Lance Letscher’s Rocket Plane

Lance Letscher, “Rocket Plane,” Soft ground, etching and relief, image 35” x 58 “, paper size: 42 ½ x 66 inches, edition of 12, 2025.

Flatbed Press is proud to introduce Rocket Plane, a striking new print by Lance Letscher that merges his fascination with mechanical forms and his signature graphic precision. In this meticulously rendered cutaway drawing, Letscher reveals the inner life of a fantastical aircraft—its ribs, wiring, engines, and bones—turning engineering into poetry.

An ambitious color etching measuring 39 × 64 inches and created in an edition of 12, Rocket Plane stands as one of Letscher’s most technically and conceptually expansive works.

Here, the mechanics of the machine become a metaphor for the human body: a network of systems, chambers, and fragile structures that hold both mystery and vulnerability. Letscher’s intricate lines echo anatomical diagrams, inviting viewers to consider how our own inner workings mirror the complexity, delicacy, and resilience embedded in the world of machines.

The print hovers between blueprint and dreamscape—an exploded view of invention, imagination, and restless curiosity. Subtle tonal washes illuminate the structure while fine, etched lines trace a world of hidden systems and interlocking intricacies. Rocket Plane invites viewers to linger inside its architecture, where the mechanical becomes expressive and the technical becomes mythic.

A powerful addition to Letscher’s ongoing explorations of structure, memory, and assembly, Rocket Plane bridges the engineered and the embodied, offering a vision of flight that feels both mechanical and deeply human.