“I’m not looking for tribute or praise,” replied his father. “Satisfaction in knowing that the job is done, and done well, is all that I ask. Now I’m looking forward to the day when our plant here at Bellevue and the Goodyear-Zeppelin people at Akron will be busy all the time turning out air cruisers like the Goliath; when the country will be crossed with a network of dirigible lines carrying passengers, express and valuable freight at a high rate of speed and much more safely than airplanes.”
“The day is coming and it is not so far in the dim and distant future,” said Andy confidently.
A telephone in the observation cage buzzed and Andy answered the call. It was Bert, warning them that Captain Harkins was about to descend.
“We’d better get back to the control cabin,” said Andy’s father, and they hurried down the ladder, along the main interior runway, and into the control room where Captain Harkins was giving Bert orders to relay to the engine rooms.
With power on, the Goliath nosed down for its first landing. The ground crew was strung out along the field, ready to grasp the lines which would be dropped while the portable mooring mast had been maneuvered into position for the landing.
They were dropping rapidly but smoothly and there was only a slight feeling of downward motion. Captain Harkins checked the forward speed of the Goliath, lines were dropped, and the big ship was back to earth after a flight in which it had lived up to the fondest hopes of its designers and builders.
The nose was pushed up against the mooring mast where the automatic coupling was made and the slow entry into the berth in the hangar started with the mooring mast, on its tractor-truck, waddling along ahead and the Goliath following obediently.
In fifteen minutes the big ship was in its berth and the “orange peel” doors were rolling shut.
Before leaving the gondola, Captain Harkins and Andy’s father held a conference with the air corps officers who had made the trip with them and definite plans for the first long trial flight were made. Captain Harkins turned to Andy when the conference was over.
“See that orders are issued for the crew to be aboard ship and ready to depart at three in the morning,” he said. “We’re going to make a surprise visit to Washington if the weather reports at 2 A. M. are fair.”