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How do Aeronefs fly?

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Sinewgrab:
I was trying to explain to a friend who is an utter novice to VSF how Aeronefs have been determined to fly over the years, and I thought I would ask for help compliling the list.

So far, I have:

Cavorite (our favorite anti-grav metal) (HG Wells, of course)
Liftwood (naturally occurring on Mars, of course) (Space:1889)
Gravity Screws - acting as a propeller in gravitational fields (Aeronef game)
8th rays or nth rays (from John Carter)
Hydrogen (Boooring...)

Which ones have I missed?

DrVesuvius:
Regular, non weird science airscrews (aka helicopter style rotor blades, although usually in large numbers per vessel, as per George Griffith's "Angel of the Revolution" found in Forgotten Futures VII "Tsar Wars")

Steel spheres containing perfect vacuums (which are obviously lighter than air... OK it's not a very good idea, but I remember seeing it was proposed at one point)

Castle Falkenstein's airships used Hydrogen for lift (or at least neutral buoyancy in air) but semi-sorcerous engines that latch on to the Earth's magnetic field and propel the ship in any direction at great speed.

Finally for the smaller and extremely whimsical flyers there's the old "tethered flock of geese" gag, but whether that would scale up to the gunboat/warship level is doubtful.

Froggy the Great:
I've always favored the Unobtanium plating on the hulls, from the mines on Atlantis...

Mr.Marx:
'The master of the world' and 'Robur the conquor', whilst not great books, show the theory behind virtical airscrews. 'The War In the Air' also shows a number of different Ideas on viable flying machines - particularly Onathropters (machines that mimic the flight of birds).

And then theres always Tesla's experiments using electrical charge to exploit the worlds natural magnitism to produce flight.

If your one of those 'steampunk people' then theres the option of jet engines or magic.

Marx

Fuzzywuzzieswiflasers:
Don't forget good old steam with more efficient engines enabling enough power to propel a craft like a convential combustion or jet engine.

This technique is used in the vsf - ish futuristic novel Fitzpatrick's War by Theodore Judson.

Also you have Helium or the extra light Zeelium.

Basically any type of elevation is fine as long as you can make up a convincing back story :)

Cheers
Fuzzy.

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