The advanced avionics suite, such as the encrypted radios, satellite communications, global navigational equipment and modern radars, in addition to the intercom, at a minimum, all required ground power. So did the air conditioning, which was often overlooked by many engineers because it was not a sexy component to build on an aircraft. What was laughable to Wu over so many years as a flying pilot was that most aeronautical engineers had never flown, so they did not have clue what it was like to be in a greenhouse-like cockpit with 110 degree temperatures outside. On the inside, temps could easily pass 140 degrees, making the engine start of any aircraft, an issue.
Wu and Liu started her up this morning, ops normal, quickly taxied for take-off prior to sunrise, and away they went. Wu was able to dump the visit in his mind from the Consulate yesterday so he could concentrate on his mission today, full knowing if he didn’t, the United States and Ford would never get the jet. This technique of parking issues in one’s life was called compartmentalization, and most pilots were able to put topics of importance in the back of their minds to concentrate on the flying task at hand. As an example, Wu had compartmentalized their radio screw ups to deal with the larger issue of the gear problem. At the moment, Wu’s task at hand was to measure acceleration from one airspeed to another, looking at the full momentum of the throttles thru military power and into afterburner. Liu ran the stopwatch for time measurement.
Liu was tuning certain frequencies into the radios as they flew across China westward so that they could monitor air traffic. Wu and Liu never transmitted on the frequency on purpose, because no air traffic control organization knew they were there. There was no flight plan filed, no squawk assigned to appear on radar, and no flight following from radar controllers. Or almost no one. Wu knew the Americans were monitoring him in some capacity now, but he didn’t think twice about it.
Liu was also busy completing after takeoff and climb out checklists while dialing in altitude bugs, stepping them up like a staircase up to a pre-determined altitude. The bug, when dialed to a certain altitude, meant the jet would level off at a certain altitude with the autopilot in the on position. Upon arrival at Flight Level 510, or 51,000 feet, Wu turned the jet from the western portion of China were they were at the moment and faced east.
“Heading zero eight zero, 550 knots,” Wu announced.
“Roger. Head is down, copying numbers. Area is clear. Ready to commence maneuvers,” Liu replied.
Today was nothing more than a simulated drag strip in the air, a straight away of open airspace with good weather that allowed them to open her up. See what she was about. The Devil Dragon would be flown as fast as a man could go, and Wu was ready as a pilot, but he knew with time that his medical condition would wear down on him. Wu pressed on, continuing to suffer in silence, and did not let Liu know of his slight discomfort, but how he wished he was healthy to enjoy the flights once again. Either way, the worst thing that could happen would be for Liu to find out about his health condition, and report it directly to Chen.
Wu sat in the left seat and moved the throttles forward a bit more with his right hand, inching them towards the front of the jet. His hand was able to control all four engines on the throttle quadrant with ease, and could move them forward smoothly. His scan came inside to see the engine oil pressures and temperatures, and all checked in the green. Ops normal. His left hand on the stick was able to change the pitch of the nose, because as the jet changed speeds, the attitude of the jet changed. Wu wanted to maintain altitude, and he had a small thumb wheel to trim out the jet easily, especially at these wild speeds.
“Passing Mach point 78… point 85… point 98… one point one,” Liu reported, as the jet passed the speed of sound without as much as a bump. To the outside world, a sonic boom could be heard, which may have sounded like rumbling thunder to the Chinese villagers some eight miles underneath them.
The speed of sound, first broken by U.S. Air Force test pilot Charles “Chuck” Yeager in 1947, was always a historic and unique measurement of aircraft speed and performance. The Devil Dragon flight test today was measured in dry air, as it was in 1947 at 45,000 feet in Yeager’s X-1. Depending on the temperatures up high today would determine the Devil Dragon’s Mach number. For example, if they determined the outside air temperature today was 20 degrees Celsius, they would travel at 1,126 feet a second, or 768 miles per hour, to achieve the speed of sound. For them, it was 667 knots because aircraft measured airspeed in knots, or nautical miles per hour. At those altitudes, though, it would be more like -20 degrees, so the Mach number in knots would be much lower. On their kneeboard cards were paper charts which also took into account atmospheric pressure and density altitude so they could generate future charts for the flight manual they were authoring.
Wu and Liu were at supersonic speed now, and up high in altitude with nothing coming past their windscreen. It felt like a simple and uneventful Sunday drive in Dad’s wood-paneled station wagon. Wu slowed down the jet and flew for 2 minutes at an even Mach 1.0 at FL 510. Everything was in the green. He then pitched the nose up to climb, and the next item on their card was FL 550, or 55,000 feet, at Mach 2.0.
“Looking for flight level 550 at Mach 2.0,” Liu announced, reading off their kneeboard card.
The Devil Dragon leveled off at 55,000 feet, and Wu kept the throttles forward. They were at Mach 2.0 in just a matter of seconds. Passing thru Mach 2.0, the jet again was smooth and nothing was felt inside to cockpit. Liu made note of the test at the lower altitude, and wrote down the temps outside the aircraft, as Wu reduced the throttles to maintain the 2.0 they were looking to maintain. At this speed, it would be easy to continue on to Mach 3.
BING. BING. BING. FIRE. FIRE. A computerized female voice came over the intercom.
Wu and Liu looked inside the cockpit for the issue right away. “I don’t see what component is on fire? Where is it? What’s on fire? What’s on fire?” Liu asked.
An onboard fire that a pilot cannot control is one of the worst and most serious things that can happen to any aircraft. Depending on where it is on the aircraft, and which component is burning, it could be a disaster.
“Calm down, Liu. Calm down. Okay. Let’s go 100 % oxygen, ON,” Wu announced, which was nothing more than flipping a lever for both pilots.
Wu looked at the gauges in the cockpit, and saw that engine number two temperatures were abnormal. The temperature was high, and the pressure was low.
FIRE, ENGINE NUMBER TWO. FIRE, ENGINE NUMBER TWO. FIRE, ENGINE NUMBER TWO.
The female voice once again came over their helmets, as Wu scanned the instruments. Wu was already calculating that the next normal procedure would be to declare an emergency over the radio by Liu, while he maintained safe flying conditions by concentrating on the jet. Flying a secret jet complicated things because he wasn’t on a flight plan, was not being tracked by radar, and could not really land just anywhere.
“I’m going to pull the throttle back to idle to see if it goes out. Confirm engine number two is at idle?” Wu asked.
“Concur, Wu, go ahead,” answered Liu.
“Shit, we still got a problem. Nothing happened.” Wu replied.