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"The primary attraction [of writing sf] is the sheer pleasure of creating something from whole cloth."
- Dan Simmons
 |
| Platform Flyer | ||
| A small craft suitable for journeys close to the ground. |
| "Gersen dressed himself in an airsuit, left the ship. Opening the forward hatch, he winched down the little platform flyer,... set out...skimming low to the ground,the thin atmosphere keening over the windshield." |
| Technovelgy from The Star King,
by Jack Vance. Published by Berkeley in 1964 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the flitter from 'Doc Smith's 1941 story Vortex Blaster, which is one of the earliest implementations of this idea.
Thanks to an anonymous reader for contributing this item in comments.
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Star King
More Ideas
and Technology by Jack Vance
Tech news articles related to The Star King
Tech news articles related to works by Jack Vance
| Inmotion Electric Unicycle In Combat |
| Congress Considers Automatic Emergency Braking, One Hundred Years Too Late |
| The 'Last Mile' In China Crowded With Delivery Robots |
| Musk Idea Of Cars Talking To Each Other Predicted 70 Years Ago |
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'Compounds devised by the biochemists for the rapid building of bone...'
'The car faltered as the external command came to brake...'
'It is about the size and shape of a kitchen stool, gyro-stabilized...'
'The greatest problem of all was the elimination of the human element of braking together with its inevitable time lag.'
'Across the ancient sea floor a dozen tall, blue-sailed Martian sand ships floated, like blue smoke.'
'Power could be compressed thus into an inch-square cube of what looked like blue-white ice'
