“Damn it.” Stein was deflated. The first assignment of Marc Leizman had been simple. He was to find two Ilyushin 76 cargo planes for sale and negotiate their purchase on behalf of a newly formed subsidiary of El Al with the name of Sun d’Or II, Ltd. The four engine Ilyushin 76 cargo plane had been introduced into the Soviet Air Force during the 1970s. The huge cargo plane had been designed to carry large military loads into and out of rough unimproved runways of questionable length. Over the decades, almost a thousand had been built and the plane was now being operated by militaries and civilian cargo airlines the world over. Many knew the plane by its NATO-given codename: the “Candid.” Finding planes for sale had been easy — as long as you were satisfied with the older engines that were not Chapter III compliant, meaning that they violated the noise abatement requirements of most of the world’s biggest commercial airports.
Leizman was looking for the Il-76TD model, the most widely used civilian version — and the most widely offered for sale. But all of the planes for sale had D-30Kp engines, which were older technology engines. They were louder, generated less thrust and were less fuel efficient than modern jet engines. He had been hoping to find Il-76TDs with the new high-bypass technology turbofan engines made in Russia but utilizing many components from the West, known as the PS-90A2 engine.
“How do we get delivery?” asked Danny Stein.
“They will fly the planes here if we pay for airfares to return the crews.”
“Where is the first plane coming from?”
“Ukraine. Kiev to be exact.”
“No problem. When?” Danny Stein was inpatient. The money he needed to fund these purchases had taken much too long to obtain from the Ministry of Finance — the bureaucracy of the State of Israel being as frustrating as most governments.
“We close on the first plane tomorrow and they can fly the plane to Ben Gurion in a couple of days. If I get this deal finalized today, we should close next week and have the plane shortly after that.”
“Great job. Happy with the planes?”
“Very much so, other than the engines. Both planes still have about a third of the lifetime design hours left on the airframes. We got these planes at a decent price because we accepted obsolete engines.”
“You did great, Marc. How do we get the engines we need?”
“I talked to Aviadvigatel, the manufacturer. They are backordered for at least eighteen months. So I have been working some industry contacts I have.” Leizman paused and offered the hint of a smile. “I have a possible deal but it will cost us. A friend of mine owns a company in India that supplies the Indian Air Force with many of its engines, including retrofitting their engines. We used to trade parts all the time.” Leizman was giving Stein some “inside baseball” knowledge that left the minister uncomfortable. “The Indian Air Force is the largest buyer of PS-90 engines. I called him and got lucky. He is the next delivery from Aviadvigatel for sixteen PS-90A2 engines.” Leizman was very satisfied with his skills and his contacts.
“And? Can we get eight engines?”
“Yes, but we are going to fund his retirement in the process.”
“How much?”
“Maybe you want to sit down.”
“That bad?”
Leizman nodded. “Five point two-five million dollars per engine.”
“How much is the engine direct from the manufacturer?”
“For him, about four million per.”
“This guy is robbing us.”
“No, this guy is setting the price he needs to disappoint his biggest client, the Indian Air Force. My guess is that he will have to spread some of his profit around to his Air Force contacts to keep everyone contented.”
“We spent how much? Under seventeen million U.S. for the two planes, and for eight engines we will have to spend over forty million dollars?”
“Or I can keep looking. Or we can place an order and wait. Or I can look for refurbished engines. But if we want the A2 engines, they are just too young to be available other than new from the factory. You tell me what you want.”
Stein exhaled. “We need the engines. Go ahead.”
“It could be worse. If we were buying new GE or Pratt & Whitney engines, they cost more.”
“Well, that raises another question. Are these engines good? Should we buy American engines or Rolls Royce engines?”
“These engines are very good. They are modern and the critical components come from the U.S. and Germany. More importantly, the conversion kits to mount these engines on the 76 are established and widely available. As far as I know, nobody has put American engines on the 76 yet.”
“Okay. When can we get them?”
“He is taking delivery in New Delhi early next month. I want to have both of our 747–400 freighters waiting there when the engines are delivered. I don’t want the engines to sit around while my guy ponders everything.”
“I agree. That makes sense.” Stein thought for a moment and then continued. “We still need to train some crews. How do we do that?”
“The fastest way is to put an ad out and hire pilots and flight engineers with ratings and histories on the Il-76.”
“Not an option. We will use Israeli crews that need to be trained.”
“All right. I can arrange the training. With experienced pilots and engineers, it won’t take long.”
“Can we train them in India?” Stein asked.
“Yes, absolutely. Is that what you want?”
“Yes.” Stein thought for a moment. “How long to put the new engines on?”
“With my best crew from El Al, I could swap out the engines and make all related modifications in a week to ten days.”
“That timing is fine.” Stein looked at a calendar on the wall. It was November 17, 2010.
20 — The Boneyard
On the same day, 7,500 miles away, the weather was sunny, what Americans like to call “Chamber of Commerce” weather. The temperature just before noon was 73 degrees Fahrenheit and the high for the day would get only a few degrees warmer. Located on a high plain of the Sonoran desert and surrounded by mountains, Tucson, Arizona, has an average annual humidity under 40 %, one of the lowest in the United States. The heavy rain that falls every year in July and August evaporates so rapidly that little trace is left of its brief passage through time.
In a command building located on the corner of Miami Street and Wickenburg Avenue, an email arrived from the new civilian director of the 309 Maintenance Wing of the United States Air Force based at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. The email was opened by the civilian deputy director of the 309 Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, known as AMARG. The email contained orders to activate fifteen KC-135 Stratotankers for return to the fleet. An estimate of the time required to meet this command was due back to Hill AFB by the next day.
AMARG runs a unique facility on the grounds of Davis Monthan Air Force Base, which is located on the southern edge of Tucson. The facility, known as the “Boneyard,” is home to more than 4,000 mothballed aircraft of the U.S. government, an air armada that would be the second largest air force in the world if all of the aircraft were in flight condition. Many of the aircraft are in various states of dismantling, their carcasses being permanently disabled to comply with arms limitations treaties. For these aircraft, which had served their country proudly, the future held only a slow dismemberment, their various parts now being scavenged to extend the life of other aircraft. But most of the planes parked on the desert floor, which has a layer of clay under the topsoil that is as hard as cement and known as caliche, are in short-term or long-term hibernation, remaining available for call-up to active duty — no different than the aging reservists who await recall to every major army on the planet in the event of crisis.