The Il-76 crew shut down all four engines as a tug hooked onto the large four wheel nose gear assembly and pulled the plane forward the final one hundred meters. The crew deplaned as the hanger doors were quickly closed behind them. As they walked down the port side exit just aft of the cockpit area, they were greeted by Amit Margolis, the man who had briefed them earlier in the day after they had returned from India. They had undergone an intense month-long training program for the Ilyushin 76 that El Al had paid a steep price to fund. Margolis’ briefing had been the first indication that they were learning to fly the cargo plane for a purpose other than routine cargo flying for El Al. The men had all been recruited from El Al and all had previously been distinguished pilots or flight engineers in the IAF.
The entire team would return by helicopter the next day to Ben Gurion Airport where the men would be free to return home for a week of rest. Margolis told them that they would repeat this same process with the other Ilyushin 76 about ten days later. When the men asked for some reason as to why they had just conducted this unusual secret mission, Margolis told them that the two Ilyushin’s were being converted at Nevatim Air Base into aerial refueling aircraft. He then admonished them to never discuss what they had just done and what was happening at Nevatim.
Amit Margolis pulled onto Highway 20 and headed south toward Tel Aviv. The time was 8:45 a.m. and the worst of morning rush hour was easing rapidly. But the co-head of Olympus kept going past the Campus and continued onto Highway 1 headed toward Ben Gurion Airport. Minutes later, he turned into the Industrial Zone of Yehud, just on the north edge of Ben Gurion Airport.
Margolis parked in one of the guest parking spots near the entrance of the headquarters of Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd, or IAI, in Yehud. He walked into the lobby and asked for Hillel Meir. Mr. Meir was Vice President of Aerospace Systems and was expecting Margolis. Within ten minutes, Margolis had a guest pass and had been escorted into the Vice President’s office. As a government-owned defense contractor, the offices of IAI reflected the Spartan utilitarianism of their parent. Amit looked around and thought that the furniture, such as it was, had to be left over from the days of British rule over then Palestine.
The pair shook hands. They had spoken on the phone a number of times, but this was their first face to face meeting. The date was January 12, 2011. After several minutes of introduction, Margolis focused on the topic that brought him here.
“What do you think? Can we get this conversion done?” he asked.
“You know, when I was called into the CEO’s office in early December and walked in and found Defense Minister Avner sitting there, I was very nervous. The defense minister asked if I was willing to put my career on hold for the sake of Israel, swore me to secrecy and then described what the project was that he wanted me to get done. When he had finished, he asked how long I thought it would take. I said at least one year. He told me I had to get it done in six months. You are my boss on this project and I want to be honest with you. This will take longer than six months from today.”
“First, let me hear whether or not we can actually do it.”
“We can do it.”
“Okay. Now give me your honest opinion about how long.”
Meir looked down at his desk top, which was covered in notes and printed reports. Margolis followed Meir’s eyes and noticed a set of drawings of the Ilyushin 76. The engineer exhaled and pursed his lips. “This is tough. I have to work with this guy from El Al.”
“You mean Marc Leizman?”
“Yes. I don’t know him. I hear good things, but I don’t know him.”
“Assume he is as good as we have both been told.”
Meir looked at Margolis. “If I can add a few more key people to my team, I think we test fly sometime this summer.”
“When this summer?”
“Oh boy. You know engineers are conservative by nature, right?” His entreaty to Margolis went unanswered. “If you put a gun to my head, I will say mid-July.”
“Do your best to shave a month off of that. This conversion needs to be operational by the fall.”
“The one thing I can promise you is that you will have one hundred percent of the effort of me and the team. The commitment will not waiver.” Suddenly a question popped into Meir’s conscious. “What is the status on getting hold of a simulator?”
“Marc Leizman is working on that now. The Indian Air Force can supply us with one.”
“No. I know what they have. I talked to one of the El Al pilots that went through the training. Those are Level A simulators. They are glorified computer games. They are fine for getting an experienced crew up the learning curve quickly on a new plane, but I need a Level D full flight simulator. I don’t even know if they exist for the seventy-six.”
Margolis looked concerned and somewhat confused. He was not a pilot. This was the first he had heard of the need for a Level D simulator and he had never thought of the difference in simulator types. He had not even heard the terms before. He quietly cursed the IAF officers that had helped him plan all of this out, but he realized that they were not engineers.
Meir could see the confusion on the face of his new leader. “A Level D simulator has all of the mechanical flight systems that are found in a real cockpit. The seventy-six has the added complication of having the separate navigator station in the nose. But a well-built Level D simulator by a company like CAE has about a year’s worth of programming that ties the mechanical systems to the simulator. I need that programming. Without it, this is much more difficult to pull off.”
Amit Margolis processed this new information and began to analyze options as he always did in times of stress. “What if there are no Level D simulators for the Ilyushin seventy-six?”
“That is not good. I will need more resources and more time.”
“What type of resources and how much time?”
“More software programmers. If I have the Level D software as I assumed, then we can leverage that software. Without it, we start from scratch. As for time, I am guessing at least another six months.”
Margolis did not want to hear that answer. “There are hundreds of these planes in service around the world. There has to be someone who has a Level D simulator. We will find out soon enough.”
“I hope so.”
Amit realized that nothing more could be decided until this problem was fully explored by Leizman. He decided to change the subject. “You do know that you and your team will need to set up inside Nevatim?”
“Yes. My wife is not happy that I am relocating for a while.”
“I understand. You can come home on weekends.”
“At least my children are grown up and out of the house. I can’t say that for some of the team.”
“Hillel, what you are working on is the most important thing Israel has done militarily since the opening moments of the Six Day War. Every member of the team should understand that and embrace that. Anyone who hesitates in his commitment is not suited to participate.”