(Image: Two machine guns mounted on the nose of an aircraft)
Gallieni held his head high, his gaze sharp and scornful as he addressed the assembly:
"Gentlemen, which equipment will be useful on the battlefield and which will not—leave these matters to those who've actually fought and understand warfare. It's like a farmer discussing legal matters or a lawyer trying to farm. The military is a specialized profession, far more complex than you may think. We must handle it with care, not with the arrogance of those who've never even held a gun yet attempt to instruct others on how to fight or what to buy. Such actions lead only to disgrace."
Without another glance at the assembly, Gallieni descended from the platform, walking out with his head held high. His exit left the room in embarrassed silence. Charles had indeed achieved the impossible, delivering a victory that left no room for doubt.
In fact, even Gallieni himself hadn't believed Charles's initial proposal about the "machine gun synchronization gear."
"That's impossible!" Gallieni had exclaimed when Charles first presented the idea. "The propeller spins so quickly we can't even see the blades. How can bullets pass through without damaging them?"
"We don't need to see the blades, General," Charles explained. "We just need a device that stops the gun from firing when the blade is directly in front of the muzzle. It's not as difficult as it sounds."
Some inventions aren't difficult in principle—they simply haven't been imagined. This "synchronization gear" used a mechanism already in place: hydraulic systems.
Despite his expertise in military tactics, Gallieni knew little about mechanics, which only made him more impressed when Charles delivered a working prototype within hours.
The test took place at the flight club, using two Vickers machine guns mounted on the nose of an old Avro, which had been grounded due to engine trouble. The pilots set up a wooden target in front of the plane, but quickly found it pointless—the bullets tore through the target, turning it to splinters before anyone could check its accuracy.
But the real test was on the propeller.
The propeller completed its spins undamaged after all 500 rounds had been fired. The onlookers, including the pilots, were stunned. Carter, one of the older pilots, ran a hand over the blades, awestruck.
"Not a scratch," he said. "The bullets missed the propeller entirely!"
"It's not that the bullets avoided the propeller, Uncle Carter," Charles said. "It's that the propeller dodged the bullets."
In Charles's mind, the propeller's movement was the primary action, setting the rhythm. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ ɴovᴇl(ꜰ)ir(e).nᴇt
"What's the difference?" Carter asked. "How did you even make this happen?"
"It's the magic of mechanics," Charles replied, dodging a detailed explanation. "Machines can react faster than we can even think to."
Gallieni, still looking skeptical, took one last look at the propeller, then barked an order to his guards: "Bring in a security company to seal off the entire club. No one leaves without permission."
"Yes, sir!" the guards saluted and left to make the call.
Gallieni turned to the pilots. "Congratulations, gentlemen. From now on, you are soldiers."
Carter asked, confused, "Who exactly, General?"
"All of you," Gallieni replied. "Every last one of you here—even the cooks."
Carter watched Gallieni leave, then turned to Charles. "Lieutenant, you mentioned this might happen, but I didn't think it'd be this fast."
Charles was taken aback as well. He had thought there would be some basic training involved, maybe even uniform adjustments. Yet Gallieni had bypassed all that and made them soldiers on the spot.
After a moment's thought, Charles understood why.
The invention of the synchronization gear had effectively launched the era of aerial combat, shifting from crude air tactics to fully armed warfare using machine guns. To Charles, it might have been a "simple contraption," but Gallieni recognized it as a "high-level military secret." Gallieni might not understand mechanics or aviation, but he knew the significance of protecting this breakthrough.
Charles realized he should have kept the invention more secure from the start. Now he had inadvertently dragged Carter and the other pilots into sudden enlistment.
Gallieni didn't take any chances. He personally oversaw the lockdown until the guard arrived, then led Charles back to headquarters.
During the drive back, Gallieni turned to Charles. "Will they need any additional training?"
Charles considered it. "Almost none. They don't even need to learn to aim. Everything will be handled by the mechanics. About the only skill they'll need is how to wield a hammer."
"A hammer?" Gallieni echoed, puzzled.
"Yes," Charles replied. "To whack the machine gun in case it jams. Other than that, they don't really need to do anything."
Gallieni laughed. "Then all they lack is the courage to pull the trigger."
Charles agreed. Pilots who had never killed before—or who weren't mentally prepared—might hesitate when they saw a German pilot in their sights, despite knowing they were enemies.
"But it won't be an issue, even if they hesitate," Charles said grimly. "They'll be safe."
The enemy's planes had no guns.
Gallieni nodded, smiling. "But that won't last forever. They'll have to learn quickly."
(Image: The synchronization gear mechanism, showing the gear's interlocking parts that precisely control when the machine gun fires in relation to the propeller's position, with a cam mechanism that uses hydraulic control to halt the gun whenever a propeller blade is in front of the barrel.)
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