You got to remember his work on ALIENS (the movie) also included designing the dropship, where he went as far as to visit El Toro marine and airforce base to research.
I recall Mead saying the final (James Cameron) design of the fictional dropship was "too spindly" in some respects. But you could argue it was because Cameron was aiming for a Vietnam asthetic- Bell AH-1 Cobra helicopter meets F-4 Phantom II fighter. I think to imagine if Mead had 100% control of the dropship design it would be like the Japanese movie GUNHED (1989 film heavily influenced in design by Cameron and Mead's 1986 ALIENS) meets, what we would see in, Prometheus.
https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Syd_MeadAnd I heard, in the retrospective ALIENS documentary, that when building the practical dropship set- they used parts from actual RAF B2 Vulcan bombers being decomissioned at RAF Marham Norfolk UK. I used to live and visit there, as one of my parents worked on the base during the time of the film makers, sourcing spare parts for said film props! Could explain my fascination with military science fiction films.
RIP Syd Mead.