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"I went back to science fiction to try a few experiments …and my first experiment was a disaster…"
- Alfred Bester
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| Stratocar | ||
| A vehicle intended for use in traveling through the upper atmosphere. |
A specialized vehicle; not for use in driving on the surface (ground-car), or in the air but close to the ground (air-car), or to orbit (Joy Boat Junior.
Although, Zagat himself used stratoyacht to describe a ship able to fly up to orbit. I think Heinlein used "strato-yacht" in Methuselah's Children (1941).
| "Swell," Jay applauded. "But what's to do now? We can't climb that mountain. It must be fifty miles high."
"Into space suits," I snapped. "And the Phobos carries a small stratocar as a lifeboat. If there's any atmosphere at all, and there must be or there wouldn't be any clouds, that will take us up there quicker than we came down..." The buzzing hum of the stratocar's hydroxy motor battered against the side of that incredible mountain as we lifted straight up to its summit... Our stratocar still perched, birdlike on the outer ledge. |
| Technovelgy from The Cavern of the Shining Pool,
by Leo Zagat. Published by Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1937 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the air-car from A Matter of Size (1934) by Harry Bates.
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'...the rocket’s landing-arms automatically unfolded.'
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'It was a smooth ovoid floating a few inches from the floor...'
'... he thrust in his charging arm to replenish his store of energy.'
'...the terrible Jovian gravity that made each movement an effort.'
