INGRID DOWS - AN ALTERNATE STORY PART 3 - THE SPACE AGE by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 6 – STARTING A NEW PROJECT

08:09 (California Time)

Monday, February 12, 1951 ‘C’

Aircraft design office, Hughes Aircraft prototype center

Glendale Grand Central Airport, Los Angeles area

California, U.S.A.

Once the engineers of her aircraft design team were all assembled around her, Ingrid gave them a playful smile.

‘’Alright, guys and girl: it is time again to play ‘What is this crazy girl thinking this time?’. One hint from the start: it is about a new plane.’’

‘’Duh!’’ said John Milton, her senior aeronautical engineer and her deputy for her design team, while making a face. ‘’An aircraft, what else?’’

‘’It could have been a spaceship, John.’’ replied Ingrid before showing a serious expression. ‘’In fact, not too far in the future, I intend to launch a project to design a spaceplane, seriously. But yes, this time it is for a new aircraft. If fact, we are going to design a supersonic airliner, one I will call the ‘PEGASUS’. Now, many people around the World have been dreaming about making such a type of aircraft. I firmly intend to soon turn that dream into a reality. However, what we will design is a commercially-viable supersonic airliner, not just an airliner that will break speed records but would also turn out to be a big money loser. I told you many times in the past stories about what the future which my adoptive mother saw in terms of aircraft, including stories about the sole supersonic airliner to fully enter commercial service: the Anglo-French CONCORDE. The CONCORDE was a beautiful, sleek aircraft able to reach speeds of Mach 2.2 but it also was unfortunately a commercial failure, offering air tickets which only very-well-to-do people could afford and which cost over five to six times the price of trips in subsonic airliners. Well, we won’t fall into that trap and we will strive from the start to produce an aircraft which will be able to bring profits to the airline companies which will be using it. Now, how could we achieve that? Any ideas, people?’’ The six men and two women assembled in front of her exchanged knowing looks then: when Ingrid asked that question, it meant that she already had the answer and simply wanted to test their imagination. Ryan Coolidge, a talented aircraft propulsion engineer whom Ingrid had stolen from Pratt & Whitney by offering him a golden salary and top work conditions and benefits, was the first to raise one hand.

‘’By using the most economical engine of the right power in terms of fuel consumption.’’

‘’Right on! Now, would that engine be an augmented turbojet, a low-bypass augmented turbofan, or something else?’’

‘’Uh, from what you told us about the story of the CONCORDE, neither a turbojet nor a low-bypass turbofan would be economical enough in terms of fuel consumption to allow our airliner to be commercially viable, Ingrid. Am I right?’’

‘’You are, Ryan. What we will use is something that was not known in the 1980s and early 1990s of Nancy’s timeline: we will use high-bypass turbofans with thrusts of thirty or more tons, coupled with Divertless Supersonic Inlets, or DSIs, which were devised and first used in the 1990s. The General Electric CF-80 high-bypass turbofan, which we already use in our AIRBUS 2, would in my mind be a good candidate for our planned PEGASUS, once married to a DSI inlet. Three or four of them would be enough to propel our plane up to close to Mach 2, while being much more economical in terms of fuel consumption than if we used low-bypass, augmented turbofans. We will thus concentrate our design around three or four DSI-equipped CF-80 engines. Any other idea?’’

‘’How fast do we really want our PEGASUS to be, Ingrid?’’ asked Craig Biltmore, an aerodynamics expert. ‘’Past Mach 2.2, aerodynamic heating will be too severe to allow the use of aluminum alloys for the general structure of our aircraft. Drag will also increase nearly exponentially, making our aerodynamic design work much more complicated.’’

Ingrid grinned while snapping her fingers together on hearing that.

‘’BINGO! You just understood what the designers of the CONCORDE refused to understand: that speed performance expectations must not doom your airliner to be a money-loser. We will thus limit by design our PEGASUS to a maximum speed of no more than Mach 2 and to a normal supersonic cruising speed of around Mach 1.8 or 1.9, a speed at which DSI inlets are fully efficient and which would still be double to that of the best...and only existing, jet airliner at this time: our own AIRBUS 2. The engineers and executives at Boeing, Douglas, Convair, Lockheed and a few more other companies around the World are still eating their socks about the huge commercial success our AIRBUS and AIRBUS 2 have achieved. Well, that commercial success was won thanks to the practicability and economy of operation of our two airliners, along with their performances. The idiots at Bristol and at the British Ministry of Supplies, which controls their aeronautical industry, certainly failed big time in that aspect, if you consider the big monstrosity the Bristol BRABAZON is.’’

Her engineers rolled their eyes on hearing the name ‘Bristol BRABAZON’, with John Milton then remarking on it.

‘’Yeah! Talk about a constipated, stone-age thinking and concept: to design and build about the biggest aircraft in the World while giving it a top speed of only 300 miles per hour and a capacity of less than a hundred seats, while believing that air travel is only meant for the aristocracy, rich businessmen and government ministers. As a result, not a single airline is buying it, not even BOAC3. And they still believe that their empire dominates the World. One fine day, they will wake up to reality and they won’t like it one bit.’’

Heads, including that of Ingrid, nodded at that declaration.

‘’Well, they believed so much about the supremacy of their empire that they kicked us out of Great Britain as soon as we forced Germany to sign an armistice. Their myopic Brabazon Committee, which formulated the design requirements for their post-war commercial aircraft fleet, sure missed the mark by a mile, which reinforces my opinion about designs and plans made by committees: they stink most of the time! Yes, Sarah?’’

Sarah Winters, an avionics and electronics engineer who was an important part of her design team, then spoke up.

‘’What about the passenger capacity and operational range of our PEGASUS, Ingrid? Are you envisioning a medium or long-range airliner, and for how many passengers?’’

‘’Sarah, you have just touched a critical factor for our supersonic airliner project. Due to the sonic booms produced by aircraft when passing the speed of sound, our PEGASUS won’t be allowed to go supersonic except over uninhabited regions or oceans. Thus, our airliner will be optimized for long to very long trips across oceans and, particularly, across the Pacific. I want us to achieve an operational range big

3 BOAC: British Overseas Airways Corporation, the predecessor of British Airways. enough to link in one swoop Los Angeles and Manila, which means a range of at least 7,300 miles, plus reserves. Even while using high-bypass turbofans for our project, this will mean that it will need hundreds of tons of fuel, which in turn implies the need to carry an unprecedented number of passengers on that trip, in order to split the fuel bill and keep ticket prices affordable to the average American citizen. But I certainly don’t want to cram all those poor passengers like sardines in a can. Air Fifinella is in the business of passenger transport, not of cattle transport, so ergonomics and passenger amenities will be important in our PEGASUS. I want you to be imaginative and to think like a prospective passenger would be. Here are a few sketches I did yesterday about what I am envisioning, along with a list of minimum requirements. Take your time to study them and to think about them during the day. Then, we will talk again tomorrow morning.’’

As Ingrid stepped aside to let her engineers examine her sketches, she saw that Peter Stoneham, the mechanical engineer she had hired seven months ago to help her design and build her dream sports car, was waiting near the entrance door of the design office, apparently wanting to speak to her. Ingrid thus walked quickly to him and flashed a smile to him.

‘’You have a question for me, Peter?’’

‘’A question: no! What I have for you is a piece of news: the prototype of our Hughes SPRINT is finished and ready for road trials. The paint on it dried during the weekend and I got a legal temporary plate for it. Would you like to take it out for a spin, Ingrid?’’

‘’HELL, YES!’’ exclaimed a happy Ingrid, making our aircraft engineers turn their heads towards her. She waved her hand at them to excuse herself, then patted Peter’s shoulder.

‘’Let’s go see our baby, Peter!’’

The two of them then left the design office and took an elevator cabin down to the level of the main prototype building hall, in which Ingrid’s car prototype had been built in a rear corner of the huge space. When they arrived in sight of the fiery-red four-door sports sedan, they found quite a few aircraft assembly technicians gazing admiringly at the car, prompting an amused remark from Ingrid.

‘’Alright, guys and girls, stop hoggling what you can’t afford to buy. We still have a last B-12 bomber to finish assembling here, so that this hall could then be free to house yet another new type of aircraft.’’ The technicians then returned to their work stations, leaving Ingrid and Peter alone with the four mechanics who had helped him build the SPRINT. Ingrid walked slowly around the prototype car, admiring its sleek, smooth futuristic lines, which contrasted so much with the big, chunky cars presently produced in the United States. Its long engine hood had a wide, slit-like front air intake situated low along the front bumper, an intake meant to cool the 360-horsepower, flat-eight air-cooled Lycoming MO-720 engine, a type of engine more typically used to propel small private planes. A well-profiled cabin able to seat five persons in two front bucket seats and one rear bench seat followed the engine compartment and ended in a smooth downward curve, while a large, two-part aileron rose at the back, spanning the whole width of the car. Ingrid had asked for that aileron to be incorporated in the design of the SPRINT, but not for aesthetic reasons. Rather, those ailerons moved separately according to the movements of the steering wheel, pressing down the side of the car in which it was turning in order to augment its road adherence. Such a device would have been of low usefulness in a typical American car of today, which rarely attained or surpassed a top speed of a hundred miles per hour. However, the SPRINT was designed to reach a top speed of over 185 miles per hour, a speed at which its ailerons could make a huge difference in terms of road adherence. In fact, if it kept its promises, her new car could easily rival any existing racing car in the World at this time, while being able to seat in comfort five persons instead of the two persons customary of today’s ‘sport cars’, which too often had only barebone creature comforts and even less security features. Ingrid had used her knowledge of future technology, which she had inherited from Nancy Laplante, to design and have installed in her new car a number of safety features and practical gadgets which still did not exist today, like 3-point safety seat belts, an electrically-operated sunroof with tinted sliding panel, easy-to-use lights and whippers command levers attached to the steering column, heated bucket and bench seats and electric window defogging and de-icing. The windows were also electrically-operated, like the external side mirrors, and a transistorized AM/FM radio was installed in the center of the front dash. All in all, the Hughes SPRINT promised to literally take the American car market by storm, all that in 1951. There was however one big question left about it in Ingrid’s mind.

‘’Peter, this car could become a big deal, if it fulfills its promises. Right now, my resources are all engaged in rapidly expanding my aircraft, missiles and electronics production lines and I have next to no margin left to build a new car manufacturing plant. Furthermore, even if I would enter the car production business, I would still need to build as well a dedicated sales, maintenance and customer services network in order to sell my SPRINT across the United States. I just don’t have the money and resources for that right now. What do you think that I should do with my SPRINT, Peter? Should I try to produce it in numbers and sell them and, if yes, how could I best do that?’’ Stoneham was thoughtful for a moment before answering her.

‘’Those are very good, tough questions, Ingrid. However, I believe that your new sports car is so exceptional that it would be a true shame not to produce it in numbers. If you choose the production road, then I believe that the best way for you to proceed would be to enter into a partnership with an existing car manufacturer, who could then produce your car for a minimal investment on your part. The trick would be to find a partner who is both dependable and honest and who would not try to simply steal your design from you.’’

‘’And which manufacturer would you counsel to me, Peter? I have many connections with aircraft manufacturers but none in the car manufacturing business. I also would be loathe to associate myself with one of the existing giant car manufacturers in the States, like Ford or General Motors: there would be too high a risk that they would then simply try to gobble me up.’’

‘’You are too right about those big car manufacturers, Ingrid. I would instead suggest you to partner with one of the existing minor car manufacturers, many of which are now struggling after seeing their war production contracts expire or be cancelled. One possibility that comes to my mind is the Willys-Overland Motors Company, based in Toledo, Ohio. It did great during the war while producing thousands of their famous Jeep but, with war contracts now gone, it has been struggling while trying to sell civilian versions of its Jeep. It has in fact come close to bankruptcy a number of times before and after the war and there are rumors of it being possibly bought by the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation. Of interest to us is the fact that Willys-Overland has a car manufacturing plant here in California. It was producing HUDSON bombers during the war but has since resumed the production of cars, namely its CJ-2 civilian jeep. If you could conclude an understanding with the executives at Willys-Overland, you would then have a fully equipped car manufacturing plant right here in California.’’

‘’Hell, that actually sounds like a very good idea, Peter! I will thus arrange a meeting with those executives in Ohio...once we will have tested this car thoroughly to find if it has any bugs in it. Give me a minute to go call the control tower of the airport to get permission to use their main taxiway for our road test.’’

Ingrid was effectively back at her car prototype after less than three minutes and happily took its keys from Peter before sitting behind the steering wheel. She examined for a moment in detail the dashboard and its array of instruments, many of which used illuminated L.E.D. color displays, thus giving it a distinctly futuristic look.

‘’Just what I wanted, Peter. You did a hell of a job on this car.’’

‘’I did only as well as your counsels, requests and ideas allowed me to do, Ingrid. I may have designed the details of it but your ideas were truly inspired. So, how do we proceed now?’’

‘’We start by calling an impromptu coffee break for our aircraft technicians, so that they can go outside and watch our road test. Then, we will do a maximum performance start and will accelerate down the airport’s main taxiway, to see what its maximum speed is. After that, we will do some high-speed slalom along the taxiways.’’ Starting her engine, Ingrid smiled while listening to its powerful grumble.

‘’Now, that’s what I call real engine power! We should get close to 200 miles per hour with those 360 horsepower.’’

She then engaged the first of six gears of her six-speed manual transmission and started slowly rolling forward while playing her horn and shouting out loud to the technicians she passed by.

‘’IMPROMPTU COFFEE BREAK! COME ALL OUT TO SEE WHAT A REAL SPORTS CAR CAN DO!’’

By the time her Hughes SPRINT emerged from the prototype aircraft hangar, all 68 technicians and engineers employed by the aircraft shop, along with many administration employees, were coming out in the sunny February morning, excited with anticipation at what they would see. On her way to one end of the main taxiway, which was presently empty of aircraft, she used a portable UHF radio she had taken with her and called the airport’s control tower.

‘’Glendale Control, this is Lady Hawk: request permission to effect a ground high-speed run down the main taxiway, over.’’

‘’Permission granted, Lady Hawk. You sure look hot right now, over.’’ Ingrid briefly chuckled at that before replying to the tower.

‘’Thanks, Glendale Control!’’

Before getting to the extremity of the taxiway, she did a few quick turns at moderate speed, in order to judge the stability of her new car, then did a full half-turn and stopped, now looking down at the nearly mile-long wide and straight paved taxiway.

‘’Time to see what this beast really has in its guts, Peter. Hang on!’’ Despite her warning, Peter Stoneham found himself brutally pushed back in his bucket seat as Ingrid pushed down her accelerator pedal to the floor and engaged her manual gearbox. Using his watch to check on their acceleration rate, Peter shouted over the roar of the engine and wind from their speed.

‘’ONE SECOND AND NINE MILES PER HOUR... TWO SECONDS AND TWENTY MILES PER HOUR... FOUR SECONDS AND FIFTY-TWO MILES PER HOUR... SIXTY MILES PER HOUR IN FOUR POINT FIVE SECONDS... THIS CAR IS TRULY HOT!... A HUNDRED MILES PER HOUR AFTER NINE SECONDS... A HUNDRED AND TWENTY MILES PER HOUR IN ELEVEN SECONDS... A HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILES IN FOURTEEN SECONDS... A HUNDRED AND EIGHTY MILES IN EIGHTEEN SECONDS... A HUNDRED AND NINETY MILES PER HOUR... ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-EIGHT MILES PER HOUR! I THINK THAT’S IT, INGRID: WE ARE NOT ACCELERATING ANYMORE AND OUR ENGINE IS AT ITS LIMIT.’’

‘’LET’S SEE ABOUT ITS BRAKING POWER NOW!’’ shouted back before pressing her brake pedal while retrograding her gearbox. To her satisfaction, her car stayed commendably stable longitudinally while decelerating brutally. If not for their 3-point safety belts, she and Peter would probably have smashed their faces against the steering wheel or front dash, providing her a good indication of how well they worked. However, she didn’t come to a full stop then, instead following with a tight, high-speed half-turn while still going at a good forty miles per hour. Her stabilizing ailerons proved their worth then and prevented her car from sliding sideways or from tipping over. The poor Peter nearly had his neck sprained by the centrifugal forces but, before he could recover, Ingrid again pushed her engine to its maximum power. However, instead of accelerating in a straight line, she performed a high-speed slalom while accelerating. Peter, despite being an experienced racing car driver on top of being a mechanical engineer, had to concede that he had rarely seen such an incredible car performance, with the SPRINT proving as agile and rock-steady in terms of road adherence as it was speedy, most probably thanks to its pair of stabilizing ailerons, a contribution from Ingrid’s aerodynamic savvy.

They finally came to a stop in front of the Hughes Aircraft prototype hangar and were immediately surrounded by a small crowd of enthusiastic Hughes employees. An elated Ingrid then stepped out of her SPRINT and shouted out her joy.

‘’WEEE! THAT’S A REAL SPORTS CAR!’’

10:25 (Ohio Time)

Thursday, February 22, 1951 ‘C’

Employees’ parking lot of the Willys-Overland Motors headquarters

Toledo, Ohio

Delmar ‘Barney’ Roos, Vice-President and chief engineer of the Willys-Overland Motors company, was working in his office overlooking the employees’ parking lot next to the headquarters building when he heard a powerful, growing engine noise approaching the manufacturing plant. Getting up from behind his work desk and going to one of the large windows of his office, the 63-year-old mechanical engineer and car designer then saw a strange-looking large aircraft which was about to land vertically in one far corner of the parking lot, its four ducted propellers pointed at the vertical. It was painted royal blue and gold and bore a name on its flanks, which he read aloud.

‘’Air Fifinella... this must be this Ingrid Dows arriving to discuss business with us.’’ Roos watched on, fascinated by the powerful machine, as it landed smoothly and with precision in an unoccupied portion of the parking lot. He was however not prepared for what he saw after a sort of cargo ramp went down from one side of what had to be a transport aircraft: a futuristic car painted fire-red then rolled out of the aircraft and drove to near the main entrance, where it parked in one of the spots reserved for V.I.P. visitors.

‘’My God! Look at that beauty!’’

Roos then saw a tall woman with reddish-brown hair and wearing a female variant of a business suit come out of the car, along with a young man in his late twenties or early thirties. He then decided to go down to greet those two visitors and quickly walked out of his office. He was about to get into an elevator when the president of the company, Ward M. Canaday, joined him, appearing excited.

‘’Did you see that fantastic aircraft which just landed, Barney?’’

‘’I sure did, Ward. Quite a machine, truly. So was the car which rolled out of it.’’

‘’Yeah! That car is probably the reason this Ingrid Dows wants to speak with us. What do you know about her, Barney?’’

‘’Not much, really, apart that she is a genuine war heroine and is our top fighter pilot. She is one of the three women who now control Howard Hughes’ industrial empire and is said to be a certified billionaire, with a ‘B’. She also designed many very advanced aircraft, including the one which landed in our parking lot. I would say that we should take her very seriously and listen to what she says.’’

‘’Right!’’ said Canaday, apparently not too convinced. That didn’t surprise Delmar, even though he disapproved of Ward’s prejudice against business women, which was a very common attitude among American executives.

Once down to ground level, the two senior executives saw that their two visitors were already inside the entrance lobby and were talking to the female receptionist sitting behind her counter. Ward Canaday then spoke up to the receptionist while walking towards the two visitors.

‘’WE WILL TAKE IT FROM HERE, MISS STANLEY!’’

When Canaday stopped in front of Ingrid to shake her hand and that of Peter Stoneham, he was a bit surprised to see that she was about the same height as him. However, what truly surprised him was the strength of her grip, which was that of a strong man.

‘’Ward Canaday, President of Willys-Overland Motors. This is my Vice-President and Chief Engineer, Delmar Roos.’’

‘’And I am Ingrid Dows, Chief Designer at Hughes Aircraft. I came with Mister Peter Stoneham, who built for me my new Hughes SPRINT sports car. Since we are going to discuss around the subject of my car, what do you say that I give you a chance first to have a good look at my SPRINT?’’

‘’That sounds like a very good idea, Miss Dows.’’ replied Canaday. ‘’Please show us your new baby.’’

As the four of them went out and walked towards the parked sports car, Delmar asked a question to Ingrid.

‘’Miss Dows, you are known as a great military pilot and aircraft designer. What pushed you into designing and building a car?’’

‘’The utter lack of what I would call a true sports car built in the United States, Mister Roos. As you can easily surmise, I am a devout follower of the Speed Demon, as are all fighter pilots. Unfortunately, when I went to shop for a good sports car, I found only outrageously priced European-produced cars with little to no true maintenance and servicing networks in the United States, while no American manufacturer produces what I would consider a real sports car. Furthermore, the European models I know are too often cramped, with hard suspensions and rather uninspiring interior designs. All they have is speed and acceleration, while some of them, mostly the Br itish ones, don’t even have a decent convertible top and would be Hell for their occupants in a typical North American snowstorm. That was when I decided to make a solution of my own by designing and building my Hughes SPRINT. My minor was in mechanical engineering, so I was able to draw the main lines of my new car and used Mister Peter Stoneham to help me build this prototype. Know that my car incorporates a number of design details more commonly found in aircraft, like its air-cooled engine and its stabilizing rear ailerons. It also incorporates many ideas about cars originating from the year 2012.’’

‘’The year 2012?! How could that be, Miss Dows?’’ asked Canaday, shocked.

‘’Mister Canaday, I must remind you that I was adopted in 1941 by Nancy Laplante, the Canadian time traveler from 2012, who then educated me about the future. She had arrived with a car made in 2010 and also had many documents, data and pictures concerning the cars of early 21st Century. I also had the chance to travel a number of times in her 2010 Mitsubishi OUTLANDER, which she had equipped with extra electronic options. What I saw and learned from her heavily influenced the design of my SPRINT.’’

‘’That is quite a story, miss: I would have loved to discuss car technology with her.’’ said Delmas Roos, making Ingrid nod her head soberly.

‘’Getting to know Nancy was certainly the main turning point in my life, Mister Roos. Well, here we are! Feel free to sit inside my car and look at it in detail, gentlemen.’’

Already excited by the sleek, futuristic look of the car, Delmar hurried to go sit down in the driver’s seat, while Canaday sat in the front passenger seat. His first look at the instruments panel and controls left both men open-mouthed.

‘’My God!’’ exclaimed Canaday while staring at the instruments panel. ‘’You could think that this is a jet fighter aircraft.’’

‘’I actually incorporated some of the technology I use for the avionics and displays of my jet aircraft in this car, Mister Canaday. Those displays use what is called L.E.D. lights, which can be very small, yet quite bright for their sizes. My main goal was to make their indications easy to read at night while giving a futuristic look to the instruments panel. You will also see two small levers attached to the direction column, just behind the steering wheel: those levers centralize the controls for the car lights, turning signal lights, windshield whippers and washing fluid sprayers. As well, the direction column is adjustable in both length and height, to accommodate drivers of various sizes.’’

‘’All these are indeed great ideas and the overall look is fantastic, I must say, Miss Dows.’’ said Delmar Roos, bringing a satisfied smile to Ingrid’s lips.

‘’Thank you, Mister Roos. Both the steering wheel and the bucket seats can be warmed via the use of electric heating systems, to make this car more comfortable in Winter. You must have swore quite a few times in the past after sitting in a car covered with snow or ice.’’

‘’Indeed! People with arthritis or bad backs will thank you for this. I see that this car is equipped with a six-speed transmission but also has what looks to me like a four-wheel-drive transfer box lever. Why put a four-wheel-drive option in a sports car?’’

‘’To improve its performances on slippery or snow-covered roads, Mister Roos. It also helps better distribute engine power in order to avoid the tires from spinning on a standing start.’’

‘’And what kind of engine did you put in this car, miss?’’ asked Ward Canaday.

‘’An air-cooled, flat-eight Lycoming MO-720 engine developing 360 horsepower at 3,000 RPM. That engine is tuned to use super grade unleaded gasoline instead of aviation gasoline, so you will be able to fuel up at about any gas station around the United States.’’

‘’Three-hundred-and-sixty horsepower?!’’ nearly shouted a stunned Roos. ‘’And what top speed were you able to reach in this car, miss?’’

‘’I reached a maximum of 198 miles-per-hour on its first road test, while I accelerated from zero to sixty miles per hour in 4.5 seconds.’’

‘’HOLY SHIT! This car could win races in Europe with that kind of performance. I must go look at the engine.’’

As the two executives stepped out of the car, Ingrid reached under the dash and activated the lever opening the engine hood, then opened wide the hood and raised its retaining bar, then quickly described the engine in detail to them as they admired it.

‘’Wow! This engine is quite compact for its power. I thought that aero engines would be bigger than this, Miss Dows.’’

‘’I specifically chose the Lycoming series of air-cooled engines for their compactness, Mister Roos. The fact that it is air-cooled also saves the space taken by a water-cooling system and eliminates a lot of complicated coolant circulation and pumping parts. If you would have to roll in a desertic or hot area, then a cooling fan is automatically activated by a thermostat system.’’

Both executives still starred inside the hood for a moment before Roos spoke again.

‘’Alright, miss: what else would you like to show us?’’

‘’I will explain to you a number of safety features inspired by future technology, then will show you the rear luggage trunk and its hatchback door, plus will explain my aileron stabilizer system.’’

After another few minutes spent showing the details of her car to the Willys-Overland executives, Ingrid locked back her car and came to the reason of her visit.

‘’Gentlemen, I now have designed what I consider a top-of-the-line car but don’t have a plant to produce it. This is why I came to visit you. You have two car production plants, one of which is near Los Angeles, in California, but I know for a fact that your car sales are struggling and that you are weighed down by some heavy debts. What I came for today is to get at an understanding with you in order for me to use your manufacturing plant in the City of Commerce to build my car there. In exchange, I am ready to inject fifty million dollars of my money in order to erase most of your debts. I would also like to piggy-back on the national network of Willis-Overland in order to provide sales, maintenance and customer services to the buyers of my SPRINT. How about we go up to your head offices and discuss this between the four of us, gentlemen?’’

Both Canaday and Roos were stunned by the dollar number quoted by Ingrid and took only one exchange of side glance before Canaday nodded his head.

‘’Your offer is very interesting indeed, miss. Let’s go to my office!’’

That business discussion actually went on for a good four hours, cut in two parts by a short lunch break, in order to drum up the details of a formal business deal between Hughes Aircraft and Willys-Overland. When they shook hands on a done deal, Roos couldn’t help ask a last question to Ingrid.

‘’With such an imagination as yours, miss, I suppose that this SPRINT, while being your first car design, may not be your last, right?’’

‘’It certainly won’t be, Mister Roos. I soon intend to offer a high-speed highway police patrol car variant of my SPRINT to the California Highway Patrol, to be called the Hughes INTERCEPTOR. If successful, that project could result in huge orders from the various police forces around the United States.’’

‘’With a car nobody could run away from, you indeed could make a killing selling it to police departments, miss. Do you have any other ideas about more car models?’’

‘’I have plenty more ideas on that subject, Mister Roos. However, let’s see first how well my SPRINT will do on the national car sales market.’’