Visit the La Jetee Shop

Fearing the loss of national prestige and market share to the Europeans, the United States government embarked on the SST program. In true American fashion, this aircraft would have been bigger, faster and more technically complex than the British-French Concorde or the Tupolev TU-144, carrying up to 300 passengers at speeds approaching Mach 2.7. As impressive as it may have been, it came with insurmountable problems: extreme noise and property damage. Titanium Icarus investigates the friction between this legendary program and the emerging environmental movements of the 1960s and 70s, showcasing the end of the American modernist era and the beginning of a grassroots movement that questioned new technologies for the first time. Hundreds of never-before-published photos and the artwork of Gaël Elegoët bring to life an aircraft that never took to the skies.

La Jetée is thrilled to publish award-winning aviation writer and commentator Geoffrey Thomas’s latest work, Wings Over Santa Monica. Thomas explores the fascinating history of the Santa Monica Airport, once the center of the aviation universe as the headquarters of Douglas Aircraft Co. When Donald Douglas moved from a rented room in an L.A. barbershop to an abandoned movie studio in the coastal California city of Santa Monica in 1922, he began a decades-long journey of military and commercial aircraft innovation. Thomas navigates the rise of this pioneering aviation company, which at its height flew 90% of the world’s air traffic. The book features rare, never-before-seen photos from Douglas’s personal collection and exclusive interviews. This is the first book in The Concrete Ribbons of Destiny series, which examines small airports that made huge contributions to aviation, including Convair’s Lindbergh Field and Boeing’s Renton facility.