Apollo And The Jet Age.

by Kingstar008

Engine test.

May 16th 1010 A.G
Cloudsdale, Equestria.
9:00 AM.

It was a bright sunny day in Cloudsdale and right now Apollo was walking through the Omega industries factory. While drinking a cup of coffee while doing so.

It’s been almost 2 months since Apollo’s airplane concepts were chosen. Since then, he’s been coming to the Omega factory three times a week. He chose this schedule so he wouldn’t neglect his career back in Canterlot and give his project as much attention as possible.

A few weeks after the project started, the company decided to announce that they were creating the world’s first airplanes.

This obviously got some media attention with some ponies being interested in the idea, while others were not.

One of the project’s biggest critics was an aviation engineer named Lloyd Ivory. He one of the biggest names in the industry. Lloyd believes that what Apollo was doing was wasting every ponies time and suggest that he should just scrap the entire operation entirely. Despite the fact that a few major airlines expressed interest of producing a fleet of new airplanes.

Unfortunately, Apollo met Lloyd before on a few occasions. Let’s just say their meetings weren’t pleasant.

Thank goodness that the company was focusing Aspera for now. If the critics knew about the Astra’s supersonic capabilities, he didn’t know how they would react. But if Apollo was being honest, he couldn’t wait to see his face when the Aspera becomes a major success.

Finally, after 10 minutes of walking, he finally arrived in a warehouse with a jet engine in the middle being held up by steel beams.

This is where new engines for new aircraft of different shapes and sizes are tested. To make sure they are fit for commercial use.

On Apollo’s right, there was a room just a few yards from him that had a large window. The room in question is the control room.

He opened the door and saw that there was a gray pegasus mare with a white and blonde mane and tail, writing something down in a notebook. Her name is Patricia, she is one of the head engineers.

“Morning, Patricia.” Apollo greeted.

“Morning, Apollo.” She smiled. “Are you ready to get to work?”

“You know it.” Apollo put his coffee down on the desk and look out of the window. “You and your crew did a really good job building that engine. It looks better than I imagined.”

“Thanks.” Patricia said before she turned on the control panel. She pressed a red button which turned on the engine and then grabbed a lever and pushed it forward. Which caused the engine fan blades to spin faster and faster.

“It’s looking pretty good. So, what’s the first test of the day?” Apollo asks.

“The rain test.” She answered. “Do you want to do the honors?”

“Sure, why not.” Apollo said before pushing a blue button with an image of a water droplet on it.

The warehouse sprinkler system turned on, simulating a heavy rainstorm. After 10 minutes, they decided to turn off the sprinklers.

As expected, the engine had no problems at all.

“Ok, what’s next on the list?” Apollo ask.

“The winter test.” Patricia said.

“Wait, should we let it dry first?”

“No, we don’t usually do that. It’s s a good way to see how the engine will handle ice forming on it.”

“You’re the expert.” Apollo said before walking over to the warehouse thermostat and turning it down.

It took a little while for the temperature to drop, but when it did, it was just as cold as winter in Manehattan.

“Huh, this has to be the first time I have seen an engine surviving these temperatures on the first try.” Patricia said. “I was expecting the fan blades to freeze up by now.”

“Maybe jet engines are just better than their propeller counterparts.”

“Ok, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Patricia said as she turned off the engine, walking over to the thermostat and putting back on its normal setting. “After everything thaws out will continue the trials. Until then, do you want to play some cards?”

"Ok."

===•••===
Two hours of testing later.

“All right, we are almost done. Now all we have to do is the broken fan blade test.” Apollo said as he looked at the clipboard. “How are we going to destroy one of the fan blades?”

“Easy. Before you came in, I planted a small explosive behind one of the blades.” Patricia said as she held up a small remote with a big red button in the middle. “Doing this will simulate anything from a bird strike to debris hitting the engine.”

“What a coincidence, many aviation companies do the same thing on planet earth.”

“Really now? What a small galaxy. Do you want to do the countdown?”

“Sure. 3. 2. 1.”

Patricia press the button causing the explosive to go off and the broken fan blade to be sucked in to the air intake.

Barely even a few seconds later the engine exploded. Shrapnel went everywhere as the engine slowly died and burst into flames.

“Damn, that wasn’t supposed to happen.” Apollo exclaimed.

“Well, that’s the reason why we do these tests in the first place. Hopefully next time we will have better results.”

===•••===

For the next few weeks, Patricia and Apollo redesigned and rebuild more jet engine prototypes.

Every time they put the prototypes through the tests, they had hope that this time it would be successful. Only for it to explode like one big frag grenade.

The failures even put them behind schedule a little bit, as the first Aspera was going through its own trials.

But no matter how many times they failed; they didn’t give up.

===•••===
June 1
1:30 AM

“Ok, we did the noise test and the fuel consumption test. All that is left now is the broken fan blade.” She sighed. “This is the 60th time we attempted this?”

“Yeah, this is the 60th time.” Apollo replied. “Should we do the countdown?”

“No, just press it.”

“All right.” He grabbed the remote and hope for the best. “Here goes nothing.”

He press the button and once again, broken blade got sucked in to the engine.

They both watched with bated breath as the engine started to smoke and slowly died. But this time it didn’t explode.

“Oh my God, we did it.” Apollo said disbelief.

“It’s finally over.” Patricia said quietly.

The human and the Pegasus looked at each other before yelling. “We did it!” Before hugging each other.

A few moments later, they separated. “Finally, we are done with these tests. I’m glad that it’s over.”

“Me too, but we do have to test out the Astra’s engines in the future.” Patricia stated.

“Don’t worry about it, that’s our future selves to worry about, not ours.” He said before picking up the notebook. “I’m going to tell Astro and Roy the good news. I’ll see you later.”

“See ya.” She said before Apollo left the room.

===•••===
3:30 PM

After a long day at work, Patricia was finally able to clock out of the day. But before she can leave the factory, a familiar voice called her name.

“Hey, Patricia.”

She turns around and said. “Oh, hello Apollo. What’s going on?”

“Nothing much, I just want to ask if you want to get something to eat. To celebrate our success today.”

“Apollo, you don’t have to do that.”

“I insist. After almost driving ourselves crazy over the past few weeks, I feel like we deserve to treat ourselves. So, are you coming or not?” He smiled.

“All right, you win.”

“I knew you would want to come.”

“Where are we going anyway?”
Patricia asked.

“I was thinking we can go to this buffet that Atlas recommended to me. It’s in downtown. Is that good or do you want to go somewhere else?”

“No, the buffet sounds good to me.”

“All right. Let go before rush-hour comes.”

After that, the two coworkers left the factory together.