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"In WWII, they had a saying that there are no atheists in foxholes. I think the modern equivalent of that is that there are no jaded, bored people in the high-tech industry, in the land of really good hardcore geeks."
- Neal Stephenson
 |
| Skycar | ||
| A personal means of transportation that flies. |
As far as I know, this is the first use of this term.
| “Red Hades,” murmured the doctor. “I’ve always been afraid it would happen. I must get there quickly.” Twenty minutes later his private skycar, bearing the blazing-fire cross of the medical profession, was piercing the atmosphere at a thousand miles an hour, on its way to Los Angeles, where the mighty studios of World Teletainments, Inc., were situated. |
| Technovelgy from Prima Donna 1980,
by Bernard Brown. Published by Amazing Stories in 1931 Additional resources -
|
Another detail:
Robert Heinlein liked this term enough that he used it in his classic 1941 novel Methuselah's Children:
This term also appears in The Swordsman of Sarvon (1932) by Charles Cloukey:
Read more about the Camden speedster, the car referred to the above quote..
...it was well past five o’clock when Doctor Heiberg climbed into the tiny saloon of his private skycar and adjusted the pneumatic side grips.
Had there been a bystander, he would have been startled to observe what appeared to be a standard Camden rise up off the ground as easily as a skycar. He would not have long to wonder - the car moved out over the lake, dropped down to the water and sank beneath it. Seventeen minutes later, the car rose up to the surface of a small pool of water, a pool that occupied much of the floor of an artificial cavern.
The little skycar maintained its headlong rush for almost two hours. Then it circled down to land upon the wide ledge half-way up the cliff-side, the ledge upon which the cave opened.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Prima Donna 1980
More Ideas
and Technology by Bernard Brown
Tech news articles related to Prima Donna 1980
Tech news articles related to works by Bernard Brown
Skycar-related
news articles:
- Moller M400 SkyCar Taking Too Long
| The Amazing Lightfoot Electric Scooter With Solar Assist |
| Leader-Follower Autonomous Vehicle Technology |
| Inmotion Electric Unicycle In Combat |
| Congress Considers Automatic Emergency Braking, One Hundred Years Too Late |
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