The Great Pan-American Airship Mystery
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This alluring dieselpunk alternate-history romp features a stellar cast of the famous and the no-so-famous persons of the 1930s, as they travel aboard the luxury airship Liberty on a coast-to-coast flight that includes soirées full of scintillating wit, murderous whims, and the cosmic musings of one Hugo Gernsback.
The Paul Di Filippo Presents series showcases modern masterpieces of science fiction and fantasy selected by acclaimed author and critic Paul Di Filippo.
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The Great Pan-American Airship Mystery - David Gerrold
Table of Contents
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
THE GREAT PAN AMERICAN AIRSHIP MYSTERY
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
Copyright © 2015 by David Gerrold.
Originally published in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction, 2015.
Published by Wildside Press, LLC.
wildsidepress.com | bcmystery.com
THE GREAT PAN AMERICAN AIRSHIP MYSTERY
or
WHY I MURDERED ROBERT BENCHLEY
by DAVID GERROLD
After all is said and done, I blame Nikola Tesla.
It’s his fault.
Because—if we’re going to talk about cause and effect, then we have to go all way the back to the original cause.
No, Nikola Tesla did not set out to invent an efficient method of low-cost helium extraction, it was a side-effect of his coal-fusion research, but if he hadn’t discovered it, no one else would have. At least not in our lifetimes.
Tesla often gave away many of his discoveries, but not this one—he patented the helium extraction process. The technology that followed created so many new industries and opportunities for profit that it pushed Tesla’s own company into the Fortune 500 within 18 months.
Knowing that Tesla was unlikely to invest in lawyers and lawsuits, patent violations started cropping up everywhere. The Third Reich, for instance, began extracting their own helium from the Ruhr, the large coal fields located in the west of Germany in North Rhine-Westphalia—they used the helium to lift over a dozen huge vessels, all modeled after the luxurious Hindenburg.
Not to be outdone, the United States Congress created the National Aeronautics Studies Administration—NASA for short—to fund research and development in aerial transport.
Three years later, in June of 1937, The Great Pan American Airship Line began operations at their expansive new terminal on Welfare Island. Due to rising international tensions, as well as considerable domestic pressures against foreign competition, the trans-Atlantic German airships would be restricted to the airfield at Lakehurst, New Jersey.
To demonstrate America’s commitment to a new age of aerial transportation, Pan Am announced the inaugural journey of their magnificent new flagship would be a coast-to-coast celebrity cruise. They held a nationwide contest to choose the name of the vessel they had nicknamed The Big Lady, and three lucky contestants would win berths on the first trip to prove that economical air travel for everyone was now a reality.
At 11:33 am on Thursday morning, June 3rd, 1937, First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt officially christened the vessel in a grand ceremony and the Pan American flagship Liberty lifted majestically into the air while the United States Marine Band played America, The Beautiful. The Chorus of St. Patrick’s Cathedral accompanied and WNBC broadcast the event on nationwide radio. RCA also broadcast an