[DTF955]

Big Six, just a little something from an alternate history buff that will make the later world mroe believeable, as you'll no doubt want air and space travel to continue on schedule, and in OTL development was sped up markedly by WW II. Here...

Sept. 23, 1938 - New York Times:
Roosevelt Gives Robert Goddard Go-ahead
Was he in danger of going to the British?

Dateline, Washington - The United States President today decided the viability of one scientist, the party of one leader, and the fate of one nation.

The scientist was Robert Goddard, whose interest in rocketry had sparked talk of his being "the prototype for Buck Rogers." Long trying to gain the ear of American leaders, thus lending support to his rocketry ideas, he had lately been courted by the British. It is unknown whether he would have gone over to America's allies in this nascent jet race - which some speculate could become a space race. However, the president was quoted as saying tht, "American could not afford to waste time" in sponsoring his project."

"We clearly recall," FDR said, "when a daring young man named Christopher Columbus dared to dream the impossible - a route to the East that went not around the Cape of Good Hope, but across the sea to parts unknown. Several nations had a chance to attain this glory and failed. It is my firm belief thta had we refused to sponsor this man, we may have suffered the same fate at Portugal and France, second rate powers for a century or more, as Spain built a vast empire that spanned virtually the entire South American continent and much of the North, reaching from the icy Cape Horn all the way north to the Oregon-California border."

As Columbus Day approaches, Roosevelt is eager to allow America to enter into, "A challenge much like the freiendly challenge of cities in this great game of baseball, where leading contenders vie for supremacy not through war, but through peaceful competition, designed to foster growth and development for all mankind."

Germany may well be the Boston Red Sox in this battle, with such luminaries as Werner von Braun helping that now peaceful democracy, which weathered storms early this decade, to advance far in the race to put jets on planes.

Great Britain may well be the Tigers, that roaring group whose empire spans a quarter of the world's population, and whose resources have of late been turned to peaceful means. Had they signed Goddard away, which they appeared ready to try to do, surely they would have become Germany's equal overnight. As it is, they still have a shot, but it is uncertain whether the Empire will wish to continue to spend money to do such exotic things, or whether the move to Dominion status by India in 1940 or thereabouts will signal a slow decline in British power and capabilities.

The Americans, then, are the newcomers, the Yankees of this season, or the Athletics of a few years back. They wish to advance in many areas, including racial relations. Roosevelt recently dropped the bombshell that - given successes in baseball - he will integrate the military by 1940. they are trying to move by leaps and bounds toward Manifest Destiny just as they did a century before; the decision to fund Goddard's plans for jets and rocketry research have caused them to announce, with one fell swoop, that "the friendly race between the Germans and British has obtained another contestant."

Will it fly? that is uncertain. But, one man was convinced of the viability of this plan. "President Roosevelt has convinced me," Wendell Wilkie said. "I was a delegate for him at the '32 convention, but we squabbled somewhat, as I supported his internationalizing but he didn't go far enough. I felt he was going the wrong direction economically at times. However, this move has shown me something. "Mr. Roosevelt may not be ready yet to bring us into the League of Nations, but I have no qualms supporting him in this endeavor to enter the jet race, which may well become a space race. I plan to wholeheartedly support his decision, not only because I feel it is right to move humanity forward in this way, but because I believe I can be a force to move this nation even further iin the next decade."

"Does that mean you're running for President as a Democrat, Mr. Wilkie?" one reporter asked.

With a sly smile, he said, "We'll see. We'll see."Wendell Wilkie had been considered a potential Republican, though he would have had a tough fight. However, with Vice President Garner far to old - past 70 2 years before the election - and few other quality candidates, Wilkie may have a good shot at winning.