The jetpack would emerge in pop American skill fiction of the 1920s , and later become cement into the pop imaginativeness after World War II . But the idea of unmarried - flyer personal transportation tech did n’t start with the jetpack . In the recent 19th century , multitude were obsessed with flight of steps . And they opine a future tense where strapping a pair of wing to your back would be quite the trend in the skies of tomorrow .
The theme of a fly man was in reality , in some ways , a response to defeat with what was happen on the terra firma . In the late nineteenth and former twentieth C , Judge magazine poke fun at the issues of the day . And in the late 1800s , one of those government issue was concern over what the newfangled automobile was doing to metropolis street . These “ devil - station wagon ” were quickly becoming the playthings of the robust , scaring horses and running pedestrians off the route .
In the illustration below , from 1896 , the magazine reckon what the street ( and sky ) of tomorrow might look like — complete with automobiles , motorcycle , and yes , personal air transport . Needless to say , all that quick motility has really taken its price on poor lil ’ Johnny there , stick doing cartwheels as modernity zipper by .
This winged transportation of tomorrow was n’t all fun and games . Both fire-eater and police officers would utilize these technologies to help save the sidereal day — and pen you a ticket .
These “ en l’an 2000 ” ( in the yr 2000 ) illustrations were part of a series of postcards write at the turn of the 20th century . you’re able to discover these — along with the entire compendium — in the 1986 bookFuturedaysby Isaac Asimov .
It ’s unclear how these police officer and firefighter would be able to linger like that , but remember that fix - flank powered flight had n’t even come about yet when these postal card were produced around the year 1899 . Oh , and also they were just goofy mailing-card .
The French , perhaps unsurprisingly , had a knack for the putting a piddling sex into futurist transfer plot line , as you could see from the two illustrations below which were made around 1900 . Again , the physics involved in something like attaching propellors to your shoe does n’t quite make mother wit . But the illogical aspects of these imaginary ideas can be forgive . If only because they look so darn cool . Electric lights and all !
The illustration below run in the December 29 , 1900 edition of theMinneapolis Journaland show how the child of the twentieth century would get around . The legend take : “ A look to the future : The son of the present tense has a glimpse of the twentieth century male child . ”
Boy ’s Flying Machine of the twentieth Century ( 1900 )
The 20th 100 son ’s wing are steam - power , while that pitiful chump on the dry land is still using an old - fashioned bicycle .
It ’s notable that individual sky traveling was an classless quest ; kid , parent , workers , cops all got to fly . The image below work in a turn of the 100 topic of Life magazine . The caption read , “ You are most an hr previous , dear . ” “ Yes , the air ship discontinue down , and I had to fly home . ”
The illustration seems to say that sure enough , we may have personal wing conveyance in the future , but the communal dirigible will almost certainly be predominant means of getting around . Which it is , for long - distance commutation . But that does n’t mean our neighborhood jaunts still could n’t be improved by strapping on some wings and floating homeward .
Images :
Judge powder magazine illustration scanned from the bookPredictionsby John Durant
Future firefighter and policemen postcards scan fromFuturedaysby Isaac Asimov
wing machines allow your lover a nimble leak from thePaleofutureblog
20th century boy example , scan from microfilm at the Minnesota Historical Society
check down airship scanned fromOut of Time : Designs for the Twentieth Century Futureby Norman Brosterman
airplanespaleofuturetransportation
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