CALLING ALL HAMS! 107
foul us up in tracking it while it’s being guided to some secret landing spot!”
Hank Sterling met the boys as their helicopter landed on the Enterprises airfield.
“I have half a dozen jet crews lined up and standing by for an aerial search, Tom,” the blond engineer reported. “Dilling’s checking with the CAA and the Civil Air Patrol.”
George Billing, an ace radio expert, was the Enterprises communications chief.
“Good work, Hank,” Tom said. “Did you plot the drone’s course?”
“As far as we tracked it.”
Tom hurried to Hangar C with Hank and Bud. Tom studied the chart on which Hank had penciled in the drone plane’s movements.
“What a mess! This will be like looking for a needle in a haystack!” Tom frowned in deep concentration, figuring his next move. “No telling how far the bird will fly, either, before she comes down! Well, we’ll just have to play it by ear.”
The young inventor issued quick instructions to the flight crews. Hank Sterling and Slim Davis would be piloting two of the search jets. Tom took off with Bud in a helijet.
This sleek craft, one of Tom’s earlier inventions, was known as a Whirling Duck. It had pulse-jet rotors for vertical takeoff or hovering, but could also operate as a conventional jet plane with its rotors folded into the fuselage.
108 TRIPHIBIAN ATOMICAR
The aerial search ranged over several states. Tom kept in constant touch by radio with the other pilots, as each combed a separate area. By late afternoon all had drawn a total blank.
“Guess it’s hopeless, fellows,” Tom radioed at last to his search pilots. “Go on back to base.”