military airfield, although not staffed. It was available for emergency landings in all weather; but the war was going in the Allies favor; it did not look like there was going to be any takeover of this area by the Axis Powers anytime soon, so they needed to stay inconspicuous.
But as the years went by, Werner became integrated into the little community and made friends with the local boys at the ranch. He liked to entertain the boys with stories of far away people with different customs and everything. And one of his favorite stories was a fantasy about someone who had flown a rocket bomber from Germany over Australia to land in America, wasn't that a good story. Jerry had been one of those boys who listened to those fascinating adventure stories, and was determined to become a pilot someday when he grew up, so much fun.
George listened with fascination as Jerry related the story, as he stared at the partially uncovered sleek metal hulk down in the trench. "But you said that was in 1944; but no one rode a rocket up to the edge of space until the 1960's, such as the Project Mercury flight of Alan Shepherd. This does not make sense."
Jerry looked thoughtful, still looking at the dusty shape below being slowly washed off by the rain, as he sat on the edge of the trench they had dug. "This was the only prototype of the vehicle that had been built, so there were no more to be captured at the end of the war. Besides, most likely the facility was bombed into ruins, and just assumed to be another factory building V-1 buzz bombs. And Werner dared not tell that he was an enemy combatant, to be made into a prisoner of war; he liked it here. He even eventually became a priest at the local church. No way would he ruin his good life here by telling about the presence of this rocket bomber he had flown to land here, not exactly intentionally. But when Werner had downed a couple of mugs of beer, he would like to tell stories around the campfire. No wonder they seemed so real to me.”
###
Author’s footnotes:
Part of cover graphics is from 1944 book by Sanger "A Rocket Drive For Long Range Bombers" Translated by Radio Research Laboratory and limited handmade copies made in 1952 (no copyright) and given out by Dr. Robert Cornog, commenting on his belief in future manned spaceflight.
A description of the author's receiving of an old 1952 book on the Rocket Bomber can be found at https://www.escalatorhi.com/JimDabblingH/historicaltidbits.html then click on the "WWII Rocketplane " link to bring up the first page of the item, which has several scanned pages from the book as samples. The cover image of this sci fi story is derived from images of parts of that book.
And it has more recently been pointed out to me that there has been a more recent book published on the vehicle, published in 2002, which can be seen at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0764315498
Author page:
Four-novel high-tech sci fi saga:
Building Up
The Ark of 1984's Future
It's Down To Earth
The Torus City Ice Shields Returning Home
Other Sci fi:
Going Past The Town Prison
Masters of the Trading Game
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/2508
Bouncing High Above the World
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/25770
Check out the author’s websites and blog:
https://www.escalatorhi.com
https://www.kestsgeo.com
https://www.kestsgeojedc.blogspot.com/
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