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Fugitives From Earth by Nelson S. Bond:
Science Fiction Inventions, Technology and Ideas

Intriguing story if read in context, about a year before the United States was drawn into WWII. Also, here is an interesting quote about spaceships, a prediction of a kind, which we have still not managed:

"Traveling from one planet to another," explained Dr. Wrenn, "is not merely a matter of leaping across the void. In calculating our flight to Venus, we directed our ship not toward the planet itself, but toward that point in space where Venus would be in tweny* one weeks' time.

"We did this with due allowance for initial velocity, momentum in frictionless space, and gravitational attraction of both planets involved, as well as that of the Sun.

"Unfortunately, circumstances forced us to defy our calculations. Thus we are proceeding toward Venus too fast. It is my fear that we may reach our rendezvous in space before Venus comes near enough that point to grasp us in her gravitational clutch."

Hank said, frowning, "Then we must slow down somehow!"

"Easier said than done, Hank. Oh, there may come a day, in the future, when men will build spaceships that will curve, wheel, disport themselves in the void as modern planes do in the air. But we are the pioneers of space flight — and we do not know how to do these things.

"We can curve our path — slightly. But for the most part, we are like a bullet a huntsman has fired from his gun. We have established a trajectory and a speed. The rest is in the guidance of universal mechanics."

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