Midnight in Ruby Bayou by Elizabeth Lowell

Engineers blast air over planes or parts of planes, observing how they interact with the air flow. The wind tunnel offers an opportunity to research flight without the danger of death. Dorothy, like most people at that time, has never even flown on a plane, so she has a lot to learn. In the early days of flight, aeronautics evolved quickly. She learns about aerodynamics and what makes planes fly. Dorothy goes from being a teacher at the head of the classroom to a student. They also attend a weekly two-hour laboratory session for hands-on training in one of the wind tunnels. Two days a week after work, Dorothy and the other new computers take immersion classes in the fundamental theory of aerodynamics. The lab sponsors engineering physics classes for new computers. White boys from MIT and Virginia Tech fight to enter the place where Dorothy has already won a spot. But people come from all over the country to take entry-level jobs at the NACA, which offers better training and hands-on experience than the best engineering graduate school program in the world. NACA scientists drive salesmen in department stores crazy by doing things like dismantling toasters to check their quality. Locals call the people who work at Langley “NACA nuts,” “weirdos,” or “brain busters.”

Famous people frequent the laboratory: Amelia Earhart, Howard Hughes, Clark Gable, Spencer Tracey, and Myrna Loy. Henry Reid tells his staff to be on the lookout for spies.

Langley is one of the United States’ most powerful secret weapons. The NACA tries to build planes that will allow them to defeat the Germans from the air, destroying the science that will hand the opposition a military advantage. They fly Bell P-39 Airacobras, then Republic P-47 Thunderbolts and then, by the summer of 1944, North American P-51 Mustangs. and the 332nd Fighter Group make headlines flying fighter planes. Black readers follow the exploits of the Tuskegee Airmen in the press.

Midnight in Ruby Bayou by Elizabeth Lowell