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

CHAPTER 24 – A PLEA FOR AN UNDERSTANDING

09:40 (California Time)

Thursday, July 29, 1953 ‘C’

Ingrid’s office, Hughes Aircraft prototype center

Grand Central Airport, Glendale, Los Angeles

California, U.S.A.

Ingrid was in a good mood this morning, for many reasons, as she went through her ‘in’ basket. The Le Bourget Air Salon had proved to be a pure boon for Hughes Aircraft in terms of sales contracts, with her reputation and that of her company also further boosted among the public, both in Europe and in the United States. As well, the design studies concerning her future spaceplane were advancing rapidly and were in fact ahead of her prior, most optimistic estimates. That was of course due to the fact that she and her engineers had been able to avoid the long process of trial and error that had marked the initial American Space program in Nancy’s timeline, thanks to the lessons learned in that timeline contained in the HOURGLASS files kept at the Pentagon, files which Ingrid frequently consulted.

Her executive secretary, Lisa Wong, knocked on her door before opening it partly and sticking her head inside while smiling.

‘’Ingrid, Mister Kelly Johnson, from Lockheed, is here to see you.’’

‘’Let him in, Lisa.’’ said at once Ingrid, who knew well the celebrated aeronautical engineer who had helped design her beloved P-38 LIGHTNING, on which she had fought most of World War 2. Getting up from her chair, she walked around her desk in order to meet Johnson with a handshake.

‘’How nice to see you this morning, Kelly. So, what is bringing you here?’’ Kelly had a bit of a pinched smile as he answered her while shaking her hand.

‘’Commercial and financial considerations concerning my company, Ingrid. Lockheed needs your cooperation, if not your help.’’

‘’Oh? Then, let’s sit down at my discussion table. Lisa, could you bring two cups of strong coffee, please?’’

Going to the corner of her office furnished with a low, round coffee table and five chairs, she offered a chair to Johnson before sitting opposite him as Lisa walked out of her office. Ingrid then eyed soberly the Lockheed designer.

‘’So, what is troubling you and your company, Kelly? Please be frank and don’t butter over any beef you could have against Hughes Aircraft. You know that I like straight talk.’’

‘’Oh, I know that you do, Ingrid. You have a well-earned reputation for calling things as they are. My visit in fact has to do about the recent successes of your company. Basically, those successes are killing Lockheed in terms of sales and production contracts. You have been at the head of Hughes aircraft for less than five years now, yet you have been able in that time to capture the lion’s share of national aircraft contracts, thanks to your revolutionary designs. First, you won the government contracts for the design and production of a supersonic fighter and of a supersonic bomber, contracts which Lockheed competed for, along with many other big aircraft manufacturers. Then, you designed and produced your most successful AIRBUS and AIRBUS 2 airliners, and this a good three years before we were ready to present our own airliner design. Your subsonic airliners have since basically cornered the majority of the commercial airliner market, both in the United States and in the rest of the World, leaving only crumbs for your commercial opponents. Now, you have started to sell your incredible supersonic PEGASUS, while we at Lockheed were still years away from designing and producing our own supersonic airliner. In fact, the success of your PEGASUS has all but killed our supersonic airliner program at Lockheed. To top the cake, Fairchild just won the competition for a new heavy cargo aircraft for the Air Force, killing our own proposal for that program.’’

‘’Well, I will be totally frank about that and will not find excuses for doing so, Kelly. It was up to you and to other American designers to come up with innovative, competitive designs. Unfortunately, you all failed, partly due to corporate constraints, obsession with maximum profits for minimum development costs and, especially, what I consider the biggest mistake made by other aircraft manufacturers: their tendency for ‘designs by committee’ and their habit to let the paper-pushers at the Pentagon dictate to you unrealistic, ill-informed and delusional or unimaginative lists of requirements and goals for new military aircraft programs. You have been personally less guilty of those ‘crimes’ than the others, Kelly, but I can’t say as much concerning your executive bosses at Lockheed.’’

Instead of getting angry at her, Johnson lowered his head, knowing that she was right.

‘’I know! I may be the head designer at Lockheed but I am not calling the shots in the management of my company. I just came here to plea for some kind of memorandum of understanding between Hughes Aircraft and Lockheed, which could help my company stave off possible bankruptcy.’’

‘’And what is Lockheed proposing to me in that aspect, Kelly?’’

‘’Basically, that you let us compete without opposition from Hughes Aircraft in some of the future aircraft programs we expect to see coming in the coming few years. You already cornered most of the airliner business, both subsonic and supersonic, while your F-9 and B-12, along with your air-launched missiles, have eaten much of the money available for the Air Force. I know that the Navy and the Army are thinking about new, modern aircraft for their own aircraft fleets. If you could stay away from those programs, it would let us compete for them while having a fair shot at winning them.’’ Ingrid nodded at those words, appreciating Johnson’s frankness and direct talk.

‘’I can already reassure you about those programs, Kelly. We at Hughes Aircraft are presently fully occupied in filling the contracts we already won, both for military and civilian aircraft. We presently have zero extra production capacity left in our plants and have had to switch to round-the-clock multiple work shifts in order to satisfy the orders we already have within time limits acceptable for our customers. I even recently acquired control of the Hiller Helicopters Company, in order to gain some extra production capacity for my helicopters and for my new HUMMINGBIRD. Lockheed and the other major manufacturers thus have the way free to compete in any new government contracts to appear during the next four or five years.’’

‘’You have no other new development programs in your books, Ingrid?’’ asked a clearly surprised Johnson, making Ingrid shake her head in response.

‘’I didn’t say that, Kelly. I do have one major project in development but it doesn’t concern either civilian transport aircraft or military combat aircraft. What I am presently focusing on is a future spaceplane able to attain Earth orbit.’’

‘’A spaceplane?’’ nearly shouted a stunned Johnson. ‘’You’re shitting me!’’

‘’Not at all, Kelly.’’ replied Ingrid, a malicious smile appearing on her lips. ‘’Let me show you a couple of pictures.’’

Going to her work desk and taking a file out of one of its drawers, she brought it back to the discussion table and showed to Johnson the picture of a scale model being tested in a wind tunnel.

‘’This is a picture of a scale model of my STARBLAZER spaceplane project, being tested in my hypersonic wind tunnel facility.’’

As Johnson looked with bewilderment at the picture in question, then looking up at her, Ingrid passed to him a number of other picture prints.

‘’To prove to you that I am serious about that project, here are pictures of me being fitted for a spacesuit, right here in this office. Oh, the first picture shows me as I was about to put on an adult diaper, which is needed under that spacesuit. I hope that it won’t offend you.’’

Kelly Johnson opened his eyes wide while looking at the picture of Ingrid, fully naked and about to put on a diaper.

‘’Hell, that doesn’t offend me a bit, Ingrid, on the contrary. You must be by far the most beautiful aircraft designer in the World.’’ He then looked in succession at the other pictures, taken as Ingrid was putting on the various parts of her prototype spacesuit and was being fitted for it, then looked back at her with renewed respect.

‘’Ingrid, you are truly incredible. I didn’t know that the government had launched a Space program.’’

‘’It hasn’t, at least not yet, Kelly. My STARBLAZER project is a strictly private one, with no government participation or direction. In fact, Washington even ignores its existence at this time.’’

‘’But, such a program will cost a fortune to realize, Ingrid. If not to satisfy a government requirement, why do it? You could bankrupt your company while trying to turn your spaceplane project into reality.’’

‘’I don’t think so, Kelly. My costs to date are quite minimal despite its ambitions. As for my reasons to do this, they are simple: to boost national pride and reputation as the most technologically advanced country in the World. Going into Space is also an old dream and a powerful motivation for me personally.’’ Johnson was silent for a moment as he digested all that, then asked her a last question.

‘’Uh, will you let me keep those pictures, so that I could convince my boss about your exclusive commitment to that spaceplane project of yours?’’

‘’No! I intend to keep my project as secret as possible. However, you are free to keep the one picture showing me ready to put on my spacesuit.’’ Johnson couldn’t help have a chuckle at that.

‘’Ingrid, you will always be the eternal temptress.’’

‘’What’s the point of having a nice body and not showing it, Kelly?’’ was Ingrid’s disarming reply.