Chương 71: Book 3 - Chapter 8 B

In mid January, Jennifer finalized the offer with Chevron and I acquired GA Technologies for $55 million. I gave her a $500, 000 bonus for being quick and coming in under budget. I'd spent nearly three solid months at home, making Mom happy. With little objection, I flew out to San Diego. The weather in Tulsa had oddly spiked to above 70 on the last day of January. I was eager to escape the predicted drop back to below 40 before it hit. I was ready for warm weather.

I met with the President of the company in San Diego on the first Monday in February. It's spaceship architecture glittered with glass on a 300 acre campus. It was beautiful under the shining sunlight. When the Manhattan project disbanded, the engineers came here to build the future.

"Dr Cook, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Dr Agnew, it's nice to meet you. I'm very happy to work with a scientist of your stature," I said shaking his hand as he greeted me.

"I must say that while your accomplishments to date are astounding, many at the company are unsure about being owned by a nine year old," he said as we walked back to his office.

"Ten this year, but I understand. I have ideas for projects and hope to leverage General Atomics and your expertise for new technologies as I develop them, but beyond that, I intend to be a quiet owner and let you continue your great work."

"What kind of technologies?" he asked as he settled into one of two conversation chairs in his office. I took the other chair and set the backpack I had been carrying on the floor next to me. I reached into my bag, and removed my signature diamond. I placed the diamond, its facets catching the light and revealing my signature embedded within, onto the small side table between us.

"My first real chemistry breakthrough was with a catalyst for low energy carbon dioxide cracking. Using nano-scale carbon from that process, I've developed several materials. This one I've kept very quiet about, a low-pressure, room-temperature diamond manufacturing process." He picked it up and examined it.

"How many carats is this?"

"That one is my first prototype. It's about 1, 200 carats. I've produced about fifty thousand carats of gem quality diamonds in my home lab in the last year," I explained.

"That relieves any worry I had about funding," he joked. He turned the diamond over, his tone becoming serious.

"But this is astounding. Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) and High-Pressure, High-Temperature (HPHT) methods are extremely energy intensive and require complex equipment. They are also limited in crystal size. How did you achieve this low-pressure, room-temperature environment? What is the method?"

"It relies on the quantum mechanical properties of the specific carbon allotrope I isolate from the CO2 cracking," I explained.

"Think of it as exploiting a highly stable, nano-scale intermediate state. I'm making C2 and C3. Not quite graphene not quite crystalline diamond, but eager to bond and become either. It's a two stage process that tunes the meta-material, either for graphene sheets like Corning just started selling, or diamond. The process requires a minimal energy input, just what's required for the production of the first stage. It forms much like a stalagmite does, just much faster."

"That's incredible. I read about graphene sheets, and how industries all over the world are looking for uses for it. I didn't realize that it was another of your projects," he said.

"My early graphene papers got overshadowed by the high temperature superconductor research that came almost immediately after."

"It sounds like this precursor is rather exotic. How does it become graphene sheets or diamond?" he asked.

"Graphene sheets and diamond production have similar production processes. It takes a treated seed of diamond or a copper foil substrate to begin. Once you start making it, you just keep growing it. When you have enough, you cut off what you want and keep it growing.

"The key with diamond is that as the surface area increases, the growth rate increases. There really is only engineering limits on size. You have to keep it in a vacuum or you get contamination. Graphene grows a little differently. New sheets form over the copper foil. I use PFPE as the carrier. The copper runs in loop, continuous production, as the graphene sheet peels off the end. The key isn't brute force like HPHT, it's chemical precision. It's a very stable growth process once you start it."

I pointed at the diamond on the table.

"I integrated my signature with red nail polish on a partially grown stone. The material then grew over it and around it." Dr Agnew nodded slowly, clearly digesting the technical details.

"That sounds like a revolution in materials science, not just a gimmick. You said technologies, plural, what else?" he asked.

"Graphene lightbulbs. They are a big source of future income, but I'm going to wait a year or two on maximizing that technology. This is the fun one," I said pulling a matte black football out of my bag. I tossed it to him overhand, but as he reached for it, it left my hand and sprang upwards with surprising speed, pinging off the ceiling.

"I filled that with hydrogen six months ago, and it has remained buoyant ever since." He looked up at the balloon on his ceiling. It had a small string attached, just fishing line. He reached up, grabbed it and pulled it down for examination.

"Is this some variation of graphene felt?" he asked, his voice tinged with curiosity as his fingers rubbed the firm soft surface."

"Yes, it's a half-millimeter thick and impervious to hydrogen. It's laser welded, and remains buoyant even after a very long time. It's incredibly strong as well, far surpassing conventional materials. It weighs eleven hundred grams per square meter."

"That's not just impressive, Dr Cook. That's an astounding claim. The gas retention properties alone are phenomenal, let alone the strength," Dr Agnew murmured, tapping the football lightly.

"What is the tensile strength? What sort of forces can this felt withstand before failure?"

"The material has a shear strength rivaling diamond and a tensile strength several orders of magnitude beyond high-tensile steel. It's essentially a sheet of graphene flakes, formed into a non-woven fabric. Its failure point is geometric, not material—it will tear at a welded seam long before it breaks the carbon bonds within the sheet itself."

"Given the properties, what applications did you have in mind? Maybe a blimp?"

"Close, I want to make balloons, tethered balloons, to serve as high altitude broadcast for wireless cable." Dr Agnew's thoughtful expression hardened slightly.

"That introduces some immense logistical problems, Dr Cook. You're talking about placing a permanent structure miles high into the air. The FAA will have immediate concerns about commercial airspace. We have to address severe weather, wind load, and of course, lightning. How can you practically keep an investment like that moored without it becoming a liability in the first thunderstorm?"

"I anticipated all of that," I replied, nodding.

"The regulatory process with the FAA and the FCC is part of the challenge, but I'm relying on GA engineering solutions to mitigate the risks." I pointed to the graphene felt football at the end of the string he still held.

"The solution to most of the problems is the cable that holds the balloon down," I said and pulled my third item from my bag. I set the cable on the table. It glimmered black in the light, the thickness of a garden hose.

"This is a cable made from microstrands of graphene felt. Each strand is a third of a millimeter thick, has a weight of one hundred sixty grams per kilometer and a test strength of eight hundred pounds. This cable is a weave of two thousand fibers." A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Dr Cook! This! This is revolutionary! It's the strongest material on earth by far. What's the strength of a 2000 strand cable?" he asked, picking up the gossamer thread.

"Eight hundred tons. It solves the wind load problem, provided it is anchored securely. The balloon will want to go up, the strength means that we can make it big, without any worry it will break its mooring cable. That means it is self-righting from the innate lift of the hydrogen. Winds at that height are strong, but they don't change direction fast. It might not be perfectly vertical but it will be nearly so and stable."

"But the lightning?" he pressed.

"You have a carbon-based conductor connecting a ground station to a transmitter twelve miles in the sky during a thunderstorm. That cable will be a massive lightning rod. You risk frying the equipment and the entire ground station with every strike."

"That's another part of my design plan. For now, the only wire going up with the mooring cable will be the power supply. The equipment is inside the balloon, where it is protected from the elements and isolated. Graphene felt is transparent to radio waves. The system we put aloft receives a radio signal from a ground station and rebroadcasts it." I took out a packet of papers setting it on the table.

"This is my hardware design plan and specification. Let lightning hit the cable. Neither the heat or the electrical discharge will harm it or the equipment. If it's grounded properly it'll serve to reduce lightning strikes in the region, draining atmospheric electrical charge from clouds before those charges build to become lightning."

"And the FAA?" he asked, flipping through the design brief.

"Twelve miles up is still an aerial obstacle. It's higher than all but the most specialized aircraft."

"Radar reflectors, lights that shine up to alert planes without disturbing ground based folks. If the big balloon itself is too much of an issue we can always go higher. As I said before, those winds are strong, but they don't change direction fast. When placed outside flight paths it becomes an even a smaller worry. The danger is an airplane hitting it and getting cut in half by the cable, not the cable moving wildly and unexpectedly into an airplane's path.

"I'll leave the specific engineering to GA. The FAA will appreciate your traditional commitment to safety and engineering overkill." He smiled at my comment.

"Interesting. And what kind of coverage area do you project for such a system?" I pointed at the construction brief he held.

"That covers all my research on the idea. Based on a 10 to 12 mile altitude, and directional antennas I estimate a broadcast radius of at least 100 miles. That's only four moored broadcast balloon towers to blanket the entire State of California, efficiently covering the highest population density areas."

"What kind of broadcast are you looking at? That's a purchase of a lot of expensive spectrum for a few dozen TV channels."

"Using digital compression and spread spectrum technology across four existing UHF television channels provides sufficient bandwidth. We can broadcast sixteen digital sub-frequencies inside each UHF frequency channel without interference. I created an algorithm to carry two video channels on each digital frequency, or twenty audio only channels.

"Using existing television channels avoids purchasing new spectrum. Receiving antennas are also directional, pointing them in the direction of the transmitter reduces broadcast power requirements, which are higher for a long distance digital signal."

"Is that legal to broadcast a digital signal on a TV station frequency?" he asked, concerned with the implementation.

"It's not exactly illegal, but we will pro-actively work with the FCC to ensure its legality, guaranteeing it causes no disturbance to any traditional free-over-the-air signals."

"I see where the ingredients all come together for the structure, but what about the broadcasting technology?" I reached into my bag again and placed another packet of paperwork on the table.

"This packet thoroughly details the technical aspects of digitization, data compression, and the transmission of spread spectrum video and stereo audio. The initial capacity is one hundred twenty-eight digital TV channels, and I expect to increase that capacity as the technology improves. The only reason my algorithm is limited to two video channels is because of the processing power available for a receiver to separate the data."

"How many cable channels exist currently?" he asked, considering the numbers.

"Around eighty nationally, but I don't know of any existing cable company that can carry them all, usually it is in the range of about forty channels. Even carrying all eighty, that leaves nearly fifty additional channels for video and audio. Audio-only channels are significantly more bandwidth-efficient."

"Okay, I'm on board. This is a fantastic engineering challenge. The materials themselves have amazing applications everywhere. If we undertake the first one here in Southern California as a test, it'll give us the experience to offer it to the rest of the world," he said with excitement.

"I'm glad I could convince you. I was worried you'd quit when you learned a kid bought the company."

"Chevron was never a good fit for the kind of advanced research GA Technologies does, Dr Cook. What does atomic energy have to do with oil and gas? Especially when it came to fostering innovation in fields like supercomputing and new material sciences." I smiled, wondering what he would think if he knew the connection I'd make between nuclear power and fossil fuels.

"Since we will be working so closely together, feel free to call me John," I replied, the smile still playing on my lips as I kept that technology to myself for now. After the meeting I caught a flight on a chartered jet from San Diego to Colorado Springs for my monthly Olympic training meet. When I got home after flying in a much slower propeller plane from Colorado Springs to Tulsa, I had a talk with Grandpa.

"Grandpa, I think it's time to get a private jet."

"I don't go anywhere very often, why do I need a private jet?" he asked. I rolled my eyes at his teasing.

"I'm going to be traveling between here, California, Dallas and Colorado Springs a lot this year."

"Alright, I'll see what I can find." Three days later his office staff had gathered the options. I settled in a tall chair in front of his big desk.

"I threw out the stupid option, so we'll have to pick one of these three," he told me.

"What was the stupid option?" I asked him.

"Buying a 747," he said.

"Yeah, that is a stupid idea. Massive fuel bill, limited landing locations, rapid depreciation, nowhere to put it when you're not flying and large expensive flight crews. I'm not rich enough for something like that, yet. What are the good options?" I asked. Grandpa's eyebrows rose at my comment, but he went on with the options from his staff.

"The three are: fractional ownership, a charter company exclusive contract or buying a used Gulfstream III," he said laying out a piece of paper on his desk to go with each option. I gathered the three pages and looked them over, "What about combining two of them?"

"In what way?" Grandpa prompted.

"The Gulfstream III is the perfect size for us right now. It has the range for coast-to-coast trips, the speed to save time and it's built to a very high standard. The used one you found is nearly new," I explained, running my hand over the spec sheet.

"It is also very well priced. But we don't have any pilots or crew or facilities. Hiring, then buying or renting those is expensive. We don't want the operational headache of the 747 on a smaller scale."

"So, what is the combined option?"

"We buy the Gulfstream outright. We register it under a holding company for maximum tax efficiency. Then, we turn it over to the fractional management company for exclusive management. We'll essentially be their highest-priority client with a 100 percent fractional ownership. In exchange for an annual management fee they will handle everything: hiring and training the two dedicated flight crews needed, managing all the maintenance, hangar fees, insurance, and scheduling."

I leaned back, relaxing as I emphasized the key strategic advantage.

"It gives us the best of both worlds. We own the asset and they manage the pain. Crucially, because they manage a fleet, if our Gulfstream is down for a major inspection or unscheduled maintenance, they provide a spare plane. It also gives us a relationship to call on if we ever need two planes at the same time. That availability is essential."

"That is an exceptionally clever solution, John," Grandpa said, his smile turning into a look of genuine admiration.

"It minimizes our administrative overhead to almost zero while maximizing availability and reliability. The management fee will be high but the guaranteed service is worth ten times the cost. You clearly thought this through."

"I did," I confirmed.

"I'll check it out. I was wondering if you were planning on a pilot's license to go with your new plane."

"I can fly well enough in an emergency, but I don't have time for the certified training. I'm not really old enough to carry passengers either." A couple of days later Grandpa pulled me to the side.

"The fractional company agreed to the deal, and I made an offer on the Gulfstream."

"I'm going to be using it the most, why don't I pay for it with my Cayman fund."

"Your Dad will be using it too. How about we go fifty-fifty?" he suggested.

"Thanks, that's fine. Dad's spending so much time in Fort Worth at the Blackstone, with a plane he can do a daily commute."

"I was thinking the same thing. He's been down there three or four days each week and will be for most of the year."

"Yeah, I heard Mom grumbling about it. This will make her happy. I'll want to use the plane as soon as it is ours to head back to San Diego."