Monday, December 7, 2009

The Flying Cloud, R-505



It is a world much like our own, except that the Great War
ended in 1916. As the Powers recoiled, exhausted, from the
tragedies of Verdun and the Sommes, Woodrow Wilson was
able to negotiate an Armistice that returned Europe to its
pre-War borders. (For this accomplishment, he was honored
with the Nobel Prize, though this was later tarnished by the
failure of his long-sought League of Nations.) With the forcing
ground of military need removed, aircraft development took
a different path from the one it followed in our world, and
effort that might have been wasted on developing glamorous
but impractical aeroplanes was spent perfecting the far more
capable airships. As the 1920's drew to a close, the world was
peaceful and prosperous, linked by fleets of mighty lighter-
than-air vessels from many nations.

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