Timing Error

I COULD GET LOST IN THEIR WORLD

The most excellent Conceptship Blog rounds up some great visions of the future:

I'M ABOUT 1.35 MILLION DOLLARS SHORT

In 2008 economics. Otherwise, I'd be backing this into my garage right now.

SHEER BEAUTY

I know industrial design is to functionality what wishing is to wealth creation, but damn:

ROCKET MAN

Nice.

ISS:1/PSS:2

Nice reminder. Bigelow Aerospace has two (as yet unmanned) stations in orbit. Get cracking, Virgin Galactic.

VICTORY OF THE ALTOIDS

Cute. DRB rounds up the world's smallest cars; wave of the future? What happens when you have to haul the family across country?

Sometimes I suspect that our arguments about transportation are often arguments about movement: for who, how much and how far, Goldilocks?

X-HAWK

Finally, a flying car someone could fund:

Danger Room has the goods.

THE-JET"SONS"

The Jet. Bring it on.

VIRGLE: TEN DAYS LATE

Virgle, the Virgin/Google plan to colonize Mars, was, alas, an April Fools joke.

Damn...

SPACESHIP TWO A-BUILDING

Escape valves are nice:

STARSEEDS: RIK ALLEN

Via io9, this awesome collection of glass blown spaceships, from Rik Allen's exhibition:

UPDATE: Larger, more detailed images at Rik Allen's website.

SPACE BLIMPS

Via io9.

BLIMP P0RN

Conceptual, "house blimp":

Theme: In the future, the wealthy will be homeless.

BLIMP NIRVANA

As only Dark Roast Blend can do:

(last one from a different DRB post but pretty awesome)

SS3 and WK3

Plans for Burt Rutan and Richard Branson to build on the success of Virgin Galactic.

Just a wikinub, right now. Look forward to see what happens in the short term (five or so years).

Sexy Blimps

And not the Ron Paul kind. Link.

My worldbuilding has Blimps and scramjets. Wave of the future. On blimps:

1. Security. Hard to use as a weapon. Easier to control.
2. Mass transportation.
3. Elegant for the Leisure Class.
4. Fits eco-environing.
5. No pirates (at least in the early years)

Combat R.V.s

Live out an anarchic realm in style. Link.

Picture Time: A bevy of blimps

For filing under future transportation.

The cancelled Walrus Warblimp

The Aerostat Yacht

And this gorgeous strato cruiser

Note, on the cancelled Walrus, this line caught my eye from Defense Tech:

THERE'S MORE: The Office of the Secretary of Defense is pushing a heavy-lift blimp plan of its own. But Rummy's lighter-than-air crew doesn't think the Pentagon can -- or should -- do zeppelin-development on its own. Instead, they're trying to encourage a whole industry to come together to build these airborne behemoths, so both soldiers and civilians can benefit.

Similar to NASA encouraging COTS solutions to space travel. Get industry to role the dice, come along later and lease or buy the desired product. Gummint does best when it does less.