INGRID DOWS - AN ALTERNATE STORY PART 2 - THE JET AGE by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

Glendale Grand Central Air Terminal

Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Faith Buchner felt a mix of hope and anxiety as she arrived inside the main hall of the Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale, a suburb in the north of Los Angeles: hope for finding a new, decent job that would allow her to continue flying; anxiety about how serious and truthful the newspaper advertising she had read in Chicago would prove to be. Too often, jobs asking for women ended up being low-paid or dead-end ones, where women were expected to put up with rampant sexism and sexual harassment. For a strong-headed and proud combat veteran aviator like Faith, such jobs were definitely to be avoided at all cost. What gave hope to her was the fact that the newspaper ads and the periodic radio ads running nationwide all targeted specifically female veteran aircrews and ground maintenance and support crews who had served with the 99th Air Wing, the Fifinellas, during the war.

Faith had just entered the air terminal, carrying her travel bag, when her eyes caught at once on a tall brunette with a very familiar face who was in the process of greeting another Fifinella veteran at a reception counter where a big Fifinella mascot logo was on display. She at once started running towards that reception counter while shouting out loud.

‘’KATHARINE, I’M HERE!’

Katharine Hepburn snapped her head around and, seeing Faith running towards her, quickly excused herself with Betty Haas before coming out from the back of the counter, in time to receive her old friend and combat comrade in her open arms and kissing her repeatedly on the cheeks.

‘’Faith, my God! I am so happy to see you again.’

‘’And I am equally happy to see you, Katharine. Do you work for this Howard Hughes, who posted all those newspaper ads about jobs for Fifinella veterans?’’

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‘’I sure do, Faith: I am in charge of receiving our female comrades here and to then guide them to the hangar occupied by the Hughes Aircraft Company, here in Glendale. Do you have any other luggage with you?’’

‘’I have one suitcase which traveled as unaccompanied baggage, Katharine.’’

‘’Then, go get it and return to this counter. I will explain what all this is about on your return. By the way, all your travel expenses to get here will be reimbursed today, as part of your job application processing. As for you being accepted, it is a given: we are especially looking for ex-pilots and copilots of AH-4 attack helicopters and their ground support crews.’

‘’Hell, does your Howard Hughes want to start an air force of his own?’

‘’Not an air force but an airline. Now, go get your suitcase and come back here.’

‘’Yes, Mother!’ replied Faith, using a nickname Katharine had received in the Pacific due to her more mature age than that of the other female crews from the Black Widows, their old attack helicopter unit. That earned her a playful slap on the butt from Katharine in return.

‘’Go, little girl!’

Chuckling at that, Faith walked quickly to the baggage carrousels hall, situated under the main hall, where she recuperated her single suitcase before going back up. By then, another veteran, Sylvia Dahmes, had joined Katharine and Betty at the Fifinella reception counter and was getting some information from Katharine when Faith returned to the counter. The ex-actress acknowledged her return with a nod of her head and then spoke to the three women facing her.

‘’Alright girls, here is the poop: Howard Hughes, who already hired me, Hedy Lamarr and Ingrid Dows, is forming a new airline to be called ‘Air Fifinel a’, with its work force composed exclusively of female Fifinella veterans. Ingrid Dows actually was the one who suggested that idea to him.’

‘’Ingrid? But isn’t she stil part of the Air Force?’ asked Betty Haas. Katharine shook her head in response.

‘’Not anymore! She resigned her commission the moment she heard about the stupid cuts ordered by that asshole of Louis Johnson. She now works for Howard Hughes as a test pilot and design engineer, while Hedy Lamarr helps Hughes to manage his company and will be the official head of the Air Fifinella. As for me, I am now a helicopter test pilot for Hughes Aircraft and will help recruit the women who will work for our new airline.’

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‘’And what kind of air service wil this ‘Air Fifinel a’ offer to the public, Katharine?’

asked Sylvia Dahmes, who had piloted mostly UH-2 medium transport helicopters while serving with the 99th Air Wing.

‘’A totally new kind of air service, Sylvia: a point-to-point short-haul service using modified AH-4s turned into 24-seat transport helicopters. The idea is to offer high-frequency air transportation directly from downtown city or town small helicopter pads, to other downtown helicopter pads within a thousand miles. Once the Hughes Verti-Wing 100, which is presently in development as a VSTOL medium transport, will be ready to enter commercial service, Air Fifinella will add medium-haul, continent-wide air services.

The future should be bright for us, ladies. You will be told more once at the Hughes Aircraft hangar. Now, go out to the taxi waiting area: you will see there a waiting minibus with a Fifinella logo on it. It will drive you to our hangar, where you will be processed by no other than Ingrid herself.

‘’Ooo! I already love this job!’ said joyfully Betty Haas before walking out with Sylvia and Faith. The black woman waiting next to a small minibus decorated with the Fifinella logo was another veteran of their air wing who had served as a vehicle driver in the Pacific and in England, something that prompted more happy hugs and kisses.

‘’I am happy to see you here, Geena.’ said Faith while hugging the much taller black young woman. Geena Willis, who was from Alabama, returned her hug in kind.

‘’And I was missing you from our time together in Guadalcanal, Faith. I can already tell you all that your new employer, Howard Hughes, is a nice, open-minded man, on top of being possibly the richest man in America.’

‘’That’s certainly a nice combination, I must say. Wel , let’s get in, so that Geena can drive us to that hangar.’’

When they went inside the minibus, they found another four female veterans from the Fifinellas already sitting in it, causing more joyous exchanges of hugs and kisses before Geena started her bus and drove off, taking a small road leading towards the hangars of the Glendale Airport. The drive took only a couple of minutes before the minibus stopped in front of a hangar bearing the name of the Hughes Aircraft Company, where the seven women got out with their bags and entered the side annex of that hangar. Ingrid, wearing a blue jumpsuit and safety boots, immediately greeted them with a big, happy grin and with hugs and kisses on the cheeks.

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‘’I’m so happy to see you again, girls. Four years is a long time without seeing you.’

‘’Indeed, Ingrid!’ replied Faith, getting her share of hugs from her. ‘’So, what’s next?’’

‘’You wil first go to the secretary manning that folding table to the left and get reimbursed for the cost of your trip to here and where you will have a hotel room booked for you. Then, you will be able to have lunch from the buffet table which is set up next door, before I brief you and interview you about the jobs you will get. Then, you will be able to sign your individual contracts with the Howard Hughes Aircraft Company. This afternoon, I will show to you the prototypes of both the Verti-Wing 100 VSTOL medium transport and of the Hughes CH-4, the new transport variant of the AH-4.’

‘’Uh, why modify the AH-4 to turn it into a transport helicopter, when we had excellent UH-1, UH-2 and UH-3 transport helicopters in the service, Ingrid?’’ asked Betty Haas.

‘’Because, with the Air Force having cut the production contract it had with Hughes Aircraft for the AH-4, we now had a mostly dormant production line doing little.

Instead of going around and buying transport helicopters from Sikorsky and Bell, I counseled Howard Hughes to modify the AH-4 design, keeping whole its motorization package and attaching to it a new, more spacious fuselage. The resulting Hughes CH-4

VOYAGER transport helicopter should be certified and ready for commercial service in about a month, while the Verti-Wing 100 will start its test flight program in three weeks.

As for the CH-4, the fact that we were able to save a lot of weight by eliminating all the armor and weapons systems from the AH-4 made us able to produce a 24-seat transport helicopter with a top cruising speed of about 200 miles per hour and a maximum speed of 230 miles per hour, as fast or faster than most existing propeller-driven transport aircraft in commercial service around the United States. The CH-4 will also have a range of over 1,000 miles, easily qualifying it for short-haul duties. However, its biggest advantage over the other commercial transports will be its ability to take off and land from anywhere.’’

‘’What about the all-weather flying ability we had in the AH-4, Ingrid?’’ asked Faith. ‘’That ability would be crucial in order to be able to operate commercially in bad weather and at night, something that most existing commercial aircraft can’t do very wel .’

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‘’You are most correct about that, Faith, but I can tell you that the CH-4 will have the same thermal and low-level-light vision systems than the AH-4, on top of getting a nose radar. Fortunately, the Hughes Company originally produced those systems and holds their production license, so it didn’t need to ask permission from the Air Force before incorporating them into the CH-4. The only disadvantage that the CH-4 will have over planes like the Douglas DC-3 and DC-4 is its somewhat lower service ceiling, something due purely to its nature as a helicopter versus a fixed wing aircraft. Since it will not need to use an airport, a parking lot being sufficient to accommodate it, Air Fifinella will be able to offer to the American public an extremely flexible and inclusive network of flight routes directly from downtown areas of cities and towns. For example, you will be able to fly people between downtown Chicago to downtown Detroit, something that could attract a huge clientele from businessmen alone. Also, since our network will be spread to cities and towns all over the United States and will run short-haul routes of less than a thousand miles, our Air Fifinella crews will be able to live in their original hometowns and will thus be selected for each route while keeping their hometowns in mind. That will give us the significant advantages of having aircrews which will already be familiar with the region they will fly over and will allow them to keep their attachment to their homes, unless of course you really want to move away from it, like in the case of poor Geena Willis, who was treated like a pariah by the aviation companies in her native Alabama after she was forcibly released from the Air Force.’’

That last sentence brought a bitter smirk on the faces of Faith and of the other women who had served with Geena Willis in Guadalcanal.

‘’Yeah, that damn racism again! It doesn’t help me being proud of the United States when I see that there is stil so much bigotry and intolerance around our country.’

‘’Welcome to the club, Faith. I can however tell you that Howard Hughes, your new employer, is a very liberal, open-minded and tolerant man who cares greatly about all of his employees.’

‘’And when wil we be able to meet this gem of a new boss, Ingrid?’ asked Sylvia Dahmes.

‘’This afternoon, when I will be conducting a tour of our prototypes shop next door. Well, time for you girls to go get reimbursed for your travel expenses. We booked a nearly complete hotel nearby in Glendale to lodge our new employees, so you will be able to meet again a lot of old friends from the Fifinel as tonight.’

In response, Betty Haas rubbed her hands together in anticipation.

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‘’Money and friends: two essential ingredients for happiness in life.’’

‘’Don’t forget good food, Betty.’ added Faith. ‘’Wel , let’s go get our money, so that we could then go eat.’

At a bit past one o’clock in the afternoon, the group, which had grown to 26

women thanks to constantly arriving candidates, got to sign their employment contracts, with Howard Hughes in person attending that event. Hughes also accompanied the group and Ingrid when they went to the prototype workshop to examine the CH-4 and Verti-Wing 100 prototypes. Faith Buchner, who had fought the war as an attack helicopter pilot, was particularly interested by the new passenger transport variant of her old AH-4, but couldn’t help make a joke about its much wider and longer fuselage.

‘’Gee, Ingrid, you turned my sleek AH-4 into a big fatso!’

‘’Well, try to squeeze 24 passengers into an AH-4, Faith: you won’t get them to want to return for more.’ Shot back Ingrid. ‘’This is a classic case of ‘form following function’, girls. While this first version of the CH-4 is propelled by the same engine package of the AH-4, we envision the second version of it to be propelled by new turboshaft engines, a type of jet engine that uses its jet gases to turn a propeller. While the Verti-Wing 100 will be equipped with four interconnected Allison T-700 turboshaft engines, each of which produce 7,000 shaft horsepower at maximum continuous power, the production variant of the CH-4 will see its two R2800 radial piston engines replaced by two Allison T-300 turboshaft engines, each of which are rated at 3,000 shaft horsepower, something that will make it more powerful, faster and longer-ranged. That change will however mean that we will have to stock kerosene fuel rather than aviation gasoline at our regional landing pads.’

‘’Do you know if the Air Force will also remotorize with turboshaft engines our military helicopters, Ingrid?’ asked Sylvia Dahmes, an ex-UH-2 pilot. She was shocked to see Ingrid shake her head sadly in response.

‘’General Kenney wanted to, but that plan was scuttled by the idiotic budget cuts ordered by President Truman and his ass-licking Secretary of Defense, Louis Johnson, on the pretext that it would cost too much and it was not really needed. That was one of the reasons why General Kenney decided to leave the service and retire. Thus, the future of American aviation may well be partly in our hands now, girls. If our Air Fifinella project proves viable commercially, then Hughes Aircraft will team up with our national

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aircraft engine manufacturers and a few other partners in the aeronautical industry to produce a range of truly modern aircraft propelled by jet engines.’

‘’The Pentagon refused to reengine our helicopters? How stupid can Washington get?’’

‘’Very!’ answered Howard Hughes, taking over from Ingrid. ‘’But don’t lose hope yet: I have some good political contacts in Washington and President Truman may not get to be around still after the coming elections in November. His irresponsibility concerning our national military readiness is starting to seriously irk a lot of people and he is about to get grilled...seriously.’

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CHAPTER 14 – POLITICAL BACKLASH

09:32 (Washington Time)

Tuesday, August 17, 1948 ‘C’