(The spacecraft ramp from 'The Shot into Infinity' by Otto Willi Gail)

A slope rising from the shore offered a good natural foundation for the starting track. Massive girders were erected in the depressions, the irregularities of the ridges were leveled off, and the natural and artificial supports so obtained were joined by great iron rails.

Thus resulted an absolutely straight runway, twelve meters wide and almost two kilometers long. It ran horizontally for a few hundred meters from the future starting point, then gradually rose, ending like a spring-board at the highest point of the slope, the gradient being thirty percent...

The gigantic flying machine trembled, and a shrill screaming sounded over the fields, so that the people ducked their heads in terror. The upper two auxiliary exhausts had been started, spitting out behind them conical streams of fire. Slowly the space ship moved onto the rails of the runway — slowly for just a moment, for then it was off in a mad dash.

QUICKER and ever quicker the ship rushed ahead. After a second it was taking the incline. It raced up the slope with a speed many times that of an express train. In ten seconds it was past the kilometer mark — and now the brilliant gigantic butterfly was rising, freed from its rollers, freely floating into the night.

It was an overwhelming sight! A sea of yellowish light flooded the densely packed multitude. An outburst of thunderous applause followed the space ship.