Nerve enough

In Short

This short story centers on the T. M. O. Transportation Co., a struggling trio of early aviation entrepreneurs who have fallen from professional pilots to desperate gipsy fliers. Faced with financial ruin after a series of crashes, two of the partners, Burt Minster and Delevan O’Connell, engage in a dangerous, ego-driven contest of nerve during a county fair exhibition. It is a taut, atmospheric portrait of the precarious reality of early aviation, capturing the transition from the golden age of flight to the stark, gritty hazards of barnstorming.

The Story

The T. M. O. Transportation Co.—Jim Tyler, Burt Minster, and Delevan O’Connell—begins as a promising, professional aerial enterprise. Their reputation is built on reliability, carrying judges and doctors in their own planes. However, the business is fragile; a single mechanical failure and a forced landing, misinterpreted by the public as a spectacular crash, destroys their clientele. The partners are forced to move on, losing planes to accidents and mechanics to poverty, until they are reduced to "gipsy fliers," drifting from town to town.

Driven by the need to survive, the trio accepts a contract at the Baychester Fair for a dangerous stunt-flying exhibition. Internal tension peaks in the days before the fair as Burt and Del, both feeling responsible for the company’s downfall, turn their guilt into a bitter argument over who possesses more "nerve." To settle the feud, they conceive a suicidal race: they will jump from the plane simultaneously and fall in a free-drop, waiting as long as possible before pulling their parachute rip-cords.

On the day of the fair, the tension is palpable as they board Jim’s training plane. At five thousand feet, the accident occurs: Del’s rip-cord fouls on the cockpit, deploying his parachute prematurely. The silk billows into the plane’s tail assembly, trapping the chute and leaving Del dangling beneath the diving aircraft, his body dragging the ship toward a violent crash. Realizing the danger to the plane and his partners, Del begins to unbuckle his harness to cut himself loose and plummet to his death.

Burt, witnessing the sacrifice, makes a split-second decision. He leaps from the fuselage and crashes into his dangling partner, grabbing him in mid-air. They plunge together in a free-fall, locked in a desperate embrace. Just before impact, Del manages to pull the rip-cord of the second parachute. The canopy opens, saving them both. They drift to the ground, humbled and reconciled, while Jim, having regained control of the ship, circles above. The story concludes with the two partners landing safely to find the fair manager rushing toward them, checkbook in hand, signaling the end of their run of bad luck.

How It Unfolds

The rise and fall The company starts with a solid reputation, but a single forced landing causes their clientele to vanish. They are forced to abandon their stable business model and become transient, struggling pilots.

The descent into gipsy flying As planes are lost to side-slips and bad luck, the partners lose their base and their confidence. They are reduced to landing in cornfields, desperate to reclaim their former status.

The desperate deal Starvation forces the partners to accept a stunt contract at the Baychester Fair. They trade their pride and their safety for a paycheck that will allow them to rebuild.

The duel of nerve Burt and Del’s guilt manifests as a petty, dangerous argument over who is the braver man. They agree to a "race to earth" to prove their worth, ignoring Jim’s protest.

The mid-air catastrophe The plan goes wrong when a parachute fouls, trapping Del beneath the plane. The aircraft begins a death dive, and the partners are forced to act.

The saving grace Burt leaps to rescue Del, leading to a tandem free-fall. A last-second parachute deployment saves them, turning their rivalry into a newfound, hard-won bond.

The People

Jim Tyler is the steady, weary mediator of the group. He acts as the pilot and the grounding force, trying desperately to steer his partners away from their own self-destructive impulses. He is the only one who recognizes that their bravado is a cover for their shared shame.

Burt Minster is a large, boisterous man plagued by the belief that his own piloting mistakes cost the company its future. He uses his physical size and loud confidence to mask his deep anxiety. His transformation occurs when he chooses to abandon the "race" and risk his life to save his partner.

Delevan O’Connell is a small, wiry, and quick-tongued pilot. Like Burt, he is haunted by the fear that he is the weak link in the partnership. He is the one who initiates the challenge to prove his worth, but he ultimately shows his true character through his willingness to sacrifice himself to prevent a total crash.

In Its Own Voice

“Yes, they learned about flying from those cornfields--more than a pilot will ever know who always has four hundred yards or so of neatly groomed turf in front of him to set his ship down on, but it didn’t help their self-esteem any.”

The author describes the hard-won, practical lessons that came at the cost of the partners' dignity.

“It isn’t nerve but nerves that both of you have.”

Jim Tyler attempts to cut through his partners' posturing by identifying the root cause of their erratic behavior.

“That stuff about nerve, Burt--I’m a liar of the first water. Nerve? You’re nothing else.”

After their survival, Del admits that his bravado was hollow and that Burt’s actions have silenced the need for further argument.

What It's Really About

The central theme is the internal conflict between ego and survival. The "nerve" the partners argue about is not the courage of a hero, but the defensive reflex of men who feel they have failed their own standards. The book argues that professional pride, when wounded, can lead to irrational and deadly behavior. However, it also suggests that these very pressures can force a reckoning. By stripping away the trappings of their business and their reputations, the partners are left with nothing but their commitment to one another. The resolution suggests that true "nerve" is found not in performing dangerous stunts for a crowd, but in the instinctive decision to prioritize a fellow human being over one's own life.

Why Read It Today

Readers who enjoy the history of aviation or stories of high-stakes adventure will find this a gripping, if concise, read. The writing captures the visceral, wind-whipped sensation of early flight with remarkable clarity. You can almost feel the buffeting air and the roar of the motor through the pages.

The story does not shy away from the harsh realities of the era; the men are essentially starving, and their attitudes are shaped by a rigid, often competitive sense of masculine honor that feels distinctly of its time. Modern readers may find the dialogue between the partners to be overly heated or stubborn, but this is intentional—it reflects the frayed, "ragged" state of their nerves. The intensity of the final rescue sequence is particularly well-rendered, moving with a speed that mirrors the gravity of the free-fall. It is a story that stays with you because of how quickly a mundane argument can spiral into a fight for survival, and how suddenly a life can pivot from disaster to redemption. If you are looking for a story that moves with the speed of an airplane propeller and focuses on the humanity beneath the goggles, this is a rewarding piece of period literature.