Bing of the Ferro Lusto

In 1997 his fascination for the cosmos resulted in the final project Ferro Lusto that he describes as a spaceship of 800 meters in length and fit for a crew of 4000.

Panamarenko sees the Ferro Lusto as the mother ship that would carry various smaller craft, that he calls Bings.  His flying saucer Bing of the Ferro Lusto can also be seen as a component of a much larger whole, which can navigate between the planets and from the mother spaceship.  From a 1990 drawing, it appears that the motor employed by Panamarenko to drive these craft  was originally christened the Quadrac Motor.  This motor consists of two pairs of cylinders arranged parallel in a metal block.  The word ‘quadrac’ indicated that the motor disposes of four pistons, in turn producing an upwards and sidewards motion.

For the name Ferro Lusto, Panamarenko was once again inspired by the 1947 Orson Welles film The Lady from Shanghai.  As he says: At a certain point you hear a commercial on the radio: ‘Brillo Lusto, this is your hair, this is your man!’  And I thought to myself: That doesn’t sound bad, but I’ll make it ‘Ferro’ Lusto.  Because ‘ferro’ means iron, and Ferro Lusto sounds like a good name for a flying saucer.