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"I have been a soreheaded occupant of a file drawer labeled 'Science Fiction' and I would like out, particularly since so many serious critics regularly mistake the drawer for a urinal."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
 |
| Suitcase Airplane | ||
| A diminutive, collapsible, two-passenger biplane. |
The author modestly states that the one-passenger version was even smaller, but the two-passenger version was more popular.
| Placing the ornate suitcase he had brought with him in the middle of the floor, he opened it and took out a compact mass of glistening steel....
This is a two-passenger plane... You will notice that it is folded and telescoped into a compact mass which fits the suitcase nicely. The whole thing weighs less than ten pounds. It is constructed throughout of the latest improved 'Electro-retempererd' steel. The tensile strength of this new metal is so great that, although the wings have been rolled to the thinness of gold plate, they have withstood a factory test of one million pounds to the square inch. Therefore, the other gossamer-like parts, some of which are so delicate that it requires a powerful microscope to detect them, are amply sufficient in actual strength.
 (Suitcase airplane) Now, if I am to make a flight, the first thing I do is pull this little lever; it releases all the catches throughout the entire machine, and the wings promptly unfold and untelescope and snap rigidly into place, while the body also unfolds and untelescopes into its proper shape... Next I take the aviator's seat over here and push this little button. That connects the machinery with the electrons of atomic energy which operate the whole works. Then I pull this little lever marked "Helicopter" which connects that contrivance with the basic power, and starts it to revolving... |
| From Suitcase Airplanes,
by E.D. Skinner. Published by Air Wonder Stories in 1929 Additional resources -
|
Children of the Sixties readily recognize this idea as it was used in the Jetson's cartoon:
Compare to the rollable Hawking mat from Hyperion (1989) by Dan Simmons.
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