The War in the Air
First US edition (Macmillan)
|
|
| Author | H. G. Wells |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction novel |
| Published | 1908 (George Bell & Sons) |
| Media type | Print (Serial, Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 389 |
| Preceded by | In the Days of the Comet |
| Followed by | Tono-Bungay |
The War in the Air, a military science fiction novel by H. G. Wells, written in four months in 1907 and serialised and published in 1908 in The Pall Mall Magazine, is like many of Wells's works notable for its prophetic ideas, images, and concepts—in this case, the use of the aircraft for the purpose of warfare and the coming of World War I. The novel's hero is Bert Smallways, a "forward-thinking young man" and a "kind of bicycle engineer of the let's-'ave-a-look-at-it and enamel-chipping variety."
The first three chapters of The War in the Air relate details of the life of Bert Smallways and his extended family in Bun Hill – a (fictional) former Kentish village which had become a London suburb within living memory (in many ways similar to Bromley where Wells was born). The story begins with Bert's brother Tom, a stolid greengrocer who views technological progress with suspicion and apprehension (which would turn out to be all too well founded) and their aged father, who recalls with longing the time when Bun Hill was a quiet village and he had driven the local squire's carriage. However, the story soon focuses on Bert who is an unimpressive, not particularly gifted, unsuccessful young man with few ideas about larger things – but far from unintelligent. He has a strong attachment to a young woman named Edna, and works as a helper and later a partner in a bicycle shop.
When bankruptcy threatens one summer, he and his partner abandon the shop, devise a singing act ("the Desert Dervishes"), and resolve to try their fortunes in English sea resorts. As chance would have, their initial performance is interrupted by a balloon which lands on the beach before them, and which turns out to contain one Mr. Butteridge. Butteridge is famous for his successful invention of an easily manoeuvrable fixed-wing aircraft whose secret he has not revealed and that he is seeking to sell to the British government or, failing that, to Germany. Prior to Butteridge, nobody had succeeded in producing a practical heavier-than-air machine, only a few awkward devices of limited utility such as the German "Drachenflieger", which had to be towed aloft and released from an airship. Butteridge's invention is a major breakthrough, as it is highly manoeuvrable, capable of both very fast and very slow flight, and requires only a small area to take off and land, reminiscent of the later autogyro.
...
Wikipedia