Work Text:
The tables had turned yet again,
with Dorothy sitting behind a makeshift desk
getting a crash course in aerodynamic theory.
She learned the wind tunnels and their uses:
Variable-Density Tunnel, the Free-Flight Tunnel,
Two-foot Smoke-Flow Tunnel,
The Eleven-inch High Speed Tunnel
to better understand what her skills were being used for.
The engineers ran these tunnels well into the night.
As the assignments piled up on her desk
from the Flight Research Division.
It didn’t matter how quick she was –
with every passing hour
more numbers needed to be crunched,
launch trajectories needed to be completed.
Dorothy knew she was making a difference.
Dorothy also knew that until the war ended,
she would be an indispensable asset.