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

California

‘’She’s a real beauty, truly!’ said Major Charles ‘Chuck’ Yeager as he eyed the XF-9 ARROW from a distance of ten meters. ‘’I can’t wait to see how it wil perform in the air.’

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‘’They say that beautiful aircraft always fly well.’ added Ingrid, standing next to Yeager. ‘’Time to see if that saying is accurate. Let’s get in!’’

Walking to the pair of ladders hooked to the left side of the two-seat cockpit, Ingrid and Charles climbed up and stepped into it, sitting down on their seats. While Ingrid took the forward seat as the pilot, Yeager sat in the rear seat, which was meant to be occupied by a radar-weapons officer but which also had a set of dual flight controls.

Two Hughes technicians then climbed the ladders to help them strap them into their seats and to remove the safeties from their ejection seats. Once that was done, the two technicians climbed down and removed the ladders, as an aircraft tractor, which was already hooked to the nose wheel of the XF-9, started pulling it out of the hangar containing the prototype workshop. As the big sliding doors opened up, they revealed a dark and starry predawn sky. Once out of its hangar and its jet tailpipe turned away from it, the tractor unhooked itself from the prototype fighter, while a mobile starter unit helped Ingrid start her single turbofan engine. She could have started her engine without assistance but, her plane being a brand-new prototype, she wanted to manage its sub-systems in prevision for its first flight. The powerful General Electric F110 turbofan came to life in a growing whistle, which soon turned into a powerful screaming noise. In the cockpit, Ingrid did a quick pre-takeoff check before starting to make her aircraft roll towards one end of the main runway of the Glendale Airport. Once next to the runway extremity, Ingrid stopped her aircraft and called the control tower.

‘’Glendale Tower, from Hughes X-1, request permission to take off, over.’

‘’X-1, from Tower: you are cleared for takeoff.’

‘’Thank you, Tower.’ said Ingrid on the radio before switching to intercom mode.

‘’We are not going to use our rocket booster pack this time, Chuck. I want to see how fast my baby can take off on its own engine power. Just monitor your instruments for the first part of our flight. Once I will be satisfied that my prototype has safe handling and flying characteristics, then you wil be free to handle it a bit.’

‘’Understood, Ingrid! By the way, you never flew supersonic before, right?’

‘’Correct! Up to now, I have been a propeller girl, except for my flights on my new AIRBUS 2 airliner, which is only a subsonic design.’’

‘’Only a subsonic design... You make it sound so easy to make people forget that civilian air travel at speeds of more than 500 miles per hour was unthinkable until barely a couple of years ago.’’

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‘’Right! If this baby proves to have good handling, we may just try to go supersonic on this flight.’

‘’Now, that would be truly impressive: to break the sound barrier on a first flight of a fully self-powered aircraft. My own supersonic flights were all done with rocket-propelled planes which had to be lifted to altitude by a bomber and then dropped. If you manage this, you wil be in the record books, Ingrid.’’

‘’Well, it won’t be the first record for me, Chuck: I am still the American Ace of aces and am the youngest fighter pilot to have shot down his or her first enemy plane.

Here we go!’

While pushing hard with both feet on the brake pedals, Ingrid then gradually pushed her engine throttle forward, turning its whining into a powerful roar. When she got to maximum dry power, also called ‘military power’, she released her pressure on the brakes, making her aircraft jump forward, then lit up her afterburners to full. With a thrust of 12,727 kilogram-force pushing the 15,500 kilos of her fighter prototype, which presently carried no ammunition or ordnance, she and Yeager were pushed back in their seats with a force equivalent to 82% of gravity as the XF-9 started accelerating quickly down the runway of Glendale Airport. Yeager yelled in delight as Ingrid rotated up the nose of her aircraft after rolling for no more than 400 meters on the ground, sending her prototype in a zoom climb at a near vertical. After climbing for less than three minutes, she leveled her plane at the altitude of 13,000 meters, well above any commercial air traffic, and shut off her engine’s afterburner while heading West towards the nearby Pacific Ocean. Charles Yeager, an Air Force test pilot loaned to the XF-9 program, blew air out as they flew over the ocean at a speed of close to 600 miles per hour.

‘’Hell, that was pure performance, Ingrid! I am already in love with your plane.

What’s next now?’’

‘’We do a series of slow and smooth maneuvers at first, to verify the basic stability in flight of my XF-9, then will gradually intensify our maneuvering to make sure that it is safe to fly, up to dogfighting level maneuvering. Once we will have gotten to that point, I will let you take the controls for a while, so that you can get a feel for the aircraft.’

‘’Sounds fine to me, Ingrid.’’

With Yeager closely monitoring the behavior of the XF-9 while checking its instruments and radar, Ingrid spent a good ten minutes performing a series of varied and

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increasingly energetic maneuvers in the empty blue sky. All went as she had expected, with the roll rate produced by the wingtip monobloc ailerons especially pleasing her and Yeager, whose helmet nearly banged against the sides of his canopy due to the very fast roll rate Ingrid achieved.

‘’Wow! Your XF-9 is a real head-banger, Ingrid. With such a roll rate, you will be able to turn away from any pursuer. Combined with your fantastic acceleration rate, your plane wil be the king of dogfighting.’’

‘’That’s the way I like it, Chuck.’ replied Ingrid, enjoying herself thoroughly. ‘’I wil now let you take the controls for a few minutes, so that you can accustom yourself to the XF-9. Just don’t send my plane into a terminal flat spin.’’

‘’Hey, I do know how to fly, young girl!’ protested Yeager in a playful tone before he started piloting the XF-9.

She let Yeager fly around for a good six minutes before getting again on the intercom.

‘’Alright, I think that we amply proved that my plane is a safe one to fly, Chuck. I didn’t detect any handling or stability problems. What do you think?’’

‘’I agree! It has proved up to now to be an excellent and safe plane. What’s next, Ingrid?’’

‘’We head to Muroc Air Force Base18, where we will land after a speed run on maximum dry thrust, so that the base’s radar can clock our speed.’

‘’And what kind of top speed do you expect to achieve then, Ingrid?’

‘’We’l see!’ was her malicious answer.

05:58 (California Time)

Control Tower of the Muroc Air Force Base

Rogers Dry Lake, fifty miles north-northeast of Los Angeles

‘’The XF-9 is now entering the range of our radar, sir.’

General Hoyt Vandenberg and Colonel Albert Boyd, both looking over the shoulders of the radar operator, followed with their eyes the fast blip which had just appeared on the radar screen. Boyd smiled on seeing how fast the prototype was flying.

18 Muroc Air Force Base: The old name of the actual Andrews Air Force Base, in California.

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‘’It must be going at close to Mach One. What is its exact air speed, Sergeant?’’

‘’I am clocking it at 640 miles per hour, or Mach 0.95, sir.’’

‘’Excellent! Tell the pilot to start its speed run now.’

‘’Yes, sir! Hughes XF-9, this is Muroc Control. You may start your speed run now, over.’’

‘’XF-9 acknowledged, Muroc Control. I will make a first pass on maximum dry thrust, then will turn back and do a second pass but with afterburners on, over.’

‘’XF-9, you are clear for two consecutive passes over the dry lake bed, over.’

‘’Thank you, Muroc Control! Hold on to your pants!’

Boyd gave an amused look at Vandenberg on hearing that.

‘’When our ‘Lady Hawk’ is telling us to hold on to our pants, then we can expect something worth the look. Sergeant, make sure that the speed on both runs is recorded.’

‘’Yes sir! Our telemetry radar station is now locked on the XF-9.’’

Both Boyd and Vandenberg then stared at the radar screen as the blip on it visibly accelerated. Their hearts jumped in their chests when the radar operator made an announcement in an excited tone.

‘’The XF-9 just exceeded Mach One, sir. It is stil accelerating.’

‘’Goddam! It went supersonic on its first flight!’ exclaimed Vandenberg, overjoyed. ‘’And it did it without using afterburners.’

‘’Er, sirs, the XF-9 is now at Mach 1.1 and stil accelerating.’

That announcement by the radar operator made the two senior officers as excited as betting spectators watching a horse race. A few seconds later, as the XF-9 overflew the vast dry bed of Muroc Lake, the radar operator spoke again, some disbelief in his voice.

‘’Sirs, it is now at Mach 1.4, or 924 miles per hour.’

‘’HOLY SHIT!’ nearly shouted Boyd, nearly jumping on the spot with excitement.

‘’Is it stil accelerating, Sergeant?’’

‘’Uh, no, sir! It is now flying away, still doing Mach 1.4.’

That was when they got a new transmission from Ingrid Dows.

‘’Muroc Control, from XF-9: I will now fly away for about eighty miles, then will perform a wide turn and head back towards you with maximum afterburner on. Be ready to record my top air speed, over.’’

‘’Muroc Control, acknowledged. We wil be ready, over.’

As the XF-9 flew away, Vandenberg and Boyd exchanged a happy handshake.

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‘’Hell, we now have a jet fighter able to easily break through the sound barrier, General. The Soviets are going to eat their socks over this.’

‘’Right! Now, let’s see what Dows will achieve as her top speed on full afterburner. With luck, she will get close to Mach Two.’’

Both of the officers then watched with the radar operator the blip representing the XF-9 on the radar screen. Albert Boyd then realized something and gave a malicious side look to Vandenberg.

‘’Dows has gone well past the Navy Air Weapons Test Center at China Lake, General. I suspect that she will overfly it by the time she breaks the sound barrier again.’’

Vandenberg had a chuckle at that.

‘’Well, the Navy said that we would never be able to get a true supersonic fighter before they would. Let them learn reality the hard way.’’

06:19 (California Time)

Control Tower, Naval Air Weapons Test Center China Lake The officer on duty as the air operations officer in China Lake, Lieutenant Commander Richard Brubaker, was not in a good mood as he got to the top of the stairs leading to the observation deck of the control tower, having had to interrupt his breakfast.

‘’What is this hogwash about an Air Force jet from Muroc breaking the sound barrier? Was that another of their rocket planes dropped from altitude?’

‘’Er, we are not sure, sir.’ replied the senior radar operator, a technical sergeant.

‘’We however were able to record its speed at Mach 1.4, or 924 miles per hour, sir. It has passed to the East of us and is now performing a wide turn to head back to Muroc.’’

‘’Where is it exactly right now? I’m going to see if I can get a glimpse of that mystery aircraft.’

‘’It is about eight miles north of us, sir, completing its turn back towards Muroc.’

‘’Good! I will be on the outside gallery.’

Grabbing first a pair of powerful binoculars sitting on a counter, the Navy officer then walked out on the open gallery surrounding the controllers’ watch tower. The Sun was about to go up, so he had a fair visibility of what was flying around at high altitude. It

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took him only seconds to spot the condensation trail formed by the unknown Air Force aircraft. Raising the binoculars to his eyes, he was then able to distinguish a svelte shape with a pointed nose and highly swept wings.

‘’Damn! That thing is moving real y fast. On the other hand, I can’t identify its type: it must be a new prototype. When I think that our own Vought CUTLASS still has not been able to attain Mach One yet...’

Brubaker was stil observing the aircraft through his binoculars when a loud ‘BOOM’

shook the whole base, followed by the noise of breaking and falling glass behind him.

Pivoting around quickly, the Navy officer saw with dismay that three of the large windows of the control tower were now cracked extensively, while a fourth one had broken into pieces.

‘’SHIT! THE ADMIRAL WILL BE FURIOUS ABOUT THIS!’

When Ingrid’s XF-9 landed at Muroc Air Force Base, it was greeted by an enthusiastic group of Air Force test pilots and technicians led by General Hoyt Vandenberg and Colonel Albert Boyd, who vigorously shook hands with her and Charles Yeager.

‘’General Dows, you designed a true miracle machine with your XF-9. You do realize that you are the first person to ever fly through Mach 2? You were recorded at Mach 2.3 over Muroc. You are going to get the Bendix Trophy for this.’’

‘’Maybe, General Vandenberg, but do we want to publicize this right away or are we to keep this performance under wrap and keep the Soviets out of the picture?’’

The mention of the Soviets did cool down a bit Vandenberg’s enthusiasm, who thought that over for a moment.

‘’You are right: we should let the Soviets stew in their ignorance about this plane.

One thing I can predict, though: you can expect an accelerated request for serial production of your marvelous aircraft. Does Hughes have a production line ready to build this new fighter?’’

‘’Er, not yet, General: it is stil being built in Culver City and should become operational in about three months. If we are really talking about producing quickly hundreds and thousands of F-9s, then other manufacturers will have to jump in and produce it under license. There are also a few things which you should know about my XF-9 and XB-12 programs, things that I have kept very discreet about up to now.’

‘’Like what things, General Dows?’’

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‘’Like prototypes of air-to-air guided missiles and air-to-ground missiles, which my XF-9 and XB-12 are designed to be able to use. My technical crew which arrived here yesterday brought with them six copies of my AIM-1X BOLT air-to-air missiles, which I intend to test fire during my stay here in Muroc.’

‘’You have?’ said Albert Boyd, immediately showing intense interest. ‘’Can you describe them quickly to us, Miss Dows?’’

‘’Basically, my AIM-1X BOLT comes in two variants: an infrared-guided air-to-air missile, the AIM-1A, and a semi-active radar variant named the AIM-1B. Their effective, actual ranges are still to be determined via test firings against target drones but the AIM-1A should have an effective range of a few miles, while the AIM-1B is designed with a range of about twenty miles.’’

‘’Twenty miles?!’ exclaimed Hoyt Vandenberg, shocked. ‘’But that could give us a huge advantage in air combat against the Soviets.’

‘’If it works as planned, General. I am proud of my designs but I am also realistic about how revolutionary this whole business of guided missiles is. Let’s not sell the bear’s skin before we wil have kil ed it.’

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CHAPTER 24 – REBUILDING AMERICAN AIRPOWER

14:07 (Washington Time)

Friday, November 25, 1949

Cabinet Room, West Wing of the White House

Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

President Thomas Dewey was very conscious of the importance of the meeting he was about to start in the White House’s Cabinet Room, as nothing less than the future of American airpower was at stake. He couldn’t help then briefly mentally swear at the irresponsible and very short-sighted way Harry Truman and his band of sycophantic cabinet members had emasculated the American military with their budget cuts. Dewey and his cabinet had been trying for the last ten months to repair the damage done by Truman but the American military machine was a huge organization with hundreds of billions of dol ars’ worth of equipment and with nearly two million members. It also was one of the biggest employers in the United States, with hundreds of major installations around the country, installations and bases which had a huge impact on their local economies. It took time and lots of money to turn a big machine around, while Dewey was not prepared to sacrifice the needs of the American public in things like health care, transportation, education, housing and law enforcement by giving absolute priority to military expenditures. The problem was that the Soviet Union and, to a lesser degree, Communist China, had fully profited from Truman’s blunders and were behaving with mounting aggressiveness. The Japanese island of Hokkaido was now fully occupied by Soviet troops, who were busy building new airbases there and moving squadrons of heavy bombers to those bases, placing them nearer to critical American bases in the Pacific. As for Communist China, the intelligence being gathered by the Pentagon indicated that it was possibly preparing for an invasion of Formosa Island, where the partisans of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek had been forced to retreat after losing the civil war to the Communist forces of Mao Zedong. Whether he liked it or not, he was probably going to end up having to ask the Congress for some big military supplementary appropriation bills.

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The eleven men present in the Cabinet Room all rose from their seats when Dewey entered, prompting the President in telling them to stand easy and sit back down.

Dewey then sat in his own chair and looked around at his cabinet members involved in military affairs and their military chiefs of staff. He also looked at his Secretary of Treasury, George Humphrey, and at the Republican Speaker of the House, Joseph Martin, who would be critical in helping pass any supplementary appropriation bills decided on today. One newcomer to such a high-level defense cabinet meeting was the Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Clifton Cates. Dewey, disgusted by Truman’s hostile and irrational attitude towards the Marine Corps, had been quick to support the Marine Corps, understanding how important a factor it could be if military operations overseas would prove necessary. Dewey had also followed Ingrid Dows advice given to him before his election and had taken the time to read through the extensive Hourglass Files from the future, while also urging his main cabinet members to do the same. That reading had proved to be very instructive to Dewey and had strongly influenced some of his first political choices and moves as President, most notably by not naming John Foster Dulles as his Secretary of State, instead naming Henry Cabot Lodge to that position, and by firmly rejecting Allen Dulles, the brother of John Foster Dulles, as a candidate to head the Central Intelligence Agency. The Hourglass Files had shown to Dewey how toxic the Dulles brothers would have proved in the handling of American foreign policy and intelligence work. Dewey, while a Republican politician, firmly believed in true democracy, both in the United States and around the World, and he was not going to let anti-communism be used as an excuse to direct coups and plots against foreign governments judged to be ‘socialist’ or ‘pro-communist’ by the more right-wing elements of the Republican Party. That had also in the same vein convinced him that he would need to soon replace the present director of the FBI, Edgar Hoover, whom the Hourglass Files had shown to Dewey to be hopelessly tainted by racism and bigotry and who routinely grossly abused his power and authority in criminal matters, if Dewey could believe the accounts from the future concerning Hoover. However, Dewey presently had more urgent matters to deal with today.

‘’Well, gentlemen, I was told that you had some good news to give me about our Air Force, so I am listening.’

George Kenney, as the Secretary for the Air Force, then took on him to answer his President.

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‘’Mister President, I am happy to announce to you that the United States now has a supersonic jet fighter ready for production. General Vandenberg just came back from a trip to Muroc Airbase, in California, where the prototype of the Hughes F-9 jet fighter has been conducting its flight testing for nearly a month. While some testing is still left to be done, the XF-9 has proved to be a highly successful and also safe aircraft design, with some outstanding characteristics. It reached a top speed of 1,518 miles per hour, or Mach 2.3, is highly maneuverable and has a very significant range. It is also heavily armed. As an unexpected bonus, Hughes Aircraft also developed on its own a family of air-launched guided missiles adapted for use by the F-9 and by the B-12, the jet bomber Hughes is also about to test in flight. Test firing of the air-to-air missile variants designed by Hughes was done against target drones, with five of the six missiles fired achieving hits and destroying their target.’

‘’Uh, pardon my ignorance in that domain, Secretary Kenney, but how significant are these accomplishments compared to, say, what the Soviets or the British have right now?’

‘’Basically, Mister President, our new XF-9 has no equal in the World, and this by a wide margin. Both Soviet and British jet fighters presently in service can barely get close to Mach 1 and need to go in a dive in order to break through the sound barrier. In comparison, our XF-9 is twice as fast and can easily exceed Mach 2. Even more significant is the fact that it can fly at supersonic speed, at up to Mach 1.4, or 924 miles per hour, without needing to light up the afterburners on its jet engine. Once in Air Force service, the Hughes F-9 ARROW will dominate the skies around the World, and this for at least the next decade to come. As for the Hughes AIM-1 BOLT and ASM-1 MJOLNIR

missiles, there are simply no other air-launched guided missiles in existence at this time.’’

While Dewey smiled with obvious happiness on hearing those facts, there was something that intrigued him.

‘’Secretary Kenney, this Hughes XF-9 seems to be way ahead of everybody else in the aeronautical world, while you are telling me that Hughes also developed a number of guided missiles that have no equivalents. How did Hughes manage to jump so far ahead of our other aircraft designers, many of whom are World leaders in aircraft designs?’

‘’A good and pertinent question, Mister President. The answer is held in two words: ‘Ingrid Dows’, who is the head aircraft designer at Hughes and who is also one of

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the three co-owners of Hughes Enterprises. Some will object and say that Dows only graduated as an aeronautical engineer five years ago but she is extremely intelligent, has an incredible imagination and, most importantly, designs her aircraft basically by herself, directly steering every phase of their development. She told me many times in the past that there is nothing worse than a ‘design by committee’ approach. It seems that the success of her XF-9 validates her opinion on that subject. She also has the huge advantage over other design bureaus of being herself a highly experienced user of combat aircraft, thus can marry her experience as a combat pilot with her technical knowledge in order to produce top-level combat aircraft.’

‘’I see! And when could we start producing this miracle aircraft, Secretary Kenney?’’

‘’in about five weeks, Mister President, time to finish tooling up the new Hughes aircraft assembly line in Culver City, near Los Angeles. However, that new assembly line will have a maximum production capacity of about twelve aircraft per month at the most. In view of our pressing needs to put a supersonic jet fighter in widespread service, me and Ingrid Dows have agreed that Hughes could allow one or more manufacturers to build the F-9 under license, in order to accelerate its production. Up to now, both Lockheed and McDonnell have shown interest in producing the F-9 under license from Hughes.’

‘’That sounds good. Now, here is the million-dollar question for you: how many F-9s do you think that we would need for our Air Force and how much will they cost us?’

Kenney made an embarrassed smile at that question, realizing that his answer may not prove very popular with Dewey.’

‘’Mister President, in order to equip all our tactical fighter and fighter-bomber units in the United States and overseas, we will need no less than 1,200 F-9s, which will take close to three years to produce, if three manufacturers will share in its production.

As for the price for these planes, their spare parts, ground support equipment and missiles, the preliminary estimates turn around five billion dollars spread over three years.’

Dewey made a grimace on hearing that number, something Kenney could very well understand, so he hurried to add a few more words.

‘’Mister President, this may sound like a huge sum but, if we wish to fully enter the jet age and be at least competitive with the Soviets, then those five billion dollars will prove to be a bargain price. Without what Ingrid Dows designed for us, we could well

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have ended up lagging behind the Soviets and thus lose control of the skies if we ended up in a shooting war against them. Then, the extra price we would have to pay would be in blood, Mister President.’’

‘’I believe that you are too right about that.’ said Dewey before looking at his cabinet members in charge of the federal budget, George Humphrey and Joseph Dodge.

‘’How difficult would it be to fund such a new military appropriation, gentlemen?’’

‘’Well, we could always pay for it at the cost of increasing our annual debt and arm-twisting a few members of the House, but it would be feasible, Mister President.’

‘’Then, we will get those 1,200 new jet fighters, gentlemen.’ pronounced Dewey.

‘’Do you have anything else for me, Secretary Kenney?’’

‘’Er, yes, Mister President! We will also have a new supersonic bomber ready for production in a few months from now. That new bomber is also what I would characterize as a very high priority item, as we don’t have presently a bomber able to carry an atomic bomb and penetrate successfully Soviet airspace. Remember what happened barely a year ago, when the B-11 piloted by General LeMay was shot down off Hokkaido Island by Soviet Mig-15 jet fighters. However, the number of Hughes B-12

we would require would be a lot less than for the F-9. A production run of about 250

planes at the most should be enough to fill our bomber squadrons. Know that the Hughes B-12 is expected to have a top speed of at least Mach 2, or 1320 miles per hour, and would thus be impossible to intercept by the Soviets.’

‘’Uh, first she designs this F-9 and these air-launched missiles, then she also designs such a speedy bomber. Maybe we should put this Ingrid Dows in charge of our whole air fleet development.’

‘’I often wish I could do that, Mister President, but you would then create a nasty internecine war within our aeronautical industry and in the Congress, due to jealousy and commercial competition. I also believe that Dows will be perfectly happy to stay where she is now, at Hughes: she is her own master there and is also a billionaire, thanks to her co-ownership of Hughes Enterprises.’

‘’Hum! Seen from that angle, I can see the validity of your argument. Very well, keep me informed about how well this B-12 bomber project will proceed. We will talk about it again once it wil have gone through its test program with success.’

‘’Wil do, Mister President.’

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‘’Good!’’ said Dewey before looking at his Secretary of the Navy, Chester Nimitz, and his Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Louis Denfeld. ‘’What about the planes for the Navy? Are you going to procure this F-9 as wel , Secretary Nimitz?’’

‘’Uh, we had no such plans, Mister President: the Navy already has a number of programs for new jet aircraft under development.’

‘’Which are presently producing only flying junk.’ cut in General Hoyt Vandenberg in a critical tone. ‘’None of your prototypes have been able to break through the sound barrier yet, except in a dive, and one of them, the Vought F-7U

CUTLASS, already gained the reputation of being a widow maker.’

While both Nimitz and Denfeld reddened with irritation, neither of them managed to counter Vandenberg with a convincing response, something that made Dewey raise an eyebrow.

‘’Well, where is the Navy at exactly right now in terms of supersonic jet fighters, gentlemen?’’

‘’While it is true that our prototypes have yet to break through Mach 1, Mister President,’ answered Admiral Denfeld, ‘’we are working hard to improve our designs.’

‘’Good luck with that, Admiral, especially since the Navy still insists on using Westinghouse-made jet engines for its prototypes.’ said Vandenberg in a caustic tone.

‘’Up to now, Westinghouse has only produced crap as jet engines go, which is why my Air Force relies on Pratt & Whitney and General Electric designs. Maybe you should save yourselves years of disappointments and hundreds of millions of dollars wasted by simply adopting our F-9. I know that the Navy insists on being independent of the Air Force for its carrier aircraft but you should look reality in the face and save billions of taxpayer dollars by being a team player for a change.’

Denfeld was about to reply rather forcefully to Vandenberg when Dewey intervened, raising his voice.

‘’GENTLEMEN! We are indeed supposed to work as a team in order to defend our nation. I would thus urge the Navy to have a serious look at the Hughes F-9 as a possible carrier-based jet fighter. General Vandenberg, would this Hughes B-12 be able to fit on one of our carriers?’’

‘’No, Mister President: it is both too large and too heavy for that. However, I am sure that Miss Dows would be up to that challenge if asked to design a carrier-based jet bomber.’

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‘’Indeed!’’ said Dewey before looking at Nimitz. ‘’Maybe you should consult with Miss Dows, at Hughes Aircraft, to see what she could propose on that subject, Chester.’

‘’I will contact her next week, Mister President.’ replied Nimitz, making Denfeld choke in indignation. However, the Chief of Naval Operations didn’t dare contradict openly his service’s secretary in front of the President, thus kept his mouth shut.

10:56 (California Time)

Tuesday, November 29, 1949 ‘C’