That single stage rockets could not reach escape velocity seems to have been within Wells' knowledge (and this does not surprise me). Instead the expedition around the Moon relied on a Space Gun. The first gun puts the second gun in motion, which launches the next gun. Each stage adds a bit more velocity much like a multistage rocket.
Parts of it are prescient: WW2 starts in 1940 with bombing raids on British cities. What was thankfully wrong was poison gas bombing. (Wells was not the only thinker of the age convinced the horrors of gas warfare of the previous generation were inevitable. )
The politics are pretty restrained but we are reminded that competition was one of the evils of the prewar era. There is a segment of massive exploitation of Earth's resources and technocratic-directed industrial development that is a vision that would horrify every environmentalist today. The lack of understanding costs and allocation of resources horrifies me.
This is free on Amazon Prime.
The colorized version is not impressive in color or resolution
Their notion of a helicopter is surprisingly thoughtful. The main rotor only goes up and down. A tail propeller gives motion forward instead of pivoting the main rotor.
Their launch gantry for the Space Gun would be easy to imagine as the modern thing.
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