Difference in Purpose

[stickmaker]

 
There are several individuals and groups which fly demilitarized F-104s for airshows. I have this mental image of a young pilot in an F-35 encountering one of these planes, practicing for an airshow, and reporting it as a UFO. 

"It made a bunch of high-speed maneuvers I couldn't match, then went vertical. That's when I lost it."

Comments

[kengr]

I think their radar automatically shows transponder info.

"The Daleth Effect" was by somebody else. Harry Harrison? I read it when it came out in Analog. I recall the artists having to explain that he put propellors on the sub even though the story was explicit about it not having them,
because otherwise no one would have know it was a sub!

"Star Driver" came out as a paperback in 1985.

Yeah, I recall your ideas about an alternate timeline for Seaton & Crane.

One *big* advantage they had was the major lack of regulations back before WWI one and for a short time afterwards.

There are a *lot* of stories with this plot. John Varley's "Red Thunder" and a number of others I've read.

Heck "Rocket Ship Galileo" qualifies!

Gina Marie Wylie's Kinsella stories are good. And she points out several things that get overlooked when it comes to exploring "strange new worlds". she also shows a lot of ways you can die in space if you make mistakes.

Laurence Dahners has several series involving that sort of thing, and he does ok, though he could use a science adviser to point out a few "oops" types mistakes.

Brian Whiting's "Galactic Startup" is yet another, and includes the whole "dodging the government bit".

I was able to list these quickly because I keep track of what I read on my Kindle, in case I want to re-read it.

There are a variety of others on Amazon, and I'm *excluding* the huge number where the protagonists are using recovered alien tech!

BTW, a big problem for anyone trying this sort of thing nowadays is the Outer Space Treaty (or one of the related things that got set up in the last 50 years).

It makes the *government* of whatever country you are a citizen of responsible for your actions if your are operating a spacecraft. One of the many barriers the Soviets came up with to try to discourage the capitalists from getting into space.

Most governments aren't real happy with private citizens being able to create messes that they (the government, not the citizen) will be responsible for.

[stickmaker]

_Rocketship Gallileo_ was supposed to be the first in a series of juveniles, collectively called "The Young Atomic Engineers." Unfortunately, it fell through.