If you've got a new technology that you need to use as part of a public relations campaign to educate your customers and stockholders as to what you're doing with all their money, well, there are a lot of ways to promote that technology, but there's only one thing we're here to talk about, honestly, I don't even know why we're pretending this is going to be about anything other than comic books. That's why we're here. Comic books.


Jets! Whoo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo! Inspiring Wings songs, blasting across the skies, rattling the dishware, scaring the dogs, setting speed records, and having all kinds of power adventures. Let's watch!


No wonder they call it a "Stratojet" - it sure moves like something built that uses jet engines and travels in the upper layers of the atmosphere! But did you know that it's the culmination of a two thousand year old dream that was made a reality starting in Cambridge UK in the 1930s? And no, we aren't talking about Tolkien and Middle-Earth, either!


Eight years later, the Luftwaffe was bombing London and the RAF was bombing Berlin and the Japanese were getting ready to bomb Pearl Harbor and everybody was saying sure, this airplane bombing is great, but what if it was *faster*?


Usually when this guy gets instructions from the Big Boss At Home, they're more specific, like "pick up some eggs" or "remember to mow the lawn" but this time, his wife is being very secretive!


I wonder if the door with the big sign reading ROYAL AIR FORCE has anything to do with airplanes. What a big mystery.


Why should he take a 38 hour Pan-American Clipper seaplane flight, when he could just hop on a British Airways 777 and be in NYC in seven hou... oh, that's right, that's what they're inventing. Never mind.


Did you say "turbine buckets?" Shit, general, that's all you had to say!!


Lynn, Lynn, the city of top secret jet engine research. You never go out the way you came in!


The US Army Air Corps will spare nothing in its mission to perfect the jet engine - not even the tender feelings of MPs!


"It's not that I don't WANT to spend my nights faking interest while my husband blathers on about his boring job, but..."


Yes, it's Buck Rogers come true. Now quick Wilma, put on your flying belt and leap away, before the Tiger Men from Mars blast us with their flash rays.


Aye, 'tis magic, the magic of Hero of Alexandria, mightiest brain of all the Hellenes, inventor of the idea of performing mighty deeds, and also of a kind of sandwich! Aye. 'Tis how we talk here in ancient Greece. Aye.


The idea is simple. We tell Fred here to stand up in a canoe, and then laugh as he's soaked.


Johnny, it's all spelled out in this little book called "Adventures In Jet Power." Here you are on page 10, asking this question!


So you see the air is compressed, mixed with fuel and explosively ignited, the blast of which turns a fan, which turns the compressor that compresses the air which is mixed with fuel and explosively ignited, which turns the fan, which turns the compressor that compresses the air, et cetera, et cetera. Just don't ever turn it off, or you'll never get it started again.


This J-47 engine is 19 feet long, weighs one and a half tons, and has a cut-away diagram, the possession of which will get you five to ten in federal prison for espionage. See you in court!


Why, it IS simple Johnny, not like those crazy old piston engines and all their whimsical, old-fashioned parts and things.


The F-80 Shooting Star can get from New York to Schenectady in 17 minutes, just in case anybody ever needed to get to Schenectady really quickly. Which has never and is never going to happen.


Then came the XF-81 which had a jet engine that worked to power a propeller! Not for any real reason, just to see if we could. The government is making it rain, Johnny! I'm talking unlimited budgets, no-bid contracts, the sky's the limit, as long as we shove a jet engine in it!


When you see an old Air Force guy mumble something about "four burning and six turning" this is the plane he's talking about! Now you can make conversation the next time you're trying to get a drink in the VFW bar.


Sure, you can get a ramjet up to 4600 MPH, but you wouldn't want to be on it, or anywhere near where it or its warhead lands. What you want is the X-15 rocket plane, that baby will get you almost as fast, and you'll probably survive the trip!


Just think. One day we'll have jet-powered passenger airplanes! Trips that now take eight hours will be done in two, and another two sitting on the runway waiting for a gate to clear! Add in an hour getting to the airport, an hour getting through that security line, and if you're flying international another forty five minutes clearing Customs. You'll fully experience the magic of the Jet Age!


What's that Johnny, you think we should make jet powered trains? Spend millions to rebuild hundreds of thousands of miles of track just so hogs, coal and fertilizer can get where they're going a little faster? Is that what you want? I didn't think so. Maybe leave the jet innovations to the professionals and let them handle the new world of power. All you have to do is enjoy it- and remember, show up three hours early for your flight.

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