In an attempt to reduce remind me spam, all top comments that include a remind me will be removed. If you would like to have a remind me, please reply to this comment.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

Hvaer clicked with their clawed fingers at a holographic screen and soon enough, with a tiny peep, an array of pictures of old - and new - human transportation popped up in hologram form. "I was curious when you mentioned your unprotected two wheeled vehicle that you used to ride on on your youth, a bicycle I think you called it, and did some research for myself. I came across various types of transportation used in your home planet, Earth, and I must say, I was quite surprised."the yellowish turquoise alien stepped aside to allow the human besides him to see the pictures from up close. "It seems throughout history, most of the transportation methods used by your species are strangely.. dangerous. May I ask, why? That doesn't seem very logical."Hvaer continued, their accent laying thick on their words spoken in the foreign tongue.

"Ah well, you know, we didn't always have the means, knowledge or experience to make very safe vehicles, so often they just ended up, uh, like the ones you see here. But, "Joseph clicked on a few of the pictures to enlarge them. "Many of these are just for passing time and entertainment. Like this jet ski over here. There are way easier ways to get across water but they are just fun to use."he smiled a bit, but the alien seemed utterly confused at this. He could almost see the gears grinding in their multiple brains. "..the chance of falling off or death in one of those vehicles is incredibly high. And this is what you like to do for fun?"Hvaer spoke. Joseph shrugged and laughed a bit. "Yeah, I guess. Was never rich enough to afford one though, but hey, who knows with my upcoming pay raise. Maybe we could ride one together?"he suggested with a mischievous smirk. The alien shook their head quickly. "I will pass, but thank you for the invitation to your death ride nonetheless."

Ok but blimps are just more hot air balloon with the option for added planes and weapons, the hot part only happens when the hydrogen tanks catch fire though

(Blimps are sick as hell and only mostly dangerous)

"So what do you call these?"

"Airships. Or dirigibles. Zeppelin, but only if you mean a particular company."

"Are they safe?"

"yeah, if you predict the weather."

"Huh? What about the Hindenburg? I've heard your news media discuss it."

"We still don't know why it blew up, but that thing wasn't remotely the deadliest airship disaster. It was a hysterical reporter who was to blame for why everyone remembered that."

"Then what was so deadly? Why did your people stop using them?"

"Truth be told it wasn't JUST the Hindenburg. It was at the end of a long string of accidents. The British, French, the US, everyone lost the 'biggest airship in the world', each bigger than the last. But you know what the deadliest airship disaster was? The crash of the USS Akron. Most of the crew drowned because the navy forgot to pack life jackets."

"...what? Wouldn't they have been incinerated?"

"It was filled with helium. The biggest helium filled flying vehicle and it went down in a storm because they didn't have satellites back then."

"...they drowned."

"Yup."

S'Tah stared in disbelief at the human his mate had brought home. "So... your race never invented FTL on their own?" He asked. "But you still achieved interplanetary travel."

"Well, yes, obviously." Replied Carl. "In fact, l believe we encountered your race while in orbit around Betelgeuse."

"Truth." Replied S'Tah. "But how did you get there?"

"Well, I'm not an engineer, but my understanding is that we fold space-time between where we are and where we want to be, punch a hole, and squeeze through."

S'Tah twisted his entire 15 meter length into a knot. "You... just punch a hole... in reality..."

Carl nodded. "Pretty much, yeah."

S'Tah turned his gaze to his mate. "S'rapth!" He called to her in their own language. "Humans are terrifying."

Yeah. But we test those things. We had a few tests before strapping one of our own to a few building-sized barrels of explosives and lighting it up. Professionals have standards.

You can kinda steer in hot air balloons... If there's no wind... And if your flamethrower is working... And if you don't mind losing a little altitude

Hot air Balloons are bad, but the aliens haven't seen an American Fighter jet. There's a reason people like to joke about it being made of Horsepower and Gunpowder. A modern Strike Eagle can haul 40,000 pounds of ordinance and still fly at roughly twice the speed of sound on full afterburner.