floater n.

"Floaters" are a later development of "jumpers"—rocket motors encased in inertron blocks and strapped to the back in such a way that the wearer floats, when drifting, facing slightly downward. With his motor in operation, he moves like a diver, head-foremost, controlling his direction by twisting his body and by movements of his outstretched arms and hands. Ballast weights locked in the front of the belt adjust weight and lift. Some men prefer a few ounces of weight in floating, using a slight motor thrust to overcome this. Others prefer a buoyance balance of a few ounces. The inadvertent dropping of weight is not a serious matter. The rocket thrust always can be used to descend. But as an extra precaution, in case the motor should fail, for any reason, there are built into every belt a number of detachable sections, one or more of which can be discarded to balance off any loss in weight.

A dark shadow drifted slowly across the room, and they turned to see a five-passenger floater sinking slowly, gently, to Earth.

After a smooth landing I took an Eastbound chair from the field and whistled as the floater lifted me to the ISN floor.

The floater that Frankie Alceste and Sima took from the spaceport was piloted by a Fisher aide who unlatched the cabin door and performed steep banks to tumble his fares out into the air. Alcester smashed the glass partition and hooked a meaty arm around the driver’s throat until he righted the floater and brought them safely to earth… On the road level they were picked up by one of a hundred cars which had been pacing the floater from below.

Carefully Blake guided the chair-like floater to the ground at one end of the barrier, close to the clump of birch, snapped off the gravity field as it came to rest. For a moment he sat in the chair unmoving… Finally he got out of the floater and from its back unstrapped the hamper of lunch to get at his fishing tackle. He set the hamper to one side on the grassy bank from which the clump of birches grew.

The tall, stately towers near the floater terminal quickly gave way to smaller two- and three-story houses. [Ibid. 157] After turning twelve, she had never seen another human being in the flesh except for Grandfather until yesterday when she caught the floater.

Carlotta turned on the float unit and the floater rose the standard one meter off the floor. She cranked on a little throttle and the floater moved forward. She turned to the right by leaning her body in that direction, and the floater zipped up around the curving ramp and out onto the street.

Cord then learned that a floater was a vehicle that hovered on a cushion of air, smaller and faster than the CeeDee hovertanks, but well-armed and armoured.

Half the sky is eclipsed by a tall stone building. A line of floaters cross the other half—saucer-shaped craft carrying their passengers from place to place.

The blue sky just above the white-tops shaded quickly to indigo and black. Specks of silver moved up there, agrav floaters bringing starships into the Docks.

The gravitic floater raced over grassways that blended into masking treescapes.

Then he dropped the floater to within a foot of the ground. Worrel and three corporals slapped their safety releases and piled out, two from one side of the floater, two from the other.

The medevac floater was little more than a glorified stretcher, designed to hold one patient lying down but, in a pinch, two sitting up, plus its operator in the control saddle.