Human powered helicopter

[maxmwill]

Not sure if anyone knows about this, but the whif is not this, per se, but of something kind of related, but far older and more fanciful(yes, to me a human powered helicopter was fanciful, but then, so was a human powered flying machine crossing the English channel, until it actually happened. As the character in the latest Men in Black movie said, "a miracle is only impossible until it happens), but Victorian spaceships, or other fanciful machinery. Think steam punk, but without the modern touches.

A bunch of years ago, in one of the fantasy modelling magazines that sprang up during the 70s, and some quickly fading away, there was a sub type  called the Victorian space modeller. These guys would build models which were along the lines of a Jules Verne novel, and tended to be spacecraft of any kind, ala "The Men in the Moon" sort of thing.

Here is the link for the helicopter:

http://article.wn.com/view/2012/06/25/How_Hard_is_the_Human_Powered_Helicopter/

The video is pretty interesting, as is the structure of the helicopter and rotor blades.

Here is an example of a Victorian spaceship:
https://slm-assets0.secondlife.com/assets/2232320/lightbox/86aae1cb6eceec8d7ce11b1afd893c4b.jpg?1285816902

Here is another:

https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3349/5800415412_95cb4932bd.jpg

The reason I mentioned all this should be obvious. Besides spaceships, what else? And, as I am a kit basher, because I use parts, someone who does something like this could be termed an everything basher, because everything imaginable could be used for the model, from the gingerbread trimming from a steam paddle wheeler, to Xmas tree ornaments, to just about any other plastic shape to bring the model to fruition.

But, besides spaceships, what else?

A Victorian fighter plane, or, as in the movie Wild Wild West, an assault plane to storm the 80 foot mechanical tarantula? Or a racing boat, say, a Victorian hydroplane, somehow coal fired and steam powered?

Or even earlier, but in the Victorian style, a steam powered high speed locomotive(say along the lines of the John Bull locomotive, or, more up to date, a monorail car, with fanciful propellers on both ends.

Or, beyond the sky, a wheel in wheel(Think the Book of Ezekial) space station, or even, melding really high tech with a Victorian flare, a space elevator.

I dunno, mebbe this might seem a tad silly or annoying, but, whif.

[pyro-manic]

Flying battleships, landships, steam tanks, powered armour suits, "robotic" horses for cavalry and scouts, etc etc. VSF is still around, though a lot of it has been folded into "steampunk"...

[maxmwill]

Ok.

While I have been seeing some stuff labelled steampunk, and am aware of the fact that people like it, and some products which are considered steampunk  are very expensive, I don't have much interest in it, although the Victorian spaceship concept I do like and never knew that it became part of steampunk(which should have been obvious to me).

Still, a space station or even a space elevator(and yes, I am fully aware of a few groups who are trying to turn that into  reality) in the Victorian mold(mould) seems to me that they and related would be really nifty.

Even a Victorian city ship in space, like the spindizzy powered city ship of Phillip K Dick's imagining(I think he was the author who wrote about that) would be something to consider and a model of one, even in tiny scale, would be a sight to behold.