The Helico

The Helico
Flying machine
The Helico ascending toward the Ouranio Tholo
National Origin		Ikonia
Production History
Number Built		1
Service History
Used By
Aircraft Characteristics
Propulsion		2 x helical airscrews
Maximum Velocity		20 m/s
Operational Range		Unknown km

The Helico was a primitive flying machine constructed within the Lumia Rotunda. It was designed and built by the erstwhile inventor Volantino Peftontas, who piloted it to destruction in the most widely viewed dome event in Ikonic history. The tragic story of Peftontas has become one of the most well known in Ikonia, and references to his flight are common in popular culture.

Development

The Helico was not the first attempt to create a flying machine within the Omnichronicratic domes. Several other devices have been constructed in the Fabrikglobus though these resulted in PSALM-assisted failures. Nevertheless, flying machines are generally feared by omnichronicratic theorists as potentially dangerous to order within the cantons. Flying machines may collide with the interior walls of the domes, or reveal the diminutive scale of each artificial world. As such, flying machines are categorized as article four meta-disruptive devices.

OCHLi first observed evidence of the construction of a flying machine in late 2193 when it was noted that abnormal quantities of linen were being directed towards the mountain workshop of the reclusive aristocrat Volantino Peftontas. Papyrus models of airscrews were also observed landing across the towns of the Lumia Rotunda, which were traced back to Peftontas' residence. Recognizing that this could be evidence of the manufacture of a flying machine, Bearer Yanis Kakos convened an advisory council to discuss the threat to omnichronicratic stability. Kakos ordered OCHLi to enact a level two dilatory thought-print promulgation with boosted fabian emissions on all seventeen thalamic strata. Taking root just beyond their conscious perception, repellent and illusory thoughts associated with Peftontas were trickled into the minds of the Lumia Rotunda's inhabitants. This 'hands-off' approach was deemed by Kakos to be sufficiently non-invasive, and the matter was believed to be dealt with.

Writings of Peftontas were observed and scanned remotely. In his personal journal, the humble inventor's mind flew across the pages.

“	To live is to suffer, and to suffer is to live. Suffering allows a kerbal to know distance, not in space, but in spirit. Distance from the soaring heavens of happiness above, and distance from the despair of ground below. To be aware of these distances along the fifth dimension of thymos is to understand the nature of flight. A bird lives, yet it does not suffer. A bird walks upon the fine airs of fortune and need never use its feet, but does so all the same. Not until a kerbal has flown as a bird will he understand the truth of life. To fly is to be free.	”
—Volantino Peftontas

Peftontas and his work sank beneath a malaise of artificially induced suspicion and apathy as the PSALMs did their work. Eventually, Peftontas' aides abandoned his workshop and traders refused to do business with the eccentric recluse high in the mountains. Peftontas would not have the resources required to complete his machine. Slowly he became reviled and outcast by those that had once known him as a friend. His wife left him for fear of the mobs that would pelt them with mud, and the whispered rumours from streets swept clear by his arrival. OCHLi assumed that Peftontas' spirit was broken. However in March 2194 Peftontas was observed extending a large balcony on his abode. It was quickly deduced that this was to be used as a primitive launching platform, and that somehow Peftontas had continued to work on the machine. Days later, Peftontas opened the doors of his workshop that had been sealed shut for so long and produced from inside a remarkable device swiftly dubbed 'The Helico'.

The Helico appeared to be a simple platform with room for four kerbals, borne aloft by a pair of linen screws that were rotated by hand. By this stage public interest in the unfolding story had soared, and pictures of the strange machine were widely circulated in the media. Bearer Kakos immediately ordered a level eight hyper-localised limbic susurration emission intended to crush Peftontas' ambition to use the machine. It was at this point that it became clear that Peftontas' willpower and spiritual fortitude, his thymos, were far beyond an ordinary kerbal's. As the susurration emission hit his cranium, the intensity of the PSALM was so great that rock upon which his stood split from the sonic frequencies.

Cast down to the shattered stone but mentally undaunted, Peftontas shook his fist to the heavens and cried 'What hath God to fear of my dreams!'

Expedition and crash

On 15 March 2194, Peftontas flew his machine. Aboard the craft with him were his last three remaining servants, whose loyalty and love for their master could not be defeated by insanity nor PSALMs. Peftontas assumed the most central position aboard whilst the others rotated the airscrews. At 11:42 Peftontas left the ground for the first and last time in his life. The Helico flew without apparent difficulty as it lifted off from the balcony launch pad. Two kerbals turned the central shaft at all times to provide power to the airscrews, whilst Peftontas directed the craft. A trailing rope ladder hung below which was used to make observations and gauge bearing. By 11:45, the Helico was flying at 2,000m altitude, a few hundreds meters above the mountainous surface.