Read Online Hypersonic Thunder: A Novel of the Jet Age by Walter J. Boyne - Free Book Online

we are. The reason we are is because she’s let the simulator end of her business slide. After you left, there was no one there to push it. The result is she’s not competitive, and I don’t think she cares.”
    “I’ll tell you who will care. It will be Tom. He’s always hated me, and now something like this will infuriate him. I don’t know what you were thinking of, you know all this.”
    “Right, Roberto, I do, and I did it deliberately. Nancy Shannon is running the company into the ground; she’s lost millions on that stupid mall she got involved in, and now she’s being sued for millions more. Vance Shannon, Incorporated, didn’t have a prayer of getting these contracts for simulators. If I didn’t bid on them, they would have gone to Link or some other big simulator outfit, pure and simple.”
    Rodriquez shook his head, not convinced. “Let me think about this a bit.”
    He glanced at the clock and said, “Let’s watch the news, and see how our boys are getting along with the Russkies up in space.”
    The Apollo Soyuz Test Project was a sign of the growing spirit of détente between the United States and the Soviet Union. An American Apollo spacecraft, virtually identical to the one that had orbited the Moon, had launched on July 15. It was to meet the standard Soviet Soyuz vehicle, already in orbit. To join up, they needed a universal docking module to serve as an airlock and a transfer corridor between the two spacecraft. Rodriquez had helped in the design and construction of the docking module.
    The first story was a hit-and-run accident in Sunnyvale, but the news switched to a fuzzy view of the American astronauts floating easily in space and grinning for the camera as they shook hands with their rather glum Soviet counterparts.
    O’Malley asked, “Do you know those guys?”
    “I know Tom Stafford pretty well. I haven’t met Brand, but everybody’s pulling for Slayton.”
    “Deke” Slayton had been one of the original seven astronauts, slated to fly in the Mercury program, but pulled off because of a suspected heart problem. He’d persevered, and here he was, fourteen years later, in space at last.
    “You’d think there was a KGB man on board, the way the Russians are acting.”
    “Maybe not on board, but you can be damn sure they are on theground watching. One slipup, one smile in the wrong place, and there would be no more cosmonaut program for these guys. They have to be careful.”
    The news switched to local matters again, and Rodriquez flicked the set off.
    “This brings up a good point, Steve. NASA has this monster space shuttle program coming along, and we haven’t been doing anything with it. It’s going to be slow, but it’s the future of manned spaceflight, no doubt about it.”
    O’Malley nodded. “Problem is, I’m like Vance; unless it’s got wings, I don’t like it.”
    “Well, the Space Shuttle will have wings; it will be the world’s biggest glider, no doubt about it. But where does ActOn fit in?”
    “We’ve got our hands full now, with more and more F-16s being sold every day, but you’re right, we have to look ahead. The F-16 program will go on for years, but our edge, our entry to it, probably has peaked, and we’ll need to replace it with other business. Problem is, I feel out of the loop with the Space Shuttle. We know people at NASA and at Rockwell, too, but it’s not like the aircraft industry, where we know people everywhere.”
    Rodriquez nodded. “And don’t forget the GPS. It’s starting slow, but it will accelerate. Getting some Space Shuttle business might be tough, but for one thing, it would keep us out of Nancy Shannon’s hair. She won’t have any interest in this at all, nor will Tom or Harry. I’m more worried about these simulator contracts; it’s like a declaration of war.”
    O’Malley, his usual cheerful smile stretching from ear to ear, said, “Don’t worry about it, old son. I’ll personally guarantee that there’s no