We have compared Dominic Flandry's visit to the extrasolar planet of Merseia with James Bond's visit to the exotic country of Japan. Another unexpected comparison might be made between modes of transport. In some ways, the recent past seems to be more like the future. In Nicholas van Rijn's and Dominic Flandry's periods of the Technic History, privately owned spacecraft transport small numbers of passengers in luxury between planetary systems faster than light. The twentieth century had aircraft that seem:
"...far more interesting and glamorous than their modern equivalents."
-Henry Chancellor,
James Bond: The Man And His World (London, 2005), p. 170.
The Boeing Stratocruiser (see image) had:
two decks;
a bar;
sleeping berths;
space for 100 passengers.
There were also small air ferries and, later, the supersonic Concorde. Greatness is in the past and the future.
If you wonder how I keep finding exotic material to post, then so do I. But reading exotic books helps.
14 comments:
Paul:
I've long loved the big flying boat airliners of the interwar period, Pan American's *China Clipper* and the like, though airsickness would almost certainly have stricken me down if I ever traveled aboard one.
Kaor, DAVID and Paul!
David, I like the idea of "airliners" being commodious enough for me to lie down and snooze! It would make long plane flights easier!
Paul, alas, these old time "airliners" are no longer cost effective. Which is why they were phased out. These days, only the wealthy and high ranking gov't official can travel in such comfort.
I also think, once we finally get off this rock, then space ships will be built to have amenities like the old time ocean liners. Because they will be necessary once it becomes practical for large numbers of people to travel between planets or to others stars (by means of a FTL drive!). Unless you are unlucky "involuntary colonists" stuffed into cargo ships a la the ships used by BuReloc in Jerry Pournelle earlier Co-Dominium stories.
Sean
Also, if you allow for inflation, the fares on those alas-departed aircraft were very, very high. I detest modern air travel, but it's relatively very cheap.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
That's part of what I had in mind, it's relatively cheap and quick to travel from Boston to Hawaii, for example. TOO much so to justify the cost of these luxurious old timey airliners. SPACE liners will become practical once we are finally off Earth in a major way. Assuming a relatively cheap means of traveling between the planets of the Solar System.
Sean
Well, if it comes off -- and I think it will -- Musk's BFR reusable two-stage rocket will bring interplanetary fares down to roughly modern airliner levels. Allowing for the much longer transit times, of course.
The economics and technology look sound; he's already brought costs per pound to orbit down by a factor of about 10, and plans on another 10 with the new system -- from $10,000 per pound (a stable plateau for nearly 30 years) to about $1,000 now and about $20 with the new system.
Partly that's technological progress in materials and software, and partly it's just that institutional inertia had us locked into legacy systems which outfits like Arianespace and ULA had deep commitments to.
Incidentally, this is looking more and more like a classic case of market disruption -- one in which legacy competitors have to destroy/discard their own business model and write off their sunk costs or go bust.
Historically, business entities and other organizations in that position engage in denial or slow, foot-dragging unenthusiastic attempts at emulation until they -do- go bust, like long-distance stagecoach lines when steam trains came in.
In a notable case of suicidal stupidity, the stagecoach operators allied with the first railroad companies to have Parliament in Britain forbid steam-powered vehicles on the public roads. This set the stagecoach operators up for destruction as railroads took over their medium to long-range passenger traffic in little more than 10 years.
Mr Stirling,
I had no idea but what do I know?
Paul.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
I loved your comments in your first note here! Elon Musk would deserve to become a TRILLIONAIRE if he manages to get mankind off this rock! I only wish it could have happened THIRTY years ago.
As for your second comment, what I got from it was that circa 1840 steam powered AUTOMOBILES might have been possible if bone headed stage coach companies and wily railroad firms hadn't used political shenanigans to keep such things from being built. Darn! We had to wait till the 1880's for the first primitive "horseless carriages" to be made.
Sean
There were experimental steam omnibuses from early in the 19th century -- Richard Trevithick was involved with them, and early locomotives. He was a pioneer of high-pressure steam engines.
This was more likely to succeed in England than anywhere else, both because engineering skills were higher there, and crucially because roads were much better, which was easier on the primitive suspensions.
Due to the spread of turnpikes and the work of McAdam (father of Macadamized roads) and the great Scottish engineer Telford, Britain had the best roads in the world at the time, and due to its compact size and dense population the most complete network of roads as well.
Without the crippling legislation it's quite possible that steam busses would have become commonplace in and between the larger cities, and steam carriages for the wealthy.
Railroads would still have been built -- they have substantial advantages for bulky, long-distance loads and for higher speeds -- but probably not so many.
Eventually Britain had so many railroads that virtually every village of any size had its own station, and the roads fell into disrepair.
If steam road vehicles had become more common, probably they'd have served as feeder and collector services for the rail network, so that fewer branch lines would have been built.
Which would have saved money in the long term -- Britain substantially overbuilt its rail net, which became a sink for capital and was burdened with vast extra mileage which never generated much return.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
All this makes me wonder how history might have turned out if steam powered buses and carriages had become common by 1840 in the UK. And that kind of technology would soon have been copied by other European nations.
And I can imagine steam powered trucks as well, for hauling cargoes over short to medium distances.
I think you did have your early Draka quickly using steam powered trucks, omnibuses, and carriages in the early 1800's, in the Crown Colony of Drakia.
Sean
Dear Mr. Stirling,
All of which makes sense. Railroads are best used for carrying really large cargoes and large numbers of passengers over long and medium long distances. Steam powered trucks and omnibuses could have been used, as you said, for feeder and collector service, etc., in or near towns and cities.
And this kind of technology would have solved the problem of what to do with the colossal amount of manure dropped every day by tens of thousands of horses.
Sean
Hi folks,
A novel about steam cars and trucks early in the nineteenth century sounds like "steam punk" or something?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
It does! Esp. since the technology was possible and might have been developed if it had not been hindered by political interference. Examples of such cyber and steam punk science fiction would be Gibson/Sterling's THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE (which I've read) showing some of what might have happened if Charles Babbage had managed to develop mechanical computers in the early 1800's, Tim Powers THE ANUBIS GATES (which I've also read), and I think S.M. Stirling's early Draka also quickly developed steam powered cars/buses. And there's also Stirling's THE PESHAWAR LANCERS, featuring things like Babbage style computers as civilization recovered from devastating comet or meteor strikes in the 1870's.
I don't think Poul Anderson ever tried his hand at writing this kind of science fiction. Unless we see Gaia showing such technology being used in one of "her" emulations in GENESIS.
Sean
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