“His name would still be in the manifest and would have to clear customs upon arrival. We could… always give him a cover with a fake passport? Would that work?” Robert asked.
“Wait a minute. Hold everything,” Emily said, standing and putting the palm of her hand up and making a stop motion. “How about we send him on a business jet, but he exits the aircraft early… before landing?”
“Before landing? What do you mean? Like, parachute out?” Mark asked, sitting up in his seat.
“Yes!” Emily answered, looking over at Ford. “He’s a well-qualified parachutist, er, skydiver. Jumps regularly, both military and civilian trained. Right, Ford?”
“Yeah, sure, yeah, that… may work. Absolutely. I’ve got 167 jumps. Been doing it since high school,” Ford said, thinking about how to incorporate it into the Op.
Mark looked at the board again. He grabbed the marker out of Robert’s hand and drew a basic airplane. “How about he departs the aircraft in a wing suit?”
“Bugger me. A what?” Emily asked.
“Yeah, a wing suit,” answered Ford. “Yeah, yes. Yes. Impressive idea.”
Using a wingsuit versus a parachute added surface area to the body, which enabled a pretty good increase in lift. This newly created additional surface area was designed with fabric under the arms and between the legs, and made the jumper look like a birdman, or batman. Some have even said a jumper looks like a flying squirrel. Ford could glide through the air horizontally, then deploy his parachute, and could steer using the parachute toggles and control the path to land. It would allow Ford to fly laterally miles to the left or right of his choosing, versus coming straight down.
“Ford could jump out, fly laterally, rather horizontally, and land on the airfield with Wu and the jet,” said Mark, as he drew a line out of the hand-drawn jet on the board, to the ground.
Robert looked at the simple diagram. “Huh. How far can you go laterally?”
“I think the record is 16 miles, at least… figure 10 miles would be a good ballpark,” Ford offered.
“That’s a hell of a capability. We can always get you down to the Seal Teams in Little Creek for practice,” Mark said, as the plan was starting to formulate.
Emily liked the idea, and it reminded her of her operational days back in the UK when she had to pick-up some SAS troops on a mission using a commercial boat in the Celtic Sea. “I think we would have to have Wu bring the jet to a favorable airport for the link-up. Wu, maybe, could generate… like, a fake diversion… force a landing at an unplanned airport. He could generate a bloody fake maintenance issue, perhaps, in which he absolutely has to land the Devil Dragon. We could help him choose an airport, one with limited military security, like perhaps a commercial airport with a well-published flight schedule,” Emily thought.
Ford considered the plan so far. “Most of the time, I’m jumping out of an aircraft that is configured for jumpers. Proper speed, doorway, drop zone area, you know, the usual stuff. Pilots are familiar with the procedures. This sounds like a pretty good plan, but business jets don’t exactly open their doors in flight, right? They would get ripped off, and have some explaining to do with Chinese Customs. How do we get around a pressurized cabin, oxygen issues… depending on the altitude, in an aircraft where doors don’t normally open in flight? How would we get around that?”
“Ford, that problem may be a problem for mere mortals. Not us! How about we borrow a business jet, and have it modified down at Gulfstream. Down in Savannah. Boys in Special Missions. Maybe they can modify, or make us, a door in the rear. At the bottom rear,” Mark points to his drawing on the board. “Bottom portion of the aircraft lowers, like a ramp. The ramp door opens, Ford jumps out, and the door comes back up to close. We can ask Gulfstream Special Missions to modify it so that it does not look like it was modified from the inside or outside.”
“You’re just going to ‘obtain’ a Gulfstream 550, or 650, or whatever, have them cut a hole in the airframe, and let us fly it out? Come on. No way,” Ford said, doubting the plan.
“This is the DIA, Ford. You need a jet, we get a jet,” Robert said.
Robert, Emily and Mark all looked at each other, and at the same time, said in unison, “Corning.”
Corning Incorporated, of Corning, New York, is a manufacturer of glass, ceramics, and related materials, used for industrial and scientific applications. Through the years, Corning corporate had befriended the intelligence community and helped on a number research and development projects. From time to time, Corning CEO John Abbott had lent the jet to DIA for operational missions, generously contributing to national security in his own humble way. Corning Inc. kept their Gulfstream jets at the Elmira Corning Regional Airport, a quiet, county-owned public airport in Chemung County, New York, about seven miles northwest of Elmira, NY, and eight miles east of downtown Corning.
“Robert, call up to CEO John at Corning and see if their 650 is available. I’ll call the Deputy at home, and see if he can call in a favor to ole Reggie at Gulfstream in Savannah. Depending on what’s available and when, we’ll go down there later today or tonight, and see what the art of the possible is,” Mark said.
“Just like that? We are going to walk-in with a borrowed $50 million jet and get it done?” Ford asked, being a smart aleck, snapping his fingers.
“Just like that,” Mark snapped his fingers. “Ford, you’re stuck in rules and policies, man. Rules constrain. It clouds your thinking, Dude. Think outside the box,” pointing at Ford and laughing. “Kids, pack your bags. We’re going down to the Low Country,” he announced.
Wu and Liu were complete pre-flighting the aircraft and ready to do some high speed flight test on today’s mission. They already completed their paperwork with the engineers and maintenance, filled out the performance cards for their kneeboards, talked to the ground crew about any issues with the jet, and were near ready to walk to strap in.
All pilots had a predictable routine before taking off, no matter where they lived in the world. For some, it may be inspecting the same portion of the engine on pre-flight checks, or rechecking the weather one last time before leaving the building, or even saying a small prayer. Two of the most important routines, ever, include double checking the fuel, and, going to the bathroom, no matter what country you were from.
Wu and Liu were no different. Liu had a ritual of drinking coffee either in the hotel or at the airport before every flight, mostly for the caffeine, especially with the odd hours they were flying. Wu’s only habit was to hit the airport restroom, and this morning he did with a purpose. It was an opportunity for him to throw up, yet again, while having a bit of water and two more pain pills.
Wu glanced down into the pill bottle and saw the last two pills left in there. He shook the pill bottle lightly to make them move around a bit, and could actually see the bottom of the container. Wu looked in the bathroom mirror and thought about his sunken face with his weight loss, in addition to his awful coloring. He splashed water on his face, self-confessed how badly he looked, but felt strong. Wu also mentally reviewed a few options of getting Ford in here, but did not have much thinking time to devote before his take off in just a few minutes.
Wu and Liu walked together out to the jet, listening to the hum of the APU, the auxiliary power unit, supporting electricity to the aircraft. The APU was whirring, throwing power into the jet until it could start its engines and provide its own electricity. A small gasoline engine powered a generator, which provided 28.5v DC output voltage, 3,045 cranking amps, and 200 amps for Devil Dragon pre-start operations. But most importantly, the air pressure generated by the APU meant that they could spin the turbines of the main engines fast enough to get them started.