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"did I had an extremely expensive wife - she would see a new car that she liked and just buy it... under California law I was bound to buy her debts. I think I turned out 16 novels in five years."
- Philip K. Dick
 |
| 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 -
|
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.
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)
| Futuristic Transit Elevated Bus Never Really Worked |
| Japan Automated Cargo Transport |
| Tesla Electric 'Giga Train' Operational In Germany |
| San Francisco Autobus |
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'An adjustment panel outside the door would cause it to extrude various appurtenances in memory plastic...'
'Annealed in any shape for a time, and codified, the structure of that shape is retained down to the molecules.'
It's not really polite to tear the limbs off robots.
'...the imaginary companions discovered by needful children.'
''Pardon me, Struthers,' he broke in suddenly... 'haven't you a section of the factory where only robot labor is employed?''
'I opened the oblong box, where lay the automatons side by side...'
'They tied the memory to the bloodline and that was their record!'
'It seems that at one time computers were designed directly by human beings.'
'...the spot was a lonely one in an uncharted region, far from the normal lanes of space traffic.'
