faster-than-light adj.
that is travelling or can travel faster than light
FTL
-
1940
D. D. Sharp
bibliography
It must be aluminum alloy and faster than light by three times at least.
Lodestone Core in Astonishing Stories Aug. 84/1 -
1941
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Charlie stepped up the speed of his faster-than-light ship and headed in the direction of the ringed planet.
Super Salesman of Space in Planet Comics Jan. 28/2 -
1947
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Murray Leinster
bibliography
The journeying squadron—every ship wrapped in the utter unapproachability of faster-than-light travel—was oblivious to all that had occurred. Its separate ships came out of overdrive some forty million miles from the solitary planet Ades, lonelily circling its remote small sun.
Manless Worlds in Thrilling Wonder Stories Feb. 32/2 -
1948
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Poul Anderson
bibliography
They'll know the principles of the star drive in a few more generations, and invent a faster-than-light engine almost at once!
Genius in Astounding Science Fiction Dec. 25/1 -
1952
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Chad Oliver
The Viking was not, of course, a faster-than-light ship.
First to Stars in Astounding Science-Fiction July 136/1 -
1952
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Robert A. Heinlein
bibliography
FASTER-THAN-LIGHT WEAPON PROMISED.
Year of Jackpot in Galaxy Science Fiction Mar. ii. 19/2
-
1964
He described the development of transportation from the coach and four of baroque days to the faster-than-light spacecraft of the present.
Ten Years to Doomsday iv. 32 -
1966
Edward E. Smith
Whether or not a Tellus-type planet ordinarily becomes unfit to support human life before its sun goes nova is not surely known. Nor does it matter very much; for, long before either event occurs, the human race involved has developed a faster-than-light drive and has at its disposal dozens or hundreds of Earth-like planets upon which even subhuman life has not yet developed.
Skylark DuQuesne vi. 43 -
1967
John Brunner
Every suggestion that sprang to my mind was open to the charge that it wasn’t a new concept but an elaboration of an old one, except the faster-than-light drive. And we'd dealt with that.
Born Under Mars xiii. 96 -
1968
bibliography
The engines…run the Enterprise and drive it at faster-than-light speeds.
in S. E. Whitfield & G. Roddenberry Making of ‘Star Trek’ ii. 191 -
1969
Marion Zimmer Bradley
bibliography
If they start from Earth, you can’t turn on any faster-than-light drive inside the orbit of Saturn, or you'll crash the asteroids.
Brass Dragon (1980) iii. 50 -
1970
Larry Niven
There wasn’t even a theoretical basis for faster-than-light travel. We never did invent hyperdrive, if you'll recall. We'd never have discovered it by accident, either, because we'd never have thought to do our experiments out beyond the singularity.
Ringworld 106 -
1991
Orson Scott Card
You can conceive of faster-than-light travel, and yet you can’t imagine destroying the Lusitania Fleet?
Xenocide xi. 246 -
1994
Robert Silverberg
I speak of our attempts, of which you have probably heard rumors, to develop a faster-than-light spaceship that will be capable of conducting human colonists to suitable planets outside the solar system.
Hot Sky at Midnight 190 -
2012
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Norman Spinrad
Why can’t we have dinosaurs on Venus and canal-side civilizations on Mars and faster than light galleons[?]
On Books in Asimov’s Science Fiction April–May 183/1
Research requirements
antedating 1940
Earliest cite
D. D. Sharp, "The Lodestone Core"
Research History
Mike Christie submitted a 1948 cite from Poul Anderson's "Genius".Michael Dolbear submitted a 2002 cite for "faster than light" from David Weber's "War of Honor".
Douglas Winston submitted a cite from a 1977 reprint of Michael Kurland and Chester Anderson's "Ten Years to Doomsday".
Douglas Winston submitted a cite from a 1966 reprint of E.E. Smith's 1965 "Skylark DuQuesne".
Douglas Winston submitted a cite from an undated reprint of John Brunner's 1967 "Born Under Mars".
Douglas Winston submitted a 1969 cite from A. Bertram Chandler's "Catch the Star Winds".
Douglas Winston submitted a 1969 cite from Save Van Arnam's "Starmind".
Douglas Winston submitted a 1991 cite from Dana Stabenow's "Second Star".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1947 cite from Murray Leinster's "The Manless Worlds"
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a 1997 reprint of C.M. Kornbluth's "Dead Center": Mike Christie verified it in its first publication (in Stirring Science Stories, February 1941, under the pseudonym 'S.D. Gottesman')
Fred Galvin submitted a 1940 cite from "The Lodestone Core", by D. D. Sharp
Fred Galvin submitted a 1941 cite from Tom Alexander's "Super Salesman of Space", in Planet Comics.
Jesse Sheidlower checked Harl Vincent's "Faster Than Light" (Amazing Stories, Fall/Winter 1932); all of the examples are adverbial, not adjectival.
Last modified 2022-05-20 12:26:05
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entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries
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