"Appleton, Victor - Tom Swift Jr 07 - And His Diving Seacopter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Appleton Victor)

The other girl was Phyllis Newton, Tom's particular friend, whose long, dark
hair made her a striking contrast to Sandy. Phyl, also seventeen, was the
daughter of Ned Newton, Mr. Swift's trusted friend since boyhood days. He now
held
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the responsible position of manager of the Swift Construction Company,
which manufactured aircraft and other items invented by the Swifts.
"Hey! Why didn't you warn me, Tom?" exclaimed Bud delightedly. "I'd have
spruced up a bit."
Sandy laughed, then said, "We thought you might need a couple of mascots,
so we talked Tom into taking us along."
"Guaranteed to bring you good luck," added Phyl.
"We may need it if we get another dunking," said Bud wryly. Then he
grinned. "Too bad you girls aren't mermaids. Then we wouldn't have to worry."
Sandy threw back her head. "Who'd want to be a deep-sea siren?"
"Right," said Phyl. "I'll take my chances the way I am."
Half an hour later the Sky Queen was soaring eastward. Sandy, who had
been taught to fly by her father and brother, took the controls of the mammoth
craft for the first time in a long while.
"Oh, Tom, it's out of this world!" she cried.
"Well, don't blow us all up!" Bud called.
When they reached the area for the test dive, Slim Davis took over the
controls and the boys got ready to submerge. Compartment A of the sea-copter
had been checked and double-checked before take-off to make certain that it
contained the
18 DIVING SEACOPTER
high-pressure sealant which Compartment B had lacked. Nevertheless, Tom
decided that he and Bud would don diving suits and make sure their helmets and
air tanks were ready for instant use.
"Good luck!" Sandy and Phyl called as the two boys climbed through the
hatch.
As the compartment dropped into the water, Tom flipped the reactor switch,
producing a full head of superheated steam almost instantly. "She's working
perfectly, Bud."
One hundred fathoms down there was no sign of a leak, and Tom now felt
reasonably confident that there would be no trouble on this test dive. At a
hundred and fifty fathoms he leveled off and gradually opened the jet-pipe
throttles on the control panel. With a swoosh the compartment knifed through the
sea.
"Fifty knots!" gasped Bud, watching the needle of the speed indicator. "Nice
going, sailor!"
"It'll do for the first tryout," Tom agreed with a quiet smile of satisfaction.
"Just out of curiosity, what produces the jet power?" Bud asked.
"Each compartment has a miniature atomic reactor which manufactures the
superheated steam," Tom explained. "This steam is then released out the jet
pipes underneath the compartment. When the seacopter is all assembled, steam
for the jets will be channeled from the excess used to drive the rotor blades."
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Tom steered the craft from side to side, performing various maneuvers. Then
he turned the controls over to Bud, who was soon handling the seacopter section