Steve would drop by the warehouse every day at the time he knew Judy would be testing software, and in the days that followed he saw the same sequence of events followed over and over again. Gradually Fred lengthened the leashes on Charlotte so that Judy was able to move it around, under its own power, anywhere in the warehouse, from floor height to ceiling height. Finally Fred had the leashes set so long that the only constraint was to stop Judy bumping her head on the ceiling or Charlotte accidentally crashing into a wall. Landing it appeared to be a work of art, much as with a conventional aircraft. Sometimes Judy would put it in park just two inches above the ground, which was as close as she could judge it, and then cut power and just drop the last little distance. Other times she would power it downwards at as slow a speed as the software would allow, and then cut power when she felt the wheels touch. Finally the stabilization loops seemed to be working flawlessly. No matter what combination of commands was given, Charlotte remained flat and steady, and went up and down as commanded. At the last minute Fred built directional vanes into the jet of the rear thruster fan, a lot like he had seen on Florida airboats in the Everglades, to achieve some rotational control. Finally he called a meeting in the main conference room with himself, Tony, John, Judy and their group leaders. They went over their checklist of things to fix or postpone. Two months had gone by since the all work and no play regime was started, and the toll was showing on all their faces.
Steve’s voice was stoical. “This looks so good to me that I think we ought to get Tim Hetherington from our venture capitalists JCB to come and witness the first manned flight of a LeviStar.”
“Yes, I agree,” said John, and the others nodded. “This will constitute the milestone that triggers our next round of financing. Our next step will be to get some premises where we can manufacture the Delia product.”
When Tim heard the news he said that he would be there at Levi Works the very next day.
Chapter 18
The next day dawned clear and sunny, which was normal for a fall day in Long Beach. The sky was blue from horizon to horizon, with a light offshore wind. Excited assembly technicians pushed Charlotte on its casters out into the Electrolev back yard. Tim Hetherington, the venture capitalist, was installed in the seat of honor, a deck chair in the center of the loading bay which gave a grandstand view out over the whole yard. On either side of him were Steve and John, both wearing suits in honor of the occasion. Tony, wearing blue slacks and a light blue dress shirt, was nervously moving around the yard getting in the way of the technicians who were taking readings off the batteries, testing the communication link and making sure that all the inspection hatches were battened down. Almost everybody in the company was present somewhere, either standing in the yard or discreetly peeking out of windows and doors. After two months of 72 hour working weeks everybody wanted to know that their efforts had been worthwhile so that the company could move on. The crowd reverberated with anxiety tinged with camaraderie. Everybody remembered John’s disastrous test flight on Barbara. Suddenly there was a murmur of voices as Judy came striding out of the building. She was wearing the same hardhat that John had worn, with goggles over her eyes. She had on a figure hugging yellow one piece jump suit, and on her back she had a parachute pack. Waving to the assembled staff, she clambered onto Charlotte. Snapping on a lap belt, she fitted a cell phone earpiece and microphone over her head and called the Electrolev main telephone line as had been arranged. Julie the receptionist patched her through to John, and their words were relayed out over speakers in the court yard so that everyone could hear.
“Can you hear me?” came Judy’s voice over the speakers.
“I sure can,” replied John’s voice.
“OK then, let’s get this show on road,” said Judy. “First of all I am going to test the vertical levitation and park feature.” There was a moment of silence and anticipation as everybody held their breath. Judy gently pulled back on the side yellow lever for a moment, which caused Charlotte to rise up to about twenty feet, at which point she set the lever upright again, thus parking Charlotte, silent and stationary, twenty feet above the ground. “The vertical stabilization loop is working a treat,” said Judy’s voice over the speakers. Tim Hetherington stood up in awe and delight. A ripple of applause and delighted voices spread around the yard. Next to him Steve was recording everything on a movie camera. “Now I am going to try out the fan drive,” announced Judy. With no sound audible from the yard, Charlotte then started slowly moving forward. They had practiced this numerous times in the warehouse, so at least to the Electrolev people this was no surprise. “Now I am going to try a corner,” said Judy, as Charlotte came over the wall of the courtyard. She operated the directional vane and Charlotte turned round, but still drifted slowly in the same direction, so that it was actually moving sideways just outside the property. Judy pushed the joystick sideways against the drift and Charlotte clumsily straightened out, now moving at right angles to the original direction roughly over the line of the perimeter wall. “She corners like shit,” Judy’s voice reverberated over the loudspeakers. “Here goes again,” This time Judy got the hang of using the directional vane to set Charlotte slowly rotating, and then just using small puffs from the rear thruster to make it move in slow circles, roughly around the courtyard. The assembled employees applauded and cheered. “I need some space for this thing,” announced Judy. To the amazement of some and the horror of others, she pulled back on the yellow side lever and Charlotte rose straight up to five hundred feet in about ten seconds. A ripple of delight, astonishment and fear ran through the staff crowding the yard.
“Come in number 1 – your time is up,” announced John over the phone link, with everybody listening.
“Yee-Haa!” came the reply. “Now let’s see how fast this thing can go!” With that Charlotte started to move faster and faster off to the south. Electrolev was situated in an industrial area south of Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach, in reality no more than a mile from the Pacific. “The ocean looks great from up here,” came Judy’s voice. “I can see the Queen Mary!”
“Judy, this is a bad idea,” commented John’s voice. “Please come back. Charlotte has no flight navigation equipment on board.”
“Oh, all right,” responded Judy’s voice. “Don’t forget that Charlotte designed to take about as long to stop as to get speed up in the first place – so it needs a few moments.” Charlotte was by then a fairly small dot in the sky. This was a moment that the assembled employees would never forget. It gradually slowed to a halt, then turned around and started to get larger again as it returned towards the plant. “Where are you?” said Judy.
“A bit more to your right,” came John’s reply.
“I see you,” said Judy. Charlotte came right over the plant and came to a halt. “This parking gear really works great,” said Judy. Slowly Charlotte descended from the sky. Judy found it hard to get down exactly into the courtyard because nobody had thought to plan for the pilot to see immediately below. So she brought Charlotte down in stages with John coaching – left 50 feet, forwards 40 feet etc. Eventually Judy landed Charlotte in the middle of the courtyard, where it hit the ground with a mild thump and bounced on its suspension, to the delighted applause of all the assembled employees.
“This is magnificent!” said Tim in jubilation. “Can you give me a copy of the movie to show the partners?”
“Of course,” said Steve. “Let’s go inside and I’ll see to it. “
“I must shake the hand of your pilot” said Tim. With Tony and John following, he trotted down the steps beside the loading bay and made his way across to where Judy was climbing off Charlotte. He pumped her hand vigorously. “Well done, well done indeed Judy! This is going to change the course of world civilization!”
Judy pushed back her goggles, smiling from ear to ear. “You are welcome!” she said.
Tim went back to Steve and the pair of them walked indoors conferring together.
Judy looked at Ton
y and John: “We have got to fix that steering. That thing is a disaster to steer. That’s the reason I went up high in it because it wallows around all over the place. When you use the directional steering vane, you can start the thing spinning and then you need to apply the opposite thrust to get it straight again.”
Tony replied: “Yes, it’s obvious now that we are going to have to set up a gyroscope to detect rotation and automatically apply thrust to control the angular position, just like we do with horizontal control and vertical control. “
“Oh no!” exclaimed Judy. “Another freaking control loop to program!”
“Let’s celebrate!” said John. “How about a pizza lunch party for the whole company? We can celebrate getting back to normal working hours.”
“Yeahh!” exclaimed Tony. Tony and Judy briefly hugged each other.
They went inside leaving the technicians to fuss over Charlotte. Inside they encountered Steve holding a piece of paper. “Tim just left” he said. “I’ve got a commitment for another $20 million. The closing is in one week’s time!” The four of them exchanged high fives.
“I shall really enjoy calling this next company meeting!” exclaimed Steve.
Chapter 19
In the company meeting the next day, Steve was the first to speak. “Yesterday’s test flight was a success in every respect.” He momentarily paused while the staff applauded. “Especially great was the fact that JCB has now committed to invest another $20M so that we can start building a factory.” One again he paused for applause. “Tim was so impressed with our achievements that they have increased their appraisal of our business plan so that the value of our stock options will not be diluted. You have all done a fantastic job to get Charlotte flying successfully in just two months. So starting this evening we can all go back to a normal working day again.” He paused briefly until the ensuing cheers and clapping died away. “With all this money from JCB we are going to buy or lease a factory building well away from anywhere where we can build and test prototypes in privacy.” At this point Steve was astute enough to see several staff members exchanging uneasy glances.
“Did you see this morning’s edition of the Long Beach Press Telegram? We are famous!” shouted out Julie Redbridge, the receptionist, waving the paper excitedly in the air.
John felt a deep empty feeling in the pit of his stomach. Famous was the last thing they needed. His mouth went dry. “Can you share it with us?” he croaked.
Julie obligingly handed over the newspaper to John. “I’d like it back please, that one is real history!”
John read out the front page news. “Unidentified flying object seen over Long Beach. At around 10.30 a.m. Tuesday hundreds of people in South Long Beach witnessed a round object moving silently through the sky at low altitude. Accounts of its size varied, but most people agreed it was the size of a small aircraft. Stewart Longbeam, a retired sailor, took this photograph from the porch of his Long Beach home on East Appleton Street.” John stopped and held up the paper showing a blurry round outline seen against some trees. “Long Beach airport confirmed tracking the object for a period of eight minutes during which time it recorded speeds of up to 100 miles an hour. It was originally moving out to sea but after three minutes it changed direction and came back inland. It suddenly vanished from the radar screens in an area south of Pacific Coast Highway. Traffic along Ocean Boulevard was briefly brought to a halt as motorists stopped to gape at the apparition. Meteorologists said that possibly the phenomena could be explained by local cloud formations associated with the marine layer. A spokesman for Long Beach Airport said that they had seen similar things on radar before and it was usually traced to the activities of ultra light aircraft.”
John paused and looked at the employees assembled in the conference room. “Every one of you has signed a confidentiality agreement concerning our activities. If any of you get into a discussion about this, you should say that you personally saw nothing. We must not let any knowledge of our work leak out of here. If anybody asks you what Electrolev is doing, the answer is that we design and manufacture helicopter parts. OK? We have not had our patent applications clear yet and at this time we are still learning every minute of every day about LeviStar technology. We learned an enormous amount from the test flight yesterday, which will help us to make superior products in the future. With your help we are going to make the helicopter obsolete, to be replaced by a quieter and more efficient LeviStar. The longer we can carry on learning about this technology without anybody else competing with us, the more that all of your stock options will be worth. One day in the future there will be a public announcement and Electrolev will go public. That will likely be about five years from now.”
John stepped back from the table and gave Julie back her paper. She was immediately surrounded by staffers wanting to see it for themselves. Steve stepped forward, glowing with pride and happiness. “At 12 noon today we are having a pizza celebration lunch on the company. Everybody make sure to be here at 12 noon!”
Behind him Judy and Tony stood close together, and momentarily exchanged happy, fulfilled smiles as the meeting broke up.
John and Steve stood together as the employees filed out. John was still shocked by the newspaper report. “We probably had a close call on that one. Judy should really have known better than to do what she did. She was only supposed to go up twenty feet and fly around the yard. Can you get working on our new facility right away? It needs to have both lots of empty space and preferably a manufacturing capable building already there.”
Steve looked thoughtful. “It will have to be a long way from here. Some of us may have to move. We’ll keep this place as an R&D location for a while, but it will be a pain if there is a hundred mile commute between the two halves of the company. I am afraid that many of the staff may not want to move.”
John looked resolute and determined. “Maybe we are making history here, Steve. We could be going to change the world. We have to overcome these issues as best we can, and hopefully remain ethical. The big issue is going to be the stock options.” Steve nodded and they drifted thoughtfully out of the room.
After the meeting, Julie the receptionist called the security agency that provided the night guard. “Hello, this is Electrolev. We are changing our working hours again – we are going to be working from eight a.m. till five again from now on. So that means we will need your guards to come on duty at 5 p.m. and be responsible until 8a.m. each day. Yes, today is the first 5 p.m. day!”
At the end of the day she cheerfully greeted Hippelworth, known to his friends as Hippy, the fifty year old black man who came dressed in the uniform from the security agency, complete with a peaked cap marked “SECURITY”. Hippy owed his job to Electrolev’s desire for security, and he was one of the most enthusiastic staff members even though he was a contractor and not even an employee. His vocation was to make sure that all those helicopter parts were safe through the night, and safe they would be. He carried a Nextel with a push to talk link to his own dispatch desk to report in as necessary. He and his shift replacement were expected to call in every two hours. “How are you doing Julie?”
“I’m real happy to get back to normal working hours, It’s been a nightmare finding carers for my baby during these two months.” responded Julie.
“You have a great evening, then, Miss Julie,” said Hippy as Julie departed amongst the other employees streaming out.
Chapter 20
Adrik Rumenik stared at his computer screen showing the news report in the Long Beach Press Telegram about a UFO over Long Beach. He had a three year assignment as an air force attaché at the Russian consulate in West Hollywood. His job description was to read and relay back to his boss in Moscow every scrap of information about the activities of the United States aerospace industry in general and the southern California part of it in particular. He dutifully scanned every newspaper and magazine, and recorded every news bulletin on radio and TV for any snippet that could be remotely helpful to the ca
use of his country. Like for example, a sudden recruiting drive in say, Palmdale, home of the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, which could relate to some important new program starting. Equally significant were sightings of new and strange aircraft. These aircraft were often seen momentarily in the skies long before their official existence was admitted. The major powers are engaged in a constant technology race, and anything that is published or openly released is fair game for imitation. Adrik had to industriously attend every presentation on aviation technology that was open to the public, with the expectation that from crumbs of information that he gathered, whole loaves of intelligence could eventually be assembled. He was an official member of the consulate diplomatic staff and was expected to conduct himself scrupulously legally – overt intelligence only was the accepted basis of his deployment at the consulate. For anything else, there was Igor.
Adrik knew that just north of San Diego was the General Atomics plant at which new unmanned aerial vehicles were being developed. Some of these, he knew, were supposed to have stealth technology. Most were not very big, and there were rumors of some very small ones in development. Could this sighting have been a prototype of a new kind of predator aircraft? Perhaps somebody was trying out new stealth technology and then something went wrong? Then there was SpaceX corporation in El Segundo which was supposed to be developing rockets for transport to the International space Station – but who knows what they might really have going on?
A Disruptive Invention Page 9