When Ragade threw open the design for his Localized Air Density Field Inducer (U.S. Pat. No. 6,685,518), tech groups were ecstatic. A transcendent leap in the way we will build and travel, said WireScience. A great leap for mankind!

Everyone expected jet sleds, never-fail automatic parachutes and the end of car crashes. Everyone expected perfect acoustics anywhere you wanted them. Everyone expected instant invisible buildings. Everyone expected breakthroughs in mountaineering and deep-sea exploration–ultrafast rail transport–cheap, perfect lenses and optical cable. Everyone expected moon colonies. Everyone expected everything in WireScience to come true.

Nobody–except maybe Ragade–expected the skywhales.