ping
lines of the sides told a story of perfect streamlining, and implied
high speed, even at rest. The bright, slightly iridescent steel hull
shone in silvery contrast to the gleaming copper of the power units'
heat-absorption fins. The great clear windows in the nose and the low,
streamlined air intake for the generator seemed only to accentuate the
graceful lines of the machine.

"Lord, she's a beauty, isn't she, Dick!" exclaimed Morey, a broad smile
of pleasure on his face.

"Well, she did shape up nicely on paper, too, didn't she. Oh, Fuller,
congratulations on your masterpiece. It's even better looking than we
thought, now the copper has added color to it. Doesn't she look fast? I
wish we didn't need physicists so badly on this trip, so you could go on
the first ride with us."

"Oh, that's all right, Dick, I know the number of instruments in there,
and I realize they will mean a lot of work this trip. I wish you all
luck. The honor of having designed the first ship like that, the first
heavier-than-air ship that ever flew without wings, jets, or props--that
is something to remember. And I think it's one of the most beautiful
that ever flew, too."

"Well, Dick," said his father quietly, "let's get under way. It should
fly--but we don't really know that it will!"

The four men entered the ship and strapped themselves in the gyroscopic
seats. One by one they reported ready.

"Captain Mason," Arcot explained to the Air Inspector, "these seats may
seem to be a bit more active than one generally expects a seat to be,
but in this experimental machine, I have provided all the safety devices
I could think of. The ship itself won't fall, of that I am sure, but the
power is so great it might well prove fatal to us if we are not in a
position to resist the forces. You know all too well the effect of sharp
turns at high speed and the results of the centrifugal force. This
machine can develop such tremendous power that I have to make provision
for it.

"You notice that my controls and the instruments are mounted on the arm
of the chair really; that permits me to maintain complete control of the
ship at all times, and still permits my chair to remain perpendicular to
the forces. The gyroscopes in the base here cause the entire chair to
remain stable if the ship rolls, but the chair can continue to revolve
about this bearing here so that we will not be forced out of our seats.
I'm confident that you'll find the machine s