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"I am first of all not a science fiction writer … I write, I suppose, what the Latin Americans call magic realism."
- Harlan Ellison
 |
| Copter Harness | ||
| A single person flying machine. |
The success of the Wright brothers brought out the inventor in many people; there were a number of attempts to create a very portable, single-person flying machine in the 1920's and 1930's.
| They were half way home when a single flyer, hopping free in a copter harness, approached the little parade. The flier ignored the red warning light stabbing out from the police chief's car and slanted straight down at the huge star beast. John Thomas thought that he recognized that he recognized Betty's slapdash style even before he could make out features; he was not mistaken. He caught her as she cut power.
 (Robert Heinlein: The Star Beast and copter harnesses) |
| Technovelgy from The Star Beast,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1954 Additional resources -
|
John Brunner uses the same idea in his 1968 novel Stand on Zanzibar:
Today, it is possible to buy the Vortex Sport Copter:
Compare to the individual flyer from Asteroid Pirates (1938) by Royal Heckman and the jump harness from Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) by Robert Heinlein.One of the tiny one-man copters capable of
being manoeuvred between the tops of the high buildings and the Fuller
Dome whose blushing underside formed Manhattan’s sky was scouting the
scene to notify police headquarters of the extent of the disturbance. From a
skylight somewhere away to the right there came a bang—an old-fashioned
sporting gun. The copter wobbled and came down into the middle of the
street, vanes screaming as the pilot fought for altitude. Mad with delight at
having a fuzzy-wuzzy delivered into their hands the crowd went forward to
greet him with clubs.
All "VORTEX" copter's have the new Shock-Mounted Rotorhead and our high-performance suspension system including swing-arm nosewheel suspension. The "VORTEX" standard engine is a Rotax 582, even though, a variety of engines can beadapted, such as Rotax 618 or the Subaru four-stroke series. Our company will work with the customer to outfit the "VORTEX" with the engine of his/her choice. This is a highly versatile airframe.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Star Beast
More Ideas
and Technology by Robert Heinlein
Tech news articles related to The Star Beast
Tech news articles related to works by Robert Heinlein
Copter Harness-related
news articles:
- Skyray Human Glider Flight
- AirScooter II Ultralight: Heinlein's Copter Harness?
- Springtail EFV-4B Personal Air Vehicle From Trek Aerospace
- First Jetpowered Flying Man
- GEN H-4 Looks Like Heinlein's Copter Harness
- VertiPod From Air Buoyant: Segway Of The Sky
- CopterPack Is Robert Heinlein's 1954 Copter Harness
- Robert Heinlein, Your Personal Electric Helicopter Will Be Ready In 2016
- myCopter Personal Aerial Vehicle (PAV)
| SpaceX Rocket Shuttle Point-To-Point On Earth |
| CORLEO Robotic Horse Concept Looks Ready To Ride |
| Futuristic Transit Elevated Bus Never Really Worked |
| Japan Automated Cargo Transport |
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'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain...'
'The observation vehicle was of that peculiar variety used in conveying a large number of people across rough terrain.'
'The real border was defended by... a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats.'
'I ... set my automatic astronomical instruments to searching for a habitable planet.'
