Clayton Knight

“ In fact, they seemed to Kiwi a 25bit too spooky even in daylight. He seldom stayed long in any one of them. Dad had given him the feeling that they were crowded with the unseen presence of rollicking young fellows who had once stayed there, who had gone away, and had never returned. They had learned to fly, had mounted into the high heavens, had come to know a world apart—a world of mountainous clouds, with the ground far below blue-gray in the early morning—a silent kingdom of its own, its silence sometimes shattered by the rattle of machine-guns and the bursts of anti-aircraft shells. ”

“ There were many other planes much higher than they, and Armbruster called out:
“Kiwi, do you see that little group of tiny specks to the right? That’s a crowd who are going off on a sight-seeing tour to some other planet. Next time they go we’ll go with them, for it’s lots of fun. You fly on and on through space, and the air turns blue and lavender and finally a clear, yellowish 155white as you approach the other worlds. The pull of gravity gets less and less until you feel as light as a feather and your plane is rocked this way and that by the whirling eddies of air. ”

“ The Skipper now took this opportunity to ask Thorne more about this flying world in which they had landed.
Then Thorne began:
“This little kingdom of which you and Jack and Kiwi are now a part is composed entirely of aviators who, in the other world, gave their lives for the advancement of aviation. Among us here are men who made experiments with the earliest gliders, who tried to fly crazy contraptions built by the rule of thumb and flown more by confidence than by knowledge. There are also among us pioneers who tried to find ways and means of doing impossible things in the air. ”

“ Ice often formed with great rapidity, and knowing this both the Skipper and Jack watched closely for the first tell-tale sign. The engine was throttled back about a quarter to the best cruising speed.
There seemed to be no end to the storm. It had been nearly half an hour since they had left the clear sunshine and entered into this ominous twilight. They had held their altitude, knowing that it was no use to try to climb above the clouds, and having no assurance that it would be better lower down. Every little while rain would suddenly fall, and as suddenly stop. ”

“ When several of these bidders for long distance honors have failed to appear at their announced destination and when, after a frantic search has been carried on over land and sea, the world has been forced to admit that no trace—not even a stick of wood or a rag of fabric—can be found, then it is comforting to think, to hope, that somewhere, a safe landing has been made. ”

“ Men were hurrying to different parts of the field with what he knew to be fire-extinguishers.
The stage was set for the try.
As they circled around, heading into the wind, he felt Dad throttle back the engine and the long, slow glide to the field was started.
The spectators on the ground were no more tense than Kiwi, through the long seconds of this dive to uncertainty.
The silence, after the engine had been throttled down, was broken only by the rush of the wind through the struts. He braced himself. He felt Dad tip the plane over so that the left wheel would touch first. ”

“ Now, Kiwi, I am going to teach you to fly very much as I taught your Dad long ago. No harm can come to you here in learning to fly. But I know you would like to be just such a pilot as your Dad is, and so I am going to teach you, as he was taught, how to overcome the dangers which follow stalling a plane in the air and what you must do if the engine stops suddenly.
“I’ll take the plane off the ground with my set of controls, and after we get well up in the air I’ll let you fly it straight with your stick and rudder for a while. You know how it feels to be up. ”

“ During one fight, when he was within a hair’s breadth of adding one more enemy machine to his score, his engine had stopped in the midst of a zoom, and the enemy, realizing he was getting the worst of it, had streaked for home, leaving the Skipper several miles behind the enemy lines with just enough altitude to glide down to No Man’s Land, where he had scrambled from his machine into a shell hole. There he crouched while the enemy artillery battered his plane to pieces with shell fire. ”

“ Only one machine was standing on the line, and the mechanics were half-heartedly turning the propeller over.
At their own hangar the two smudgy mechanics were still busy with the stream-lining. There seemed little chance that the plane would be ready much before noon.
Kiwi wandered up the line of hangars to see what other excitement he could find. He liked to listen to the flying talk that was practically the only topic of conversation around the field. He had learned to respect those rather dingy buildings, some of which were now in a sad state of disrepair. ”

“ He had drifted over to America, and had been working for several years at the factory that had built the engine for the Skipper’s plane.
When the factory head had received the order for a specially built engine for a particularly long non-stop flight, he had sent for Billings and told him that here was an engine that must be watched through all its construction, from the tiniest nut and bolt, to the moment of its great trial. Nothing must be overlooked. Everything must be tested and re-tested. ”

“ Among the numberless things that had been stowed away aboard the plane, Jack had provided himself with a powerful flashlight to use in such an emergency.
As they swooped low over the ship they could see the rails lined with passengers staring up at them. ”

“ Kiwi felt elated that at last he was actually controlling a plane. He couldn’t resist pushing the rudder slightly with his foot to see what effect it would have. It startled him to find that the slightest pressure sent the nose of the plane skidding sidewise. He hurriedly tried to correct this with the other foot, and discovered that he was overdoing it and that they were see-sawing back and forth in a crazy fashion.
The voice of Armbruster came through the phones:
“There, Kiwi, not too much rudder. Rudders are dangerous things. They have caused a good share of all the accidents.” ”

“ THIS is a story for boys who want to know of the thrills and joys of Aviation. It is written by a war flyer who was a pilot with a squadron at the front and who there learned to know how he and other young men reacted to those dangerous moments when lightning-quick decisions were necessary.
He has seen many boys learning to fly, and observed how most of them, after they had learned, acted in a crisis with the utmost coolness whether it was the sing of a bullet or the miss of a motor that brought the warning of danger. ”

“ Armbruster knew that after a little practice he could teach Kiwi to loop, which was only a matter of diving the plane until it had attained speed enough to carry itself over the top of the loop. He knew that Kiwi would soon learn to keep enough rudder on to prevent him from falling out of the loop sideways. All the other forms of acrobatics could only be learned by practice after the fundamental things had been thoroughly mastered. ”

“ He throttled back his motor to make the attempt. Now was the test!
No strain ever quite equals that of a pupil’s first landing. No matter who the pupil is, everyone within sight or hearing 159pauses tense until it is over. The group stared, fascinated, as young Kiwi glided down, flattened out a few inches above the surface, and settled down to a perfect three-point landing.
Kiwi had done it!
A shout went up and they pounded the Skipper on the back as he watched, almost unbelieving. Kiwi was a pilot! He had mounted into the air alone, had mastered the air, and had landed beautifully. ”

“ Jack’s body at the window shut off his view of Kiwi. He was doing everything in his power to hold the plane steady, using every particle of his skill to keep the bumps from causing Kiwi to lose his footing.
But in spite of all the Skipper’s efforts, one particularly vicious bump caused Kiwi to slip, and for just a second he wondered wildly if Jack could hold him from dropping off into that awesome space. His feet found the struts again, and he rested.
Slowly another layer was put on, and the flow stopped. To make sure, another coat of shellac was put on and another layer of tape. ”

“ Kiwi’s spirits rose, for it had begun to look as though his flight might be postponed again.
On the ride over to the field in the car, Jack said:
“Well, Skipper, do we try out your comic stream-lining on the wheels today? Not many pilots have any faith in them. I cannot see myself where they will add much to our speed.” ”

“ If the engine stopped unexpectedly when flying straight, he must instinctively push the stick forward, keep the nose down, and keep his flying speed. If it stopped during a turn, he must rudder into the turn and keep his flying speed. Always he must do these things instinctively when the motor failed.
Dad and Armbruster and Jack all had stories to tell of some spectacular experience when motors failed at crucial moments in the air. Always when in the air the pilot’s ear is attuned to the steady beat of the motor and he listens for its first missing stroke. ”

“ Stretched out on his perch on the top of the tank Kiwi was immensely interested in the sight.
One pilot in an old bombing plane, a clumsy flyer at best, edged in so close to get a better view that the Skipper had to turn sharply to avoid a collision. Everywhere they looked were antiquated planes continually closing in on them. ”

“ Many whose names are even now unknown in aviation, here have found their place and here their merits have been recognized. Test pilots, those unsung heroes of experimentation, form a large part of our numbers. Beginning with the legendary Icarus and continuing up to the present time, a steady stream of recruits have flowed into our kingdom, and they mark the progress of man’s conquest of the air.”
Then Thorne rattled on, in a way that the Skipper remembered as characteristic of him in the old days, recounting stories of pilots they had both known.
Both Jack and the Skipper found many friends. ”

“ He would picture himself wandering through the narrow streets of the cities, with vistas of temples ahead—their domes shining in the sunlight, covered with layers of pure gold that had been added to them through the centuries, until, on some of the oldest temples, the gold leaf was a quarter of an inch thick. ”

“ There’s a whole crowd of your fellows here, and no doubt you’ll find many friends among them.”
They had started off toward the edge of the field when the Skipper stopped and asked if something could not be done for their plane. Thorne waved him aside with, “Oh, it’s all right where it stands. Don’t worry about it.”
As they were walking along, Thorne became interested in Kiwi, and asked him how he liked flying. Kiwi, who had admired Thorne immensely from the first, chattered to him of their adventures in the clouds and of their narrow escape from the iceberg. ”

“ Dad said the plane had performed wonderfully until after they left Washington. They had been able to form a good idea of its speed and its new fuel consumption. They were flying a compass course over the clouds off Norfolk when a slight vibration had started in the engine. Since it had not been bad enough to worry them, they had kept on. However, as they had continued north, near Cape May, it had grown worse, and although it was dark when they reached Trenton, they decided to risk a landing at a strange field rather than strain the engine-bearers. ”

“ The field was crowded. A small platform had been built and the machine wheeled up to it so that the attractive daughter could just reach the big propeller. Both Billings and Cosgrave had spent the whole morning cleaning and polishing the plane until it shone. Jack, the Skipper and Kiwi were all in their uniforms. ”

“ When they were ready to leave the ground they found the field covered with people, and try as they would they could find no open space long enough to make the take-off safe. It was a warm summer night, and apparently everyone for miles around had driven to the field. The Skipper and Jack eventually had to abandon the night test and wait until morning.
A plan had been forming for some time in Kiwi’s mind. He had a queer sinking sensation every time he thought of Dad and Jack going off without him. He saw no reason why he, too, should not go when the plane left. ”

“ They were rolling still faster now, gathering speed, and from the corner of his eye Jack saw the Skipper push the control stick forward to get the tail off the ground. Striking uneven spots in the field, the big plane rocked gently. Still it seemed to drag. But always their speed increased over the ground. ”

“ Inch by inch he wormed his way out, 90reaching with his feet for the strut where it joined the fuselage.
The Skipper banked the plane over to help Kiwi as much as he could. He saw the perspiration stand out on Jack’s face, and noticed its set expression as Kiwi’s feet groped about for support. Another inch and he might reach it! The force of the wind was terrific.
Kiwi, under this strain, was not conscious of the cold now. He had to look down to find the strut. Just at this time they were passing over mountains of clouds. ”

“ Armbruster further explained, “it is necessary to increase the bank to keep the plane from skidding out sidewise. In banking sharply, where the wings tip up until they are vertical, the action of the elevator and the rudder is reversed. That is, you now use your elevator as a rudder and your rudder as an elevator.
154“You must get this firmly fixed in your mind, Kiwi, for it is very important. If you don’t, when you come to make a vertical turn and find the nose dropping, you will instinctively pull back the stick which, in the vertical position of the plane, will not lift the nose. ”