Death and Honor

It took Frade almost ten seconds to decide that he would really piss off people if he went up that ladder and had himself a good long look at the insides of that big, beautiful sonofabitch, thus delaying its imminent takeoff, and that unless he trotted over there, it would take off before he could do so.

He was surprised that no one stopped him when he went quickly up the ladder and ducked through the doorway and entered the fuselage.

He was even more surprised when a large man in a white jacket immediately stepped to the doorway, signaled for the stair truck to back away from the door, and began to close the door.

Then the large man gestured for Frade to walk toward the cockpit.

The guy who this guy expected to get aboard is really going to be pissed when he gets here and sees the Connie taxiing away.

“Good morning, Major Frade,” a familiar voice said. “I’m so glad you finally could join us.”

Frade looked at him but didn’t reply.

“Why don’t you go in there,” Colonel A. J. Graham said, pointing toward the cockpit, “and make your manners to the pilot?”

Well, I guess that check-ride to make me current in multiengines story was bullshit for the benefit of the SAA pilots.

We’re on our way to Mississippi.

Clete walked to the front of the passenger compartment and went through the door.

To his left, an Air Force master sergeant sat at the radio console. A Collins Model 7.2 transceiver had been bolted on rubber mounts to the floor. To his right, closer to the pilots’ seats, a man in civilian clothes—obviously the flight engineer—sat before an impressive array of dials and switches and levers.

Clete took the last eight steps and found himself standing between the pilot’s and co-pilot’s seats, the latter empty.

The pilot turned to look at him.

“Why, hello there, Little Cletus,” Howard Hughes said.

Clete gave him the finger.

“If you sit down there, Little Cletus,” Hughes went on, ignoring the vulgar gesture and pointing to the co-pilot’s seat, “and fasten the straps and put your earphones on, Uncle Howard will let you play with his new toy.”

Clete sat down.

The instant he had the earphones in place, Hughes’s voice came over them.

“See if you can wind it up, Ken.”

“Yes, Mr. Hughes,” the engineer replied, then began working his control panel. “Starting Number Three . . .”

There was the whine of the starters and then the sound of an engine— somewhat reluctantly—coming to life. The aircraft trembled with the vibration of a 2,200-horsepower Wright R-3350-34 engine running a little rough.

“Starting Number Two.”

The second engine started more easily.

“I show Two and Three running and moving into the green,” Hughes’s voice said.

“Confirmed, Mr. Hughes.”

“Disconnect auxiliary power.”

“Yes, Mr. Hughes.”

“I see auxiliary power disconnected,” Hughes said after a moment, “and Two and Three in the green.”

“Confirmed, Mr. Hughes.”

“Lockheed,” Hughes announced. “Three Four Three at the Used Car Lot. Request taxi and takeoff.”

Howard Hughes turned to Clete Frade.

“Pay attention, Little Cletus,” Hughes’s voice came over the earphones, “and try to learn something.”

Three minutes later:

“What the nice man just said, Little Cletus, is that we’re cleared for takeoff. Now, the way we do that is you put your hand on those levers and push them to where it says ‘Takeoff Power.’ Then you steer down the runway. The controls will come to life at about forty knots. It will just about take itself off at about ninety. When I call ‘one hundred,’ ease back on the yoke.”

“Yes, sir,” Clete said, and put his hand on the throttle quadrant.

[FOUR]

Jackson Army Air Base Jackson, Mississippi 1745 5 August 1943

“Do you think you can put it down there, Clete?” Howard Hughes asked.

They were flying over a small airfield at an altitude of two thousand feet as slow as Clete dared to fly the Constellation. He had his hand on the throttles, ready to firewall them the moment he suspected they were close to a stall.

Howard’s now serious; otherwise he’d have said “Little Cletus.”

When in doubt, tell the truth.

“I don’t know, Howard. It would be helpful if I knew how long that runway is, and what the Constellation needs.”

“I like you so much better when you are cautious and modest,” Hughes said.

Clete flashed him a dirty look.

“Let me put it this way,” Hughes said. “I could get us in there . . .”

“You want to land it, go ahead. I have a total of five hours thirty in this airplane, one takeoff, zero landings. I really don’t know how to fly it.”