Johannes replied to me:
If it is a low TL world grav vehicles are not everyday vehicles. (if you are pedantic, yes a world that has grav vehicles but no other high tech still would count as low TL world) So if there also is a starport, there also is a reason, why the tech of the star port does not leak out into the general population.
Money (cf recent events in the real world when imports exceed exports). Advanced technology gets imported, but not enough to show in daily use and to change the look-and-feel on the street. It will show up in specialized applications. One of those is the Planetary Defense Force, which will hog a big part of the foreign exchange for very-low-tech worlds.
A TL7 world won't have a space program with multi-stage chemical rockets and shuttles. Imported TL10 contragrav/reactionless shuttles are more cost-effective. The average joe on the street is riding neither TL7 nor TL10 shuttles, so it makes no difference unless they live next to the spaceport and get the supersonic booms.
At the regional aerospace port, there might be TL10 shuttles on suborbital flights among the TL7 jet airliner. The average joe can't afford those suborbital tickets, either.
On the other hand, a computer science student at the university might sit in front of a TL7 terminal hooked to a TL10 or even TL12 mainframe. A rich businessperson might have an imported TL10 smartphone, somewhat crippled by the low data rate of TL7 networks.
To get back to airships, my current price for the smallest blimp is TL6 $82,000 (i.e. TL12 Cr4,200). It is much cheaper than any imported air/raft, but also much less capable. So there is a niche for airships.
Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
