The Wild Blue, Black and Tan Yonder (Not Necessarily in That Order)

Chapter 10

"Can't they glide down if they run out of gas?", Easy asked. "I heard that planes can do that."

"It's not like that with a blimp", Ernie said. "Planes are heavier than air. A plane has to keep moving to stay in the air. The shape of the wings cause air pressure to build up underneath the plane as it moves forward, and pushes it up. Forget about what you see in the cartoons, if a real plane got tied to a mountain or a building, the minute it stopped it would crash. A plane is always moving through the air when it's flying. As it slows, it starts to come down. Remember, we said if a blimp loses power, it drifts, and the rudder is useless."

"I still can't reach them", Snoopy said. "And with all that manipulating of the throttles, they're going to burn up more fuel."

"So what can we do?", Easy asked.

"I have an idea", Snoopy said. He pulled out his cell phone, and dialed. 

"Blogville Tower."

"Baxter? Snoopy. Is the jet jeep there yet?"

"Yep, arrived about an hour ago."

"Great. It is airworthy?"

"Ranger's setting it up now."

"As soon as he gets it set up, get him to the tower and have him call me at Squeaky Toy Tower on the land line."

"Will do."

Snoopy hung up the phone, and said, "Ranger's got the jet jeep."

"There's a jeep with jet engines?", Easy asked.

"The jet jeep was a type of mini helicopter the Army experimented with about 50 years ago", Ernie said. "It came in a kit, and the soldiers would have to put it together on site before they could fly it. They were good, but not good enough. Ranger's got one that still flys, and we're going to use it to catch the blimp."

"Who's going to catch the blimp?", Muffin asked, climbing up the stairs with a big picnic basket.

Snoopy hugged Muffin, and said, "I'm going to catch the blimp."

Muffin set down her basket, looked out the window, and said, "No, you can't, Snoopy! It's too dangerous. You might fall, you might crash! Please, Snoopy, don't go! Please, Snoopy! Please!"

"Muffin, I gotta do it!"

"Okay."

Just then , the phone rang. Walter lifted it and said, "Squeaky Toy Tower, Walter Speaking............Yeah, he's here.....Snoopy!"

Snoopy grabbed the phone. "Ranger...........You got it ready? Great. Okay, here's what I need you to do.........Get it over here as fast as you can. ........ You can be on the flight line in five minutes? Great! Thanks!"