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"As the rate of technological development speeds up, the gap between science fiction and what we’re living now is getting narrower all the time."
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![]() Is it possible to jump out of a supersonic plane traveling at 2,000 miles per hour so high above the Earth that it is in near vacuum? Not as far as the Norheimans were concerned.
This is a very early reference in science fiction to the idea of ablative cooling applied to the problem of dissipating heat upon reentry. The idea of having a flexible device that can be used by a single individual appears to be Smith's.
He probably got the idea from a careful reading of Robert H. Goddard's works:
Here's another early reference from around 1952 from the RAND corporation:
The US Centennial of Flight Commission has this to say:
Something similar to this was designed by Goodyear in the seventies- the concept was that this was an inflatable "escape pod" that could be used in emergencies. Space suits were required.
![]() Airmat Compare to the braking disks from A Daring Trip to Mars (1931) by Max Valier. Comment/Join this discussion ( 3 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
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Science Fiction
Timeline
'Courier Commons' By Tomorrow Lab, From Karl Schroeder (and Bruce Sterling?)
'The pokkecon rang again. *The coffee’s for him?* Tsuyoshi said.'
Jetson-Style Clockwork Robot Nail Salon Coming To Target Near You
The Jetsons imagined so much future.
Mechanical Horse Sculpture Gallops In Place
'Rod placed the brain inside the panel... the horse raised its head, wiggled its ears, blinked twice, gave a tentative whinny.'
'Make Sunsets' Tweaks Climate By Atmospheric Alteration
'Pina2bo would have to operate full blast for many years to put as much SO2 into the stratosphere as its namesake had done in a few minutes.'
Hotels Turn To Robots As Human Workers Regroup
'Chain of hotels that specialized in non-human service.'
Changesite Mineral To Be Mined On Moon By China
'But then... not every bulldozer operator works on the Moon.'
Tongue-Controlled Tong Wearable Mouth Computer
'Griff found the white and pink map distracting and switched it off using his tongue mouse.'
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