View From The Air by Hugh Fosburgh

Author:Hugh Fosburgh [Fosburgh, Hugh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, United States, Europe, General, Germany, Aviation
ISBN: 9781786257277
Google: WtZvCwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2015-11-06T05:08:10+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

It was after noon mess and Gibson was reading on his cot, when Bob Burt came up the stairs.

“I figured it’s kind of early to start drinking,” said Gibson. “I wasn’t thinking of that.” Burt sat down on Gibson’s cot. “I was thinking of something else. I was thinking maybe you’d like to take me flying.”

Gibson closed the book and sat up. “When?”

“Any time. How about right now?” Burt was grinning like a kid.

Gibson hadn’t flown for a week so he jumped at the idea. “What’s on your mind, Captain?”

Burt was offhand. “There’s a few things an intelligence officer ought to know about a B-24. You know—how they fly and what they can do. I don’t know them.”

“What, for instance?”

“I’ll tell you when we’re in the air. Are you going to take me or not?”

Gibson jumped off the cot. “We’ll need a co-pilot. I’ll round up Homer.”

* * * * *

Gibson climbed to a thousand feet, leveled off, and came back over the field. Then he turned to Burt, who was standing behind him with a pad of paper and a pencil. “Where to, boss?”

Burt put a map in Gibson’s lap and pointed with the pencil. “Let’s go down and look at some of these small islands.” Gibson saw that Burt had drawn a line between two of the islands and had circled another in red. The circled one had lines drawn to it, with the courses written in. He looked at Burt, perplexed.

“Just do as you’re told, Lieutenant.”

Burt was the first to spot the two islands between which he had drawn the line. He pointed to them. “I’ll tell you what I want to find out. I want to find out the fastest speed that this plane can maintain in going from one island to the other, at sea level, without hurting the engines. Get it?”

Gibson nodded. He pointed towards he nearer island and started to let down.

“Those islands are just eight miles apart,” said Burt.

“If we get a diving start, we should average two hundred an hour,” said Gibson.

“No diving start.” Burt was emphatic.

Gibson let down to twenty feet and set the engines to maximum safe power. He circled to let the speed settle, then made the run between the islands.

“Pull up,” said Burt. “You make me nervous so close to the water.”

Gibson pulled up. “I make myself nervous.”

Burt was writing figures on his pad. “We did that at about one ninety-two. How much difference would it make with a full bomb load and the doors open?”

Gibson considered. “Ten miles an hour. Maybe a little more.”

Burt wrote that down, then put the map in Gibson’s lap again. “Now the next thing. You see this island here with the circle? You see this side of it is almost a straight line? O.K. Now then, this line here is the course I want you to take coming in to it. It’s eight-seven degrees. I want you to get on that course and come in on it just the way we did between the islands.

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