“Wow, that’s a great design,” said Pappy. “But you said there were two advantages to using impellers. What’s the other one?”
“The other one has to do with survival. If these sub-fighters had propellers, and one happened to hit a hard object and get damaged or knocked off, what would happen to the fighter?”
“Oh yes, I see. You would be headed straight for the bottom — Davy Jones’s locker! Since these things have to maintain headway in order to maintain their depth or to climb, if you lose a prop, you’re sunk.”
“Exactly. With impellers, we don’t have that problem.”
“Good thinking, once again. I also see there’s a hatch on top. I understood the normal way in and out of the fighter would be through the hatch on the bottom. So I take it this is some sort of emergency escape hatch?”
“That’s right,” said Dwight, “but we’re gonna use it today because there’s not enough clearance under that dolly to get in from below.”
A small forklift truck was hooked to the dolly, and one of Dwight’s men pulled the fighter out of the hangar to the external hoist. Pappy and Dwight got into the fighter with Dwight initially in the pilot’s seat and Pappy in the sonar operator’s seat.
As the hatch was closed, Dwight said, “Strap yourself in, Pappy. You’ve got a lap belt with a fittin’ to hold the two D-rings from the shoulder harnesses. Just slide those two rings onto the post and then lock it down. You can pull on the loose end of the lap belt to tighten everything. This is truly an underwater fighter, so you’ll need to be strapped in pretty tight.” Pappy followed Dwight’s instructions and then announced, “Okay, I’m all set.”
Dwight, who had been watching Pappy strap in, said, “No, cinch it up tighter.”
“What? It’s tight already.”
“You call that tight? My grandmother straps in tighter than that on Southwest. You’re free to get up and move about the country!”
“Okay, okay.” Pappy pulled the end of the lap belt another inch or two through the fitting. “There. I can’t pull it any tighter without cutting off circulation!”
“All right. Just remember, I told you so. When we get started, I’ll demonstrate a few features, and then we can trade positions so you can get a feel for it yourself.”
“That’s fine. Believe me, I’m a little bit intimidated by this thing right now.”
“Not to worry. You’ll find this thing very easy to fly.”
They put on their headsets, tested the intercom, and tested the communication link with the hoist operator. Dwight gave the operator the go-ahead for water insertion. The hoist lifted them into the air on the end of a cable, swung them over the side of the platform, and lowered them forty feet to the water.
“All right, ten feet,” Dwight told the operator.
Once they were at a depth of ten feet, Dwight flipped on the engine switch and nudged the throttle forward and back several times, causing the fighter to sway slightly on the end of the cable.
“What are you doing?” Pappy asked.
“We want to make sure we have good engine operation before the hoist releases us.”
“Oh, good idea. I’d hate to have to ride this thing to the bottom trying to start the engine!”
“Well, it’s an electric motor, so we don’t really “start the engine” per se. We’re really testing to make sure electrical energy is getting to the motor, and it’s responding.” Dwight advanced the throttle one more time until they could feel the response.
“Okay, the engine’s good. Ready to go?”
“Ready!”
Pulling back on the throttle, Dwight had the hoist operator release them. The fighter immediately nosed over and started down in a twenty-degree dive. Dwight advanced the throttle and pulled back gently on the control stick to level off. He pointed out the depth gauge showing they were level at fifty feet. The speedometer indicated twenty knots. Their heading was 090 degrees.
“You okay?” Dwight asked.
Pappy was busily pulling an extra couple of inches of the lap belt through the fitting. “Yeah, fine,” he responded.
“The joystick works just like in a fighter plane. Moving the stick right or left rolls you right or left; pulling back on the stick raises the nose; pushing forward on the stick lowers the nose. You’ve also got two rudder pedals for yaw control.”
“Okay, that all seems pretty straightforward.”
“I used to have a flight instructor who jokingly described the flight controls by saying, “Pull back on the stick — houses get smaller; push forward on the stick — houses get bigger!” I’ve been trying to come up with a parallel saying for these sub-fighters, but I haven’t thought of one yet.”
“Well, it’s probably because you can’t see a darn thing out there!”
“That’s true. I forgot to mention that flying down here is almost one hundred percent instrument flying. You’ll be IFR-qualified right off the bat. It’s only when you’re in real close on a target, and you can pick it up visually in your spotlight, that it’s anything like VFR flying.”
“That’ll take a little getting used to.”
“Oh, it’s not so bad. You’ll pick it up real quick. This switch here, by the way, is for your landin’ light. You’ll need it to find your landin’ position each time you return to the Louisiana. We’ll be paintin’ markings on the deck which will enable you to line up correctly over the escape hatch.”
“Okay.”
“That control panel in front of you is for the sonar operator. We modified a commercially available sonar system and installed nine different transducers around the bow of the fighter. So your operator will be able to get pretty good azimuth information. You also have a weapons console there. That small joystick you have on your console controls the firin’ of your rockets.”
“Rockets? George didn’t tell me anything about rockets!”
“I’ll let him fill you in about those. Right now, let me show you what this baby can do.”
Dwight nosed the fighter over into a twenty-degree dive and advanced the throttle all the way forward. The fighter quickly accelerated to fifty knots, and as they passed two hundred feet, Dwight pulled back on the stick. Pulling about two Gs, he started a slow roll to the left and performed a flawless barrel roll. Glancing over at Pappy, he noticed some white knuckles and a very pale face.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you Pappy, there’s a barf bag in the console on your right. If you haven’t flown a fighter before, some of these maneuvers take a little getting used to.”
“No, no, I’m fine. Just give me a little warning before you roll upside down again!”
“Okay, sorry about that.” Dwight descended to a depth of 250 feet and a speed of forty knots. “I’m goin’ to full throttle, and I’m gonna pull the nose up to about forty-five degrees. You watch the speedometer and tell me what happens.”
As SF-1 rapidly rose, the speed stayed at forty knots or even rose a little. Dwight leveled off at fifty feet.
“That’s amazing. We didn’t bleed off any speed at all. In fact, I think we accelerated!” said Pappy.
“You’re right — we did! We put the latest generation electric motor in here. It’s one of the most efficient electric motors ever designed. It uses man-made magnets called neodymium magnets, which are probably hundreds of times more powerful than any naturally occurrin’ magnets. That little electric motor gives us a thrust-to-drag ratio of about 1.0. That means at full throttle, you could point the nose straight up and not loose any speed.”