Gunderson watched as the luminous streamlines thinned. The model rose at a scale speed that was fantastic. “But you're doing that!” he exclaimed.
Montgomery nodded and turned it off. “That’s why I have to have the wind-tunnel report to convince Dodge. But the model will behave exactly that way in the tunnel. The lift of the wing is about ten per cent less than conventional shapes at sea level. At the flight altitude for which it is designed, however, the lift actually increases with rarefaction of the atmosphere.”
Gunderson’s face still showed disbelief, but he picked up the model. “I’ll get the tests for you. As for Dodge, aren’t you going to tell Nagle and Berkeley? And haven’t they anticipated something of this kind?”
“Yes,” said Montgomery. “I’m quite sure they’ve anticipated it. They’ll know why Dodge is here.”
Montgomery went to his hotel to rest. He had done all he could. Maybe it wasn’t enough. Maybe Nagle and Berkeley would have come out better with somebody else in his place. But it had to be played now the way it lay.
He called Dr. Nagle and talked with him for fifteen minutes in regard to Dodge’s visit. As he suspected, the only thing that was news to Nagle was the time and the person who would initiate the investigation. It was agreed that Montgomery would bring the colonel over and introduce him and take part in the demonstration that would be given.
With this in hand, Montgomery went to sleep for the rest of the day.
Gunderson returned to Casa Buena the following day, an hour before Dodge’s shuttle plane from Oakland was due. The engineer went directly to Montgomery’s hotel. His hands were trembling faintly as he unfastened the brief case and handed Montgomery the sheaf of papers reporting the wind-tunnel performance of the model plane.
“This is the biggest thing since jet engines!” he said. “If a full scale design would give the same performance — You should have seen Evans and the rest of the wind-tunnel gang standing around with their mouths open as lift increased while pressure went down. Here’s the curve we got.”
Montgomery scanned it with satisfaction. It was just about as he predicted. There was the normal rate of loss from sea level to fifty thousand. It began to pick up a trifle there, and at eighty thousand the sharp, useful rise began. At a hundred thousand it plummeted again.