An airmobile is a machine that flies through the air, propelling itself forward with an engine to create aerodynamic lift from its wings. The first successful airmobile was demonstrated in the Confederation of North America by Thomas Edison, in 1903. With the help of the National Financial Administration, several North American firms sought to make commercial use of airmobiles, including Glenn Curtiss's Curtiss Aviation, Ltd., Samuel Baker's North American Airmobile, Ltd., and Arnold Franklin's Franklin Transportation, Ltd.. The most successful was Forster Airmobile, Ltd., founded by former carriage maker Whitney Forster in 1904. In 1915 a reorganized Forster Aviation, Ltd. won a government contract to deliver mail, allowing it to surpass its competitors. Another successful airmobile manufacturer mentioned by Sobel is New York Airmobile.
The first notable military use of airmobiles came during the Hundred Day War in 1914, when the Mexican victory at Chapultepec began with an aerial bombardment of the French positions with explosive charges. The general arms buildup before the Global War featured airmobiles as an important component. The German Empire had a fleet of 900 by 1933, and by the end of 1936 the C.N.A. under Governor-General Douglas Watson had amassed 600.
Airmobiles were widely used by all belligerents in the Global War, for transporting troops as well as aerial bombardment, support of ground actions, and naval combat. Many airmobiles were among the military items surreptiously transferred from the neutral C.N.A. to Great Britain through Iceland. In the Pacific theatre of the war, major naval battles between Mexico and Japan took place without any ship ever sighting another ship, all attacks being by air.
In the past few years, the four powers possessing the atomic bomb have also built fleets of airmobiles capable of transporting and delivering such bombs to sites even on distant continents.
Airmobiles play a great role in For All Nails, where for example several characters are members of the C.N.A.'s air arm and the space exploration program developed from it.