Don't Mess With Earth by Cliff Ball Page A

can you help us
with this?” asked one of the flight engineers.
    “Your attempts at supersonic flight have
failed because you are an inferior species and you have primitive
machines and inferior equipment. Your aircraft does not have the
right materials nor do they appear streamlined enough for speed of
sound flight; therefore, I will show you how to make the right
materials so you can achieve this minor milestone in your
history.”
    A few months later, Bell Aircraft, after
being given the contract to build a supersonic plane by
representatives of the Air Force connected with Area 51, came out
with the X-1, designed around the specifications that the Ragnor
said would help the aircraft reach and surpass the speed of sound.
The X-1 looked like a bullet with wings that
resembled the shape of the Browning .50-caliber machine gun bullet
that was known to be stable in supersonic flight. The engine,
called the XLR11, was the first
liquid-fuel rocket engine designed in the United States and it used
ethyl alcohol and liquid oxygen as propellants to generate a
maximum thrust of six thousand pounds. The first test pilot
for the aircraft would be the man who shot down the Ragnor ship,
and that was Captain Chuck Yeager, who was promoted and given test
piloting duties by the government so he would keep his mouth shut
about the aliens. He arrived at the airstrip outside of Area 51 the
day of his test, not knowing what the aircraft looked like or how
it would handle at supersonic speeds.
    He went into the hangar and saw the X-1,
which was hanging underneath the belly of a B-29, took a few
minutes to inspect the aircraft, shook his head a few times, and
then turned to a flight engineer, and asked in a rather skeptical
tone, “Are you sure this thing is flyable and safe?”
    “Yes, Captain Yeager. According to the alien,
this is the best design for an aircraft to achieve supersonic
flight. I assure you, you have nothing to worry about, sir.”
    “I have nothing to worry about? The fact that
all of you are taking the word of a captured alien, who claims that
this is the best way to go faster than sound, I really have my
doubts. How do we know there are no Soviet spies running around
here telling their government about this? This is nuts. However,
since I’m getting a bigger paycheck to be a test pilot on this
rocket-powered machine, I will do as my government tells me to do.
Let’s get me strapped in.”
    Yeager got into his flight suit, with an
oxygen pack attached, and climbed into the cockpit of the X-1. The
flight engineers went through the pre-flight check with Yeager and
showed him the controls and the buttons to push to activate the
rocket once the B-29 let the plane go. The B-29 took off a few
minutes later and climbed to an altitude of twenty thousand feet,
then the X-1 was detached, and Yeager pushed the button for the
rocket engine. The aircraft blasted away from the B-29, and climbed
to another twenty thousand feet in less than a minute. As Yeager
approached the sound barrier, he felt a rumble throughout the
aircraft that he had never experienced before, and then he felt the
plane vibrate when he surpassed the sound barrier, and a shockwave
of sound reverberated off the aircraft. His pressure suit kept
Yeager from passing out as he flew above the speed of sound. After
staying in the air for fifteen minutes, Yeager piloted the craft
back to Area 51 and glided to a landing, and was swarmed by Air
Force personnel. He got out of the X-1 and was greeted by the head
flight engineer who said, “Congratulations, sir. You’ve done what
we thought was impossible. President Truman also sends his
congratulations to you for breaking the sound barrier. The base
commander wants you in his office for a de-briefing, while we take
out the flight data recorder and analyze the flight.”
    Meanwhile, on the Mars Base, the commander
was dictating to the computer his daily report, when one of his
aides came rushing into the commanders’ office,