speaking of great software...
one of my favs is Rhino3D. Check out the galleries. Rhino uses NURBS (the math of which are about 3 feet over my head) to produce very organic surfaces.
I haven't done much with it myself, but in the hands of someone like, say...Tom...it could probably help spawn the next generation of space-faring vehicle. (I wonder if Rutan's group uses it.)
