I cranked the generator up and it took over on its own. The turbofan engine accelerated and went into resonance. Bernie checked the thrust meter.
“Thirty-eight hundred pounds of thrust,” he announced proudly.
“How much thrust does each engine on John’s Learjet 45 produce?” I asked the pilot.
He smiled. “Thirty-five hundred pounds.”
I motioned for Bernie, Ed and Saltzman to come over to the generator. We grabbed the handles and the four of us easily lifted the generator off the ground. Bernie looked shocked. I smiled. Saltzman was smiling too, but probably for a different reason.
Over the next several days we walked back and forth between Bernie’s shop and the hangar, carrying everything to the hangar, including our bedding and cots. Bernie began dismantling the center section of John’s Lear Jet 45. With the first generator we had brought here on the plane, Bernie was able to use his Tungsten Inert Gas welder to modify the airframe and mountings for the new turbofan engines. We built in electric motors to spin the generator up to speed instead of the manual crank system, and modified the throttle controls in the cockpit to control the engines independently. The rear four seats were removed and a sheet metal covering was fabricated to cover the generators. We had to squeeze past the generators in order to get to the lavatory in the back of the plane, but that was a minor inconvenience.
Finally, everything had come together. The pilot and copilot taxied out to the main runway and made several dry runs, accelerating rapidly and then shutting the engines down before they reached the end of the runway. The pilot and copilot taxied back to the beginning of the main runway again and paused. John’s Lear Jet 45 accelerated quickly and halfway down the runway gracefully took to the air. The plane made a gentle sweeping turn to the left, circling the airport, and realigned with the runway for its landing. On final approach the plane appeared to drop too quickly and would have hit the ground before the beginning of the runway. The wheels of the plane were touching the weeds in the field before the plane pulled away from the ground at the last second. The pilot flew over the runway and swung around for a second attempt at landing. The second time the plane came in faster and took most of the runway to land. When the plane returned to the hangar and stopped, the pilot and copilot emerged from the cabin.
“What happened?” Bernie asked. “It looked like you were in trouble during the first landing.”
“We were,” the pilot said. “We backed the engines down like we would normally, but the generators regained too much of their weight and the plane became too heavy. We had to increase speed in order to overcome the extra weight.”
“That’s why the long landing on the second approach,” Bernie said.
“Exactly,” the pilot replied. “As long as we keep the generators running at the higher speed we don’t have a weight problem. We can’t slow the generators down until we’re actually on the ground. It makes for a longer landing requirement, but it’s still workable. It means we need the same length runway to land as we do to take off.”
“Which is?” I asked.
“About a mile,” the pilot replied.
We went through a thorough check out of the plane again. Everything was holding together perfectly. The next day the pilot and copilot took the plane for a more extensive flight test up to 40,000 feet and increasingly sharp turns. The following day we checked everything again. The final flight test involved near acrobatic maneuvers for which I was happy to be watching from solid ground. One final inspection of the airframe and engine mounts and John’s new electrically powered Lear Jet 45 was ready for service.
Bernie formed the Seattle Turbofan Cooperative and John helped with the financing. Bernie was paid for his development work and conversion of John’s learJet45. He was also given a sizable grant and a one hundred year loan to build engines and convert existing aircraft to electric engines.
As soon as we landed in Denver John met us at the airport.
“There are some situations we need to address immediately,” he said. “I’ve been in radio contact with people in Japan, China, Great Britain, Germany and France. They need our help.”
“So what do you want us to do?” I asked.
“The four of you make a good team,” John said, “I need you to make some deliveries and share your experience in Phoenix about recovering nuclear reactors with other countries.”
I looked at Ed, Tia and Saltzman. They all seemed to be in agreement.
“When do we leave?” I asked.
“Ordinarily I would say as soon as the plane is refueled, but since that is no longer necessary, how about now?”
“We could use some rest and something to eat,” I replied.
“Of course you could,” John said with a smile. “How about first thing tomorrow morning?”
The following morning we flew to Phoenix and loaded a magnetic generator and one radiation suit into the cargo space of John’s Lear Jet 45. It turns out we weren’t the only ones who stored their radiation suits at the nuclear power plants. Twelve hours later we landed in Shizuhama Japan.
The land was flat with thousands of burned out buildings — the remains of Shizuhama City. The runway had been cleared and a small section of the terminal had been rebuilt. To the southeast was the ocean, dotted with small fishing boats.
We were greeted by a group of men in dark gray business suits who bowed as we got off the plane. We bowed in return. One man stepped forward and spoke in broken English. It was difficult to get exactly what he wanted to say. Saltzman stepped forward and spoke to them in Japanese. I had been sensing there was a lot more to Saltzman than he was letting on, but this came as a pleasant surprise.
“He wants to know if the new generator really works,” Saltzman said.
I held out my arm toward the door to the plane. Saltzman spoke and invited them onto the plane. Saltzman showed them the generator mounted in the middle of the plane and took them around to the turbofan engines and pointed inside the engine as he explained how the generator powered the entire plane. The Japanese men smiled excitedly, nodded and bowed repeatedly. We opened the cargo door and showed them the generator we had brought to them, as well as the radiation suit.
I could feel the gratitude and relief they were experiencing. They brought a roller cart over to the plane and unloaded the generator. One of the men carried the radiation suit proudly at the head of the procession. Saltzman explained what had to be done at the nuclear reactor site while we ate fish and rice, with some warm Sake to drink.
We spent the night in a clean comfortable room and rode bicycles south to the nuclear power plant in the morning. The Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant was built on the shore of the Enshu Sea and was surrounded by a massive steel and concrete sea wall that protected the power plant from Tsunamis. Unfortunately, it provided no protection from the meteor storm. Still. There was no major damage to the power plant itself.
The generator was already there. Saltzman explained that the men had moved the generator during the night so as to not waste time. The wires were run and everything was hooked up as directed. I was given the honor of cranking the generator. Once the generator came up to speed and was running on its own, the man wearing the radiation suit ran into the reactor building and returned two minutes later.
Saltzman translated. “He says water is flowing into the cooling pools. They have retrieved all of the radiation suits from the power plant and wish to return our suit.”