AMERICA ONE (15 page)

“Flying is for our feathered friends,” added her equally exciting father. “It would cost a lot of money, money we haven’t got. I think you should get this silly idea out of your head young lady and think about your courses coming up. You are a rising senior with one more year before you go to college. You are already a year ahead. How that mix-up of putting you a year ahead ever happened in your elementary school, I just don’t know, but you must ready yourself for your higher education.”

“Yes, in aerospace engineering, father. That is what I want to do, and I’m sure a pilot’s license will help me when I need to apply to engineering universities. The instructor told me that a pilot’s license might even help me with an additional scholarship into certain universities.”

“What’s wrong with what your mother and I learned Maggie?” asked her father. “Computers are a vast industry and ever-growing. Look at the new Apple Company, And Microsoft with that Gates fellow, both situated pretty close to us.”

“I have no interest, father,” she replied bluntly.

“Oh dear!” stated her mother. “We have saved up since you were born, to put you through college, Maggie. I certainly don’t want to see that money go to waste.”

“Did the instructor say how much it would cost?” asked her father.

“I need a total of forty flying hours of which thirty hours will cost about $75.00 per hour with an instructor; then I need ten hours at $50.00 per hour flying solo, plus some test and license costs. About thirty-six hundred dollars, father,” Maggie replied.

“Well, dear” he stated to his wife “that’s about ten percent of what we have put away for college. I’m sure that if it would help her get a scholarship, it might all come out in the wash.”

Her mother wasn’t happy, but her parents relented to save unnecessary family arguments, which were discouraged in their family, and the next month she began her lessons.

The instructor was surprised how well she flew. It seemed that she didn’t have an interest in the science of flying, but flew the aircraft exactly as he showed her how to. The first twenty hours passed in six months as she rose to become his best pupil to date.

She was very pretty with her long brown hair and striking green eyes, but to the instructor, her total lack of character and excitement kept him from learning more about her. He had met her extremely boring excuse for a father, saw her father’s way of life reflected in her, so just did his job and taught her to fly.

A year after she started flying, which was a couple of months before school ended, and on her eighteenth birthday, she went solo for the first time. Maggie suddenly realized that she was all alone up there in the world; something changed in her forever. She screamed as loud as she could; a scream of pure relief. She was free! She had just found a new exciting world of freedom.

The instructor noticed her emerge from her first solo hour with the first smile he had ever seen on her face, and realized that she had found something new inside herself; from then on Maggie Sinclair flew like a person desperate to learn.

A few weeks after leaving school, and on the same day she received her final school grades, she passed her flight test with a perfect flight under the examination of a very senior instructor. Maggie received the official paperwork for her Private Pilot License in a small ceremony with the flight school’s personnel and several other students in attendance; her parents did not show up. After the ceremony she accepted a celebratory dinner with her instructor and a few other pilots. “So what are you going to do now, Maggie?” her instructor asked.

“Join the United States Air Force Academy,” she replied simply. “Will you please write a letter of commendation? I have just received the necessary letter from my Congressman.”

“Really!” he replied pretty shocked. “Of course I will.”

“I used up some of my college funds to learn to fly, and I haven’t had much interest from any universities yet. My parents want me to study computer science, and now argue that there isn’t enough money for my education, so I’m going to go where it is free, to see what I can learn in the Air Force.” It looked like her mind was made up.

“A good idea,” he responded deciding to help her. He had seen a couple of his former students do the same thing, and assured her that he would get any pertinent information from them, write a letter, and see what he else he could do to help. His father had been a member of the U.S. Senate for three terms before his recent retirement a year earlier.

Richmond Field, Nevada.

For Jonesy, Hangar Six was what he was really waiting for. As they walked in, their eyes grew accustomed to interior lighting for the sixth time, and the first of two shapes glinted back at them, the Halogen roof lighting made the silver craft in front of them flash all sorts of colors.

Both semi-complete craft were cordoned off behind plastic sheeting and looked relatively small compared to the C-5 in Hangar 3.

“These are our work horses, our earth to orbit space shuttles, two of them,” began Ryan. “The shuttles are identical, eighteen feet wide, twelve feet high and 140 feet long. If you remember the interior of the C-5, the space looks more like an oval than a circular cargo bay, so we have designed these oval cigars to fit perfectly into the Galaxy. Due to our fuel needs, Mr. Jones, we need to trash the rear C-5 cargo doors permanently. The whole cargo hold is filled by the aircraft, making the three large rocket motor exhausts sit outside the rear of the loading bay and directly underneath the high tail; this idea gave us our minimum first-stage fuel needs. Funny enough, this C-5 interior shape gave us easier design planning than we ever expected. Let me explain this shuttle’s systems. We have an hour before I need to get into a meeting with the hydrogen thruster department so I must be brief.

“Mr. Jones, you will begin work in this hangar, as well as begin training in the flight simulators in Hangar One. Mr. Noble, starting tomorrow your two hangars will be Hangars Five and Four, exoskeleton and spacesuit design, and the mining department.

“OK! This shuttle has been designed to get a 4.1 ton cargo into any altitude orbit above earth.

“It first uses two hybrid rockets using a mixture of solid and liquid fuels. You will learn about this before you fly her, Mr. Jones, so don’t worry about her technology just yet. Much like the British space program underway, she is ejected out of the C-5 at 50,000 feet or higher at a speed of 400 miles an hour, or higher. Her two hybrid first stage rockets ignite and within seconds propel her over the sound barrier at an ever-increasing speed that reaches 12,000 knots as she approaches 240,000 feet. Her second stage fuel, liquid hydrogen in a single large rocket motor, will take her the rest of the way up, to 380,000 feet at just under 17,000 knots. At this height, she will have enough liquid hydrogen to maneuver in space with her rear hydrogen rocket, added hydrogen side-thrusters, and two small ion drives for long distance travel in her tail. Her rear hydrogen fuel rocket will propel her back into the atmosphere, and once below 200,000 feet, she will glide in for landing here at the airfield.”

“But how can she glide without wings?” asked Jonesy puzzled.

“She does have wings, Mr. Jones,” replied Ryan. “Come closer and look at her outline,” and they walked over to stand directly in front of the craft. To Jonesy she looked sharp, but very fat and very overweight compared to an F-16, more like a very pregnant fighter jet.

Ryan asked the white coat who had joined them to prepare for wing deployment. A buzzer sounded and everybody cleared the first shuttle. Ryan directed both men to look at a slight indentation line two thirds above the two oval side-shapes of the craft. “See, there is a slight variation in the curvature of the side panels.” Both men nodded. “Now come to the rear and I’ll show you how she glides, Mr. Jones.”

They went to the rear of the aircraft, their eyes following the narrow line along the side of the aircraft. Here at the rear the same slight curve change was slightly more prominent. Below the narrow line on both sides of the lower two-thirds of the aircraft were the two massive first-stage rocket exhausts, each about six feet across. Center, and above the two lower engines on each side, and in a triangular design, as Ryan had explained, was the third massive exhaust of the second-stage hydrogen-fuelled rocket exhaust. On each side of the higher, third motor they saw a much smaller, and different looking rocket exhaust, one tenth the size of the big three. These Ryan explained were the ion drives or thrusters.

“The two big motors below the wings get her most of the way, the single upper liquid hydrogen rocket motor takes her up to a maximum of 400,000 feet, and the throttle can be manually controlled; this is not true of the first-stage hybrid rocket system. Gentlemen, this system is much the same as what is used by the latest space rockets. The most recent NASA shuttles, although twice the size of our shuttles, worked with the first and second stages only. Our major difference to the NASA shuttles is our ion thruster drives. As I said, the power going through the hydrogen second-stage, Mr. Jones, is controlled by the pilot. The first stage is full power, nothing more. Underneath the shuttle’s outer skin, and operated after opening the slots once the craft is in space, are two smaller hydrogen thrusters on either side of the shuttle. Much like a bow thruster in a ship these are to direct the shuttle in sideward and slowing movements. If rapid decreases in forward speed are needed, the side thruster can turn the ship around, which allows the pilot to use the upper, large rear hydrogen thruster as a braking system. Each shuttle can be made totally stationary in space if necessary, and then propelled up to a reentry speed, using the large hydrogen motor. The smaller iron drive motors use the same fuel our space craft will use for their long distant flights, xenon gas.”

Ryan nodded and suddenly a set of wings began to emerge from the thin line they had been shown, and also a small tail emerged from the upper fuselage. It rose three feet high.

“The wings are shaped like a triangle. At the front they extend out by six inches from just behind the cockpit. Here, at the rear, they extend out to a maximum four feet, controllable in one foot intervals, just enough to allow a glide pattern down to ground.”

“That is not very much,” stated Jonesy.

“Not very much for F-16 pilots, Mr. Jones, but enough for twenty percent glide slopes between Mach 3, and all the way down to 400 knots, or 440 miles an hour. She can fly on this down slope with a four-ton returning cargo, if necessary. Of course, this is all on computer print-outs, and you will make sure we are correct. After all, Mr. Jones, you are the best test pilot in the world, are you not?” Jonesy nodded. “At around 400 knots she will level out for landing. Both shuttles have small air brakes on top of each wing if needed, and her small undercarriage is extracted at 300 knots, 1,000 feet above ground,” continued Ryan.

“Ok, I get it,” interrupted the pilot. “She dives in and her wings expand like one of the old X-51s. As her speed slows, more wing can be used until they are fully extended at four feet for landing. But, won’t she be empty at landing, fuel and cargo?”

“Fuel yes, cargo no!” replied Ryan. She has been designed to come in with a four-ton cargo load.”

“Four tons of cargo will drop her like a brick at speeds under 500 knots,” suggested Jonesy.

“As with the old NASA shuttles twice her size, she will have a steep glide slope; yes, a fast landing speed of around 280 knots, 300 miles per hour with a set of three parachutes automatically ejecting to slow her down along our 10,000 feet of runway. You have precisely stated why I employed you, Mr. Jones, to get her up and down again safely.”

“How are the wings used for earth exit?” Jonesy asked.

“Once she ejects out of the C-5 at 400 knots or faster, her wings and tail extend out to maximum within four seconds, her first-stage rocket engines ignite a second later, her forward speed is estimated to drop to 350 knots and then rise rapidly at 50 knots per second allowing her pilot six seconds to direct her to her correct climb slope and angle of atmospheric exit. Then she is purely a rocket with limited control during her first-stage, but once the second stage motor ignites at 240,000 feet, you will have far more control of her. For atmospheric flight she has small ailerons on her wings and tail for control.

“Now I must get over to Hangar One. You guys are done for today; I’ll give you a ride, and we will start training tomorrow. The rest of the hangars are off limits for another few weeks.”

Nellis Air Force Base, Las Vegas

Unbeknownst to her flying instructor, Maggie Sinclair had fantastic high school grades. Thanks to her parents, she had received three characteristics that would help her into the Air Force: brains, height, and eyesight.

Her instructor had been surprised at how sharp her eyesight was. She could see minute objects quickly on the ground when he pointed them out to her below them.

Unbeknownst to her parents, a few days after her day of screaming while going solo for the first time, she found the Air Force Academy’s address and information, recently obtainable if one searched carefully on the new expanding Internet, and sent for an application.

Once the papers arrived, she completed the application and sent the papers back to the Academy. The last items needed were her high school transcript, letters of commendation from her teachers, and a letter from her Congressman.

“Father, mother, I have been accepted into the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado; all I need is for you to sign the Parents Acceptance Document,” she stated out of the blue one night over dinner.

Both parents dropped their knives and forks and looked at her in shock.

“You have done what?” demanded her father. “What about UCLA or somewhere around us. There are dozens of universities, which have computer science programs, and that is what your mother and I want you to study. I will not sign those documents for you to waste your life, and our savings, and go and fly a stupid airplane!”

“I agree with your father, darling,” added her mother. “You are trying to enter a man’s world, and computer studies are much more a lady’s occupation! I couldn’t even imagine you doing that aerospace engineering stuff. Women will never fit, or even be accepted into that field.”