| Synopsis: |
Dividend is the final part of the trilogy, it continues the story of its key characters beyond war into peacetime and the late 1940s, 1950's and 1960's. Michael Kelly, finally demobbed from the Royal Air Force, bids for ex-military aircraft at one of many government aircraft disposal auctions, for his embryo airline: the resurrected Empress Airways. Assembling a team of trusted ex-air force colleagues and successful in gaining government contracts for forces mail and trooping flights to the remaining parts of the Empire - matters almost go disastrously wrong on their maiden passenger flight to Cairo - almost out of fuel with a sandstorm making conditions near impossible for a landing. Ceci Penrose, now married to Harold, and a fully-fledged captain, manages, with skill and a certain amount of luck, to save the situation. Other trips prove equally hair-raising from time to time; ex-Spitfire Reconnaissance pilot Paul Mossman returns with his wife from his native Canada to join Empress, flying regular trips to Gibraltar where the Levant wind provides him and his passengers with a lesson in keeping calm and being bold.In 1947, Empress joins with other embryo airlines and military forces in the Berlin Airlift, following the Soviet closure of all roads and canals into the divided city. Over time, the city is being supplied at three-minute intervals with food, fuel, and other essentials by air. Pilots from Empress contribute to the effort - despite Russian aircraft creating difficulties for the near continuous stream of heavily laden machines flying along supposedly agreed safe air corridors to Gatow and Templehof airports within the Allied Zones around Berlin. Eventually, in such a dangerous game of aerial roulette, Russian harassment causes the loss of a BEA passenger machine early on in the standoff, but efforts by the Soviets to thwart the Allied effort is continuous. For Ceci Penrose, commanding a laden DC3 aircraft into Gatow late one evening, it proves to be a frightening and challenging experience. Two Russian fighters attack them, seriously injuring one of her crew. With the threat of being shot down, through hand signals, they agree to accompany the fighters to a Soviet air base near Rostock. But, in the gathering dusk they manage to escape.Found somehow in the darkness and attacked again, they are out of luck and forced to find a place, any place, to land; one engine damaged. Fortuitously, an unlit and secret wartime runway, hidden deep in a forest in the Soviet sector of northern Germany stands out like an autobahn in the shadows below. Landing in one piece, apparently unobserved, they take stock. Their wireless operator had suffered life-threatening bullet wounds. Ceci, exploring the local countryside comes by chance upon an ex-Luftwaffe aircraft engineer, and he introduces her to the local doctor, both appear willing to help - but the price of collaborating is high if caught by the Volkspolizei. Two army Special Services soldiers are parachuted into the Soviet Sector to provide help in escaping. But, conclusions are drawn following advice from their two new German helpers that the only safe way out, is by air. An audacious plan is formed to do just that. Elsewhere, Empress struggles to turn a profit with its small fleet of converted bombers to civilian transports. Kelly looks for ways of competing with State subsidised national airlines. The solution lies, he believes, in operating new modern, American aircraft.Government regulation places strict controls on post war spending of Sterling on large-scale capital expenditure abroad. His ambitions are seemingly thwarted till he meets the delightful and quite stunning Sophia de Portago. She has financial interests in aviation and raw materials, and after hearing of Empress's difficulties in buying new aeroplanes, she makes a proposal that seems to remove most of the barriers to Empress acquiring four of Lockheed's superb Constellation airliners. Trying to remain objective in the company of such a desirable and sophisticated woman, he agrees to a deal that will pave the way for Empress to compete on even terms with other airlines on lucrative routes to South Africa, Egypt, and Singapore. But all that glisters, he discovers, is not gold, nor free of danger. The agreement leads to a compromising situation for Kelly and Empress. The ending is both brutal and tragic, but a thin silver lining remains for their future. |