Jacob
could hardly believe his eyes. His smile
spread from ear to ear and his chest heaved as he caught his breath. As he came down the parade the things Jacob
saw changed his life. Never had he seen
so many people; men wearing long coats of all colours; ruby, sapphire, emerald,
silver, gold; each, their tailcoats trailing behind them in the wind and
tipping their matching top hats to one another.
Women in their petticoats were much the same, turquoise was the colour
of the season and it was sported in their every garment, even down to the
aviator goggles worn upon their heads: that was the latest trend. Aviator goggles were worn by anyone and
everyone since The Avious grand launch was announced.
This
was Jacob’s first time in Town. From the
moment he arrived he never wanted to leave.
The cobblestone was littered with the most fantastic shining gems set in
to the facade, the smell of freshly cut roses, of lavender and the beginning of
spring, captivated him. The sun shone
down and through a great glass magnifier projected the British flag over a
flagstone courtyard. Jacob could hardly
imagine there was ever any weather here, just sun shine; and yet, the women
still held their brollies aloft, “One must protect her skin,” Jacob over
heard. He held his mother’s hand and,
although there were more people here than he could count, nobody pushed passed
or bustled through. Ladies walked arm in
arm and gentleman sat by the side of the road, drinking in tea shops and
discussing very important gentlemanly things, like the economy. Jacob was not really sure what the economy
was but he knew it was a very gentlemanly thing to talk about, sometimes his
father might talk about it in to his paper and mother would just nod and smile,
inserting the occasional, “Yes Dear.”
The girls giggled and the guys chuckled and not a person in sight could
have been seen without a smile.
Finally,
after crossing the courtyard and walking quite some distance; Jacob’s feet had started
to ache, but he was having such a fantastic time and was in such
awe that he wouldn’t have dared say anything to Mother, she might have
wanted to take him home. If he went
home, he’d never get to see it, and he had been waiting so long to see it. Finally, Jacob saw his Father; dressed in the
bright red uniform of the RAC, leading his troupe up to the gangway of The Avious.
Jacob started to run forward, pulling his mother along-side. He waved at the troupe and cheered with the
crowd.
Jacobs
Father, Captain Aldous, was the first Captain of Her Majesty’s Royal Aviation
Corps. The RAC, had been set up and tasked with the single mission to police
the Air in which the new trade would be taking place. The RAC looked after everything in the sky,
and Jacob’s Father looked after the RAC, at least a bit of it. The Captain’s arm fell upon his rapier as he
marched. Just before he turned to enter
the deck, he raised his hand, twisted his head towards his son and tilted his
goggles. Jacob caught the wink and
laughed.
The Avious was
a sight to behold. Thanks to Her
Majesty’s Royal Engineers, we could cross oceans in days, England could get to
France and back home in time for tea.
Young Jacob never truly believed it until now. Like three elephants
stood on each other’s back and two whales tip to tail, at least that’s what
Father said. Jacob had never seen an
elephant or a whale, but he knew how big they were! It was once a 50 gun frigate built for the
sea. But the insides had been stripped
and furnished so there were no more cannons and the helm was now at the front of
the ship, the bow. Instead of three
masts, there were huge columns that connected the ship to the flight chamber,
in there was Her Majesty’s greatest secret, the secret of flight. Huge steam powered propellers sat at the
back, they looked like they could chew up even the toughest of The Captain’s
men. Either side held two powerful
booms, when the ship was in the air, Jacob’s Father had told him, the booms
came out and held sails that let him steer the ship. Jacob
looked on in amazement. “one day!” Jacob
promised to himself. The propellers
puffed in to action.
