AIR: Test Pilot

The day Captain Gustav Lundquist, U.S.A.A.F., arrived in England was the 4th of July, 1944. At the British base where the two Spitfires of his flight landed an R.A.F. officer squinted at their two big wing tanks, asked:

“Did you come far?”

“Dayton, Ohio,” answered Lundquist, but his mind was no longer on the Spits. That had been the job of weeks ago.

Wright Field at Dayton had got the two Spitfires from the R.A.F. to see what could be done to lengthen their range. In short order, with the help of test pilots like Gus Lundquist, the Spits had been given a new fuel system and more range than they had ever had before. They were the first to fly the North Atlantic ferry route.

Gus Lundquist had something to do before he went back to the routine of testing at Dayton. Somehow he managed to wangle a chance to go on a combat mission. It was his first chance to fight. He did not come back. Last week the War Department listed him “Missing in action.”