“Oh, sir, that’s Michelle Boyd, sir. Yeah, she used to be the Liaison to the Senate. The, ahh, the Committee. She was sitting just behind you during the last auditorium brief. Put in a lot of work on this project. Michelle is from Pennsylvania and her cousin is Jessica…”
“Oh, that’s right. Got it. Thank you, Mike,” answered the Deputy, cutting Mike off at the knees. “Have a great day.”
As Mike left the office, Calvin Burns sat down and put his reading glasses on his desk. He rubbed his eyes for a moment with both hands, then took out his pen from his suit pocket. He wrote down this woman’s name on a yellow sticky pad, and considered the potential connection with this Michelle Boyd and the Hill. Because the Deputy had the liaison job when he was much younger in his career, he knew the way the relationships worked. Calvin Burns easily made the link. There was no way that anyone on the Hill could have heard about the auditorium brief without a phone call and connection from someone actually sitting in the room, leaking the details to someone on the Committee. Hell, that’s how I used to do it! he thought. The only real way would have been Michelle Boyd contacting a Staffer there, and then grabbing the Senator’s ear. Calvin circled her name on the yellow sticky with his pen.
“Bingo.”
Reggie didn’t answer Emily’s question, but got up from his table, still chuckling, and walked over to his office doorway to talk to his long-time personal assistant Linda.
“Linda, can you have Rose and Arnold come on up, please? Have them join us?” asked Reggie. He turned back towards to group at the table, then turned about again to Linda. “Hey, also have them bring the 650 models. And load up the CAD! Thank you!”
Reggie sat back down, entertained with the DIA crew. They still didn’t know if Gulfstream could help them or not. They trusted Reggie, but were feeling the pressure.
“Rose is our Senior Vice President of Engineering, and Arnold is the Senior Vice President of the Airframes and Power Plants. I’ve called them in because they are our experts. From what you have asked from us so far, I'm pretty sure we can do this, but let's talk to them. I only work here,” Reggie said, ending again with deep laughter, clasped hands over his large stomach from too many dinners out in the city.
The two Gulfstream Vice-Presidents came in, both wearing casual golf shirts, and sporting tans. The tans were rare this time of year up north, but in the Low Country, it was a regular sunny day. Reggie did the introductions, and the DIA team explained the situation and their request. The VP’s both knew what the federal government meant to Gulfstream’s bottom line, plus, if Reggie called them in to the Suite, it was important to them.
Arnold from Airframes immediately went to the room’s computer, logged in, and pulled up some of the internal and external diagrams for the 650. They had some exceptional, whiz-bang, 3-D CAD diagrams that allowed rotation of the aircraft on the screen in all sorts of directions.
“Right here?” as Arnold used an electronic pen to mark up the computer image of the jet on the screen. “Here to here is where you want the ramp? Comes down like this, then back up?”
“Yes, sir. Exactly. We need it there, and in the interior, the seats and carpet… they need to return to their original position. In the event that the aircraft is boarded upon arrival and inspected, it can’t look like it has a ramp,” answered Robert.
“Could we modify the crew door?” Reggie asked, thinking that it might be easier to modify.
“Hmmm. No, we can’t Reggie,” said Rose from Engineering. “The aerodynamic forces at these speeds would tear it off. Because it’s in the slipstream, it would also affect the knots. Too much drag. When you have the ramp, it’s in the rear and out of the slipstream. We’d have to run the sim, but I’d be willing to bet the pilots would get some yaw out of it, too.”
“Well, you’re the customer, Mark,” Arnold from Airframes jumped in. “Is this what you guys were thinking with the ramp right here?” standing up, and walking to point on the screen on the wall. “And it would open and close like this?” holding his wrists together, flapping his hands like an alligator.
“Perfect. That would be terrific. We also have the other request. It was to be opened internally, but no switches or wiring that show we have a ramp. We understand that may complicates things for your electrical system on the jet,” Mark answered. “It’s for our operational security.”
“Nah, easy. We have a Gulfstream app for that,” Rose answered.
“Really? An app?” Ford asked.
Ford was used to military aircraft, so the commercial technology was just on the edge of being beyond his thinking. The military aircraft he flew were certainly modern and high-tech, but designed to fight in an expeditionary warfighting environment. At Gulfstream, it was about customer convenience and luxury, so an app on a smart phone made complete business sense.
“Sure, we have an app just for each aircraft. By tail number. The aircraft has its own Wi-Fi system that the aircrew and passengers can connect to. From anywhere around the aircraft, you can connect. Passengers use it for entertainment or business. If the pilots have the proper password, they can control a number of things from their smart phone,” Arnold answered.
“Are you kidding me?” Ford asked.
“No, no kidding, Mr. Ford. We’ll have to use the onboard aircraft electrical system for the ramp motor, but perhaps wire it in through the pressurization system. When you decompress the cockpit, power is applied, and will allow you to use the app, and will activate the actual on and off switch for the ramp motor. Upon an inspection, no one would question why there is a circuit breaker switch that leads to pressurization. Normal ops,” Rose explained.
“That would work great. Yes, fantastic,” Mark answered.
Rose and Arnold looked at each other. They seemed happy to be working on a project like this one again. Ford couldn’t put his finger on it, but there was a combined casualness and confidence that he did not expect. To modify a jet was a big deal to him, but not to them.
“We both know that Corning jet well. It comes in for inspections and upgrades about once every month for their first year, at our expense. They use it up there in cloudy, overcast, cold, Western New York to ferry around their folks… their executives and retirees. They call it a shuttle run, I think. Flies the Lexington, Hickory, and Wilmington route, if I remember correctly, then back to Elmira,” said Rose.
“That's pretty respectful that they allow you to use it. Beautiful jet. If I remember, it was tail number November 788 Charlie Gulf?” said Arnold, turning his head slightly to remember the blue stripe paint job.
Mark thought long and hard, and was amazed these guys knew their customers well enough to recall tail numbers. He guessed that when you spend a year building a machine that perhaps you think of it as one of your own, and then it leaves home. Impressive.
There was a pause in the conversation.
“So, we are in somewhat… of a jam on the timeline,” Mark asked. “How long do you think it would take from the time the jet arrives to your facility?”
Another long pause, then Reggie turned to Rose for an answer.
“I think we could get it done, in and out, in about three or four days. We have all the parts here, as well as the labor. No need to ferry up to Appleton. Would that work for you?” answered Rose.