Granby's eyes opened wide, and Feldstein spun around as though someone had jabbed him with a needle. "What?"
Porter simply repeated what he had said. "I had intended to make application to the Space Force for permission to test it," he added.
Feldstein looked at him blankly for a moment.
Then: "The Space Force? Mr. Porter, civilian aircraft come under the jurisdiction of the CAA."
"How's he going to fly it?" Granby asked. "No engines, no wings, no control surfaces. It's silly."
"Rocket motors in the rear, of course," said Feldstein. "He's converted the thing into a rocket."
"But the tail is closed," Granby objected. "There's no rocket orifice."
"Dummy cover, I imagine," Feldstein said. "Right, Mr. Porter?"
"Wrong," said Porter angrily. "The motive power is supplied by a mechanism of my own devising! It has nothing to do with rockets! It's as superior to rocket power as the electric motor is to the steam engine!"
Feldstein and Granby glanced at each other, and an almost identical expression of superior smugness grew over their features. Feldstein looked back at Porter and said, "Mr. Porter, I assure you that it doesn't matter what you're using to lift that thing. You could be using dynamite for all I care. The law says that it can't leave the ground unless it's airworthy. Without wings or control surfaces, it is obviously not airworthy. If it is not a rocket device, then it comes under the jurisdiction of the Civil Aeronautics Authority, and if you try to take off without our permission, you'll go to jail.