The young ground crew member stood at attention and saluted the pilot, who had already climbed onto the wing of the plane. The pilot, after slipping into the cockpit, also returned a standard military salute.
In front of the slender nose of the FW-190 fighter plane, the propeller slowly began to turn, faster and faster until all its blades seemed to vanish.
Inside the control tower of the airfield, the commander reminded the pilots to check the instruments on their planes while holding the talker. On the side of the runway, an officer directing the takeoff waved the flags in his hands.
Pushing the throttle forward, the FW-190 fighter plane sped toward the end of the runway like an arrow released from a bow, then the landing gear detached from the ground and was slowly retracted into the aircraft's fuselage.
