The White Delta

The great assembly hall of an aircraft works near Bristol on an early spring evening, the high windows gone deep blue, rows of hanging lamps lit, on the concrete a long slender supersonic airliner prototype in creamy white, its pointed nose drooped downward with a thin probe, small cockpit windows, a broad thin delta wing with dark leading-edge strips, the tall landing gear legs standing high, every surface plain and unmarked, steel work platforms at the engine nacelles under the wing, cable bundles across the floor, a mechanic in a white overall seen from directly behind on an aluminium ladder, face turned fully away, his hands at a gear leg.