Origin of the Air/Raft?

[ShapeShifter]

Do you mean this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlUAVaW0OUQ
It's round, while the raft is described as rectangular.


(Love JQ!)

 

[Mithras]

There is an air-raft, called an air-raft, in AE van Vogt's story The War Against the Rull, its quite early on in the book, too. It's an open topped flying vehicle that can float.

 

[BlackBat242]

AE van Vogt's story The War Against the Rull

Published: 1959

 

[Condottiere]

There's always the Flying Carpet, which I suppose you could localize to the Arabian Nights.

I recall reading one Tom Swift book where a triphibian car/vehicle is mentioned, so I would guess that the idea of a simple to operate, floating/levitating vehicle has been percolating around for quite a while, and could have been conceptualized with the event of the helicopter, or even watching those early scifi films where you see airplanes instead of cars commuting.

 

[Patron Zero]

I suppose one could also interpret one of the many flying vehicles in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars or Venus fantasy-SF novels to be a seed for the air/raft if only on the basis of function and form.

 

[Thanos]

As with most things Traveller it's a mash up of several insperations.

 

[Condottiere]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akA-B64RACU

 

[Easterner9504]

Dumarest novels called them rafts. Dumarest ships had artificial gravity, They also had High, Middle and Low Passage though they were not the same (except Low) as TRAV's. Space drifters like Dumarest were called travelers. Blades and mercs were common.

 

[ShapeShifter]

Dumarest ships had artificial gravity

Artificial grav and an "Erhaft Field". In the books it is repeatedly referred to as the Erhaft Field, but, annoyingly, it is never explained, nor elaborated upon, except that the Erhaft Field motivates and protects the ship from space-debris ([micro-]meteorites, presumably), and that the Erhaft Generator requires crystals to operate. If the Erhaft field collapses in flight, an automatic beacon is activiated sending out a distress signal, but the likelihood of being rescued in deep space is vanishingly slight. That's all I've really gathered about it over ten entire novels.