Knights of the Air Book 2: Fire! by Iain Stewart

Author:Iain Stewart [Stewart, Iain]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-07-15T16:00:00+00:00

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30 June 1917.

St. Omer Airfield, RFC Depot.

“I want pilots who use their brains before their balls,” Lance said, warming himself in the filtered sunlight that forced itself through the filthy windowpanes of Bill Franks’ threadbare office. Yesterday’s savage weather had relented, and a blue sky shone outside the gloomy Nissen hut.

“Mmm, not the usual request,” Franks said, slurping on a steaming cup of tea. His office squatted next to the airstrip, and they often had to pause for the snarl of aero engines to pass. “Most commanding officers want the fire-breathing types.”

“I don’t object to fire breathing; it’s the Charge of the Light Brigade types I want to avoid. Gung-ho with brains would be ideal.”

“Let me see if I have this straight. You want dedicated Hun killers, but ones prepared to run away to live another day if the odds are against them?”

Lance nodded.

Franks sucked noisily on his tea. “Tough job you boys in 100 Wing have. I’m not sure I’d recommend any friends because hunting the Circus seems like a job with a short lifespan. Most men who want to take on the Circus are the type who believe they are immortal.”

Franks gazed out through the window for a while. “But you might be in luck. I think I have someone who would bite your hand off for a chance to fly SE5s against the Circus. Just arrived in France after a spell instructing in England, just gagging to kill Huns.”

Franks leaned to shout out his office door, “Corporal, get me Lieutenant McCudden. He should be on the flight line if he hasn’t left already. And fetch three teas while you are about it.”

Lance opened his mouth to say that he did not want tea, but the angry buzz of a rotary engine unleashed forestalled him. Franks strode to the window and cocked his head to watch. Lance turned just in time to see a Sopwith Pup soar off the runway straight into a 360-degree loop.

“Idiot,” Lance said. Most pilots lost height on a loop. To do so on take-off meant death. A good pilot able to gain altitude in a loop was a rarity, and even then an engine hiccup, or a miscalculation by a yard, would lead to a smoking hole in the ground. This pilot completed the loop successfully, and Lance started to turn away. “Someone should ground that man before he kills himself,” he told Franks. As Lance finished the sentence the Pup howled seamlessly into another loop. “What the…one loop is dangerous, two is certifiable!”

Franks grinned. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”

Lance tensed as the Pup rolled through the top of its second loop and swooped towards the earth. A crash seemed certain. But miraculously the Pup bellowed over the huts, making the tin roof rattle. Lance relaxed, then froze as the plane’s nose screamed upwards into a third loop. His jaw fell open. Three loops on take-off were impossible.

When the Pup half rolled off the top of the loop and droned off, Lance shut his jaw with a snap.

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