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WINGED BLACKMAIL
down fine. It will work, and it will revolutionize flying. Speed—that's what's needed, and so are the large sustaining surfaces for getting started and for altitude. I've got them both. Once I'm up I reef down. There it is. The smaller the sustaining surface, the higher the speed. That was the law discovered by Langley. And I've applied it. I can rise when the air is calm and full of holes, and I can rise when its boiling, and by my control of my plane areas I can come pretty close to making any speed I want—especially with that new Sangster-Endholm engine."
"You'll come pretty close to breaking your neck one of these days," was his father's encouraging remark.
"Dad, I'll tell you what I'll come pretty close to—ninety miles an hour—Yes, and a hundred. Now listen! I was going to make a trial to-morrow. But it won't take two hours to start to-day. I'll tackle it this afternoon. Keep that money. Give me the pigeon and I'll follow her to her loft wherever it is. Hold on, let me talk to the mechanicians."
He called up the workshop, and in crisp, terse sentences gave his orders in a way that went to
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