by Hall, Gerald
The ships were all equipped with the latest radar and sonar systems along with the ability to effectively put together all of the information to give the warship commander the most complete picture of the air and seas around him. This was perhaps the electronic technologies that Judith and her siblings had to be most careful about. The Cavills still could not give these ships the sort of computer technologies that even existed in the 1980’s, much less those of the early 21st Century. It was necessary to utilize analogue and mechanical computer systems to the maximum extent possible because the world was just not ready for the widespread introduction of digital technology yet.
Out of necessity, Judith and her siblings were very careful to ensure that the technology of the missiles, radars, engines and other systems were still quite close to the current state of the art. But when these improvements were all put together, they promised to be a quantum leap over anything that the Royal Navy currently had.
“This is all quite remarkable, Mister Franklin. It is unfortunate that we cannot afford to immediately order a dozen each of these new destroyers and cruisers.” Mountbatten eagerly responded, giving in without reservation to his fascination with technology. His smile has grown larger and more vivid as he looked over the designs and Eric’s description of the warships’ design features.
“I know, Sir. We have much the same problem back home in Australia. No one is willing to spend any money to build new ships. In some ways, it is even worse for us because the Royal Australian Navy scrapped all of its cruisers shortly after the end of the war without replacing them.
I know that there will be political concerns about purchasing foreign designs. Our proposals already address this. Any ships that would be built for the Royal Navy would be built under license in British shipyards. Certain components would still be manufactured in Australia at this point because of their sophistication and the specialized nature. But many British workers would still be gainfully employed when the Admiralty chooses to replace the current ships of the fleet.” James explained.
“We do have a limited amount of funds that Parliament has allocated the Royal Navy for refits and modernization. Unfortunately, I am not permitted build any new warships at this time, even if we were to lose one or more ships due to accident.”
“Sir, that has to be a difficult situation to be in, I’m sure. You and I both know that while the war against the Axis has ended the world is still not exactly a peaceful place at this time. There are conflicts in Latin America, East Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe. Some of these conflicts are relatively minor. But others certainly threaten to drag in the Great Powers whether we like it or not.”
“We do not wish to be drawn into another foreign war, of course. But if we must fight, then I want our men to have the best materiel available to fight with. For now, it will have to be the ships that I currently have. But if I am lucky, the success of the upgraded ships could lead to Parliament finally funding these new ships that you have shown me the plans for, gentlemen.
As you probably know, I have always had a fascination with technological development and its application for the benefit of my nation, especially in regards to the equipment used by our men who serve to protect it and its interests.” The First Sea Lord admitted.
“We have heard that, Sir. But while technological advances are very interesting, we feel a synergetic combination of all of these advances can affect an extraordinary increase in the effectiveness of your ships.” Tom explained.
“You make a very powerful case, Mister Franklin. In fact, both of you have. I will certainly bear this in mind if the opportunity avails itself to purchase new warships. The fact that these ships would be constructed in English shipyards certainly is a factor in your favor.” I would recommend that you keep the involvement of Cavill Industries as invisible as possible because of the obvious political considerations.
I know that this would be somewhat difficult with the use of engines, weapons and electronic systems all having been designed by your companies, Mister Cavill. Somehow, I doubt that anyone will build anything better for quite a while, of course.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
Chapter Nine:
Cavill Rocket Test Facilities
Kalumburu, Western Australia
July 11, 1955
James Cavill had just flown in to the small airstrip near Kalumburu aboard one of the normal freight delivery flights to the Cavill rocket facilities there. The completion of the railroad extension to Kalumburu was at least another year away. So the flights were a necessity for the delivery of many rocket components. The rest were delivered by ship to the port on the North Australian coast nearest Kalumburu and trucked in from there.
Obvious, Doctor Werner von Braun had been notified ahead of time of James’ arrival. The former German rocket scientist was waiting at the airfield when James stepped off of the Cavill Aeropacket ‘flying boxcar’ transport aircraft that he had flown in on.
The two men quickly shook hands and then walked away from the transport to a place that was quiet enough that they could actually talk to each other in a normal tone of voice.
“Hello, Doctor. How has your progress been towards your new rocket design?” James asked.
“We have been doing well. The suggestions that your people in Derby passed along to my engineers here have been quite helpful. We believe that we will soon be able to increase the amount of mass that we can launch into orbit by at least an order of magnitude within the next month, Mister Cavill.”
“That is great news, Doctor von Braun. The increase in payload will assist us greatly with the new generation of telecommunications and imagery satellites that we are designing. It will also go a long way towards one of our long term goals, the launch of a permanent manned space station orbiting Earth. I know that it one of your dreams also, Doctor.”
“Indeed, it is, Mister Cavill. Few things would please me more than to see human beings successfully flying into space and living successfully out there.” Werner enthusiastically replied.
“Of course, this would only be the first step for us. There are other concepts that we wish to develop to facilitate our future moves into space, Doctor. One of those concepts is the use of unconventional power sources to propel manned space vehicles far beyond Earth. To achieve this, we would like to apply the power of atomic fission to rocket propulsion so that we can send rockets, including manned space vessels, far beyond the orbit of the Moon.” James told von Braun.
“That is a very interesting proposal. What exactly do you have in mind, Herr Cavill?”
“As you know, we have been building large powerplants that use the energy released by the fission of certain elements like uranium and thorium. This reaction produces far more energy per unit of mass than even the most powerful chemical rocket that you could possibly built. My siblings and I, along with several of the engineers who work for us on our atomic energy projects, firmly believe that we can harness this energy to heat a propellant mass and eject it through a rocket nozzle very efficiently and at velocities that would significantly increase the speed of our rockets for interplanetary travel. The efficiencies alone would improve by close to an order of magnitude, we believe.
What do you feel about incorporating such propulsion technology into our rocket program, Doctor?” James finally asked.
“That is a very challenging objective, Herr Cavill. My experience has always been with chemically fueled rockets, as you know. Your people obviously know far more about the use of atomic fission than I do.
Obviously, you will need to extensively test this new engine before we could possibly fly it on top of one of our rockets. There is also the issue of what could happen in the case of an accident. I understand that just one of your atomic fission reactors contains a great deal of very toxic material. We would not want any of that to be released into the environment, obviously.”
“We agree that all due precautions must be taken to prevent any sort of radioactive mater
ial from inadvertently released into the atmosphere. We already have a very viable design for the engine that we are proposing to have launched into space aboard one of our rockets. We simply need to conduct the necessary ground tests first while you build the first and second stages of your division’s new heavy lift rocket, Doctor. But we can always use your assistance in regards to nozzle design for the new nuclear-thermal rocket motor.”
Of course, James and his sisters had already researched the relevant technology from their father’s mid-21st century computer database. They had carefully filtered in as much of the ‘less advanced’ technology as possible through their various industrial concerns via ‘helpful suggestions’ to their scientists and engineers. Harold had managed to obtain a tremendous amount of technological information that he brought back through time with him within his advanced laptop computer. Like their father, Harold’s children were taking advantage of this wealth of information. But they heeded their father’s warning to be very prudent in the introduction of advanced technology into this new timeline.
All of this will keep Doctor von Braun busy. He would be the public face of the Cavill space rocket program even while other rocket designs derived from the secret computer database would end up being the heavy-lift workhorses for Cavill Industries. The world would still think that Doctor von Braun would be the man behind the designs though. That would disguise the real source of the new rocket technology that Harold’s children were harvesting from their father’s twenty-first century computer database.
“What exactly do you have in mind, Herr Cavill? I will do everything that I can to assist. If what you are telling me is correct about the potential of this new rocket motor, then it would be a massive step towards achieving a lifelong dream of mine, sending people to live on the Moon, Mars and beyond.”
“We will need a nozzle design that is optimized for operations in vacuum since we will only be firing the engine there for obvious reasons. That is going to require a lot of computations and even some wind tunnel work, Doctor.”
“My people will do everything possible to create a suitable nozzle design. We could truly fulfill a lifelong dream of mine if what you are proposing can be made to work. “
“I know, Werner. It is very exciting, isn’t it?”
“Yes, incredibly so. Just think of it, Mister Cavill. Men and women living on the moon and also on Mars. We can finally guarantee the survival of our species by having man living on multiple worlds. We would no longer be vulnerable to a calamity dooming all of mankind simply because our people were all stuck on a single world.”
Of course, Werner had no idea that manned space flight and interplanetary colonization were two of the most important areas that Harold Cavill wanted to develop from the very beginning. Still, Werner von Braun would get to see his dreams come to life. He simply had no idea that a man who traveled back in time from the future would be the person responsible for it.
“Yes, it is an awe-inspiring vision. Hopefully, we will live to see the beginning of it. In the meanwhile, I must leave to attend to other matters, Doctor. Good luck.” James said before turning and leaving to go to one of the hangars.
“Do we have a helicopter available here?” James asked one of the technicians at the airfield.
“Yes, Sir. We have a couple of CH-3’s here. They are parked inside that hangar over there.” The technician replied, pointing towards a large sheet metal building.
“I want to go take a look at the surface to air missile launch facilities that we installed at the old coastal defense battery. I know that I could drive there, but I don’t want to spend two hours driving there when we could fly there in less than twenty minutes. I’ve been trying to practice on the type every chance that I can get since I qualified on the CH-3 a couple of months ago.”
“Well, Sir. I suppose that since your family owns all of this anyway, you can do whatever you want with the helicopters.” The technician stammered.
“Don’t worry, Mac.” James said, reading the name tag on the technician’s coveralls. “I promise to bring it back in one piece.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
James then walked over to the hangar and asked a couple of personnel there to open the hangar doors, tow one of the big twin-tandem rotor helicopters out onto the tarmac and prepare it for flight.
Ten minutes later, James climbed into the cockpit after doing a quick preflight inspection. He started up the helicopter’s gas turboshaft engine. Once the rotors spun up, James pulled up on the collective and took off. The helicopter turned and headed quickly towards the old coastal defense Battery A.
Twenty minutes later, James could see the large camouflaged twin turrets that had originally been taken off of the old battle cruiser. The massive twelve-inch guns still guarded the waters northeast of King Sound, though they had not been fired in over ten years. Next to the twin gun turrets was a low, diamond-shaped concrete structure. On opposite points of the diamond were a twin-rail surface to air missile launcher, identical to the launchers planned to be installed aboard the Royal Navy’s refitted King George V battleships. On the other two points of the diamond were a rotating eight-cell box launcher for launching CMS-3 surface to air missiles. In the middle of the diamond rose a slightly taller concrete structure with a pair of radar dishes.
James had flown over another left-over from the Pacific War, a large concrete tower that mounted the rangefinders and fire control radars for the gun batteries. Now, the same tower had more radar and target illuminator dishes attached to it. They would provide most of the fire control requirements for the new surface to air missile test facility.
James dropped down and landed the CH-3 on the other side of the gun battery and walked up to the main entrance there. An armed guard met James there and examined his identification card before letting him inside the facility.
James walked down through a reinforced concrete tunnel until he reached one of the larger underground chambers. There, he was met by an older man wearing the common grey coveralls that most Cavill Industries employees were issued. The man smiled and reached out his hand in greeting.
“Hello, Mister Cavill. We weren’t exactly expecting you to come here. We have been pretty busy preparing for today’s test firing of the new Bravo version of the CMS-2 missile.” Terrance Cowell, the manager of the test facility explained after shaking James’ hand.
“I know. I just happened to have a little time and wanted to observe the test. I understand that this is going to be a multiple target engagement also.”
“Yes, Sir. We are going to be expending a couple of old CDR-1 drone bombers as targets. They are going to be controlled by personnel aboard a modified AeroPacket transport aircraft playing over northern coast. The controllers are also testing the drones to see if they develop maneuvers to evade incoming missiles at the same time.
Why don’t you come down with me to the missile preparation room, Sir. It is very interesting down here.” Terrance told James.
The walk took the two men down another one hundred and fifty meters of concrete tunnel until they reached another large chamber. The stains on the walls indicated that concrete had been there for at least a couple of decades. Inside were rows of steel cradles with more than a score of new guided missiles on them. An overhead crane system ran along the ceiling of the chamber.
“This is actually one of magazines for the big guns. We repurposed it as a storage, assembly and inspection area for the missiles. There was a lot of available room since we don’t have many shells left for the twelve-inchers. No one makes those shells anymore. We do the majority of the work before they are moved by conveyor to the loading area below the launchers. Any final tasks like attaching the fins to the missile bodies is done there.” Terrance explained.
“Very nice. How long before the test firing?” James asked while already thinking about what the database back in Derby might have to make those guns useful again.
“About thirty minutes. You got here just before we were
going to shut down all air traffic in the area. I really would have hated for you to have wandered in front of one of my missiles, Sir. Do you want to do down to the battlefield fire control station? We use it for the test firings, though the radars on the separate fire control tower are better sited. If we were in a wartime situation and the big tower had been knocked out, a fire control team can control all of the missiles and point defense systems from here anyway.”
“Very nice.” An impressed James replied as he waited for the countdown to the test firings
“The target drones are flying in the target area. You may fire when ready.” A female voice announced over the radio from the AeroPacket controller aircraft.
“Well, mates. I am definitely stoked here. Let’s get the birds on the rails now.” Terrance told his team in the fire control room.
An image from a television camera focused on one of the launchers could be seen on a video monitor. A pair of white missiles with red-painted noses quickly were thrust upward through small steel doors in the concrete and onto the launcher’s rails. The missile launcher then quickly traversed around towards the general direction of the targets.
“Ready all systems. Fire missile one.” Terrance ordered.
One of the missiles erupted in a cloud of smoke and flame, accelerating outward at a high rate of speed.
“Sir, the drones have started their evasive maneuvering.” One of the radar tracking technicians reported.
“Good. Let’s see if our ‘toy’ out there can keep up with their maneuvering. I know that these drones were given booster rocket motors to increase their speed and make them more difficult targets.” Terrance immediately answered.
Twenty seconds later, a triumphant cry rang out within the control center as the missile reached the first target drone and blew it apart.
“Sir, the second drone is dropping chaff. So our screens are a bit cluttered right now.” The radar tech reported.