Flying machine (The War of the Worlds) Flying machine (The War of the Worlds) The Flying machine is one of the fictional machines used by the Martians in H. G. Wells' classic science fiction novel "The War of the Worlds". It is one of the four types of heavy machine the Martians bring with them when they invade Earth, along with the fighting machine, the handling machine, and the embankment machine. The appearance of this aircraft in the novel is very vague. The narrator's brother, escaping by sea, glimpses it shortly after the implied destruction of the Channel Fleet. The narrator himself sees the aircraft abandoned on
The War of the Worlds the time. In the 1870s the Germans were the most common invaders. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, a period of strain on Anglo-French relations, and the signing of a treaty between France and Russia, the French became the more common menace. There are a number of plot similarities between Wells's book and "The Battle of Dorking". In both books a ruthless enemy makes a devastating surprise attack, with the British armed forces helpless to stop its relentless advance, and both involve the destruction of the Home Counties of southern England. However "The War of the Worlds" transcends the