True Comics #80

When Japanese bombers attack a Douglas DC-3 carrying passengers over wartime China in 1941, Captain Hugh L. Woods manages a daring emergency landing—but not before enemy fire cripples one of the plane's wings. Stranded and hunted, Woods and his crew receive an improvised replacement wing from Hong Kong that's five feet shorter than the original, forcing them to attempt a desperate, jury-rigged repair under cover of darkness and bamboo camouflage. What follows is an audacious test of both engineering and nerve as the "lopsided" plane attempts to take flight against impossible odds.

This non-fiction piece traces rocket technology from its Chinese origins through modern scientific ambitions, exploring the engineering challenges that must be overcome before humanity can reach the Moon. From gunpowder's military applications to Professor Goddard's pioneering experiments and the repurposed V-2 rockets of post-war America, the story examines how warfare weaponry is being converted for peaceful space exploration. Scientists working in New Mexico are launching rockets ever higher, and the big questions loom: how to achieve the seven-mile-per-second escape velocity needed, how crews will survive weightlessness and manage oxygen supply, and what mysteries of the Moon's far side await discovery.

Christopher "Kit" Carson proves his legendary tracking skills on his first expedition with a party of hunters and trappers in New Mexico, earning a reputation that eventually lands him a vital role guiding Colonel John C. Fremont's survey expedition to California through treacherous mountain passes and brutal weather. When war breaks out with Mexico, Carson's woodcraft and courage are put to the ultimate test as he navigates impossible odds to deliver critical dispatches and help secure California for the United States.

Dan Green, an ambitious stagecoach line operator in Kansas, spots opportunity when an emigrant train breaks down near his relay station in 1853—he convinces the travelers to stay and settle the rich wheatland instead of pushing farther west. As the settlement flourishes and takes his name, Green earns his reputation as a daring hero, and the growing town of Greensburg works to establish itself with the essentials of a real community.