Bill Barnes Air Adventurer, July 1935 — page 72: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

70 “I’m going to lead you in the Scarlet Stormer. Red will fly the Snorter, Cy the transport. McCoy, you'll have to be ready to take over the controls in the transport if anything happens to Cy. Neely will handle the rapid-fire gun be- cause I want Sandy to launch the Eag- let as soon as the transport is in the air. “We'll probably have five fast single- seater fighters against us. And a twin- motored bomber that is armed to the ears. What else I don’t know. But watch out for anti-aircraft guns when we reach our objective. I’m expecting every one of you to give everything he has for Shorty.” He stepped down off the step among his men. They all hurried to their sta- tions. They had an unpleasant job ahead of them and they wanted to get at it. Fifteen minutes later the red comet that was the Scarlet Stormer roared into the air with Bill Barnes’ hand wrapped around the control column. It was fol- lowed immediately by the equally red Snorter. They circled above the capital until Cy had joined them. Then Bill threw the radio switch in the Stormer. “T’ll go to eight thousand feet,” he said. “Cy, you hold her steady at five thousand, just below me. Red, keep parallel with the transport on the port side. Break out the Eaglet, kid, and take a position on the starboard side of the bomber.” Sandy required no urging. It was the first trme he had taken the Eaglet out of its flying hangar since they had left Long Island. His eyes were shining in anticipation as he hurried down the steps from the bridge and along the run- way beside the Eaglet. He clambered into the cockpit and strapped himself. When he flipped up his hand a few minutes later Miles worked the mechanism that opened up the bottom of the mid-section of the fuselage. A long, latticelike crane low- BILL BARNES ered the small, single-seated biplane smoothly and quickly down through the aperature. : The tiny plane hung suspended, gently swaying back and forth from the force of the transport’s engines. The wings snapped out and locked as Sandy ma- nipulated a crank. The prop became a whirling disk as he worked his starter. After ten minutes Sandy signaled to Miles again. The hook released the little fighter and Sandy took it away in a long, fast glide. As it came out of the glide he brought the stick back and brought the ship over in a tight, flashing loop. It rolled diz- zily from side to side, did a split S and a chandelle. He brought the ship up in the first half of a normal loop and from an inverted position at the top half rolled the ship level in a flashing Immel- mann turn. He put the little biplane into a climb- ing turn until it almost stalled, let the nose fall away while he continued to turn. During the ensuing glide he brought the ship back to an even keel and executed another wing-over from the opposite direction. After a con- trolled spin Bill’s voice roared in his ear over the radiophone. “All right,” he shouted. “Fasten your ears back and get in formation.” “T’m just getting the kinks out of her back, Bill,’ Sandy replied. ‘She told me she had bed sores from lying in the hangar.” “Shut up and get back there,’ Bill barked. Sandy flashed back to a position on the starboard side of transport. His face was wreathed in smiles. He was happy for the first time since they had taken the air at Barnes Field. That is, completely happy. If it hadn’t been for the disappearance of Shorty he would probably have emulated Red Gleason in song. Red was flying his Snorter with the oO CON Ghook CO