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"A science fiction story is a story built around human beings, with a human problem and a human solution, which would not have happened at all without its scientific content."
- Theodore Sturgeon
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| Solar-Powered Electric Helicopter | ||
| An electric helicopter, with sun cells. |
An early mention of this idea, the first I know about.
| Denn stepped on the starter, and began turning over the compact, efficient little sun-engines of the helicopter...
Power fed into the ship’s six lift propellors from hidden photo-cell storage units. Through the glass roof of the cabin he could detect the spinning blur of' the metal “props”, could catch the rising whine of the trembling engines. Then they were in the air, rising straight up from the light-jeweled darkness of the Chicago of A.D. 2163. |
| Technovelgy from Into the Meteorite Orbit,
by James Patrick Kelly. Published by Teck Publications in 1933 Additional resources -
|
Not quite enough power to get to space:
He also mentions "sun-mirrors", writing "Those miles of sun-mirrors south of Capetown..."
Oh, all my life I’ve thought about it, and planned — and dreamed ... To be the first to go out across space! It would be worth living for! And why hasn’t it been done? Because men have always been afraid; afraid to face the thought of going out into infinity alone ! They’ve been contenders with their rocket-ships and their ’copters and their sun-motors...
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and Technology from Into the Meteorite Orbit
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and Technology by James Patrick Kelly
Tech news articles related to Into the Meteorite Orbit
Tech news articles related to works by James Patrick Kelly
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| The Zapata Air Scooter Would Be Great In A Science Fiction Story |
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Science Fiction
Timeline
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'Anything larger than a BB shot it picked up and placed in a tray...'
'The German chemists have discovered how to supply the needed elements in compact, undiluted form...'
'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.'
