II26-1965-TOM SWIFT and His Sonic Boom Trap by Victor Appleton II

Author:Victor Appleton II [pseud.] [Appleton, Victor II]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Published: 1965-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

12. A STRANGE PROPHECY

BUD'S frantic call struck fear into Tom. The occupants of the tower had already observed that the jet was not pulling out of the dive.

"Have you tried the trim control?" Tom radioed.

"It's not working!"

Aboard the jet, Bud's face was white as he watched the altimeter reading drop backward... 11,000... 10,000... 9,000... The ship was plunging like a thunderbolt!

Tom racked his brain in desperation. A bailout now was almost sure to prove hopeless—not to mention the havoc the jet might wreak on homes or buildings if allowed to crash.

Suddenly Tom seized the microphone. "Bud, jettison the Silentenna!"

"How, skipper?"

"Fire the CO2 cartridge for emergency lowering of the Silentenna gear in case it jams," Tom ordered. "With the gear already in the extended position, that may pack enough wallop to kick it loose! The slipstream will do the rest!"

Bud obeyed with trembling fingers. The altimeter indicator was passing the 6,000-foot mark. As he fired the cartridge, the Silentenna wrenched loose from its mounting.

An instant later Bud felt a sudden response as the nose lightened! The heavy, eight-foot Silentenna plunged free toward Lake Carlopa!

Bud's heart leaped. The plane was recovering. A massive force of seven G's plastered him to his seat as he eased back on the stick. The pull-out was changing his face to a skull-like mask. He could feel a dizzying "gray-out."

Suddenly the ship was seized by violent vibrations! Bud was pounded to and fro in his seat as if by a thousand trip-hammers.

"I'm approaching an accelerated stall!" he gasped over his mike. "I pulled out too fast!"

His limbs felt heavy as lead. Somehow he managed to inch the stick forward. As if by magic, the vibrations ceased. Then—slowly and cautiously—Bud came back on the stick again.

He was almost brushing the treetops as the jet finally leveled out. Bud sucked in his breath with a gasp of relief, then gunned the throttle and clawed the sky for altitude.

"Nice going, fly-boy!" Tom radioed.

"You take the bow, pal—it would've been curtains for me if you hadn't figured out how to dump the Silentenna!" Bud added gloomily, "This has sure ruined your test."

"Forget that and come in," Tom replied. "My invention didn't really silence the boom."

Bud was still white and shaken when he climbed out of the plane after landing. "The trim definitely malfunctioned," he reported.

"Have Hank check it out," Tom said tersely.

As the plane was rolled into the hangar, he discussed the outcome of the test.

"Your Silentenna, as it now stands, couldn't counter an all-out sonic attack," said a Defense official, "but it may help."

The reporters lingered to hear the results of the plane check-out. The news was grim. Hank said the electrical trim control had been sabotaged in such a fashion that in the dive the floating stabilizer had worked into a nose-down position and the trim could not be recovered.

"You're sure it was sabotage?" Tom asked.

"No doubt about that, skipper." Hank produced a small aneroid device, which, when actuated by a predetermined altitude change, would interrupt the electrical phasing of the trim-control motor.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.