“This is amazing. I can’t believe this is going to happen. I’m grateful,” Wu said, coughing.
Mark wanted to include one last item on code words. “We don’t want to transmit that much on anything over radios, so let’s use two simple code words. Ford, when you land in your wingsuit, text me the word NATS. Then, when you are ready and inside Devil Dragon to take-off, text me METS. These simple code words prevent a long explanation over the phone, text, or radio. Keep it simple.”
Ford nodded, then covered his face with his hands after hearing the rough sounding cough again. It sounded horrible. “How is your health, Wu? How are you feeling?” Ford asked in a concerned tone.
“Ford… I’m getting a bit worse, but I can fly though. I can still hide it because it looks like I just have a cold. But… I’m nearly out of pills. My stomach and lower back are just in pain all the time. My lungs are on fire, coughing up blood. Headaches. Not eating much either. Got this cough, too. My time is just so… limited. If I weren’t coming to see you, I wouldn’t be able to fly more than one or two more times,” Wu shared.
“We understand, Wu. We really do. Emily, Mark, can we discuss an hour by hour timeline now?” Ford asked.
Emily wrote out on the board the timeline in a line drawn across the board from left to right. It had takeoff times from Savannah to China, landing times for Wu, and landing times for Ford. It even had the carrier window and when it started and ended.
“Wu, Mark here. Bottom line. Can you make it to Tianjin Airport two days from today? We are ready to help. Just so you know, we named this Op after you, called OPERATION WHIRLPOOL.”
“Yes, I can be there. And your operation name is great, too. That whirlpool was a hell of a trip. So, yes, I will be there,” Wu answered, sounding like he at least had some spirit left in him.
“Awesome, Wu. A few questions regarding the Devil Dragon. Will I have use of Liu’s helmet?” Ford asked.
“Yeah, he’ll most likely leave it in the cockpit when he gets out to use the rest room in the firehouse. That way we can talk over the intercom from the time you sit in the seat, all the way out,” Wu answered. “If not, just wear yours from your jump.”
“Tremendous. Ahh, next, what type of engine performance are we talking about? In fact, we don’t even know your speeds or engine specs, or any real technical data. And your landing gear. Is it strong enough to land on a ship, or should we expect some issues?”
“This might be hard for you to comprehend. But. We can do Mach 5 on our ram jet engines. We’ve got the ability to do Beijing area to Europe in 3 hours, cut from a 13 hour flight. We can hit Paris from Beijing at 2 hours and 30 minutes,” Wu said.
“Mach 5? How did you design ram jet rocket engines? Hypersonic speeds?” asked the Deputy.
“We didn’t. You did. And the Brits helped. We… ah… allocated your plans,” Wu replied.
A ramjet was no ordinary jet engine. It was still air breathing, but used the aircraft and engine’s forward progress to squeeze the incoming air without an axial compressor. The ramjet cannot produce forward thrust at zero airspeed, and they couldn’t move Devil Dragon from a standstill with just ramjets. These Chinese brilliantly had two types of engines on the same aircraft! said the Deputy to himself. Freaking brilliant! The Devil Dragon required an assisted takeoff from two standard jet engines, and then once they had some forward motion, the remaining two ramjets took over to kick in the required speed. All they needed was some air. The Devil Dragon ramjets were very capable at supersonic speeds approaching Mach 5, but their testing for future aircraft already had Chen drooling about speeds of Mach 6, or close to 4,600 miles per hour.
“Ford, can you translate that engine speak for us a bit?” asked the Deputy.
“Yes, sir. As the Devil Dragon’s airspeed increases, the effectiveness of her engine starts to drop as the air temperature in the engine inlet increases due to the compression.” Ford looked at the DIA team, and they gave him smart ass looks. “And so, sir, as the inlet temps increase and grow to reach the exhaust temperature on the back of the bird, less energy can be extracted in the form of thrust. What that means is that the Chinese engineers and research dudes figured out that to produce a characteristic amount of thrust at higher speeds, the Devil Dragon’s ramjet engine had to be engineered so that the incoming air is not compressed as much. And, ah, look, the air flying through the combustion chamber is still moving at mind-numbing velocity, and … will, basically, be supersonic. It’s a freaking hell of an idea.”
“So let me get this straight, for us non-pilots. You have two regular jet engines for takeoff. Once you get some air flow, like down the runway, the two additional ramjets start-up….for the high airspeed flight? Four engines total?” asked the Deputy.
“Yes, sir,” answered Wu. “That’s exactly how it works.”
“Thank you, Wu, and oh, thank you, Professor Stevens,” Mark said sarcastically. “Hold up. Hang on, man. I don’t understand something. The heat must be intense upon landing. Wu. These are amazing airspeeds. How are you working the ground handling then? Isn’t that too hot for your ground folks?” Mark asked.
“Well.” Wu cleared his throat. “We learned from the Anglo-French Concord, the SR-71 Blackbird Program, the….ah…this is going to sound weird to you, but the Smithsonian Museum out by your Dulles Airport. Even from the open sessions in Glasgow, that the temperatures…”
“Glasgow? What’s that?” blurted the Deputy.
“Mr. Burns. Open source is a terrific thing. They let anyone in. The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Hypersonic and Spaceplanes has an Annual Conference. We attended. They talked about historical lessons from past hypersonic jet programs. Things like how to handle new tools, missing rivets, maintenance turnarounds, broken inlet parts, and delaminated panels… items that ground crews have to deal with when we land. The PLAAF learned a lot of these things at conferences, which contributed to Devil Dragon. Free admission, too.”
“I’ll be… damned. First the stealth, now speeds. Shit. We gave it to them on a God damn silver platter.” the Deputy said slowly and very quietly. Then, much louder, “Wu, what else can you do with her?”
“Well, sir. Total sensor package. Stealth. Speed. Combined with tons of munitions. Can fly in complete congested airspace, like yours, Russia… India. Targeting pods. Antennas embedded in her skin. Radar for air and ground. We can sweep the entire electromagnetic spectrum, or jam, if needed. We can act as a vacuum and scoop it all up, but be invisible. Chen also talked about the upgradeability on future bombers, and something else that was hushed that I don’t even know. Oh, and lasers, too,” Wu described.
“Whoa. That’s some aircraft. Future bombers and lasers? How many Devil Dragons are there?” Ford asked.
“I really don’t know,” replied Wu. “As far as I know, just this one. But, I have heard him discuss something called BlackScorpion and scramjets though, so maybe there are plans for the future. I just don’t know. You have to realize that Chen is demanding and always thinks things through. He also trained up two other pilots that were cleared to fly her, but I was the one selected.”