Hans-Peter - David Poland

Is there a truly low-cost way to get into orbit that is being overlooked; and is there any real substance to the claims of UFOs? In our own time, these two topics are becoming an ever-larger part of the national dialog. This novel explores how both of these intertwined possibilities may be moving from fiction to fact.  

Hans-Peter, the novel's namesake, has spent his considerable career looking for that truly low-cost way into orbit. From an abandoned Air Force Base now called Norton Field, he has focused on tri-propellant rocket engines. His work was generally scoffed as science fiction, but back in the late 60s the tri-propellants demonstrated the highest performance ever achieved by chemical rocket engines. His work began where the others left off.

Ruthiebelle, an old college acquaintance and now the science editor of the largest newspaper in L.A., is one of the few people who remember Hans-Peter's interest in Low Earth Orbit. She is also discreet enough that "Black World" whistleblowers are willing to give her their best information. She knows things most insiders don't and has developed her own agenda.

When she learns that Hans-Peter's titanium metals factory has rolled out a new hypersonic airplane, she decides to renew her acquaintance. She knows from anonymous sources that at extreme altitudes and hypersonic speeds there's more up there than thin air. On the pretext of reporting his experimental flights, she hopes to achieve her own goals. She manages to secure a dinner invitation and then over the next several weeks, as they renew their friendship, they unexpectedly fall into an astonishing secret.