Aeromorphs are the often-pornographic representations of anthropomorphized aircraft. They fall under the umbrella of mechanophilia, or the desire to have sex with cars, boats, motorcycles, and yes, airplanes. We saw mechanophilia—or at least some kind of chaotic horniness—in action earlier this year , when cops caught (and tased) a man who refused to take his dick out of a sedan tailpipe.

I was biking to work earlier this week on a beautiful fall day. I saw an airplane pass overhead. One thought, unbidden, crossed my mind: What if the plane had boobs?

Welcome to Rule 34, a series in which Motherboard’s Samantha Cole lovingly explores the highly specific fetishes that can be found on the web.

Sam Eversley, a Motherboard reader who suggested that I explore aeromorphs, told me in an email that a big part of the appeal is in the juxtaposition of cold harsh metal and sensual bodies. “You're taking a deadly war machine (often, anyway, sometimes innocent things like passenger airplanes are subjected to Rule 34 too) and perverting it... There's also the aforementioned endless references: cargo bay, fuel pump, bombs/loads, thrusters etc. It's just fun to refer to sex that way, all the while you're staring at perfectly rendered horny versions of things that could kill you. At the end of the day I guess there's just something special about girls that can hit Mach 2.”

In researching this art form, I’ve seen a supersonic F-14 Tomcat with boobs, a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird with boobs, and a WWI Red Baron... with boobs. Most of these examples can be found in this Imgur gallery.

"At the end of the day I guess there's just something special about girls that can hit Mach 2.”

But aeromorphs, as living aircraft are sometimes called, are a little different than straight-up boning automobiles. They’re anthropomorphic, so they share more in common with furries and scalies than vehicles. The most frequent form they take is that of a plane, shaped like a woman, but they could also be helicopters, space shuttles, blimps. They often have oversized breasts, shapely thighs, and wings jutting off of curvaceous butts.

A lot of living aircraft fan art was influenced by an artist named William Walter Sache (who also illustrated most of the works in the gallery above). Because everything on the internet can be traced back to furries , it’s only right that Sache is a prolific, well-known artist within the furry community. I tried to contact Sache through his DeviantArt page, but haven’t heard back.

As examples of some of their favorites, overly_canned_name sent this MiG jet fighter and this Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor .

Why do fans find airplanes with tits and asses so attractive? “I have a few reasons,” overly_canned_name said. “The fact that they're planes is very nice to me; the overall shape and mechanical appearance of them really makes me feel strongly for the whole idea. Furthermore, the details they have from being a plane, like the nose/’snout,’ tail, wings, etc., are also very attractive.”

I asked u/overly_canned_name, a mod for r/aeromorph, how widespread the sexy airplane phenomena is. “Don't think it's very common, but it isn't necessarily nonexistent,” they told me in an email. “Within the furry community/fetish group, it's definitely known by some people, but not necessarily loved by all. Outside of that I imagine it's nigh completely unknown.”

Like many fetishes, outside of their niche databases, aeromorphs have their own corner of the internet on Reddit. If you’re not prepared to plunge into the rather comprehensive e621 database , then the aeromorphs subreddit is a good beginner’s look at the genre.

Sache may have heavily influences the genre, but not all aeromorphs are represented in his vamped-up, curvaceous female style. There are living aircraft that simply look like planes with faces that have sex with humans, and then there’s the more reptilian or dragon-like renditions as portrayed in the webcomic Terror Drive.

“Their position as objects made for human use changes when they become alive and I liked that tension."

A Google+ group called The Aeromorph Airport features photos of actual planes and ascribes character traits to them not unlike a personal ad, including a “straight” Mi-35M attack helicopter described as “caring, understanding, funny, strong,” which enjoys “meeting new people, Group sex, [and] dominant sex.”

Most living aircraft art is illustrated, but video artist Maya Ben David works in live action. Ben David creates short films based on a variety of fandoms and fetishes—see her Charizard and “log girl” videos—but two of her most viewed videos on YouTube feature Air Canada Gal. In the first video, Ben David, dressed in a skin-tight suit painted to look like an Air Canada plane, does a variety of dances and poses in front of green screens to the SellOffVacations.com jingle.

“I had always found anthropomorphic objects very sexy and relatable,” she told me in an email. “Their position as objects made for human use changes when they become alive and I liked that tension. I like the relationship of the anthro plane and pilot. At least in the fictions I have created, the anthro plane swallows the pilot and passengers and becomes pregnant with their baggage while carrying them around.” This, she explained, crosses over into vorarephilia, or “vore,” the erotic desire to consume, or be consumed by, another person or creature.

“I like the anthro plane community. It's cute when there are crossovers and an anthro plane and anthro train will appear together,” Ben David told me. “I dislike it when anthro planes are used in memes to demonstrate the ‘dark corners of the internet.’ You are blessed by my sexy plane. You’re welcome.”