Chapter 13: The Prototype Shuttle

Even sour-faced Stark grinned at that.

Derek smiled and said. "Even that would be acceptable as long as I could go with you into space."

I could see that I needed to pay attention to the recruiting of personnel in the very near future.

I turned the Shuttle to a course of seventy degrees and set the distance of twenty-two hundred and seventy miles. We descended at a very shallow angle. We soon found ourselves approaching Washington. We continued until we were over the Atlantic ocean and turned to a course of twenty degrees. At the entrance to the Hudson, we turned left for Palmdale, ascending to fifty thousand feet.

Descending back at Palmdale, we flew at a sedate height of ten feet back into the Skunk Works. The gate guard was left scratching his head as I waved while flying over him. I settled back on the ground at the point from where we had started our flight and we emerged from the shuttle.

"That was fantastic! Awe-inspiring! All I can say is 'wow'!" said George.

"I concur," added Stark. "That trip was fantastic. There is, however, one question that has been bothering me."

"Yes," I replied, "and what's that?"

"Why did you specify the coils built into all your craft? I shouldn't have thought you would run into magnetic mines in space. It seems like an unnecessary expense."

"You've heard of cosmic radiation and solar wind?"

"Yes."

"Here on earth, we are protected from these by the earth's magnetic field. In space, we have to produce our own protection."

"I see. Thank you." Stark looked as though he hadn't been fully convinced.

"Well, goodbye Doctor Axon," said George. "I look forward to meeting you again."

I shook hands with George and Stark. They departed to return to their offices.

"Let's deal with the paperwork," I said to Derek.

"Right oh!" he replied, "I made pretty copious notes at the conference. They were used to produce the drawings in the quotation. I suggest that for now you accept this craft for extensive testing. That way you won't have to find the money for a while and we get your services in carrying out the testing."

"That seems very fair. Perhaps I should contact our pilot and let him know that we are making our own way back to base."

"Come into the office, then. I'll call the airfield."

We all trooped into Derek's office where he telephoned our pilot, to send him back to Holloman. That done, Derek prepared the papers so that we could accept the delivery of the craft for further testing.

"There. That's done. I have one question though. What is the fuel consumption and how long will it last between fill ups?"

"That I'll have to check. You see, I'm not sure of the power consumption of your engine."

"It's about thirty watts. The total consumption will be about four hundred watts."

"That low! Then I should think that you will get about a fifty hours flight time out of one tank. We have installed a consumption meter or rather it measures the pressure."

He whipped out a calculator and keyed in the figures.

"Oh my! Correction, that should be about a hundred hours of flight time. We use industrial grade hydrogen fuel cells, They use a nickel-tin catalyst. How are you going to get your hydrogen?"

"We can produce it by electrolysis. The power plants of the main craft are nuclear so that power isn't a problem. One thing occurs to me though. One hundred hours of flight time translates into about five and a half light-years of travel. That wouldn't be enough to get home in an emergency situation."

"How about, if we fitted long range tanks?"

"Yes. That just leaves the problem of making sure that we keep the tanks topped up."

"We could make the topping up automatic, when you park the shuttle."

"Yes, that would do it. How safe would all that hydrogen be?"

He smiled and said, "I think we can make a container that would survive a crash that you couldn't."

The return trip to Holloman took only twenty minutes. To avoid creating any sonic booms by traveling at supersonic speeds, we ascended to a height where we wouldn't generate any. Most of the flight time was taken up ascending and descending.