[EricH]

I can see Asimov, Heinlein, and all those guys...

But I'll raise you Jules Verne. Read what he wrote, then look at current technology and how close it is to what he wrote about. Composites (pressed paper with some form of filler), heavier-than-air flying machines (gyrocoptor class), electric submarines, and who'da thunk that Florida was a good place to try to get to the Moon?