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"In 1970 I found little difficulty staying 30 years ahead of the man in the street, and now I find it difficult to stay 18 months ahead of the man on the street."
- Vernor Vinge

Aerocycle (Ærocycle)  
  An aerial bicycle, human powered.  

See the entry for aerodromes for more details on flying machines.

Ærial navigation in 1999 was not merely confined to large express, passenger and Everybody in the Air.freight ships, but also came into general use by the public. The Ærocycle of the twentieth century was an ærial bicycle that skimmed through the air with admirable ease, being operated like the old-fashioned bicycles suffering mortals in 1899 used to jump over hills and rough roads, straining muscle and nerve to the utmost tension, and frightening horses with their “bicycle face.”


(Aerocycle from 'Looking Forward' by Arthur Bird)

Two or three of the bicycles of 1899 were kept as curiosities in a glass case in 1999 in the war department at Washington, Mexico. They were regarded as instruments of voluntary torture, relics of a species of refined barbarism. The invention of the Ærocycle sealed the doom of bicycles

Technovelgy from Looking Forward: A Dream of the United States of the Americas in 1999, by Arthur Bird.
Published by L.C. Childs & Son in 1899
Additional resources -

Human-powered flight is much more tiring in reality; here's a quick video showing the Gossamer Albatross crossing the channel.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Looking Forward: A Dream of the United States of the Americas in 1999
  More Ideas and Technology by Arthur Bird
  Tech news articles related to Looking Forward: A Dream of the United States of the Americas in 1999
  Tech news articles related to works by Arthur Bird

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