- Susan Garthwaite: [regarding an image of the surface of the moon, displayed via JR's telescope] What's that?
- John Ridgefield: It's the moon.
- Susan Garthwaite: I never knew it could look so unfriendly.
- John Ridgefield: It's an unfriendly universe.
- Susan Garthwaite: Do you believe that?
- John Ridgefield: Unfriendly only because it's unconscious of our existence.
- Chris: Did you get my present?
- Susan: Oh, darling, thank you so much. It was a lovely present. We adored it, didn't we?
- Tony Garthwaite: Oh, yes, rather. We adored it.
- Tony Garthwaite: What's so ruddy peculiar about the speed of sound? We all know exactly what it is, don't we? 750 miles per hour at ground level. Now if we go slower than that we can hear ourselves going, and if we go faster we can hear ourselves coming. It's a mere matter of acoustics.
- Philip Peel: Will?
- Will Sparks: What?
- Philip Peel: Is it possible that at the speed of sound, the controls are reversed?
- Will Sparks: At the speed of sound, Philip, anything's possible. Why?
- Philip Peel: During the war once, I put a Spitfire into a flat-out dive. No particular reason, just youthful high spirits. I think now that I hit the sound barrier. I remember that the more I pulled on the stick, the harder the nose went down. The same thing happened this morning.
- Will Sparks: You're not supposed to do a high Mach number!
- Philip Peel: I know, but I did. Both times, I had the feeling that if I'd had the guts to put the stick forward instead of pulling it back, I could have pulled out without having to lose speed. What do you think?
- Will Sparks: There's nothing in the books to suggest for one second anything so Edgar Allan Poe-ish.
- Philip Peel: Rather depends on the books, doesn't it, Will? There were books once that said the Earth was flat.
- Tony Garthwaite: Hello, it looks like you've been jumped on by 20-plus Focke-Wulfs.
- Philip Peel: I tried to pull out of a flat-out dive just now.
- Tony Garthwaite: Oh, good show.
- Philip Peel: The damn stick needed Carnera to move it. The harder I pulled, the more the nose went down. It felt for a moment as if the controls were reversed.
- Tony Garthwaite: And were they?
- Philip Peel: Of course not, you clot, or I wouldn't be here, would I? There was a lot of buffeting too. It was almost as if I'd suddenly run into a... a solid sheet of water, or something.
- Tony Garthwaite: Really?
- Tony Garthwaite: I'm meeting her train. I shall take her for a quiet drive and ask her to marry me, simply, firmly and directly.
- Tony Garthwaite: Sue, what do you think of me?
- Susan: As a driver?
- Tony Garthwaite: No, as a man.
- Susan: Oh, well I, I told you, I think I prefer you with hair parted on the other side.
- Tony Garthwaite: You really have looked at this from every angle?
- Susan: I haven't left an angle out and I promise you.
- Tony Garthwaite: I mean, you know the sort of chap I am.
- Susan: I know the sort of chap you are.
- Tony Garthwaite: Not on your level at all.
- Susan: Miles above.
- Tony Garthwaite: Oh, gosh!
- Susan: Please, Tony, stop saying, "Oh, gosh." Can't you think of anything else to say?
- Tony Garthwaite: I love you so very much.
- John Ridgefield: I sent her to Oxford to get an education, all she comes back with is a passion for donkey-tail dogs and modernistic music. Where she gets that taste from, I don't know. Certainly not from me or her mother.
- Susan: Mother liked modern music, very much.
- John Ridgefield: First I've heard of it. If she did, she didn't let on to me.
- John Ridgefield: I think its the most exciting sound I've ever heard.
- Tony Garthwaite: Well, it isn't only the sound that's exciting, Tony, boy.
- Tony Garthwaite: Well, what the heck is it, sir?
- John Ridgefield: The aircraft engine of the future.
- Tony Garthwaite: Well, where's the propellor?
- John Ridgefield: There is no propellor.
- Susan: Well, how does it keep the aircraft in the air then?
- John Ridgefield: By propulsion.
- Tony Garthwaite: Propulsion?
- John Ridgefield: Yes, jet propulsion!
- Tony Garthwaite: What exactly does happen to an airplane at the speed of sound?
- Will Sparks: I don't know. And shall I tell you something, Tony?
- Tony Garthwaite: What?
- Will Sparks: No one else in the world does either.
- John Ridgefield: No doubt about it. They're just on the fringe of the problem.
- Susan: Father, what problem?
- John Ridgefield: Supersonics.
- Susan: The sound barrier?
- John Ridgefield: Yes. That's a newspaper phrase.
- Tony Garthwaite: Like most of them, pretty misleading.
- Susan: You mean it isn't a barrier?
- John Ridgefield: Oh, it's a barrier, all right.
- Susan: What makes the barrier? Is it sound?
- Tony Garthwaite: It's a combination...
- John Ridgefield: It's air! You see, Sue, there's a limit to the speed that air itself can move. Now, this rule is traveling at 30 mph, let's say, you can hear the air whistle as it moves out of it's way. But, if it were traveling at 750 mph, the speed of sound, mach 1, the air could no longer move out of its way; because, it just can't move that fast. It would pile up in front of the rule or the aircraft, making, if you like, a barrier! Now, we don't exactly know what happens to an aircraft that gets into these conditions. Tony knows it buffets as he gets near to them. Some say the craft would go right out of control. Others say that it'll break up, all together. Now, I don't believe that, Sue. I believe that with the right aircraft and the right man, we can force our way through this barrier. And once through, there is a world! A whole new world! With speeds of 15 hundred to 2 thousand miles an hour within the grasp of man. And Tony, here, may be the first man to see that new world.
- Susan: Is the ability to travel at 2,000 miles an hour going to be a blessing to the human race?
- John Ridgefield: Well, I'd say that's up to the human race.
- Susan: As a member of it, I can't feel unduly optimistic. In fact, if that's all that lies beyond the barrier, what purpose is it in risking lives to pierce it?
- John Ridgefield: Well, I could talk about national security, beating the potential enemy bomber, flying to New York in two hours; but, that's not the real point. The real point is: it's just got to be done! What purpose did Scott have in going to the South Pole?
- Susan: I wish I knew. I really wish I knew.
- Susan: [flying over Greece] The Earth is beginning to look awfully small and insignificant. I don't know that I like it.
- Tony Garthwaite: You're being old fashioned, darling. Why look at the floor on earth? Look up there! There's our future. Space. You can't make that insignificant. Down there has had it.
- Philip Peel: You know, when I got your wire, I thought you must be tight.
- Tony Garthwaite: I probably was.
- Tony Garthwaite: What is it Dad?
- John Ridgefield: A galaxy - Andromeda.
- Tony Garthwaite: How far away is that?
- John Ridgefield: Oh, about 700,000 light years.
- Tony Garthwaite: You mean what I'm seeing now is the way this galaxy looked 700,000 years ago?
- John Ridgefield: That's right.
- Tony Garthwaite: I'm looking into the past, then, aren't I?
- John Ridgefield: In a manner of speaking.
- Tony Garthwaite: Is there a way of looking into the future?
- John Ridgefield: Yes.
- Tony Garthwaite: How?
- John Ridgefield: Through that telescope. What you see there is the past, the present and the future; all in one. The process of continuous creation. Stars die. Stars are born. No beginning. No end. Yes, you can see into the future, out there, all right.
- Tony Garthwaite: Pity.
- Susan: What?
- Tony Garthwaite: That I didn't meet you 10 years ago?
- Susan: Why?
- Tony Garthwaite: I'd had 10 years longer being married to you.
- Will Sparks: Well, the Chinaman, he says,"Me no like 'em pretty lady, me like 'em pretty drinkie."
- [laughs]
- Philip Peel: I'm sorry I'm late, darling.
- Jess: We had to start. The children are going to get their haircuts.
- Philip Peel: I had to see the old man.
- Jess: You got it then!
- Philip Peel: I've got what?
- Jess: The raise, of course.
- Philip Peel: The - oh, blasted! I forgot to ask him.
- Jess: You forgot to ask him?
- Philip Peel: I'm sorry, dear.
- Jess: Oh, really! What a husband!
- Susan: [sarcastically] One day in the distant future, Ridgefield will build an airline that will go to New York in three hours.
- John Ridgefield: Two.
- Susan: So, the few people that can afford the fare will spend the occasional weekend in New York and the Ridgefield shares will go up and up.
- John Ridgefield: My dear Susan, what kind of a man do you think I am?
- Susan: I don't know. I *really* don't know.
- John Ridgefield: Can a vision be evil, Sue? Can it? Can it?
- Susan: I shouldn't have said that.
- John Ridgefield: It's such a terrible thing to make a man doubt everything he's ever lived for. If I've killed them both for nothing! But, it can't be true! Can it? Can it?
- Philip Peel: Ridgefield Tower, this is 1-4. 40,000 feet. I think I can beat this nose heavy business by reversing the controls. Anyway, I'm gonna try.
- Susan: Must it always be a fight?
- John Ridgefield: Well, I think it must. It wasn't for nothing we were given so many weapons to fight with.
- Susan: Such as?
- John Ridgefield: Imagination, for one.
- Susan: Which some people would call vision, don't they?
- John Ridgefield: Yes, some people do.
- Susan: I suppose another weapon is courage.
- [last lines]
- John Ridgefield: You mustn't keep your car waiting.
- Susan: The car is gone father. We've come home.
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