One of the most common sites in the urban Strets, “Bumbles” are personal-sized airships used for travel between tall buildings or over bodies of water. 

The original Bumble was made in Providence, Rhode Island in the spring after the Burnout. A collective of survivors in the Moses Brown School and Brown University had exhausted most of their supplies and realized that their best strategic option was to expand into downtown Providence. Although scouts detected no human activity in the downtown area, their leaders still believed it was too risky to send anyone over the Providence River on foot. Thus, a crude hot-air balloon was constructed out of maintenance tarps, art-canvas, a bicycle, fry-oil from the dining-hall, and parts from a chemistry lab. After waiting for the right weather conditions, this dirigible was flown above the cloud layer, over the river, and finally made a crash-landing atop the One Financial Plaza. Its pilot, a half-starved 7th grader repurposed the craft’s burner and panelling from the Plaza’s HVAC system to report her findings to a team across the river via morse-code: Providence was empty. Later expeditions would confirm that the population that wasn’t wiped out due to the initial fighting had fled into rural territories, or looted the city and then left for Narangsett. Even though the initial Bumble had served its purpose, the survivors made a fleet of three before the year was over. Two for fishing or scouting along the river, and a third for moving personnel up to buildings that were no longer accessible from the ground-level. 

By 2033, these survivors, known as the “Mozies”, were annexed by F5. This period is when Bumbles exploded in popularity, most likely due to F5’s general distrust of water-based transport. It is also when the Bumble acquired its popular nickname, as most were painted in bright strips to heighten the vehicle’s absurdity. Furthermore, this is when Bumbles began to be made with a closed reservoir of hydrogen as the source of the vehicle’s lift. Hot-air mechanisms made take-off and landing cumbersome for the aircraft’s small crews, and helium reserves were either nonexistent or used exclusively for inert-gas welding(Vacuum-welding had yet to become popularized in the Strets). Therefore hydrogen, which could be quickly produced through electrolysis, was used to as the buoyant medium for Bumbles. 

The contemporary Bumble is made from an aluminum frame encased in a double-layered plastic covering. The frame is cylindrical, measuring 35 feet long with a diameter of 12 feet. This holds around 5,000 cubic feet of gas, and depending on the hydrogen mix, can support payloads around 300 pounds. Below the balloon itself, is another metal frame to support the pilot, landing gear, and steering and propulsion mechanisms. Most Bumbles are directed by pedal-operated propellors and steering flaps. Some variants have pilots stationed above the balloon, utilizing a variety of sails to move their Bumbles through wind power. A few use electric motors. In order to dock their crafts, pilots must either land directly on a target surface or launch an anchor to their target and descend via rope-ladder. 

Due to their extremely limited application, poor handling, and the fact that they contain concerning volumes of highly flammable gas, Bumbles remain endemic to the Strets. Only a few hundred have ever been made, yet they are regarded as an ultimate symbol of the region’s freedom and strangeness.