Author's Note: When I posted this story on TTH I received a review from Drake who was kind enough to point out that the description was very close to the Boeing 'Skyfox' and provided a link to some pictures of it. Although I hadn't seen or heard of the Skyfox before I wrote this, looking at the pictures it is close to what I had in mind. The only big difference is the Skyfox has its stabilizer mounted halfway up the rudder like the Me-262 rather than at the top of the rudder. ( forum/m_8497065/anchors_8503664/mpage_2/key_ #8503664).


The canopy was open but it didn't help a lot, the muggy air sat like an oppressive blanket over me and the sun blazed down increasing the temperature in the cockpit so it must have been well above a 100. Late August in Ohio in the middle of a heat wave was not a place I enjoyed. Taxiing up and down the runway in the blazing sun was almost unbearable. As much as I liked playing with the Pinto this was a little too much. Pinto was the name North American Aviation had come up with for our jet prototype; they were continuing their horse theme a la the 'Mustang' and someone at North American had come up with 'Pinto' - a plains Indian war horse.

She was a sweet plane, I couldn't wait until we decided she was ready to fly and I could take her up. The taxi tests had gone great, the one problem we'd found had a simple fix and she had performed flawlessly since then. The GE turbines had also performed well, a lot more reliably than I had expected.

The last of the breeze disappeared as she slowed almost to a stop; I turned off the runway and onto the taxiway and headed back to our hanger. A touch of throttle and she increased her pace, she seemed to slip along without any assistance. She was an amazingly clean plane, made more so by the lack of propellers stirring up the air and creating noise and vibration. She rolled along with only a low level vibration from the engines and a slight jarring as she crossed the expansion cracks in the concrete.

As I neared the hanger Chris, the lead NA engineer, came out and stood in the small patch of shade at the side of the hanger. As I approached the open door to take her inside he started waving his hands, he turned his head and called over his shoulder. A moment later a couple ground crewmen came out, one with wands and he started directing me to a parking spot to the side of the hanger.

I followed his directions and brought the Pinto up to him and then swung her so she was facing out, then set the brakes and started shutting her down. I wondered why they wanted her outside, must be something going on in the hanger. Joe and Harry, another NA engineer, came up in the jeep they'd been following me with and parked beside Chris. They talked for a moment and then the three of them started walking toward me. The ground crew rolled a maintenance platform up to the side of the fuselage under the cockpit; I finished disconnecting myself and climbed out onto it. We had plans drawn up for a light ladder that would attach to a fitting just below the cockpit but no one had gotten around to actually building one yet.

As my feet hit the ground I staggered a little, Chris handed me an almost cool bottle of coke and I drank it down. My flying coveralls were almost completely soaked; I pulled the zipper down to my waist to try to get some relief. If I'd been back at the 101st I'd have dropped them completely, I had a bra and panties on after all, but then if I'd been back at the 101st I doubt it would have been this hot and muggy. Standing around the Wright-Patterson airfield in my underwear was a little too extreme for Dayton.

I finished the coke, the three of them hadn't said a word but I didn't like the look on their faces, "All right, what the hell is going on? Why are we out here instead of in the hanger where there is at least a little shade?"

They glanced at each other; Chris finally spoke up, "General Pallet's aide stopped by with some orders."

I didn't like the sound of that, "What orders?"

"As soon as the Pinto comes in the hanger they're to pull her engines."

"What?!"

"He said they needed them as 'spares'."

"What the hell is going on?"

Joe spoke up, "I got the son of a bitch talking, big wigs are coming in a couple of days to see the 'official' prototype perform and they want to make sure they have spare engines."

"They've already got three or four!" I said in shock.

"Yeah, but you know how that pig burns out engines," Harry commented.

Chris snorted, "They couldn't change an engine fast enough to matter. He didn't say it but what he really meant was they wanted to make sure we weren't around."

I tried to reign in my anger, we had gotten no support from Pallet and North American had gone out on a limb to build the prototype I was standing next to. Even as flush as they were with profits from the P-51 they were going to be hurting if they couldn't get a piece of the jet market. General Pallet and his gang had no interest in what we were doing and I'd gotten the feeling that he was hostile to us. The fact he was a former Douglas exec and Douglas was the primary contractor on the 'official' prototype might have something to do with it.

We'd managed to get some jet engines from GE, mostly because they wanted them tested for real as much as anything I suspected. There was also the fact that I was in the good graces of a couple of their engineers. One was one of the jet engine engineers that I'd worked with quite a bit when we started analyzing the 262s; he introduced me to his brother who was in their weapons division. I'd talked to him about Buffy's idea of a Gatling gun and he about had babies he loved the idea so much. He spent ten minutes walking around my office with me and his brother watching him as he slammed his head with the heel of his hand mumbling 'how could I be so dumb!' Then he sat down and sketched out a design in about twenty minutes, the three of us worked on it for another couple of hours to make sure it would fit our needs and then he disappeared.

A month later I got a preliminary specification for the gun giving weight, dimensional specifications and mounting requirements so we could make sure our design would take it. We also had to provide them with the specifications for the magazine and feed configuration we wanted to use. It had blown my mind when two weeks later he sent back the drawings for the entire installation, including the weight specifications with a full ammo load of 3500 rounds. We had to do some redesign to handle the weight distribution but it had all worked.

The 20mm magazine was in three sections, the sections farther aft feeding into the section in front of it. The sections fit neatly inside the fuselage, the forward most one just behind the gun and the feed led from it directly into the gun. It looked like a very clean installation that wouldn't jam easily. We talked with him and he made some minor changes so that the second and third sections of the magazine could be easily removed. When all three sections were installed and full of 20mm ammo the installation weighed over 2000 pounds; that would take up almost half of our planned ordinance load. With the removable magazine sections if heavier bombs or other ordinance was desired the gun ammunition could be cut down, about 2200 rounds with two sections and about 1000 rounds with a single magazine section.

We still hadn't gotten anything real, that was still a month or two away, but I had gone down to their test facility and saw a test firing of the new cannon, it was amazing. They had only gotten it up to about 4000 rounds per minute but it just tore through the back drop, too many rounds hit too quickly and the guy was slow getting off the trigger.

We had a dummy installation in the Pinto, but it matched the weight distribution and she was still nicely balanced. The gun and magazine installation was really very compact, it turned out we had room for another fuel tank between it and the cockpit that could be used when only a partial ammo load was used. With a full ammo load the tank needed to be empty or she had too much weight forward.

"Those fucking assholes!" I knew I was turning red with rage, "I'm going to go talk to General Howard, see if we can't get them to keep their dirty little hands off our baby!"

Chris spoke up, "Won't work, General Howard is at some conference in DC for the next couple of days; I don't know when he'll get back."

"Shit! Well, maybe he'll be able to talk some sense into them when he gets back." But what were we going to do until then?

"Colonel," Joe said, I nodded for him to go on, "Our ground crew guys are at lunch, let's keep her out here until they get back and then we can at least have them pull the engines. I don't trust those other guys; they might have an 'accident' while they're pulling the engines."

I thought for a minute, we'd been taxi testing the Pinto for the last three days, we had a couple more days scheduled before we'd try to take her up for real. I'd completed the day's tests but there wasn't really any reason not to continue with the next day's testing, nothing had gone wrong and everything was working. I looked at the guys standing around me, "Can you go over her - do all the checks you were going to do this afternoon?"

"Sure, won't take but half an hour or so."

I nodded, "Good, once you're done refuel her and I'll do the next set of tests."

An hour later I was taxiing back down the runway, in front of me a flight of P-51s were running up their engines at the end of the taxiway; I could hear their chatter on the radio as they prepared to take off. They were going up to work on their proficiency, i.e. they were going up to play. I wished I could go with them, it was even hotter and muggier and I wasn't at all sure I'd be able to last through the entire test sequence. Between the heat and stewing over what that idiot Pallet was doing to us and I was about to throw in the towel.

I watched as the first pair of P-51s barreled down the runway and lifted off into the blue sky, followed a couple of minutes later by the next pair. I checked with the tower, nothing was on approach, so I could use the runway for the next taxi test, a high speed run to the point where the wheels were about to break loose, then slam on the brakes and see how fast she'd stop and if anything broke.

It was a test that I knew she was going to ace, like the rest of the tests that were scheduled for today. One of the engineers over at NA had heard about a new kind of brake the auto industry was developing - he called them 'disk' brakes. Instead of the normal drum with the brake shoes inside and pressing out, this brake used a big still platter, sort of like a dinner plate, attached to the wheel. The brake pads themselves were in 'U' shaped fittings mounted on the wheel strut, and thus stationary, with the pads on either side of the disk. When you applied the brake the pads squeezed the disk between them slowing it down. The damn things stopped her like she'd run into a brick wall, and they didn't fade when they got hot, if anything they got more powerful. Initially they were a little heavier than drum brakes would have been but Charlie had solved that problem by having holes drilled through the disk. They were now lighter than a normal drum brake would have been and they stopped just as fast and stayed cooler.

I turned onto the runway and eased on the brake, she stopped smoothly and I locked the brakes while I ran up the engines and then throttled back down. They were still a little slow responding to the throttle but they were better than the Me-262's turbines.

I looked down the long runway and then up at the blue sky, I could still make out the P-51s climbing away, specks high in the sky. We were going to get royally screwed and it wasn't going to be at all pleasurable. Damn that asshole Pallet! I sat there for a moment longer watching the P-51s disappear and wishing I was up there with them. Finally I came to a decision, if I was going to get screwed I'd at least have some fun first. Besides, if they canned me I could go and live closer to Buffy.

"Pinto 1, Wright Tower." I called over the radioed.

"Go ahead Pinto 1; you're clear for taxi test."

"Negative Wright Tower, beginning take-off roll." I wondered if the guys were listening to the monitor in the hanger or if they were busy with other stuff.

"Pinto 1? Repeat last broadcast!"

I released the brakes and slid the throttles forward; she started slowly and then the acceleration increased as the turbines spun up, "Pinto 1, Wright tower, commencing take-off."

"Pinto 1?"

She was building speed faster than I'd ever seen; I had the throttles all the way to the stops. As I rolled down the runway I glanced over at the hanger, half a dozen guys were streaming out, I didn't have time to take a good look but they were pumping their fists in the air for me or at me, I couldn't tell which. I felt her get light on her wheels and held her steady for another couple of seconds and then eased back gently on the stick, "Come on baby - let's go flying."

She seemed to respond to my words and lifted cleanly off the runway, she was steady as a rock as we climbed away. I pushed the gear levers forward and heard the whines and thunks as they tucked up and the gear doors closed. I eased the flaps up and she was accelerating even faster as she cleaned up. I pulled the stick back gently lifting her nose and she streaked upward, slowing hardly at all as the climb steepened.

I reached ten thousand feet faster than I'd ever done it before. I started easing her through some gentle maneuvers and she responded with a precision that amazed me, in a lot of ways she reminded me of the Spitfire, her controls were light but crisp and she felt as solid as a rock. She wasn't as quick to slow down when I eased off the power but she was quicker when I moved the throttles forward, she accelerated faster than any piston plane I'd ever flown.

I was lost in experimenting with her, forgetting she'd never been flown before. I increased the speed and tightness of the banks and then tried a series of rolls, she snapped around at an incredible rate. I stopped her after the fourth roll and she was level and steady with no tendency to continue the roll. I checked my fuel and realized it was still almost full, I'd have to check that again when the tanks were closer to empty. We had baffles in the tanks to cut down on fuel sloshing but I was beginning to wonder if they'd be adequate given her rate of roll.

I put her into a series of loops and she pulled through them without losing speed or altitude, she had so much power that I could stand her on her tail and she would just climb. As I passed through fifteen thousand feet I remembered I didn't have any oxygen, I didn't know how much higher she would have gone but I couldn't risk anything higher. I nosed her over and dove back to a safer altitude and watched in amazement as the airspeed indicator neared 600 Knots.

I tried another series of maneuvers and she just breezed through them, the G forces I was experiencing in some of the maneuvers caused my vision to narrow, tunnel vision was the term we usually used. I eased up a little and just flew her, she was such a delight. A thought went through my mind; I wondered what Buffy would be able to do with her.

I heard some chatter in my earphones and realized it was the P-51 jocks I'd seen take off ahead of me. By the yells and swearing and shouts of triumph I knew they were dogfighting. I looked around and saw a glint far to my left and turned toward it, in a very short time I could see the P-51s swirling around the sky in front of me. I pulled to the side and watched them for a minute and their fight came to an end, two of the planes were diving away, twisting and turning, but the other two were locked on their tails and weren't being shaken off, then I heard someone call out, "Uncle!"

The four planes slowed and started climbing, the front two forming one element and the other two moving into formation with them. I turned toward them and shoved the throttles forward, I lined up on the lead aircraft and just as I reached him I broadcast, "BANG! Your dead!" and pulled her up in a steep climb.

"What the hell was that?"

"Where'd she come from?"

"Hey guys," I radioed back, "Want to play some?" I turned back toward them and throttled down a little as I neared them, pulling onto a course parallel to theirs and thousand yards or so off their wings. She slowed down as I drifted up even to them but I could tell she didn't like going this slow, she felt like she was on the edge of a stall.

"Hey – that's that strange plane that's been taxing around the field for the last week!"

"Yeah, but it's not the one that they've actually been flying."

"So, do you want to play?" I asked.

"What the hell do you mean?"

"Four against one sounds about fair, how about it?"

"You're on!"

I spent the next half hour chasing them around the sky, it really wasn't much competition. I had way too much speed and acceleration; they couldn't get to me no matter what they did. And I could nail them any time I wanted. Finally it settled into a pattern, they'd try to spot me coming and then maneuver madly when I was too close and going too fast to stay with them, about half the time they might actually have gotten away. But even when they did I was usually able to turn her around and come screaming back long before they had picked me up again and I'd nail them on the return pass.

Finally we called it quits, one of the guys, the leader I thought, summed it up, "Jesus, if that's what the guys in Europe are running into with those Me-262s I understand why we're pulling in our heads."

I agreed with him, "The 262s not as good as this is, but it's a lot closer to her than it is to a P-51."

"How the hell would you know?"

"Because I've flown one!"

"Colonel Thompson?"

"Who did you think it was?"

One of the other guys spoke up, "But she's a wo…"

Someone else over rode him, "Shut up, Kurt. Jesus! Sometimes you're such a jackass!"

There was silence for a while, I checked my fuel and saw I was down to a quarter, half an hour of dog fitting combined with all the acrobatics and other stuff I'd been doing burned a lot fuel. "Thanks guys, see you around."

I turned back toward the airfield and shoved the throttles forward, as I left them I heard, "Jesus! Look at her go!"

As I approached the airfield I radioed the tower, "Pinto 1, Wright Tower, request permission to land."

"Wright Tower, Pinto 1, you're cleared, first on approach, no other traffic in the area at this time. Barometer 29.2, winds negligible 0 to 5 from the south west."

I settled into the landing pattern, I was glad there wasn't any other traffic to deal with. Which turned out to be a good thing, she wouldn't slow down! I had the throttles all the way back and the engines were at idle but she wasn't shedding speed like a piston engine aircraft would, without the propeller acting as an air brake she just slipped through the air. I turned onto final and even with the flaps down I realized I wasn't going to make it down, I didn't bother trying to lower the landing gear; "Pinto 1, Wright Tower, I'm going to go around and try again."

"Roger, Pinto 1."

I glanced at my fuel gauge; I still had better than a quarter of a tank left in the main fuselage tank, the other thanks I'd drained dry already. That was another thing that had worked; as the tanks emptied she maintained her balance and her performance seemed unaffected other than being even quicker to accelerate. I retracted the flaps and flew several miles away from the field and climbed back to five thousand feet.

As I made my second approach I started doing things much earlier than I had before, halfway down the opposite leg I dropped the flaps and let her slow on her own. I went a half mile past the point where I would normally make the 180 degree turn onto the final approach. I made the final turn and as soon as I had her leveled out and aligned with the runway I dropped the gear. The gear doors opened with a series of sharp 'thunks' and then there was a whine as the landing gear lowered. I could feel the increased drag but she was still only gradually slowing down.

I passed over the runway threshold at about fifty feet and let her find her way down; I had plenty of runway left. She settled slowly and then the main wheels touched down with a couple sharp chirps. Moments later the nose dropped softly to the runway and the smoothness of flight was replaced with the rumble of the tires on the runway.

With everything down I eased on the brakes and slowed her to the point where I could turn off the runway and onto the taxiway and head back toward the hanger. I reached up and released the canopy and let it slide to the rear, the oppressive heat came flowing back in but I hardly noticed it. As I approached the hanger I saw two groups of guys on either side of the doors. I recognized my gang, they weren't hard to spot since they were all waving their arms and hugging each other and I could hear their shouts and cheers. On the other side of the hanger door I saw the engineers and mechanics of the official prototype; they were looking at me in either disbelief or with sullen expressions.

A couple of my guys separated from the crowd, they trotted to the hanger doors and I saw one had a set of paddles while the other some wheel chocks slung over his shoulder. I followed the man with the paddles directions as I taxied slowly into the hanger and over to her usual parking place. I shut her down and then sat for a couple of moments while some of the adrenaline wore off. She was a dream to fly but I realized I had been waiting tensely for some catastrophic failure the entire time I had been flying her.

I patted the throttle cluster with my left hand and said softly, "Sorry babe, I never should have doubted you."

The noise level was rising as the guys clustered around the plane, some cheering and others trying to ask questions. There were some scraps and a light thud; then Chris was on the maintenance platform that had been shoved up to the fuselage below the cockpit. I looked at him and grinned, he grinned back and shook his head in amazement, "Jesus Thompson! I never expected you to pull a stunt like that!"

"And why the hell not?"

"You're too straight laced…"

His voice tapered off as I gave him a hard look, "You don't really know me."

He shrugged and the grin came back, "So how does she fly?"

"Like a dream!"

"Were you really dog fighting those P-51s?"

I nodded, "Tore the shit out of them too."

I released the straps and disconnected myself from the plane and stood up. Chris gave me a hand over the cockpit coaming; I staggered a little, my legs felt weak and shaky. I'd been in the cockpit most of the day and the heat and dehydration were starting to get to me. I climbed slowly down from the platform, careful as my legs slowly regained their strength. When I stepped off the ladder the guys were all around me patting my back and asking innumerable questions. I couldn't keep them straight and didn't try to respond, someone handed me a cold coke and I drank it down.

Suddenly a nasally voice cut through the din and everyone went silent, "Lieutenant Colonel Thompson!"

The people in front of me moved to the side creating an open area between me and Major General Pallet, the tall thin man with an acne scarred face was glaring at me. I came to attention and saluted him, he continued glaring at me for half a minute before he returned the salute, "What the hell do you think you're doing Thompson?!"

"Sir, we're testing this prototype."

"I sent word down to get the engines out of that plane! We need them as back-up for the real prototype, Colonel!"

"Sir, I was advised we were to remove the engines after we completed testing for the day."

"Thompson, your testing was only supposed to be taxi tests! What the hell were you doing up in the air!"

"Sir, the taxi tests were nearly complete and I thought it a good idea to get a little flight time before we were grounded until we can get some more engines."

He was losing control of his anger, I could see his face getting redder and redder, "You insubordinate bi… I ought to bring you up on charges! You had no authorization to flight test that aircraft!"

"General Howard put me in charge of the test sequence for this aircraft, sir. I can alter it as results or conditions dictate, sir."

He glared at me for another minute then snarled at me, "Get those damn engines out of that plane!" He turned away from me and pointed at the senior GE engineer, "YOU! Come with me!"

I watched as he stomped away followed by his aide and the GE engineer, for some reason I thought we were going to have trouble getting more engines. I hoped Howard would be able to do something when he got back but I was worried. Damn I wished Buffy was around so I could talk to her, there had to be some way to get somebody to see reason!

Chris was standing at my elbow, "God damned asshole!" I turned to him and he saw me looking at him, he flushed red, "Oh… sorry Barb."

I shook my head, "I was thinking fucking idiotic prick… but either will do."

One of the other GE engineers came up, "How were the engines?"

"Beautiful!" I sad, "Performed like a dream. I was pushing them quite a bit so you'll want to check them close but they seemed perfect."

He nodded, "We'll work with your guys to get them out and then check them over. I'll let you know if we find any problems."

"Thanks"

He looked at the departing backs of Pallet and his boss, "I don't know what he's got on them but he's got them by the short hairs over something." My expectations of getting more engines any time soon went even further into the tank.

Three days later Chris and I were standing by the hanger door looking out at the grand stand Pallet had erected in front of the hanger. I'd seen General Arnold from a distance half an hour before as he and the other big wigs were led out to the stands to watch the demonstration of the new jet fighter prototype. There were half a dozen other generals in his group and a couple distinguished looking civilians, War Department high mucky-mucks I guessed. There were also two Navy admirals and a couple Navy lieutenants, their aides I thought, the blue uniforms a little out of place among the sea of khaki.

I couldn't help smile a little, even as disgusted as I felt, as the official prototype sat stationary on the tarmac fifty yards from the grand stand, wisps of smoke coming from the entire length of the fuselage. If I had to make a guess I would say she had fried a major electrical run, the arcing and sparking coming from a hole near her nose where a hatch had blown open was a pretty good clue.

She'd only started to taxi out when the failure had happened. I thought the pilot had compounded her problems, he evidently thought he had an engine fire so he had fired off both engine fire extinguishers before climbing out of the cockpit and running away from the plane. Foam and fire retardant were now dripping out of both ends of the engines under her wings, I would guess they were not going to run again anytime soon.

The official prototype was almost a copy of the Me-262, altered slightly so she didn't have quite the same silhouette but you could certainly see the resemblance. The changes they had made to meet the Army's requirements, the biggest hurdle was meeting the range requirements, hadn't helped the design. I thought she'd have worse performance than the Me-262 and she'd have significantly lighter armament, down to four 50s and not all that much ammo. From the fuel capacity figures I had seen she also wasn't going to meet the range requirements, at least not given the fuel consumption we'd been seeing from the engines.

She was being swarmed over by technicians but I knew she wasn't going to get into the air anytime today, probably not anytime in the next week. I wondered how much longer they were going to keep all the big wigs sitting out in that grand stand under the blazing sun. Between the sun and the humidity I sure wouldn't have wanted to be out there.

Then I saw movement in the grand stand and soon General Arnold was coming down the steps and turning toward us, the rest of the crowd trailing after him. I guess he'd decided he'd had enough. Toward the back of the crowd I saw Pallet scrambling to catch up to him but too many people blocked his way. The General was coming toward where we were standing, heading for the closest shade I suspected.

Suddenly a thought came to me, I moved closer to his path and waited until he was in the shade, then came to attention and rendered a crisp salute, "General Arnold!"

He noticed me for the first time, then returned my salute and stepped closer to me, "Colonel Thompson, you're looking well."

"Yes sir, I was wondering if you had a minute to inspect our prototype, since the demonstration seems to be off?"

"Prototype? Oh, the one North American was backing. I heard that it wasn't anywhere near ready to fly nor would it meet our requirements."

"Sir?!" I said, shocked by his statement, "No sir! We've had her in the air. And I believe she would meet all the Army's requirements."

Pallet finally made it to General Arnold's side, "Lieutenant Colonel Thompson quit bothering the General!" He turned to the General, "Sir, I'm sure we'll have her fixed in a day or two and we'll be able to continue the demonstration."

"General, you know very well I'll be heading back to DC tomorrow."

I decided to stick my neck out, "Sir, we could demonstrate our prototype."

Pallet wheeled on me, "Shut up, Thompson! Your plane doesn't even have engines!"

Arnold looked at me, "Is that correct?"

"Sir, General Pallet had us remove the engines so they could be used as spares for his prototype. Since she's not going to need them we could re-install the engines."

Pallet snorted, "The General already said he'd be leaving tomorrow!"

"Sir, it wouldn't take that long."

Arnold looked at me, "How long."

"A couple of hours, sir."

Pallet glared, "You can't install two jet engines and have them tested and ready to fly in that amount of time!"

Chris had stepped up next to me, "Yes we can, she's designed for quick engine changes. All we need is the engines."

General Arnold's aide spoke up, "Sir, you have that conference from 1500 to 1700," he glanced at his watch, "that's starting two hours from now. And the rest of your schedule is full."

"Sir?" A familiar voice spoke up from the other side of Pallet; General Howard had finally shown up.

Arnold turned to him, "General Howard, where have you been? I thought I'd see you before now!"

"Yes sir, I was completing a task General Pallet assigned me, but I'm here now. Everybody scheduled for that conference is either here or readily available, we could do that while they're getting the prototype ready."

Arnold thought for a moment, "Do it! Reschedule the conference for 1330 to 1530," he turned to me, "Colonel, we'll take a look at your prototype at 1530, if she's ready to fly."

At 1530 I was in the Pinto and we were sitting on the tarmac in front of the grand stand. We had to wait a little longer for them to arrive and get seated but at 1535 I started her engines and taxied out toward the runway. Ahead of me four P-51s trundled along, the same four I'd played with on my last flight. While the guys had put the Pinto's engines in I'd found them and talked them into helping with the demonstration. Once I explained what was going on they were eager to join in.

My radio came alive with their call, "Eagle flight, Wright Tower, a flight of four P-51Ds, requests permission to take-off."

"Roger Eagle Flight, you are first for take-off, standby on the taxi way, a C-47 is inbound and should be landing in a couple of minutes. You'll be next after he clears the runway."

"Eagle Flight, Wright Tower, acknowledged."

"Pinto 1, Wright Tower, a flight of one, requests permission to take-off."

"Pinto 1, you're cleared after Eagle Flight."

"Roger, Wright Tower."

I checked with the ground crew and verified everything was clear. I double checked the instruments and electrical switches, she was running on battery and everything was ready. I pushed the throttle for the left engine to the starting detent and then pushed the start button; there was a deep 'thump' as the ignition cartridge fired. Unlike the Me-262 and its little gasoline engine the GE engines were started with ignition cartridges, a 10 gauge shotgun shell fired into the turbine to get it spinning. There were ten of them for each engine mounted in a feed magazine but I'd never had to use more than two to get an engine started.

I heard and felt the 'whumph' as the turbine lit off, the increasing whine as she spun up letting me know she was started. I eased the throttle back to idle and then repeated the procedure with the second engine. I gave both engines about thirty seconds to warm up a little and settle down - then I released the brakes and eased the throttles forward. As I turned onto the taxiway I could see the four P-51s waiting at the end of the taxiway as a C-47 settled onto the runway.

By the time I reached the end of the runway everything was warmed up and ready to go, I waited a minute as the second pair of P-51s took off, "Pinto 1, Wright Tower, ready for take-off."

"Wright Tower, Pinto 1, you're cleared."

I released the brake and gave her a touch of throttle and pulled out onto the runway, turning until I was aligned with the center of the runway and then I shoved the throttles all the way forward. I didn't have to worry about flooding out or starving the engines by moving the throttles too quickly - GE had come up with a neat trick. They'd developed a control that limited the increase or decrease in fuel flow to what the engines could take regardless of the change in throttle. The result was that they didn't respond directly to throttle changes, but they responded as fast as they could. It had worked fine so far, giving us better response than if the pilot had to think about regulating throttle changes on his or her own.

She raced down the runway, I didn't hold her down as I had the first time but let her lift off as soon as she wanted. We hadn't covered a third of the runway when she lifted clear. I kept the climb angle down while I got her cleaned up and then banked her around, "Pinto 1, Wright Tower, I'd like to make a low altitude pass down your runway."

"Pinto 1, no traffic in area, you are cleared."

I swung her around in a long 360 degree turn until I was lined up with the runway. The entire time I had kept the throttles all the way forward and I was doing more than 500 Knots as I neared the end of runway. I knew that our radios were being piped to speakers near the grand stand so the audience could hear anything that was being transmitted.

As I neared the end of the runway I glanced at my altimeter confirming my altitude, "Climb demonstration, starting altitude 200 feet!"

As I passed the end of the runway I pulled the stick back to my gut and her nose rose into the air, as she increased her angle I eased the stick forward until it was centered when she was pointed straight up and she rocketed into the sky, I called out our altitude as we climbed, "1000… 2000… 3000… 4000…"

When I reached 22,000 feet I leveled off, she had been slowing down and I didn't know how high she would actually go but I thought I'd given an adequate demonstration. I heard Chris on the radio, "Pinto base, Pinto 1, confirming climb 0 to 22,000 feet in two minutes twenty seconds."

"Roger, Pinto base."

"That is a rate of climb in excess of 9400 feet per minute," He didn't say it but everyone in that grand stand knew, or should have known, that was almost three times what a P-51 could do. I was shedding altitude as fast as I could without going into a full blown power dive; that was one thing I didn't want to do until we had a lot more experience with her. She was so fast I thought she'd have the same problem the P-38 had experienced; it could dive so fast that the controls would lock up and you couldn't pull out.

I was down to about fifteen thousand feet and dropping steadily, "Eagle Flight, Pinto 1, ready to play?"

"Roger, Pinto 1, we're about ten miles north of the field."

"Eagle Flight, I'll orbit the field at 5000, bounce me when you think you can!"

I continued my decent until I was at 5000 feet, low enough that the people on the ground should be able to see us, and then waited for the Mustangs. For the next half hour they tried to get me or to evade me, they weren't very successful on either front. Like the previous time I just had too much acceleration and speed for them to stay with me so I controlled the engagements. I was also finding that despite her speed she could turn almost as fast as a P-51 and she could out roll them like they were stuck in mud.

"Pinto 1, Eagle Flight, I think we've demonstrated that enough, let's do the last two demonstrations."

"Roger, Pinto 1."

"Pinto 1, Wright Tower, Pinto 1 and Eagle Flight request permission to perform low level maneuvers over the field for the next half hour."

"Wright Tower, Pinto 1, stand by for a couple, we've got two planes departing then the field will be clear."

"Roger, Wright Tower."

"Wright Tower, Pinto 1, you know you're putting on a hell of a show! I think just about everyone on the base is outside watching you guys."

I grinned to myself; if they thought what they'd seen was a show just wait! I sent Eagle one and two south for their part while Eagle three and four orbited with me a couple of miles west of the field. I saw the two C-47s take off and a couple of minutes later I heard from the tower.

"Wright Tower, Pinto 1, the field is clear."

"Roger Wright Tower, Eagle 4, take up your spotter position, Eagle 3 I'll conform to you, start the approach."

Eagle 4 turned away and headed for the field while I pulled alongside Eagle 3, I followed him around until we were a couple of miles northeast of the field and lined up with the runway. We dropped speed and altitude until we were at 200 feet and going as slow as we could. She was feeling very sluggish and I thought she was right on the edge of a stall, not something I wanted to experiment with at this altitude, "Eagle 3, just a touch more speed."

I matched the P-51 as he increased her speed by about 10 Knots and she felt a lot better, "Eagle 3, that's good."

We were approaching the end of the runway, I saw Eagle 4 off to the side making lazy figure eights. He lengthened his current leg and when he turned back he was in position to watch us, then I heard him, "Eagle 4, Demo flight, stand by… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… MARK!"

At his yell of 'MARK' I slammed the throttles forward, immediately the turbines started winding up but I could see Eagle 3 starting to pull away from me. His piston engine responded more quickly to the throttle change. He got about three lengths ahead of me before my increasing rate of acceleration matched and then passed his, by the time we were halfway down the 10000 foot runway I was ahead of him and pulling away rapidly. When I roared past the grand stand I glanced at my air speed indicator, it was just passing 450 Knots. A couple seconds later I passed the end of the runway and pulled back on the stick and climbed to 5,000.

As I climbed I eased off the throttle and turned south toward Cincinnati, then I heard Chris, "Pinto 1, what were your starting and ending speeds for the 10000 foot acceleration run?"

"Pinto Base, 140 Knots and 465 Knots."

"Eagle 3, how about you?"

I heard the P-51 pilot answer, "Pinto Base, 140 Knots and 350 Knots."

"Roger that, from our timing Pinto 1 took 18 seconds to cover 10000 feet, Eagle 3 took 24 seconds. When Pinto 1 reached the end of the runway Eagle 3 was just under the ¾ mark."

In the distance I saw the cluster of tall buildings marking downtown Cincinnati, "Pinto 1, Eagle 1, I'm almost there, you can start your run anytime."

"Eagle 1, Pinto 1, Roger. Eagle 2, are you ready?

"Eagle 2 is ready."

I kept to the west so I wouldn't interfere with Eagle 1, as I neared the river I spotted Eagle 2 orbiting a couple thousand feet below me, to the east of downtown and right over the river. "Eagle 1, Eagle 2, here I come!"

I looked to the south and spotted Eagle 1 streaking north at about 2000 feet, he had her wound all the way up, light smoke coming from his engine exhausts confirming he was using war emergency power. As he neared the river Eagle 2 called out, "Pinto Base, stand by to begin timing!"

I heard Chris respond, "Roger Eagle 2."

Eagle 2 came back on the radio, "5… 4… 3… 2… 1… MARK!" Eagle 1 flashed over the river and continued on course, a little east of north, toward Wright-Patterson. I continued south about ten miles and then orbited while Eagle 1 made his run.

After a little more than five minutes I heard him, "Eagle 1, Pinto Base, field in sight!"

A couple seconds later I heard Chris, "Eagle 1, we've got you… Mark! I've got… 6 minutes 27 seconds, what was your speed?"

"Pinto Base, she indicated 420 knots."

"Pinto Base, Pinto 1, ready anytime you are."

Before I could respond I Eagle 2 spoke up, "Eagle 2, in position, standing by."

I turned north and shoved the throttles all the way forward, the slow initial acceleration was soon replaced by the rapid acceleration as her turbines spun up and the thrust increased. The air speed indicator was up to 590 Knots when I had to back off the throttles slightly, the engine RPMs were touching the red line. She held that as I saw the river approaching, "Eagle 2 – here I come!"

"Got you Pinto 1… JESUS!… 2… 1… MARK!"

"Pinto Base, Eagle 2, we got it!"

I flashed over the city, I wondered for a moment what all the civilians down there were thinking; then concentrated on keeping her steady. In a couple of minutes I saw the Wright-Patterson tower in the distance, it was almost directly in front of me. I corrected my course slightly until it was centered in my wind screen, "Pinto 1, Pinto Base, here I come!"

There was silence for a moment then Chris responded, "Pinto 1, we've got you… MARK!" I was over the tower and started climbing away as I throttled back. "Pinto 1, time on your run was 4 minutes 35 seconds, what was your speed?"

"Pinto Base, she indicated 590 knots… I think we're going to have to get an air speed indicator that's going to register higher than 600 knots. I've pegged this one a couple of times already today."

"Roger Pinto 1."

"Pinto 1, Wright Tower, request approach and landing instructions."

"Pinto 1, area clear, you are first in pattern, standard downwind leg at 50 degrees for landing on 23 R, winds from the south at 5 to 10, barometer 29.3."

"Roger Wright Tower," remembering my experience from the first time I tried to land her I dropped my flaps while I was still on the downwind leg of the approach. As I came out of the long bank to align with the runway I dropped the gear, she floated over the end of the runway, still not wanting to stop flying. She finally touched down about a third of the way down the runway; I was going to have to learn some new habits to land her where I wanted instead of where she wanted.

I slowed her down and turned onto the taxiway and headed back to the hanger. I released the canopy latch and let it slide back, getting a cockpit full of hot muggy air as a reward. There was a roar as the P-51s landed, they waved to me as we passed each other and I waved back. As I neared the hanger I saw the grand stand was empty, a couple people were standing around but I didn't see any of the bigwigs. One of the ground crew was waiting for me with paddles and guided me into the hanger.

I came to a stop and set the brakes and shut down the turbines, then started disconnecting myself from the plane. I became aware of the crowd forming around my plane; I looked out and saw General Arnold standing about twenty feet from me, his eyes briefly meeting mine before they went back to examining the Pinto. The ground crew moved a service platform into position and I climbed out of the cockpit and down to the hanger floor.

I walked up to Arnold and raised my hand in salute, after a moment he returned it and his eyes met mine, "Hell of a demonstration, Colonel Thompson."

"Hell of an airplane, General."

He nodded, behind him I saw Pallet scowling and General Howard, his face expressionless but I could see a twinkle in his eye and he gave me an almost imperceptible nod. I returned my attention to Arnold, after a moment he turned his head to look at Pallet, "General, I want a briefing on your prototype," he turned back to me, "Colonel, I want the same from you after General Pallet completes his briefing." He glanced at his watch, "I'll give you until 1930 to get things organized."

The General's aide spoke up, "Sir, you're supposed to be at the reception in Dayton with the mayor at 2000."

"Call them, tell them I'll be late but I'll try to make it," He glanced around at the crowd of senior officers clustered around us, his eyes lit on a Lieutenant General who gave a slight nod, "General Tofson will have to fill in for me until I can get there."

The Lieutenant General nodded, "Yes sir."

Three hours later and I was in a large conference room along with Chris, we had been listening to Pallet brag about his prototype for the last twenty minutes. He ended trying to slam our bird, "Unlike the prototype developed by North American Aviation our plane uses a proven configuration and will not require special training and testing to resolve handling issues do to that configuration. We have also designed the aircraft for a full weapons complement."

One of the officers from Arnold's staff, at least I didn't recognize him, held up his hand, Pallet noticed him and after a moment's hesitation nodded to him. He was looking at the spec sheet Pallet had handed out at the start of the briefing; he claimed he didn't have enough copies for us so I'd only gotten glimpses of it from my neighbors. "General, the total fuel tankage specified on this and the fuel consumption figures I've seen would seem to give your plane a range that is only 75% of that called for in the requirements document."

"Major, we've been assured by GE that the production engines will have better fuel efficiency, they've estimated a 20% increase."

I had seen the figures from GE; they hoped to get a 20% increase in the next version, at least 6 months from now. And they had estimated a slight drop in efficiency, up to 5%, when they went to mass production as opposed to the almost hand built engines we were getting now. By the skeptical look I saw on the Major's face I thought he had a better handle on the true numbers than Pallet but he didn't say anything more.

A Colonel on the other side of Arnold raised his hand, after a moment Pallet acknowledged him, "Sir, your spec sheet gives a top speed of 560 Knots at 25,000 feet. The prototype we saw demonstrated today was getting close to 600 and sea level, do you expect to be able to improve your aircrafts performance."

I could see Pallet was getting a little upset with the questions, "We've done those figures as estimates for production aircraft, not one-off prototypes."

"Sir," the Colonel continued, "but you're using a maximum thrust value of 2200 lbf, the GE engines are only rated at 2000 lbf."

"Again we're relying on the figures GE has given us for what to expect when we're ready to go into production."

General Arnold spoke up, "And when would that be?"

"We estimate we'll be able to start production by the first of the year."

Before anyone else could raise any more questions General Arnold said, "Thank you, General, that was most informative. Colonel Thompson, if you would care to give your briefing."

I stood up and walked to the podium across from General Arnold that Pallet had been using, he walked around the table and took a seat near the far end alongside the chief engineer from Douglas. Chris handed out our data sheet for the Pinto and I spent about ten minutes going over it. The last thing I covered was the Pinto's weapons system.

"We have designed the aircraft for one 20mm GE rotary cannon that is currently in development, it is estimated that it will be in production within 60 days."

One of Pallet's aides raised his hand, without waiting for me to acknowledge him he spoke up, "One 20mm cannon? How on earth is that going to make your plane an effective fighter?"

"I said one 20mm rotary cannon."

"What on earth is a 'rotary' cannon?" He said, half chuckling.

"It's an updated version of a Gatling gun, the rotational force provided by a high torque electric motor."

"A Gatling gun!" This time he did chuckle.

"Yes, a Gatling gun, a gun that at this point has achieved a sustained rate of fire in excess of 4000 rounds per minute and that is designed to reach 6000 RPMs. That will give our aircraft the fire power equivalent to 9 20mm cannons as carried by the P-38." His jaw dropped and his eyes went wide, "To provide the support for that fire power she's designed to carry over 3500 rounds or 2200 rounds when greater range is desired and the auxiliary internal fuel tank is utilized."

The Colonel that had raised the question of the fuel consumption raised his hand; I nodded to him, "I see on the specification that you have provided three hard points for external stores, one on the centerline and two outboard of the main landing gear."

"Yes sir, since the engines are not taking up that area of the wing we have provided those hard points although at this time we cannot say how useful they will be."

I heard a snort from down the table and glanced down to see Pallet covering his mouth, I turned back to the Colonel as he asked, "And why do you say that?"

"We have several concerns; primarily we aren't sure what kind of external stores currently available will be able to withstand the speed at which she'll fly. A couple of engineers have done some brief checks and things like the current air to ground rocket pods will require significant redesign before they will be usable by the Pinto. Another concern is the effect that those external stores will have on her performance; we know from current aircraft that they cause significant performance degradation and that may be even more extreme for jet fighters."

General Arnold spoke up, "Colonel, would you care to explain why you selected the configuration you did."

"Yes sir. We were concerned with several things; one was what was just discussed – we wanted to provide external stores hard points, minimally they will be useful for drop tanks to extend the aircrafts range. Another concern was to get the engines as far from the ground as practical, these turbines are extremely susceptible to FOD," I saw confusion on some faces so I added, "foreign object damage. The configuration of the wing and the placement of the landing gear also provides protection, it is almost impossible for anything thrown up by the wheels to get into the engines."

General Pallet spoke up, "What about the spent shell casings from your magic cannon, at least on our aircraft they're being ejected behind the engine intakes so they can't be sucked in."

"Sir, the rotary cannon does not eject any spent shell casings, partly for that reason and also to maintain the aircraft's balance. With the large quantity of ammunition carried if we ejected the casings the aircraft would be out of balance or we would have to have some kind of disposable ballast to dump. The ejection system of the cannon automatically feeds the spent shell casings back into the magazines."

General Arnold nodded, "Before you were interrupted you were explaining the reasoning for the aircrafts somewhat… exotic… configuration, continue."

"Yes sir." I had to think for a moment to where I had left off, "Another advantage of putting the engines in the nacelles outside of the fuselage is that it provides for more effective cooling. The GE engineers have reported significantly less wear on our engines than those being used by the other prototype, they aren't 100% sure of the reasons at this time but they are sure at least some of it is due to the better cooling they receive."

"There is also the advantage demonstrated this afternoon, when engine changes are necessary they are much easier to perform and can be completed much quicker. We have also found that standard engine maintenance tasks are easier to perform because of the accessibility of the engines."

"The other 'exotic' design decisions were driven largely by the choice of engine location, for instance the 'T' tail configuration was necessary to keep the stabilizer and elevators out of the engine exhaust. We currently have a design change that we're considering but do to time constraints haven't tried to do it - that is to do away with stabilizer/elevator combination and have a single movable surface in its place, the engineers have labeled it a 'stabilator'. The engineers feel it would be even more efficient but we're reluctant to go to that extreme while we're trying to get her in the air, what we have works well."

I spent the next ten minutes fielding other questions, getting more and more technical to the point where I had to have Chris help me with the answers. Finally General Arnold raised his hand, "Gentlemen, that is all very interesting but we're getting a little far afield and I am supposed to be somewhere else at some point tonight." He turned to me and Chris standing beside me, "How long until North American would be able to start production?"

Chris looked at me and I nodded to him to answer, "We are ready to start tooling up, we can be in production in two months."

General Pallet snorted and Arnold shot him a stern glance; then turned back to us, "Colonel, I understand that the testing has been a little haphazard. Given support how long until a complete acceptance test could be performed."

"Two weeks, provided the additional prototypes are available and no major problems are encountered."

Chris spoke up, "We have two additional prototypes 90% complete, given the go ahead they could be completed by early next week; the only additional requirement would be the engines."

One of the GE engineers spoke up, "We have five engines here that were designated back-ups for the other prototype and an additional 6 second generation prototypes are to be completed by the end of next week."

"Colonel Thompson, what is your estimate of the probability of finding significant problems with the design?"

I thought for a moment, what the hell, I'd flown her in simulated combat both times she'd been in the air, she was a sound plane. "Zero."

There was a loud snort from Pallet and Arnold turned a steely eye on him, "General, I'll speak with you after this meeting. Until then I would appreciate it if you would keep your sound effects to yourself." He turned back to me, "That is pretty optimistic Colonel."

"Yes sir, she has only been flown twice, the first time for a little over two hours and today for almost an hour and a half. However, both times she's been flown as an operational combat aircraft, not as a test prototype. She flies like a dream and I haven't seen one bad characteristic from her. I stalled her several times during the dog fights and she's very gentle and predictable. My one concern is what she'll do in an all-out power dive, I'm afraid she'll suffer a control lock like the P-38, but even that is not a design flaw but something we don't understand about high speed flight. The pilots will just have to be cautioned like P-38 pilots are. Other than that I can't imagine finding a significant problem with her."

"And what about this weapon that's being developed?" he asked.

The GE engineer whose brother was in charge of the development of the new cannon stood up and stepped up next to Chris and I, "Sir, I'm reasonably familiar with that, my brother is in charge. He was asking if we would have a plane to mount it in available in the next couple of weeks so he could get some real testing done on it."

Chris jumped on that, "If we didn't have to make up the dummy installation on the prototypes we could have them ready even quicker, if he's got a cannon to install we could put it in. Even if we have to fill the magazines with sand for testing it would be as good as the dummies."

Arnold looked at the three of us, then turned to General Howard, "General, you are now in charge of the development of the primary jet fighter prototype." He turned back to me, "Colonel Thompson, you are the project officer for the 'Pinto' prototype. I want the completed comprehensive test evaluation on my desk within thirty days. I'll be sending out an officer to certify the testing, I expect you to give him your full cooperation."

"Yes sir," both General Howard and I responded.

General Arnold stood up, his aide yelled out, "Attention!"

Everyone in the room still seated came to their feet, the military personnel coming to attention while Arnold and his party left the room. I saw Pallet glare at me before he turned and walked out of the conference room behind General Arnold's party.