Keep your fingers crossed!”
Tom turned and adjusted a vernier dial newly mounted on the panel; this fed power to the repelatron. A meter measured the power fed to the repelatron. He watched the needle on a second meter swing to the right until it registered a force equal to the weight of the plane. This repelling force, produced by the repelatron, was needed to overcome the pull of gravity. Next, he cut the engine and feathered the props.
The ship lost air speed, but remained at almost the same altitude. So smooth was the transition that Bud gave a whistle of amazement.
SPLASH LANDING 5
“Like floating on a cloud!” he exclaimed. “You mean we’re hovering here with nothing but an invisible force ray to hold us up?”
“That’s right, pal. The detector circuits in the repelatron are tuned to respond to the various kinds of soil around here. Want to go higher?”
“Can we?”
For answer, Tom rotated the dial, feeding more power to the repelatron.
Instantly the ship shot upward like a rocket at blast-off.
“Wow!” Bud clutched his stomach. “I’m convinced! How about forward flight?”
“To do that we simply tilt the directional radiator backward slightly to give us a forward push,” Tom explained.
He reached for a second dial, calibrated in degrees, and slowly adjusted it to read 10 degrees. The plane responded by picking up speed. In a few moments the buildings of Shopton dwindled behind them as they soared out over the surrounding fields and farm land.
Bud bubbled with high spirits. “Congratulations, pal!” he cheered. “Looks as if the boy genius has come up with a new method of flight-the repelaplane!”