Air pirate

Air pirates (also known as sky pirates) are a type of stock character from science fiction and fantasy.

Description

Fictional air pirates typically operate as pirates in the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet or moon, and travel by aircraft, as opposed to the more traditional pirates on the high seas, who travel by ship. However, just as traditional seafaring pirates target sailing ships, air pirates serve a similar role in science fiction and fantasy media: they capture and plunder aircraft and other targets for cargo, loot and occasionally they steal an entire aircraft, sometimes killing the crewmembers in the process. However, their dress and speech may vary; it may correspond to the particular author's vision of the story's setting, rather than their seafaring counterparts. On the other hand, air pirates may be modeled after stereotypical sea pirates. Some air pirates use airborne aircraft carriers as mobile bases from which to conduct raids.[1][2][3] Air pirates made early appearances in novels, silent films, comics and pulp magazines, and have since appeared in a variety of media, including alternate history,[4][5] steampunk,[6][7][8] and dieselpunk[9][10] works.

Examples

In reality

In real-life use, the phrase "air piracy" more often refers to the hijacking and illegal seizure of an aircraft. However, there has been at least one occasion of an act of nautical-type piracy being conducted from the air. This occurred in 1917, when the civilian Norwegian schooner Royal was boarded and captured by a boarding party from the German Zeppelin L23.[17]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Mullen, Micheal (October 20, 1999). "Crimson Skies Creator Speaks Out". GameSpot. Retrieved July 9, 2015. Lastly (and most importantly), are the air pirates in their zeppelin-based aircraft carriers that hunt the airborne prey and the rich cargoes they carry.
  2. ↑ Herold, Charles (March 1, 2001). "Game Theory; Fly in a Retro World Under Crimson Skies". The New York Times. Retrieved July 9, 2015. Set in 1937, Crimson Skies concerns itself with a dashing air pirate, Nathan Zachary […] Traveling the globe in an airship, the Pandora, Zachary and his crew make their living plundering cargo zeppelins. As Zachary, you begin each mission by leading a squadron of fighter pilots out of the zeppelin toward your target.
  3. ↑ "The TaleSpin Sourcepage – The Iron Vulture". talespinsourcepage.i8.com. Archived from the original on March 2, 2009. Retrieved July 9, 2015.
  4. ↑ Kasavin, Greg (September 19, 2000). "Crimson Skies Impressions". GameSpot. Retrieved July 9, 2015.
  5. ↑ Tringham, Neal Roger (2014). Science Fiction Video Games. CRC Press. p. 445. ISBN 978-1-4822-0388-2 – via Google Books.
  6. ↑ "Valves and Cogs! 15 Most Popular Steampunk Pirate Novels". OCLC. Retrieved July 9, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Airborn by Kenneth Oppel". Steampunk.com. December 16, 2010. Retrieved July 9, 2015.
  8. ↑ "'Abney Park's Airship Pirates' RPG". ICv2. April 18, 2011. Retrieved July 9, 2015.
  9. ↑ O'Connor, Alice (April 12, 2012). "Jordan Weisman hopes to resurrect Crimson Skies". Shacknews. Retrieved July 9, 2015.
  10. ↑ Yin-Poole, Wesley (April 13, 2012). "Shadowrun creator wants to resurrect Crimson Skies". Eurogamer. Retrieved July 9, 2015.
  11. ↑ Bleiler, Everett; Bleiler, Richard (1990). Science-fiction, the Early Years: A Full Description of More Than 3,000 Science-fiction Stories from Earliest Times to the Appearance of the Genre Magazines in 1930: with Author, Title, and Motif Indexes (Page 357). Kent State University Press. p. 357. ISBN 0-87338-416-4 – via Google Books.
  12. ↑ Lawson, Mark (December 5, 2014). "Beware air pirates, be nice to Martians: lessons from the dawn of British sci-fi". New Statesman. Retrieved July 9, 2015.
  13. ↑ Paris, Michael (1992). Winged Warfare: The Literature and Theory of Aerial Warfare in Britain, 1859-1917. Manchester University Press. p. 57. ISBN 0-7190-3694-1 – via Google Books.
  14. ↑ Gaillard, Stephen (1915). The Pirates of the Sky: A Tale of Modern Adventure. Chicago: Rand McNally & Company – via Google Books.
  15. ↑ Bleiler, Everett; Bleiler, Richard (1990). Science-fiction, the Early Years: A Full Description of More Than 3,000 Science-fiction Stories from Earliest Times to the Appearance of the Genre Magazines in 1930: with Author, Title, and Motif Indexes (Pages 271-272). Kent State University Press. pp. 271–272. ISBN 0-87338-416-4 – via Google Books.
  16. ↑ Bleiler, Everett; Bleiler, Richard (1998). Science-Fiction: The Gernsback Years: A Complete Coverage of the Genre Magazines Amazing, Astounding, Wonder, and Others from 1926 Through 1936. Kent State University Press. p. 194. ISBN 0-87338-604-3 – via Google Books.
  17. ↑ Robinson, Douglas Hill (1962). The Zeppelin in Combat: A History of the German Naval Airship Division, 1912-1918. London: G.T. Foulis. pp. 220–21. OCLC 1302222.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.