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"We each live in a somewhat unique world of our own psychological content."
- Philip K. Dick

Hopper  
  A vehicle with a single leg and rotors to enhance 'hang time.'  

It was the old cry of the hopper races. Five years ago it had been a fad that had swept the solar system: races over broken, barrier-strewn courses.

Lucky checked the micropile. It was active. He started the motor arid set the gyroscope spinning. The hopper straightened immediately and stood stiffly upright on its single leg. Hoppers are probably the most grotesque forms of transportation ever invented. They consist of a curved body, just large enough to hold a man at the controls. There was a four-bladed rotor above and a single metal leg, rubber-tipped, below. It looked like some giant wading bird gone to sleep with one leg folded under its body.

Lucky touched the leap knob and the hopper's leg retracted. Its body sank till it was scarcely seven feet from the ground while the leg moved up into the hollow tube that pierced the hopper just behind the control panel. The leg was released at the moment of maximum retraction with a loud click, and the hopper sprang thirty feet into the air. The rotating blades above the hopper kept it hovering for long seconds at the top of its jump. For those seconds, Lucky could get a view of the people now immediately below him. The crowd extended outward for half a mile, and that meant several hops. Lucky's lips tightened. Precious minutes would vanish.

The hopper was coming down now, its long leg extended. The crowd beneath the descending hopper tried to scatter, but they didn't have to. Four jets of compressed air blew men aside just sufficiently, and the leg hurtled down harmlessly to the ground.

From Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus, by Isaac Asimov.
Published by Doubleday in 1954
Additional resources -

Compare to the dope mule robot from Heavy Weather (1994) by Bruce Sterling.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus
  More Ideas and Technology by Isaac Asimov
  Tech news articles related to Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus
  Tech news articles related to works by Isaac Asimov

Hopper-related news articles:
  - Hopping Robot Stutter-Jumping Saves Power
  - Hopping Robot Sets Record
  - MIT 3D One-Leg Hopper Robot Circa 1983
  - Linear Elastic Actuator in Parallel (LEAP) - It's A Hopping Robot
  - Handle, New Wheeled Hopping Robot
  - Salto Jumping Robot Now Sticks Landing!
  - Lunar Pogo Stick - Retro Technovelgy From 1968

Articles related to Vehicle
CAVForth Autonomous Bus Of Scotland
Seoul Self-Driving 42dot Bus Unveiled
Electric Jet Boats From Enevate and Sealence Collab
Alcohol-Sensing Cars - NTSB Catches Up With Philip K. Dick (1963)

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