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"it slowly dawned on me that the landscape of science is maybe what interests people a great deal in science fiction."
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In Dune, science-fictional technologies were set at variance with feudal social systems. A technology which really brought out the fusion between these seemingly incompatible systems was an aircraft called an ornithopter, or 'thopter for short. The wing-beat movement was particularly effective on take-offs.
Although this quote gives primarily technical details about the aircraft, the winged motion was often used in association with the symbol of the hawk, which was part of the Atreides coat of arms. Here are several quotes that describe its manner of flight:
Note that the craft was jet-assisted:
Paul fed more power to the jetpods. The 'thopter banked...
Neither the word itself nor the concept were inventions of Herbert's. Da Vinci first described them (with very good engineering diagrams); the first flapping-wing working models were created by Alphonse Penaud in France in the late nineteenth century.
Here's a picture of a "flapwing flycar" from Arthur Radebaugh, the illustrator of the popular newspaper comic “Closer Than We Think”.
The Flapwing Flycar appeared in newspapers in 1958.
(Flapwing flycar by Arthur Radebaugh, 1958)
For an interesting real-life look at ornithopters, see Ornithopters In Fact And Fiction. See also Project Ornithopter for more information about them. The word is also interesting; it is derived from the Greek words for "bird" (ornitho) and "wing" (pter). In Ringworld, Larry Niven creates a whole other way to fly; see the entry for flycycle, a sort of ultimate flying motorcycle. Also, compare to the bee wing from Slacker's Paradise (1941) by Malcom Jameson. Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
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Science Fiction
Timeline
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'I could have sworn the psychomat showed pictures almost as sharp and detailed as reality itself'
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'I made them... with the fine work of the watchmaker...'
Can A Human Land A SpaceX Rocket On Its Tail?
'If she starts to roll sideways — blooey! The underjets only hold you up when they’re pointing down, you know.'
Robot Snakes No Longer Stopped By Stairs
'...she dropped her hands from the wheel, took the robot snake from his box.'
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