Stratollite for World View Entreprises

In 2019, World View Enterprises commissioned Custom Science Sculpture (aka Russell's Art & Design) to create a large-scale sculpture of their Stratollite spacecraft for the company's Tucson headquarters.
 

World View's Stratollites are enormous high-altitude vehicles, consisting of a network of balloons supporting a Stratocraft that performs scientific observation and data acquisition in the stratosphere. Because the full vehicle is hundreds of feet tall, World View wanted a physical model that would allow customers and visitors to see the entire system at once and understand how its components work together.
 

The resulting sculpture is 8 feet tall and is suspended several feet above the floor in the main gallery immediately beyond the entrance vestibule at World View's headquarters.
 

Every major component is represented at exact scale and geometry: one lift balloon, two ballast balloons, solar panels, and the Stratocraft. The sculpture even uses the actual plastic material used on World View's balloons, and the number of ribs in each sculptural element matches the number of seams on the corresponding flight hardware.
 

The sculpture also serves a practical purpose within the company. World View wanted it to incorporate plaques recognizing employees of the month. Rather than adding a separate display, we designed each solar panel to accept a standard 2" × 3" laser-etched plaque. The company can produce and replace the plaques themselves, making the sculpture an evolving part of the workplace.
 

The result is more than a scale model: it is a piece of engineering communication, corporate art, and functional workplace design. It allows a complex aerospace system to be understood as a physical object while creating a memorable centerpiece for the company's headquarters.
 

The aesthetics and presentation were developed in collaboration with World View and approved by the company, which was very pleased with the finished sculpture.