Some background: In 1951, while in charge of Moscow, Khrushchev started pushing for low-cost, fast building methods as an important objective for Soviet architects. This was a break from the more ornate Stalinist architecture, that Khrushchev saw as excessive. Once he took over after Stalin, he announced a clear break from the Stalinist building style.

In the meantime Vitaly Lagutenko had been working for years on designing prefab buildings.

Which combined to lead to the infamous Khrushchyovka - concrete prefabs that were churned out in huge numbers to alleviate the housing shortage. They were successful in that, but at the cost of quality.

These continued being built into the 70's, and so created a backdrop for people fantasising about the future of construction where the government sanctioned ideal was very strongly in favour of automation allowing for rapid assembly of prefab modules.

Of course going from that to positing flying factories is an .. interesting leap. But I guess it was part of a flying == future kind of thing.

Silver City was a pioneering cross-Channel air ferry service that began in 1948. Using specialized aircraft with forward cargo doors, a customer could drive their car aboard a plane and then drive off in Normandy a short flight later.

This picture is an ambitious proposal of theirs from 1952. Depicted is a two-part helicopter, designed to come apart on its horizontal, er, plane. The bottom part is a cargo container that gets loaded up at the aerodrome, while the top part -- note the second set of tires! -- would fly in and mate with the carrier before flying off as a unit.

The picture is from the London Illustrated News of August 9th, 1952. You may be amazed to learn that it never existed outside of drawings.