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"Poised between intransigent scepticism and uncritical credulity, it [science fiction] is par excellence the literature of the open mind."
- John Brunner
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| Storer-Gulls Wings | ||
| Recreational aid for lunar colonists; lightweight wings for cave flying. |
This excellent short story is about a 15 year-old school-girl named Holly Jones. Holly was born on the Moon; her hobbies are designing star-ships and flying in a natural cavern called "Bats' Cave", Luna City's air reservoir.
Just as people on Earth use water reservoirs for recreation, so the people of Luna use the Bat's Cave for recreational flying, using specially designed bat's wings. Remember, with one-sixth of Earth's gravity, it is much easier to stay aloft. With the right equipment, of course.
| They're lovely! - titanalloy struts as light and strong as bird-bones, tension-compensated wrist-pinion and shoulder joints, natural action in the alula slots, and automatic flap action in stalling. The wing skeleton is dressed in styrene feather-foils, with individual quilling of scapulars and primaries. They almost fly themselves.
I folded my wings and went into the lock. While it was cycling I opened my left wing and thumbed the alula control -- I had noticed a tendency to sideslip the last time I was airborne. But the alula opened properly and I decided I must have been overcontrolling, easy to do with Storer-Gulls; they're extremely maneuverable. Then the door showed green and I folded the wing and hurried out, while glancing at the barometer. Seventeen pounds -- two more than Earth sea-level and nearly twice what we use in the city; even an ostrich could fly in that. I perked up and felt sorry for all groundhogs, tied down by six times proper weight, who never, never, never could fly.
 (Storer Gull-Wings from 'The Menace From Earth' by Robert Heinlein) Not even I could, on Earth. My wing loading is less than a pound per square foot, as wings and all I weigh less than twenty pounds. Earthside that would be over a hundred pounds and I could flap forever and never get off the ground. |
| Technovelgy from The Menace From Earth,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by Fantasy House in 1957 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the aeroflechette from Le Vingtième Siècle: La Vie Électrique (1892) by Albert Robida, air tank flying from The Power Planet (1930) by Murray Leinster, the levitators from Lost City of Mars (1934) by Harl Vincent, the Dragonfly sky-bike from Rendezvous With Rama (1972) by Arthur C. Clarke and the bat wings from Limits by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
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and Technology from The Menace From Earth
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and Technology by Robert Heinlein
Tech news articles related to The Menace From Earth
Tech news articles related to works by Robert Heinlein
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| Lucid Dreams On Demand From Prophetic and Card79 |
| Flyboard Water Jet Shoes Lift Off |
| Cosplay Style Wings Could Work On Moon |
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'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
'Our planes are going to start bringing in bales of discarded plastics...'
'... completely forgetting the ship at sight of the awesome figure and great head of the giant Gaut...'
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
