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

CHAPTER 23 – BACK TO LE BOURGET...AND GERMANY

 

14:33 (Paris Time)

Wednesday, June 24, 1953 ‘C’

Le Bourget Airport, northeast of Paris

France

 

Having just rolled her PEGASUS prototype to its assigned parking space on the tarmac of the Le Bourget Airport reserved for the aircraft due to be exposed at the 20th Air Show, Ingrid methodically shut down the engines and systems of her supersonic airliner, then switched her microphone to ‘general announcement’ mode in order to speak to the technicians and crewmembers who had travelled with her from Los Angeles to Paris.

‘’We are now at Le Bourget, my friends. We will do a good maintenance check of our aircraft, then will go take our hotel rooms, in order to have a good night’s sleep before starting to prepare our exposition stand tomorrow morning. We will not unload the content of our cargo holds yet, except for our cars: that will have to wait tomorrow.’’ Switching off her microphone, Ingrid then looked at her copilot for this flight, Jean Hixson, and at her flight engineer, Ann Baumgartner.

‘’Gather our luggage while I go talk with the French officials and customs agents who had been waiting for our arrival. Jean, you will supervise the post-flight maintenance of our plane, while Ann will start taking out our three vehicles from our holds.’’

 

The three women rose from their seats and walked out of the cockpit, with Ingrid grabbing her two bags and collecting eleven-year-old Hien before leaving the PEGASUS with her via the left side forward access door and going down the deployed integral stairs normally stowed inside the aircraft. The three French representatives waiting for her, including a senior French customs and immigration officer, shook hands with her while smiling warmly to her.

‘’Welcome back to Le Bourget, Miss Dows and Miss Hien.’’ said the airport manager, Pierre Dupuy, who well remembered both of them from their previous visit two years ago. ‘’Your magnificent PEGASUS should be one of the key attractions of this air salon. I brought with me Mister Jean Lamarche, who is responsible for the static aircraft display for the salon, and Commandant Marcel Aubut, the senior customs and immigration officer at the airport. Can we expect more Hughes aircraft to show up today or tomorrow to participate in our air salon?’’

‘’Yes, Monsieur Dupuy: one AIRBUS 2, one AIRBUS and a Fairchild XC-152 travelling together should arrive in Paris in about two hours, while I know that the United States Air Force intends to send one B-12 bomber and one F-9 fighter to Paris tomorrow.’’

‘’A Fairchild XC-152? I must say that, while I know that it is listed as a participant to our air salon, I know little about it, apart from that it is a prototype competitor in a program designed to choose a new heavy transport aircraft for the American air force.’’

‘’That discretion about it is intentional, Monsieur Dupuy. Comparative testing and evaluation of the four candidate aircraft competing for that program is still going on. However, while Fairchild deemed its prototype to be sufficiently developed and tested to warrant bringing it to Paris for its first public display, its opponents from Boeing, Douglas and Convair were deemed by their constructors to be insufficiently ready yet for long-range flights. In truth, they are already realizing that they will most likely lose that Air Force competition: the XC-152 has proven up to now to be clearly superior to their designs. By the way, the XC-152 is quite a big aircraft, so you will have to assign to it a large parking spot.’’

‘’I am sure that Monsieur Lamarche can take care of that, Miss Dows. Uh, may I ask why Fairchild has chosen to fly its aircraft to Paris in the company of your planes?’’

‘’The reason for that is actually quite simple, Monsieur Dupuy: being a heavy cargo aircraft, it is helping us by carrying our ground support equipment and vehicles for this airshow. My PEGASUS brought only three cars, to be used to move around our crews. Those cars are about to be taken out of its holds under the main passenger cabin. The rest of my crew and passengers is going to come out soon, so that Commandant Aubut can check and stamp their passports.’’

‘’Then, I will start with you and your daughter, Miss Dows.’’ said Aubut, who then opened a briefcase he had brought with him and took out of it a clipboard supporting a number of official forms, along with a stamp and ink pad. Accepting from Ingrid the customs declaration forms she had already filled for her and Hien, Aubut then promptly stamped their passports before giving back to them their documents.

‘’Again, welcome in Paris, Miss Dows. I hope that you will have a most agreeable stay in France with your cute daughter.’’

‘’I am sure that we will, Commandant Aubut. Aah, here is the rest of my crew. I will go get my personal car while you stamp their passports.’’

 

Ingrid, accompanied by Hien, then walked towards the belly of her PEGASUS, from which an elevator platform supporting her Hughes SPRINT was slowly coming down. Once it was on the ground, Ingrid deployed its end ramp, then opened the trunk of her SPRINT and put her pieces of luggage in it, then closed it and, taking the driver’s seat, rolled her sports car off the lift platform and drove it some ten meters away, to leave enough space nearby to unload the two other cars carried by the PEGASUS, while Ann Baumgartner, standing inside the hold with the elevator control box, called the platform back up in order to take out the two other cars. Another ten minutes and she had all three cars on the tarmac, ready to be driven away. By that time, all of Ingrid’s personnel had their passports stamped and she then called up a quick group briefing.

‘’Alright, girls, here is the drill: Jean will direct our maintenance team while it conducts the post-flight maintenance of our PEGASUS. I will lead the rest of our people to our hotel, which sits just outside this airport and is called ‘Hotel de l’Aéroport’, or ‘The Airport Hotel’ in French. That hotel is neither big nor luxurious but it has the big advantage for us of being at an easy walking distance from the airport. There, we will take the rooms I reserved in advance and you will then be able to unpack your bags and have supper. Please do not go out afterwards to party a bit: I will need you all to be fully rested by tomorrow morning, so that we could set our exposition stands. Maggy, Norma Jean and Jennifer, you will travel in my car with Hien, while the rest of our cabin crew will travel in our second car. Our van will stay here to transport our maintenance crew to the hotel once the maintenance check will be completed.’’

With her team now splitting, Ingrid went with Hien, Maggy Gee, Norma Jean Mortenson and Jennifer Brown to her SPRINT, with Norma sitting in the front with Ingrid and with Hien sitting between Maggy and Jennifer on the rear bench seat. Starting the car’s engine, Ingrid then drove at moderate speed towards the nearby Southwest gate of the airport, then rolled for less than 300 meters before parking her SPRINT in the small parking lot of the 3-story-high Hotel de l’Aéroport, with her other car parking next to it. While that hotel was indeed small, it was of very recent construction and had a number of restaurants next to it as part of the same street block. Stepping out and grabbing their bags out of the trunks of their cars, the group then entered the hotel’s reception lobby, where Ingrid went to speak with a middle-aged man standing behind the reception counter.

‘’Good afternoon, sir. My name is Ingrid Dows and I reserved in advance nine of your rooms in the name of the Hughes Aircraft Corporation. Some of my group will arrive only tomorrow, so I will need only five of those rooms right now. Another group should show up at around supper time and will ask for another three rooms out of the reserved lot.’’

‘’We will be ready to receive them, Misses Dows.’’ answered the reception clerk. ‘’May I see your passports, please, so that I could register you in?’’

‘’Of course, sir!’’

That procedure took about three minutes, at the end of which the receptionist distributed room keys to the nine women and one young girl while giving them some information.

‘’All of the rooms reserved for the Hughes Aircraft Corporation are on the top floor, which will be occupied exclusively by your personnel, Misses Dows. We have other customers who also came for the air salon but we lodged them on the middle floor. Here, next to the reception lobby, we have a small dining room where you will be able to eat breakfast. We serve continental breakfasts of croissants, toasts, jam, coffee and tea, which are included in the cost of your rooms. If you wish to eat more substantial breakfasts, I can counsel you the restaurant ‘Le Hollandais Volant’23, two buildings down this street to the right, where they serve complete breakfasts, including eggs, bacon and sausages, on top of having a nice lunch and supper menu of mostly Dutch and German cuisine. You will also find another three sm all restaurants along this street.’’

‘’That is useful information indeed, mister. Thank you very much.’’

‘’My pleasure, miss.’’

 

Distributing the room keys to her crewmembers while keeping one room for herself and Hien, Ingrid gave them a couple of instructions before they moved up to the top floor via the small elevator of the hotel. When she unlocked and opened the door of the room she had taken, Ingrid nodded with satisfaction once she had inspected it. It was a relatively small room with a single large bed, an easy chair, a dresser, two bed stands, one large closet and a small but well-equipped bathroom with a combination

 

23 Le Hollandais Volant: ‘The Flying Dutchman’ in French. bathtub and shower head. The furniture was not luxurious but was of recent manufacture and the place was impeccably clean.

‘’Well, it’s not the Ritz but it is both comfortable enough and intimate. Let’s unpack our bags, Hien. Then, we will go down and wait for the others in the coffee lounge.’’

‘’Yes, Mommy!’’

 

The unpacking took them only a few minutes, after which Ingrid led Hien back down to the ground floor, where they sat inside the hotel’s coffee lounge and ordered drinks: strong espresso coffee for Ingrid and green tea for Hien. A few more minutes and the other members of Ingrid’s group started joining them, to also sit down and order drinks. After about forty minutes, Jean Hixson and her five ground support female technicians entered the hotel, with Ingrid then going to the reception counter to help them register in and get their room keys. Ingrid then returned to her table and waited another forty minutes or so, time for Jean’s group to unpack and take a shower. The six women finally came down to the reception lobby, making Ingrid get up from her chair, along with Hien and the other women. She was about to lead her whole group out, intent on going to the Dutch restaurant the receptionist had told her about, when a group of three men and one woman came out of the elevator and also headed towards the main entrance. The leading man was in his mid-fifties and was sturdily built, while the man at his side appeared in his early forties and sported a large moustache. As for the third man, he was distinctly younger, being in his early to mid thirties, and was most handsome and fit, while the woman was in her late twenties and looked like your typical executive secretary. Ingrid froze on recognizing the second man and stared at him with disbelief.

‘’Adolf? Adolf Galland?’’

Before she could say more, her eyes opened wide as she fixed the youngest man following Galland.

‘’Klaus? Klaus Bayerlein? Is that you?’’

With the women of her group and Hien watching her with some surprise, Ingrid walked quickly to the said Klaus, who appeared as surprised as Ingrid at meeting her.

‘’Ingrid? Ingrid Weiss? Mein Gott!’’

The pair then hugged each other tightly while exchanging kisses, watched by the surprised onlookers around the couple. Finally ungluing herself from the younger man, Ingrid smiled to her crewmembers while pointing at him.

‘’Girls, let me present to you Klaus Bayerlein. He was a young Luftwaffe fighter pilot who was captured by the British in 1941, along with me and other female Luftwaffe auxiliaries. We were having a little fling together at the time but had only time for a short goodbye before we were forcibly separated. Now, here he is after twelve years.’’ Ingrid then pointed at the two other, older men.

‘’Here, we also have Adolf Galland, ex-General of the Fighters for the Luftwaffe during World War 2, and Mister Kurt Tank, the aeronautical engineer who designed and then test-flew the famous Fw 190 fighter, which caused the British so much grief during that war.’’

‘’Wow! Talk about a consequential encounter, Ingrid.’’ said Jean Hixson, who then looked at Kurt Tank. ‘’Did you come to the air salon as representatives of a German aircraft company, Mister Tank?’’

‘’No, miss: we came as representatives of the German government, which is in bad need of replacing Lufthansa’s ageing fleet of transport aircraft. By the way, may I present to you Miss Lisa Wolf, my executive secretary.’’

The two groups then mingled together for an exchange of handshakes, with Ingrid using the occasion to present the women of her group. The mention of the Hugues Aircraft Corporation had a visible effect on the 55-year-old German engineer and test pilot.

‘’Mein Gott! We are looking for more modern airliners for the Lufthansa and we end up bumping into the company producing the most advanced aircraft in the World? What a piece of luck for us!’’

‘’Well, we will have plenty of time to discuss this subject together during supper, Herr Tank, but my stomach is growling, so I suggest that we go eat now. We were heading to a nearby Dutch restaurant that was warmly recommended to us by the receptionist.’’

All four Germans smiled at those words, with Adolf Galland then replying to Ingrid.

‘’Excellent! We were also heading there: we ate there yesterday and it has some great German dishes on their menu. However, we will stick with using English or French while there: the Dutch still remember the German occupation during the war and they are not too fond of German customers. Fortunately, the Dutch share a few good recipes with us Germans.’’

‘’Sounds like a reasonable proposition, Adolf. Let’s go eat!’’

 

As they walked out and turned towards the restaurant, visible along the street, Ingrid joined hands with Klaus and Hien. The German pilot eyed with curiosity Hien while asking Ingrid a question.

‘’May I ask who is this cute Asian girl, Ingrid?’’

‘’Her name is Hien, Tran Ti Hien, and she is my adopted daughter. I adopted her when she was seven and she is now twelve. Her original family was killed in 1942 by Japanese soldiers but she was saved by a neighboring family, who then brought her with them to France, where I met Hien. ’’

Klaus looked with sadness at Hien, then at Ingrid.

‘’That war caused so much pain and destruction. I am happy that you could help your little Hien, Ingrid.’’

‘’Thanks! And you Klaus? What happened to you after we were captured together by the British in 1941?’’

‘’I was held by the British until 1945, when they released most of their German prisoners of war, holding on only to members of the SS and the Gestapo. Most of the later ones were eventually judged and executed by the British for the war crimes they committed. When I returned to Germany, I tried to rebuild my life by becoming a commercial pilot but those were rough times indeed, with few jobs available, a national economy in ruins and only ageing transport aircraft left of the once mighty Luftwaffe. Then, two years ago, I was hired by Herr Tank, who had taken the direction of a new aircraft company formed up by the association of what was left of Messerschmitt, Bolkow and Blohm und Voss, which is now called MBB. Most of the other wartime German aircraft manufacturers had by that time folded and gone into bankruptcy, leaving only MBB, Dornier and Junkers as still operating aircraft manufacturers inside Germany. However, with the terms of the armistice imposed on Germany in 1944, which forbids it to have bombers and fighters and which also limits our aeronautical industry to produce and operate only propeller aircraft and with many European countries closing their airspace to German aircraft, business has been very meager for MBB and for Lufthansa, which is still our official national airline. Right now, our planes can only land in Europe in Spain, Romania, Italy, Finland, Turkey and Sweden. We would love to be able to fly much further, notably towards South America, Africa and Asia, but nobody has accepted to date to sell long-range transport aircraft to us. Herr Tank is here to find out if anybody will show some willingness to sell us some long-range aircraft. Do you think that you could help us in this respect, Ingrid? Your Hughes airliners are reputed to have the longest ranges of all. ’’

Ingrid thought that question over for a moment while walking with Klaus and Hien, then gave him a cautious answer.

‘’Over the top of my head, I can’t think of any American official restriction against me selling aircraft to Germany. However, the Pentagon would most probably object to me selling you some of the more advanced systems contained in my aircraft, like radars and night vision devices. I would need to contact the State Department and the Pentagon about this before giving you a firm answer. However, I believe that my AIRBUS turboprop airliner, in its extra-long-range variant, would fit the bill for Lufthansa: it can carry 102 passengers and can easily cross the Atlantic at quite a considerable cruising speed of over 800 kilometers per hour, plus has the big advantage for you of being able to take off and land at the vertical.’’

Kurt Tank, who was following close behind Klaus Bayerlein, smiled on hearing that.

‘’Your AIRBUS would indeed be ideal for us, Miss Dows, although your jet-powered AIRBUS 2 would be even better. Will you be exposing an AIRBUS during this air salon?’’

‘’Hughes Aircraft will be exposing one AIRBUS, one AIRBUS 2 and one PEGASUS supersonic airliner, plus a light VTOL five-seater aircraft I call the HUMMINGBIRD. The U.S. Air Force will on its part show off one F-9 fighter-bomber and one B-12 strategic bomber. A new ultra-heavy strategic cargo aircraft, the prototype of the Fairchild XC-152, will also arrive here tomorrow.’’ Both Galland and Bayerlein sighed with regret on hearing that.

‘’To see such flying marvels without being able to fly them...’’ said Galland, making Ingrid smile in response.

‘’I have some solid connections with the U.S. Air Force, gentlemen. I will see what I can do for you in this aspect.’’

 

After a mere minute of walking, the group arrived at the Dutch restaurant and entered it, to be quickly approached by a young, smiling blonde woman who spoke to them in French.

‘’Good day! Are you all together?’’

‘’Yes, miss.’’ answered Ingrid, also using French. ‘’We would like a line of tables for nineteen persons, please.’’

‘’Then, please give me a minute while I go move those tables, miss.’’ Enlisting the help of a male waiter, the waitress had a line of nine tables pushed together, then returned to Ingrid and her group.

‘’If you will follow me, please.’’

Crossing the dining room, which was already half full, Ingrid led her group to the line of tables and sat down facing Kurt Tank and his small delegation, with her own crewmembers taking place around the table and with Hien next to her left, facing Klaus.

‘’Before we look at the menu and place our orders, Mister Tank,’’ she said in English to the German aircraft designer, ‘’I will take care of the bill for all of us. It was already decided by me that I would take care of all the accommodations, food and services bills for my crew from Hughes Aircraft, so adding four more people to that will not break my bank account: I am a billionaire...in American dollars. Besides, it will make me most happy to host your delegation.’’ Kurt Tank nodded his head in appreciation while eyeing her.

‘’That is most appreciated, Miss Dows. In truth, the finances of the new federal state of Germany are still rather fragile, as we are still spending a lot of our available budget to rebuild our country after that catastrophic war of eight years ago. About you being a billionaire: you certainly don’t look the type, if I may say so. You lodge with your crew in a small and quite modest hotel, are wearing good quality clothes but nothing fancy or truly expensive and you are wearing next to no pieces of jewelry on you: you certainly don’t look or act like the typical rich people I know.’’ Ingrid couldn’t help have a slight smile on hearing that.

‘’Well, while I am considered a very rich woman, I reinvest most of my gains from Hughes Aircraft into my research and production plants and into my employees’ benefits programs, instead of buying luxury items and services. I finance things like free corporate health care programs for my employees, low-rent apartments and free daycare services for the younger children of my employees, in order to help the working parents who work for me. I am not attracted to luxury and I don’t want to flash myself by wearing expensive jewels or designer dresses when I go out. I prefer to flash by simply breaking records in the air.’’

That last sentence made Kurt Tank, Adolf Galland and Klaus Bayerlein smile in amusement, with Adolf Galland replying to that.

‘’I suppose that all of us pilots love to show off when in the air, Ingrid. However, you are doing it in a particularly flamboyant sty le.’’

‘’Talking of flamboyant, that reminds me of the time when I flamed your ass down over Germany in 1944, Adolf.’’

They all chuckled at that, then took the time to examine the menus distributed around the table by the blond waitress.

 

Once everybody had given their orders to the waitress, with Ingrid also ordering a collection of good wine bottles for the group, Ingrid then looked at Klaus Bayerlein and spoke to him in a relatively low volume of voice.

‘’Have you married after the war, Klaus? I know that you were still single when we met in France.’’

To Ingrid’s surprise, her question attracted some sadness on Klaus’ face.

‘’I met and married a very nice woman named Greta in 1946. Unfortunately, she died in labor, along with our baby, two years later. Our medical system had not yet recovered fully from the war at the time and the doctors couldn’t save her or the baby. I am still mourning them.’’

‘’Oh, I am so sorry to hear that, Klaus. Please accept my most sincere condolences.’’

‘’Thank you, Ingrid. You always were a kind and nice girl.’’ There was then a moment of silence at the table, until Ingrid spoke to Kurt Tank, again keeping her voice low.

‘’We arrived today in my supersonic PEGASUS airliner, while my other planes are due in tomorrow. Once they will be here, I will be most pleased to make you and your delegation members tour my planes. If the air traffic around Le Bourget allows it, I could also give you and your two pilots a chance to try your hands at the commands of my planes.’’

That attracted instant grins on the faces of the three German men, with Ingrid smiling in response.

‘’I will take that as a yes, gentlemen.’’

 

The food and drinks they had ordered then started arriving, with the members of the group starting to eat while engaging in casual conversations, much of those being the exchange of war stories between the Germans and Ingrid’s personnel. Ingrid was thus able to learn that, apart from Kurt Tank being the head of MBB, Adolf Galland was the actual head of the German Air Ministry, while Klaus Bayerlein was a test pilot working for MBB. The food served to them proved excellent, helping the friendly atmosphere around the group as t hey ate and drank. However, following Ingrid’s prior instructions, the members of her Hughes team either drank very moderately or not at all, in order to stay fit for the work to be done during the next days. When they finally left the restaurant at around eight in the evening, eleven-year-old Hien was visibly tired and sleepy, mostly thanks to the nine-hour change in time zones incurred by their trip across the Continental United States and the Atlantic. Once back at the hotel, Ingrid tucked her daughter in bed, kissing her on the forehead before leaving their room and joining Klaus Bayerlein in the hallway. There, with no one else in sight, she glued herself to Klaus and shared a long kiss with him, then looked him in the eyes while smiling.

‘’It has been twelve years since we last saw each other, Klaus. I believe that this would be a good time to renew our relationship.’’

‘’Agreed! Let’s go to my room.’’

 

08:58 (Paris Time)

Thursday, June 25, 1953 ‘C’

Hotel de l’Aéroport, next to Le Bourget Airport

 

Ingrid waved goodbye as the car driven by Truong Van Dien started rolling away, a happy Hien sitting in the front passenger seat.

‘’Have a nice stay in Paris, my sweet Hien.’’

‘’I will, Mommy!’’ replied Hien, who was going to be able to see her first adoptive family again after over a year. Ingrid watched for a moment as the Truongs’ car disappeared after turning a corner, then faced the four Germans who had accompanied her and Hien out of the hotel.

‘’Well, with my daughter gone for the next couple of days, I will now be able to show you in depth my aircraft, starting with my PEGASUS. My other aircraft should arrive at Le Bourget before noon today, at which time you will be able to inspect them, with a particular emphasis on my AIRBUS turboprop VTOL airliner.’’

‘’And I can’t wait to inspect it, Ingrid.’’ replied Adolf Galland. ‘’Your AIRBUS should be the perfect aircraft to rejuvenate Lufthansa’s airliner fleet, which is still made up mostly of twenty-year-old Junkers 52 trimotor transports. While the Junkers 52 has proven to be a remarkably dependable workhorse of the air, it is by now hopelessly outclassed by more modern designs. Your AIRBUS should be able to revive air travel in Germany, especially for travel to other countries which allow us to land in, like Spain, Italy, Sweden, Finland and South America.’’

‘’And how is the German national economy these days? Will there be a German clientele for Lufthansa? I am asking because, due to its long political isolation, we in the United States have heard little about Germany since 1945.’’ Kurt Tank took on him to answer her on that subject.

‘’The first post-war years were indeed very rough for Germany, Ingrid. We had to rebuild much of our infrastructure and housing, absorb back millions of soldiers into our workforce and turn our industries towards a peace-oriented economy. We also had to drastically change our political system, in order to erase the past control by the Nazis. Yes, I did work for the Nazis during the war, while both Adolf and Klaus fought in the Luftwaffe, but we are all glad to see Germany rid of the Nazis today. Now, Germans simply want to live in decent conditions and earn back a place in the community of nations.’’

‘’And I believe you on that, Herr Tank. While she was educating me in secret while I was a prisoner of war held in the Tower of London, Nancy told me about the post-war Germany of her timeline. By 2012, Germany was a thoroughly democratic, modern country with mostly centrist governments. Nancy, who was a Canadian Forces reserve intelligence officer, even served a short tour as an exchange officer with the German Army, while German Army units participated in the alliance of Western nations which supported the United States in a war in Afghanistan meant to destroy a terrorist organization which had executed a horrific terrorist attack on New York. I am glad to see that Germany has started on that same path.’’

‘’Yes, but our neighbors in Europe are taking a long time to acknowledge the changes Germany has gone through, Miss Dows.’’ said Lisa Wolf, sounding a bit bitter. Ingrid nodded slowly her head at those words.

‘’First, please call me simply ‘Ingrid’, Lisa. Second, it is true that bad feelings take a long time to die but you can’t hardly blame them for that: what the Nazi leaders did during their war of conquest was truly horrific and despicable, with millions of people dying at their hands so that they could satisfy their thirst for power. Killing them and their Japanese counterparts was most satisfying for me and my girls of the Fifinellas, while we took no joy at the civilian collateral casualties caused by our air raids, casualties which we did our best to keep to the absolute minimum.’’

‘’Ingrid, your accomplishments in that war, along with what you have done since, can only be commended.’’ said Galland. ‘’Yet, I personally believe that you have not been rewarded enough by your countrymen, some of whom despise you because you oppose their racism and bigotry. I wish that Germany could have had you during the past years, to help change and rebuild our nation.’’

Ingrid was silent for a moment before speaking in a sober tone.

‘’Adolf, I rejected my German citizenship after the Gestapo tortured and killed Nancy, deciding instead to transfer my loyalty to the United States and to fight for freedom. I tried to visit Germany two years ago, after the previous Le Bourget air show, but the German consul in Paris then strongly counseled me to not visit Germany, because of the possibilities of seeing bitter ex-Nazis attacking me and my daughter if I traveled to Berlin. I thus had to forget my plans to go visit my family’s grave in Berlin. Would I be able to safely visit Germany today or would I still encounter public hostility towards me?’’

‘’Ingrid, those Nazy diehards have mostly gone out of the picture by now and their influence is about zero in Germany today. The Germans fully realize what the Nazis brought to our country and to Europe and want no part of their ideology. If anything, what we wish the most for today is to be welcomed again into the European community. Do you realize how painful it is to be a World pariah?’’

‘’Yes, and I feel sorry for you and the other Germans who want to bury Germany’s Nazi past, Adolf. That is why I am now ready to help Germany rebuild its civil aviation. I also had time to think about this last night and I believe that this prohibition against Germany operating jet aircraft cannot be justified anymore. I thus am ready today to sell to Germany my jet-powered AIRBUS 2, on top of my turboprop-powered AIRBUS. That will give Lufthansa a full transatlantic transport capability and will thus help Germany to reopen itself to the World.’’ As the four Germans happily beamed at her declaration, Ingrid looked directly at Kurt Tank.

‘’I know that Germany has not be allowed to own supersonic combat aircraft, even if such aircraft would be meant strictly to defend itself from external attack. However, the recent instances of Soviet aggressive moves have shown how shortsighted this policy has proven to be. Once back in the United States, I will lobby President Warren to have this prohibition lifted. Once that will be achieved, I will be ready to offer my Hughes F-9 ARROW fighter-bomber to Germany, along with my AIM-1 air-to-air missile.’’

Stunned at first by that statement, Tank, Galland and Bayerlein enthusiastically shook hands with her while patting her back and profusely thanking her. Once they had calmed down, Ingrid pointed to her car, parked nearby.

‘’Well, enough talk: time to go to the airport and make you visit my PEGASUS.’’

 

The four Germans piled up in her SPRINT, with Lisa Wolf having to squeeze herself between Adolf Galland and Klaus Bayerlein, while the beefy Kurt Tank sat in the front passenger seat. The four of them then stared with bewilderment at the ultra-modern instrument dash and controls of the sports car.

‘’Mein Gott! What is all this?’’ exclaimed Tank, making Ingrid smile with pride.

‘’Ideas from the 21st Century which I was able to incorporate in my sports car. Some of the technology you see in my SPRINT is actually used in my aircraft, like LED-lit displays and disk brakes. My SPRINT is powered by a Lycoming 360 horsepower air-cooled flat-eight piston aero-engine burning 90 octanes-grade gasoline and I tested it to a top speed of 320 kilometers per hour.’’

‘’THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY KILOMETERS PER HOUR! BUT THAT’S FASTER THAN ANY SPORTS OR RACING CAR ACTUALLY BUILT IN GERMANY.’’ Nearly shouted a shocked Adolf Galland.

‘’I know! Ferrari is actually green with jealousy about my SPRINT, while my sports car is now selling like hot cakes in the United States and has started to sell very well indeed in Europe. However, with the present French laws concerning road rules, I won’t be able to demonstrate its top speed to you here. Uh, are the German autobahns still free of speed limits?’’

‘’Most sections of them still are, Ingrid. If you ever visited Germany in your car, then you will be able to speed around to your conten t.’’

‘’Hell, I can’t wait to be able to do that! I am a true adept of the Speed Demon.’’

‘’Aren’t we fighter pilots all are?’’ replied Klaus in a sneaky tone as Ingrid started her engine and backed out of her parking spot, to then roll into the street and head for the nearby entrance to the airport.

Mere minutes later, after showing their air salon passes to the policemen manning the guarded south entrance to Le Bourget, Ingrid parked her SPRINT in a small parking area close to her PEGASUS airliner. Stepping out of the SPRINT, the group walked to the supersonic airliner, on which four of Ingrid’s ground technicians were performing some routine maintenance. Ingrid then led the four Germans aboard via the left side forward access door after climbing the deployed integrated stairs. Kurt Tank, like his three followers, was nearly dumbstruck by the level of advanced technology and comfort he saw inside, speaking to Ingrid with an awed tone of voice as he was visiting the cockpit.

‘’This, all this, is incredible! Your plane is decades ahead of anything I could even have imagined.’’

Ingrid smiled, truly flattered by that remark.

‘’You can thank my dead adoptive mother, Nancy Laplante, for inspiring me about this plane and my other designs, Herr Tank. Let’s next visit the rest of my PEGASUS. Afterwards, I will be able to give you a few copies of the publicity brochure on the PEGASUS that I had made printed for this air show, plus two copies of this plane’s pilot manual, which you will be able to bring back to Germany.’’

 

Leaving the cockpit, Ingrid first led the Germans down to the business-class cabin before continuing her guided tour, ending it some fifty minutes later in one of the cargo holds on the lower deck. By then, the four Germans were utterly overwhelmed, with Adolf Galland resuming the thoughts of his three companions.

‘’This plane is truly incredible, Ingrid. You may have been inspired by information about the future but you still accomplished a masterstroke with your PEGASUS. I can’t wait to visit your AIRBUS and AIRBUS 2 airliners once they will arrive in Paris.’’ Ingrid took a glance at her wristwatch before replying to Galland.

‘’They in fact should arrive within half an hour. Let’s go outside now, so that we could watch them when they will land, along with the Fairchild XC-152.’’

 

Going out of the PEGASUS, Ingrid then pointed to the four other American-made jet aircraft which were part of the American contribution to the air show and which were parked next to the tarmac area reserved for Hughes aircraft.

‘’As you can see, my competitors in the United States did not take my challenge lying down and designed their own ideas about Jet airliners. What you see are the prototypes of the Boeing 707, the Douglas DC-8, the Convair 800 and the Lockheed SUPER-CONSTELLATION turboprop airliner, all of which have enough range to cross the Atlantic. As for military aircraft, the United States Air Force is due to bring in one F-9 ARROW fighter-bomber and one B-12 heavy bomber, both of which were designed by me. I also am expecting one of my Hughes CH-4T VOYAGER civilian transport helicopter, which is due to arrive by sea on a cargo ship sometimes tonight, at Le Havre. My VOYAGER could actually prove ideal for short internal flights inside Germany, as it can land anywhere, carries up to 44 passengers and has a very respectable top speed of 310 kilometers per hour. I will be giving you copies of its pilot’s manual and publicity brochure later on. If you wish so, I can give you time for you to go visit those other airliners, so that you have a complete picture of what is available from the United States and so that my competitors could not claim afterwards that I steered you away from their planes.’’

‘’Sounds fair!’’ said with a nod Kurt Tank, who then spoke to the members of his delegation. ‘’Let’s go visit those American airliners, my friends.’’

 

As the four Germans walked away, heading first towards the Boeing 707 prototype, Ingrid returned inside her PEGASUS and assembled a collection of publicity brochures and pi lot’s manuals on her various planes, then packed them in one of the empty travel suitcases which had been transported inside the PEGASUS. Those hard-case suitcases, which had small wheels and telescopic handles inspired by designs from the future, were part of the large array of consumer products produced by the Hughes Corporation and which were wildly popular in the United States. Carrying out the now rather heavy suitcase, Ingrid went down the access stair in order to wait on the tarmac for the return of the German delegation. She however was surprised to see the Germans return early from their inspection tour, a mix of deception and anger visible on their faces.

‘’Uh, something went wrong, Herr Tank?’’

‘’You could say that, Ingrid: the representatives of those aircraft companies all refused to consider selling their aircraft to Germany and only allowed us to make brief visits inside their planes, treating us like Plague victims. Anyway, what we saw convinced us that your planes are still our best options, by far.’’

‘’I am sorry to hear that they treated you in such a cavalier manner, Herr Tank. I took the time to collect brochures and pilot manuals for you while you were gone. This suitcase full of documentation is now yours.’’

‘’Thank you, Ingrid: you are truly most helpful to us. Lisa, I will leave you in charge of that suitcase.’’

The moment Lisa got the suitcase from Kurt, she stared with wonderment at its pair of small wheels and its telescopic handle, which allowed it to be easily dragged behind its owner while rolling on the ground.

‘’Mein Gott! I love this suitcase design: it is so practical. I haven’t seen anything like this before. Where did you get it, Ingrid?’’

‘’It is produced by the Hughes Corporation, along with a complete range of other products geared towards air travelers. Our rolling suitcases24 are all the rage these days around the United States. If Lufthansa ever wished to offer them to its customers, we could easily arrange a deal between it and Hughes. I believe that I have a few brochures about our suitcases and travel items in my plane. Let me go get some of them now. You can use the wait to quickly review what you already have in this suitcase.’’

‘’Thanks, Ingrid. That will be most appreciated.’’

 

Running back up the stairs and entering again her aircraft, Ingrid reappeared at the door some four minutes later, to shout at Klaus Bayerlein.

‘’KLAUS, COULD YOU COME UP AND HELP ME HERE, PLEASE?’’

‘’I’M COMING!’’

Running up the stairs, Klaus arrived at the access door to see that Ingrid had a collection of four hard-shell suitcases with her.

‘’Can you grab two of those suitcases for me and then bring them down to the tarmac, Klaus?’’

‘’Sure, Ingrid!’’

Grabbing at once two of the suitcases and finding by their weight that they were empty, Klaus then climbed down the access stairs, then waited for Ingrid to join her on the

 

24 Rolling suitcases: The first suitcase with wheels was invented by Bernard Sadow in 1972 and had four castor wheels under its bottom and a flexible leather strap to pull it behind its owner. In 1987, an airline pilot designed the first ‘rollerbag’, equipped with a pair of fixed wheels and with a telescopic handle which allowed its owner to pull it while it was tilted at an angle of 45 degrees. tarmac. Ingrid then distributed the four suitcases around the thankful Germans before opening the one given to Kurt Tank, revealing a smaller hard-shell suitcase of similar design inside the bigger suitcase.

‘’This is our ‘airline combo’, consisting of a main, large suitcase and of a more compact, much smaller carry-on bag meant to be stowed in the overhead bins of airliners. While towing the bigger bag behind you, you can put the smaller carry-on bag atop the extended telescopic handle, thus making it easy and effortless to carry both bags. Hughes produce them in a wide variety of designs, colors and printed surface designs and I brought to Paris a large number of them as advertising items. Lisa, I gave you a lavender-colored set, while the men of your group get black, grey and brown sets. You are now free to fight for what you each prefer as sets.’’ Chuckling in amusement at that last remark, Kurt Tank chose the black set, while Adolf Galland chose the dark grey-colored set, with Klaus Bayerlein ending with the dark brown set. Ingrid then accompanied the Germans back to her car, so that they could stuff their new suitcases inside it and thus be free to walk around unencumbered afterwards. Once that was done, the group returned to next the PEGASUS, where the Germans resumed their reading of the various manuals and pamphlets given to them by Ingrid.

 

The Germans had finished reading the manuals and pamphlets and were now asking questions to Ingrid, mostly about the buying prices and operating costs of her various planes, when an approaching and growing jet engine noise started to be heard, making them look up skyward. Ingrid smiled on recognizing the three aircraft now approaching Le Bourget at medium altitude, coming from the West.

‘’Here comes my two planes, accompanied by the Fairchild XC-152.’’ Kurt Tank opened his mouth on seeing how big the XC-152 was.

‘’Mein Gott! That XC-152 is a true flying behemoth! It is also basically shaped like your two airliners. Isn’t the lifting body concept design patented under your name, Ingrid?’’

‘’The Verti-Wing concept is indeed patented under my name, Kurt. I allowed Fairchild to use it in order to help that company compete for the United States Air Force project for a new heavy strategic airlifter.’’

Ingrid didn’t add the fact that she had presented a complete basic design that Fairchild then only had to refine into a final product. Most of the other American aircraft producers were already less than happy about the way her aircraft designs had won big, lucrative government contracts and international sales and she didn’t need to create more hostility towards Hughes Aircraft. However, she had won those contracts fair and square, strictly on the strength of her design skills and of her willingness to use unconventional solutions. Her commercial opponents could only blame their own lack of willingness to embrace truly innovative designs, their conservatism and refusal to take risks. The collection of ‘new’ aircraft presented at Le Bourget this year by Boeing, Convair, Douglas and Lockheed were the perfect example of this tendency to present aircraft which were only ‘evolutive’ rather than ‘revolutionary’. However, as far as the traveling public was concerned, it had clearly voted with its feet in favor of Ingrid’s airliners, with the PEGASUS representing the epitome of her design thinking. Ingrid’s and Air Fifinella’s policy of offering comfortable passenger accommodations in the AIRBUS and AIRBUS 2, with wide, reclining seats and good quality meals, sharply contrasted with the other designers’ policy of cramming as many seats as they could in a given aircraft type, something that Ingrid called ‘air cattle transportation’. As a result, Air Fifinella and TWA, the latter a majority-owned company controlled by Hughes Corporation, now carried over half of the air passenger traffic in the United States, while overseas destinations were overwhelmingly served by Hughes airliners, due to the lack of truly long-range airliners from the likes of Boeing, Douglas, Convair, Lockheed and McDonnell. Only now were those aircraft manufacturers starting to produce aircraft able to routinely cross the Atlantic, a good five years after Ingrid’s designs had first started to serve the American and international public. As for the British aircraft industry, the disastrous debacle of the Bristol BRABAZON and the still delayed entry into service of the De Havilland COMET only showed how it was weighed down by government bureaucracy and innate conservative thinking. The one national aircraft industry Ingrid had respect for was the French one, with Breguet, Dassault and Sud Aviation engaged in innovative work while supported by a French government which was giving them free rein, contrary to the constipated straight-jacket imposed on British manufacturers by their government. Paradoxically, Ingrid’s and Katharine’s goal was not that of maximum profits and market dominance but rather of advancing aviation in the United States, in the case of Ingrid, and to provide good, equal employment in aviation work to the women veterans of the Air Force leaving the service, in the case of Katharine. Those women veterans too often encountered widespread sexism or even outright refusal by aviation companies to hire them, even in the case of highly-decorated female pilots and flight crews. As for the promise by the Air Force to provide a more diversified list of posting options for its female members, it was being implemented at a very slow pace, with ingrained misogyny and bad faith by senior commanders being major obstacles in this respect. Thus, as much as this state of affairs was infuriating to Ingrid and Katharine, Hughes and Air Fifinella still enjoyed a steady flow of female Air Force veterans, discouraged by low prospects for promotions and more diverse postings, joining its list of employees every year.

 

Ingrid and the German delegates, like most of the people present at Le Bourget this morning, watched on as the XC-152 landed on the airport’s main runway, followed by the AIRBUS and then by the AIRBUS 2. Both Kurt Tank and Adolf Galland opened wide eyes and mouths on seeing the huge XC-152 land and slow down to a near stop in less than 600 meters.

‘’Himmel! How could this big beast land in such a short run?’’ exclaimed Galland, prompting a calm reply from Ingrid.

‘’By three factors: very low wing loading due to its Verti-Wing lifting body design; high thrust-to-weight ratio and, finally, thrust vectoring on its powerful engines, which can deflect their exhaust flux by up to sixty degrees, all of which makes it a true STOL aircraft. The XC-152 can also take off in less than a thousand meters, even when at full load. Don’t forget that this beast was made for heavy military strategic lift missions, not for commercial transportation. It has already proven during its test flights to be able to lift a load of more than a hundred metric tons over a range of 14,000 kilometers, enough to cross the whole Pacific in one shot.’’

The four Germans looked at her with incredulity before returning their attention to the three aircraft arriving at Le Bourget.

 

The AIRBUS 2 was the first to arrive at the exposition spots reserved for Hughes Aircraft, closely followed by the turboprop-powered AIRBUS, while the XC-152 parked in the spot adjacent to them. Ingrid didn’t object when the Germans first approached the giant heavy cargo aircraft, fascinated by its sheer size. She let them approach the XC-152 while she herself went to greet the crews of her two aircraft and exchanging handshakes, hugs and kisses with them.

‘’Welcome to Paris, girls. I will let you perform post-flight routine maintenance checks on your planes, then you will be able to go take the rooms I reserved for you at the ‘Hotel de l’Aéroport’, which is just outside the airport’s south gate. By the way, I met at that hotel yesterday a four-person German delegation which came to Le Bourget in order to find new aircraft to replace Lufthansa’s old Junkers 52 trimotor transports.’’

‘’Junkers 52s?’’ exclaimed Ethel Meyer, the pilot of the AIRBUS 2. ‘’It still flies around today? It first flew in the early 1930s, before even the start of World War 2.’’

‘’I know, Ethel. However, nobody to date accepted to sell aircraft to Germany, even for commercial transportation, and many countries still ban German planes from landing on their territories. On the other hand, I have offered my AIRBUS and AIRBUS 2 airliners to that German delegation, which is headed by the famous designer Kurt Tank, who designed the Fw 190 fighter during the war. So, be ready to see them come in and visit your planes with me.’’

‘’And where are those Germans right now, Ingrid?’’

‘’They went to look at the XC-152, since they fell in awe of it when it landed.’’

‘’No wonder!’’ replied Irene Leverton, the pilot of the AIRBUS. ‘’That is one impressive beast indeed. While flying in formation with it, I felt like I was flying a baby carriage, compared to it. Wait till you see the mountain of vehicles and equipment it has been carrying on this trip. It took in our whole ground servicing equipment and stock of spares, plus its own support materiel, plus a little extra from the U.S. Army.’’

‘’Oh? What is that ‘little extra’, Irene?’’ asked a surprised Ingrid, bringing a sneaky smile on Irene’s lips.

‘’You will see, Ingrid.’’

 

Arriving near the XC-152, Kurt Tank and his three companions started slowly walking around the giant cargo aircraft while being careful not to get in the way of the ground servicing crews and fuel bowser trucks working around it. As they neared its aft section, three side-by-side cargo ramps and their clam-like top covers slowly opened up, with the ramps lowering to the ground. Kurt was the first to notice that the giant aircraft seemed to lower as the ramps went down.

‘’Hey, this plane is lowering itself! Himmel: it appears to be able to ‘kneel’ down by playing on its landing carriage height, in order to facilitate its loading and unloading. This is a brilliant idea!’’

‘’Indeed!’’ said Adolf Galland. ‘’Such a capability could be very helpful when a heavy load or vehicle goes in or out of it. I am curious to see what will come out of this giant.’’

They saw that soon enough, with a total of six large trucks, including one carrying a workshop shelter, coming out of the two side cargo bays flanking the centerline hold. Already impressed by that, Kurt then watched two buses, probably meant to move the flight and ground crews around, come out of that centerline hold.

‘’This represents a total cargo load of about sixty tons at a minimum, more if all of those trucks were loaded. This is...’’

A sudden roar from a powerful engine coming from inside the centerline hold then cut him off and made the four Germans snap their heads towards the top of the deployed centerline cargo ramp. Their eyes, like those of the French airport employees and officials standing nearby, opened wide when a big, mean-looking medium tank started slowly rolling down the ramp, guided by a loadmaster.

‘’Himmel! It was carrying a tank across the Atlantic, on top of everything else we saw come out?’’

Adolf Galland was about to add a remark of his own when a second engine roar came from inside the centerline hold of the XC-152, soon followed by the appearance of a second medium battle tank crawling out of the plane. As his companions were kept frozen in shock, utterly flabbergasted, Klaus Bayerlein had the presence of mind to approach one of the loadmasters who had guided out the six trucks and two buses and who was now standing behind the aircraft.

‘’Uh, excuse me, sir. Do you know how heavy each of those tanks are?’’ The man, having obviously expected to be asked about this by onlookers, answered him with a smile.

‘’The M48 medium tank weighs 47 tons in combat order, mister.’’

‘’Uh, thank you very much, sir.’’ could only say Klaus before returning to his three companions.

‘’Each of those tanks weigh 47 tons, Herr Tank.’’

Kurt Tank’s knees nearly gave up on him on hearing that.

‘’This aircraft crossed the Atlantic while carrying a minimum of 160 tons? Gott und Himmel25!’’

‘’Uh, you can add a few more tons to that, Herr Tank.’’ then said Lisa Wolf in a subdued voice, as two heavy trucks started coming out behind the second tank. Kurt

 

25 Gott und Himmel: ‘By God and the Devil’, a common German exclamation used to express utter astonishment. looked in bewilderment at the apparently loaded down six-wheeled heavy trucks as they came down the cargo ramp.

‘’This makes for a total load of close to 200 tons. I would not have believed this if someone would have told me about this afterwards in Berlin.’’

 

The four Germans were still looking at the XC-152 and its cargo load when Ingrid joined them. She smiled on seeing the two medium tanks, parked alongside the ten other vehicles.

‘’Impressive! Mister Fairchild outdid himself with his XC-152. Have they taken out my HUMMINGBIRD yet?’’

‘’Your HUMMINGBIRD? What’s that?’’

‘’My latest flying design. It is very light and compact VTOL machine meant to carry up to five persons over short distances of less than 500 kilometers while being able to take off and land at the vertical and to hover. It is the equivalent of a light helicopter, but is much more compact and is very easy to fly.’’

‘’This I must see!’’ said Tank in an enthusiastic voice.

‘’Then, follow me, all of you!’’

She then walked towards the centerline cargo ramp of the XC-152, closely followed by the four Germans, and briefly spoke with the loadmaster there before climbing the cargo ramp at a quick step. Once the group was inside the cavernous hold, which measured a good six meters in width and five meters in height, Klaus Bayerlein made a remark that made Ingrid chuckle.

‘’Himmel, you would need a pair of binoculars to look for something at the end of this hold. I do see a kind of strange machine which looks a bit like a giant mushroom.’’

‘’’he Flying Mushroom is indeed the nickname my design team gave to my latest machine, for obvious reasons. Others at my design center called it ‘a big telephone boot with a giant washer on top of it and two sausages along its sides’. Let’s see it from up close, my friends.’’

Walking down some 35 meters, Ingrid and the Germans then stopped in front of the machine, with Ingrid then describing it to them.

‘’The Hughes HUMMINGBIRD is meant to fill many roles, both as a personal transport and as a service machine for inter-city travel, police air patrolling, search and rescue and air ambulance. As you can see, it consists of a cabin with an oval floor section, built of fiberglass skin over aluminum framing for light weight and suspended under a four-meter-diameter ducted, variable pitch contra-rotating pair of propellers. Vectoring flaps under the pair of ducted propellers allow its pilot to go forward, back, sideways and to also twist around to change directions. When flying forward in cruise mode, a pair of short wings of five-meter-span forward and aft of the ducted propellers provide extra lift, allowing the engine to increase the forward speed to up to 250 kilometers per hour. The engine is a 360-horsepower, Lycoming flat-eight air-cooled piston engine, located under the cabin, while the fuel, which is 90-octane gasoline, is contained in flexible bladders situated inside the two sausage-like side floats, which are equipped with castor wheels for ground rolling. With five persons and a maximum payload of 450 kilos, the range at a cruising speed of 220 kilometers per hour is about 700 kilometers. It may not be a pretty aircraft but it is certainly a most useful and practical one.’’

‘’I’d say!’’ said Kurt Tank while eyeing with interest the HUMMINGBIRD. ‘’I could see a lot of uses for it inside Germany. Is it easy to pilot?’’

‘’I will let you find out. Let’s get in and fly it out of this cargo hold.’’

 

The four Germans eagerly followed Ingrid inside the small cabin, using its four side doors, with Ingrid taking the pilot’s seat and with Kurt Tank sitting next to her in the copilot’s seat, which also had a set of controls, while Lisa Wolf, Klaus Bayerlein and Adolf Galland sat behind them, with a padded vertical column between the piloting seats and the passenger seats. Ingrid patted the padded column before starting her engine.

‘’This padded column contains the drive shaft connecting the engine to the gearbox and propeller hub, as well as the pipes for the engine’s exhausts. Those pipes connect with four mufflers contained within the propellers’ duct assembly, making this machine very quiet for its installed power. The space under your seats is meant to stow luggage or light cargo, like airmail bags, parcels and suitcases, with spider elastic nets to help retain them in place. Before I start the engine, I will have to ask you to buckle up your seat safety belts, lady and gentlemen.’’

As the Germans did so, Ingrid quickly explained the controls of her machine to Kurt Tank.

‘’The controls on my HUMMINGBIRD are quite similar to those in helicopters. You have in front of you a control stick with a handle that can twist around its vertical axis in order to make the machine pivot clockwise or counter-clockwise. By pushing the control stick forward or back, you will control your forward speed, while pushing the stick sideways will allow you to fly sideways. Beside your seat, to its left, is the power stick, which controls both the engine throttle and the propellers’ pitch. You use it the same way as you would do in a helicopter. Now, about the instrument panel. You will note that it is a fairly simple one, since this machine is meant to be strictly a Visual Flight Rules, or VFR, aircraft. To fly it at night, you would need to use a helmet with light intensification goggles, which are however reserved for military and police crews. You do however have a set of powerful L.E.D. headlights and blinking position lights for night flying, plus two radios, one a VHF one and the other a UHF one, for communications with the ground and with other aircraft. A beginner pilot should be able to get the feel of my HUMMINGBIRD in only a few days at the most.’’ Tank nodded his head while eyeing the instrument panel in front of him.

‘’I like this, Ingrid. It is both a simple and useful machine and those large windows give an excellent visibility all around. What now?’’

‘’We take off and fly out of this hold. Then I will be able to show you how maneuverable this aircraft is before I will let you take the controls a bit.’’ On that promise, Ingrid then slightly pulled up her throttle stick while adjusting the propeller pitch by twisting its handle along its axis, making the machine rise smoothly from the cargo deck. Staying less than a meter above the cargo deck, Ingrid then cautiously flew out of the hold before taking some extra altitude and coming to a hover position. There, Ingrid switched one of her radios to the frequency of the Le Bourget control tower.

‘’Le Bourget Control, this is the Hughes HUMMINGBIRD VTOL light aircraft now hovering above the Fairchild XC-152. Request permission to engage in VFR flying at low altitude outside of the airport perimeter, over.’’ The air controller sitting in the control tower, probably taken by surprise by her call and by the weird shape of her machine, took a few seconds to respond to her.

‘’Hughes HUMMINGBIRD, from Le Bourget Control, permission granted for VFR flying outside of the airport perimeter. Keep an altitude of no more than 500 feet and stay away from the approach and takeoff axis of our runways, over.’’

‘’Will do, Le Bourget Control. I will use the callsign ‘Lady Hawk’ for this flight, over.’’

‘’Understood, Lady Hawk. Have a good flight, out.’’

‘’Here we go!’’ said Ingrid to Kurt Tank while accelerating and taking some extra altitude, veering towards the Southwest towards Downtown Paris. Kurt Tank, like Adolf Galland and Klaus Bayerlein, were quickly won over by the HUMMINGBIRD’s nimbleness, while Liza Wolf swooned over the view she was now having of Paris as they flew at low altitude over the northern suburbs of the capital, soon reaching a speed of over 220 kilometers per hour.

‘’This machine would be perfect for short-range liaison and air medical evacuation within large cities like Berlin, Ingrid. We could in fact use hundreds of your HUMMINGBIRDs in Germany.’’

‘’I agree!’’ added Adolf Galland, himself conquered by the possibilities offered by Ingrid’s machine. ‘’Is it an expensive machine to acquire, Ingrid?’’

‘’It is quite cheap to build, as it is basically a simple machine with few electronic parts and with a common air-cooled piston engine using conventional gasoline. It could be propelled by any radial piston engine of adequate power and compatible mass, of which Germany still produce in significant numbers. In fact, here is the deal I will offer to you, Kurt, for my HUMMINGBIRD: I will sell to MBB the production license for it within Germany, as long as it is propelled by a piston engine of German manufacture and is sold only in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. I will take care of the sales for the rest of Europe and of the World. I will of course provide you with all the technical data and blueprints needed to produce it in Germany at the MBB plant near Munich.’’ The happy German designer broke into a wide grin and shook hands vigorously with Ingrid.

‘’Ingrid, you are one super girl! I accept your offer with great joy.’’

‘’Excellent! You can now take over the controls, Kurt. I will monitor you while you go fly towards the Eiffel Tower and turn around it, so that Lisa could have a good view of it.’’

‘’I can bet that there will be stories on the news tonight about a strange alien craft flying around the Eiffel Tower, Ingrid.’’ joked Klaus Bayerlein, making Ingrid smile in amusement.

‘’I am sure that you would win that bet, Klaus.’’

 

As they flew towards the Eiffel Tower, clearly visible in the distance, and with both Adolf Galland and Klaus Bayerlein kneeling on their seats and looking forward in order to see how he was using the controls to fly the HUMMINGBIRD, Kurt Tank spoke softly to Ingrid while watching the sky around them.

‘’Ingrid, I know that you were personally facing hostilities from some in Germany in past years, something that dissuaded you from visiting your family’s grave in Berlin. However, things have changed quite a lot during the last two years. The present German government of Chancelor Adenauer has cracked down hard on hardline Nazi sympathizers, who have mostly been forced to either cut their rhetoric or were booted out of their jobs when they would refuse to do so. We were also quite successful in converting old Reich soldiers into men ready to serve the nation’s democratic government and system.’’

Ingrid gave Tank a questioning look on hearing that.

‘’What are you saying, Kurt?’’

‘’That I believe that it is now safe for you to visit Berlin, Ingrid. I can arrange an official protection detail for you when you will come to sign an aircraft sale and training support program with us. Personally, I can guarantee that MBB will want to buy a number of your AIRBUS, AIRBUS 2 and HUMMINGBIRD and that we could easily sign such a contract by the end of this air salon. So, what do you say, In grid?’’ It took a few seconds of thinking before Ingrid answered him in a sober tone.

‘’If you can guarantee the safety of my daughter, then I accept your offer, Kurt.’’

 

11:02 (Berlin Time)

Monday, July 06, 1953 ‘C’

Friedhoff Eythstrasse Cemetery, Tempelhof District

Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany

 

Ingrid felt deep emotions as she stepped out of the German government car which had picked her and Hien up at the nearby Tempelhof Airport and had then driven her to the Tempelhof District cemetery which contained the grave of her family, killed in 1940 in a British air bombardment. She then helped Hien step out as well before leading her by one hand towards a large but plain-looking tombstone while men of the German Federal Security Service, dressed in civilian clothes, formed a loose protective circle around her and Hien. The leader of those agents did follow closely behind her, ready to act against any threat against her. That man, Otto Skorzeny, was a huge man standing a good 193 centimeters and sporting a spectacular scar across his left cheek, the result of a college saber duel during his teenage years. She knew that Skorzeny had been a feared Waffen SS officer during World War 2 but she also knew from the biography on him which Nancy Laplante had shown her in 1941 that he was a born-adventurer with a strong sense of honor and who was not what you would call a fanatical Jew-hating Nazi. Nancy had then confessed that, despite the fact that Skorzeny had been fighting for the Nazis, she admired him as a fearless soldier with a strong sense of military ethics and who had not committed war crimes, instead leading daring commando raids across Europe during the war. Up to now, Otto Skorzeny had shown her no hostility towards her and had been respectful of her, while he had shown a genuine smile when he had eyed Hien for the first time.

 

Approaching slowly the large tombstone and stopping two paces in front of it, Ingrid felt tears come out of her eyes as she read the seventeen names chiseled on the slab of stone: her whole extended family had been gathered in her home near this cemetery in order to celebrate the birthday of her grandfather, the patriarch of the Weiss family, when a British bomb had fallen on the house, pulverizing it and killing everyone inside. She had survived only because she had been sent out by her father to go buy more wine for the party, only to find a pile of burning rubble on her return. After a moment of reflexion, she stepped forward and put the bouquet of flowers she was carrying down at the foot of the tombstone, imitated by Hien, who was also carrying a bouquet. Both then stepped back and stood still for a long minute, their heads lowered. At the end of it, Ingrid looked up at the big Otto Skorzeny, who had watched the scene with an impassive face.

‘’I am done here, Herr Skorzeny. We can now go to the Federal Air Ministry building.’’

Skorzeny simply nodded his head then and followed her and Hien back to their car, where they sat back in. As the driver started back his engine, Ingrid had a last look at the grave of her family.

‘’Goodbye and rest in peace, all of you. I will never forget you.’’