Tatlin’s work on the project. In 1923 he presented three models of the Letatlin in Moscow. But for all his efforts, the Letatlin never flew. The wing strut in the Costakis Collection is the only big scale original component to have survived.