Jim Key's fantastic artwork

I would like to offer a very special thanks to Jim Key for his contribution to this site, his permission to use his artwork, and his service to represent this particular bit of science fiction history and often overlooked spacecraft as only he can. If you are interested in Jim's talents as a professional modeler, please visit his site and prepare to be amazed. His real world address for his company is given below for those who might need his services.

HISTORY- Jim Key's artwork originally appeared in Issue #38 of the now defunct hobby magazine "SCI-FI & FANTASY MODELS INTERNATIONAL", back issues are very rare and hard to find, if they are available at all. His article was entitled "The Flight of the Icarus" and was a tribute article to this often overlooked, even forgotten piece of science fiction hardware ... A tribute that was a long time coming.

The opening scene of the "Planet of the Apes" showing Taylor dictating the final log. Artwork by Jim Key.

Abandon ship! Dodge and Landon wait in the raft while Taylor prepares to jump to safety. Artwork by Jim Key.
(I believe that this is the first time that this particular image has appeared in full color anywhere. Thank you, Jim.)

INTERIOR DESIGN OF THE "ICARUS"- carefully researched and drawn to scale by Jim Key
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Mr. Key says that his design was researched by painstakingly looking at the first few minutes of the film, up to the point of the surviving crew abandoning ship, frame by frame, and then judging the details by looking at the only true frame of reference he had to go by, the actual known height of actor Charlton Heston as he walked around the cabin.

Exterior views of the "Icarus"- drawn by Jim Key. Note the addition of very limited yaw control jets, but the absence of roll and pitch motors in the design. Also, Mr. Key adds two large 'reentry engines' to the rear, though in the next set of plans, you will see that they are nothing but empty nozzles, there are no rocket motors beyond the bulkhead so their inclusion is certainly questionable. When asked about this in the article Mr. Key said he felt that his design was more in line with what was originally intended to be shown in the movie, rather than more towards functionality. His designs, as rendered, are very close to the original model sketches (see below).

It should also be noted that other amateur and professional modelers have converted his drawings and plans to scale blueprints for their own projects, using his measurements for their modeling endeavors, such are the quality of these drawings and the tolerances of the scales displayed. One such project and its results can be found here as presented by Peter Noble.

Here in the otherwise well thought out design, we see that there is a complete absence of any type of rocket motors for the "re-entry engines", and that the "Icarus" can only turn left or right, but can't roll left or right, nor can it pitch up or down using its jets.

One set of original sketches for the "Icarus", this intended for the first model in the movie.

The second set of plans used by the set and model makers of the original movie.

"THE FLIGHT OF THE ICARUS" - Jim Key's special tribute to this great and often overlooked ship appeared in issue #38 of SCI-FI & FANTASY MODELS INTERNATIONAL magazine. Jim Key does an excellent job of illustrating the interior and the crew using his own talented artwork. Sadly, this magazine is no longer available and back issues are hard to come by.

I checked with the source, and have reliable information that the magazine will probably never come back into print which is sad, because it was a quality publication.

Get this issue if you can find it, definitely worth it as a collector piece on this ship.

Full crew shot- pre-flight. Left to right, Dodge, Taylor, Stewart, and Landon. Artwork by Jim Key.