Tag: transportation

Tired of computer flight sims?

Now you can build your own Spitfire…from a kit. The importer of the packs, Kieran Padden, says that business is booming – and for many reasons. “It is so easy to fly,” he claims of the plane that costs a tenth of the original to buy. “Even old Spitfire pilots I have spoken to say …

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Sailing, sailing

Although I’ve rarely sailed, I’ve been in love with the idea of sailing ever since I was a kid and devoured–several times over–the Swallows and Amazons books by Arthur Ransome. (Used my own money to order them all the way from England–that’s how much I loved them.) Sailboats are expensive and awkward things to own …

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Forget your hybrids…

…how about a car that runs on compressed air? Most importantly, it is incredibly cost-efficient to run – according to the designers, it costs less than one Euro per 100Km (about a tenth that of a petrol car). Its mileage is about double that of the most advanced electric car (200 to 300 km or …

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The Segway of the seas…

My eye continues to be caught by unique above-and-below-water vehicles thanks to the watery setting of my new novel Marseguro (currently undergoing revision). This one looks like fun: As Sci-Fi Tech explains it: The SeaBob essentially works as a self-propelling riding vehicle and is roughly akin to a jetski. You grab hold of two “controlgrips” …

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Rise of the aircar?

Gress Aerospace has plans for an automobile-sized single seat vertical take-off and landing aircraft. In SF circles, we call that an “aircar.”

"That’s not a tunnel. This is a tunnel."

Playing the part of Crocodile Dundee (remember him?) today: the Russians. Russia plans to build the world’s longest tunnel, a transport and pipeline link under the Bering Strait to Alaska, as part of a $65 billion project to supply the U.S. with oil, natural gas and electricity from Siberia. The project, which Russia is coordinating …

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Engines? We don’t need no steenkin’ engines…

Behold the pedal-powered blimp. (Via Tobias Buckell.)

The civilized way to fly

I love airships, and I’m not alone. Award-winning children’s author Kenneth Oppel, for example, obviously loves them: his recent novels Airborn and Skybreaker are set in an alternate world where airships, not airplanes, rule the skies. Canadian science fiction writer Karl Schroeder must love them, too: his novels Sun of Suns and Queen of Candesce, …

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The blimp that swims like a fish

I’ve previously mentioned my enchantment with blimps, zeppelins, and other lighter-than-air airships. Now here’s a really cool one: a concept for a blimp that swims through the air like a fish, using artificial muscles.

Talk about your low-emission automobiles…

…this one runs on compressed air. Not only that, it’s on the verge of production.

Something else I should have had on my fictional ocean planet:

A 127-mph submarine!

Something like this, I did use in my new novel

A staple of underwater adventure movies since at least the original Thunderball is now available for anyone who wants one…and can even be used in a pool. The Seadoo Sea Scooter Dolphin has handles and a propeller: you just hold on, and it pulls you through the water. It’s designed for use by anyone, in …

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