Landing Gear

Toulouse, Wednesday, February 3, 1965, 11:30 pm. Beside the runway, in an aircraft factory, the Zéphyr is taking shape: the West's first supersonic passenger airliner, a white dart that the Soviets want to copy at any price.

At 9:40 pm, counterintelligence arrested Arkadi Melekhin, a representative of a Soviet airline, at the door of the Brasseriebrasserie French restaurant-café serving simple meals and beer, usually open all day. des Platanes. Under his arm was a tin of crystallized violetscrystallized violets Violet flowers preserved in sugar, a French sweet used to decorate cakes and pastries. wrapped in lilac paper with a red ribbon. Hidden in the bottom of it were eight folded copies of the Zéphyr's landing gear and brake drawings.

Melekhin has a diplomatic passport, won't say a word and will be expelled tomorrow. Counterintelligence told the factory only that a Soviet had been arrested with copies. Where they were hidden, it told no one.

Three people at the factory could reach those drawings. One of them handed them over.

Security room at a Toulouse aircraft factory, 1965, with a supersonic jet in the window.