Fleataxi
Deceased
Author's Note: This is book IV in the North to Alaska Saga. If you haven't read Books I-III (North to Alaska, Escape from the Rat Race, Allakaket Airlines) you might want to - since none of the characters and situations will make sense otherwise.
If you're really nice, I'll start writing The Daedalus again (Book V in the series), but you've got to be good!
Fleataxi
Without Further Ado - The Kids are Alright by Fleataxi
Coming back from his Grandma’s Funeral David wept uncontrollably. Heather held him as he cried, remembering how he had held her when she needed someone. Josh, Jake, and Sarah were taking it better, but were still devastated at the sudden death of their grandmother. Josh had only been home two weeks when Gene died, then his Grandma died shortly after he got back from Gene’s funeral. Josh was glad this was only a 45-minute flight, or he might have been tempted to lean over and smack his whiny little brother. When he got back to his dad’s house, he asked if he could use the computer, and check his Hotmail account. He had dozens of junk e-mails, and one cryptic e-mail that he almost deleted until he saw it was from Q. He had wondered if Q survived the Tsunami, now it appeared he had. He opened it, and all it said was “What’s up Doc?” Josh thought that was strange, because he wasn’t a Doctor, then he remembered that his SEAL team buddies always called him Doc.
He replied “Glad to see you survived the Tsunami.”
He was surfing the internet, when his mail server said that he had mail. He saw that Q had replied to his e-mail:
“Survived with the clothes on my back - I was delivering a vehicle in Perth when the Tsunami hit - Shop wrecked.”
Josh replied “How do you like Snow?”
A few hours later, he checked, and Q replied: “Beats Tsunamis!”
Josh showed Ron the e-mails, then told his dad about his idea. Ron said “It’s your money.”
Josh took that as a yes, and e-mailed Q: “How would you like if I set you up a huge shop in Alaska with as much of a budget as you need, and all the Military toys you want to play with? Call me.”
2 minutes later Josh’s shoe phone rang.
“Doc, it’s Q. I’m between a rock and a hard place. My lab was destroyed, and I’ve got contracts to fulfill. The shop was insured, but it will take me years to collect from the insurance company if I can at all. What part of Alaska do you live in, hopefully no where near the coast?”
“Q, I live in Allakaket, just north of Mount McKinley, midway between Anchorage and Fairbanks Alaska. We’re several hundred miles inland, and the only way in or out is to fly.”
“I guess that means you don’t get Tsunamis. What are you offering me?”
“I want to set you up in business, buy all your equipment, put you up in a nice house, and all for 50% of the profit. I’ll pay you a great salary, say $100 grand per year, 10% of the profit, with 50% to me, and the balance going back into the company for new equipment and stuff. You can hire whomever you want, but I want to turn a profit.”
“I heard about the setup you have there, is it true you can play with just about anything Military up there?”
“Until a couple of weeks ago, the Ex-JSOC lived here, and he brought everything with him. I run a DOD survival school, so I’ve got access to military hardware, and Elmendorf is an excellent source for surplus stuff. We’ve got a Super Stallion that can carry almost 40,000 pounds between Anchorage and Allakaket.”
“Sounds like the ideal setup. I’ve got to wade through mounds of paperwork to get these pantywaists to let me install anything worthwhile in an armored vehicle. They are so anti-gun that they won’t even let me build stuff for export to Saudi.”
“I’ve got some ideas for stuff too. Anyway, you interested?”
“I’ll have to talk it over with the wife. I’ll let you know tomorrow.”
Once they hung up, Josh realized that without Gene there, they were vulnerable to the Liberals in Congress who would love to take their toys away. He called Steve, who made a couple of phone calls, and the General that took over for Gene was more than ready to retire, so Steve made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. He knew about Gene’s setup, and asked them if there was anything they needed, and to make a list and e-mail it to him.
Josh called Bear, and they went over the inventory. They’d shot up a lot of ammo practicing, and they wanted some new stuff too. Bear added a TLAM-N to the bottom of the list, and told Josh to send it as is. The next day, General Kelly Stone approved the list, and called Bear.
“Chief Simmons, I saw you wanted a TLAM-N. The answer is “It’s STILL not time, you Aquatic Freak!”
Bear guessed that Gene had told General Stone that joke. He laughed, and said “Aye, Aye Sir!”
“Chief, the rest of the order is approved. I’m flying out in a week or two to retire to Allakaket, so I’ll see you then.”
“Yes Sir, I’ll be waiting for you.”
A week later, Bear got a call from Elmendorf, A C-5A Galaxy had shown up asking where Allakaket was. He guessed that the stuff in there was for him. Bear said he’d take care of it, and called Josh, and told him to take care of it. Josh commandeered all their helicopters and available SuperGoose to fly to Elmendorf and load up. Josh stood there open mouthed on the Tarmac when the crew chief for the C-5a said that the entire 100-ton load was for Allakaket, and would he please sign for it, so he could get it unloaded and get back home for dinner. Josh shook his head, and signed for it. The Crew chief hustled to unload the aircraft, and Josh hustled to find aircraft to carry the load to Allakaket. All 4 helicopters flew non-stop for the next couple of days, with the heavy-lift choppers carrying the bulk of the load. Bear had hired some extra people to unload it and store it in the armory on the other end. When they were finished, the Armory was full again, and they had some stuff they didn’t have before. The Army was obsoleting the 105mm Howitzer, and Gen. Stone sent them 6 howitzers and several huge containers full of ammo. They also received dozens of pallets full of crated .223, .308 Match, 7.62 Linked, .50 cal linked, 20mm and 25mm ammo, plus obsolete rockets, missiles, mines, and miscellaneous stuff. The next day Gen. Stone showed up. Bear greeted him with “Isn’t Santa Claus supposed to wear a red suit?”
Gen. Stone and Bear both laughed themselves silly, then Bear introduced Josh Williams, a former Lt. Commander in the SEALS who was taking over for him as the head of Alaska Survival Inc. since Bear was officially retired.
“ Lt. Commander Williams, Ok, I remember you. Sorry about Commander Jackson. I wanted you to know that after that accident, I grounded and sent all the same aircraft to the boneyard for destruction, then ordered new planes out of discretionary funds. Sorry it took the death of your commander to get those old deathtraps removed from inventory.”
“That’s OK Sir, I understand accidents happen. I don’t regret resigning my Commission, especially when I hear what DC is doing to Special Forces. I heard that the Rangers were spending more time acting like Social workers than Warriors.”
“Unfortunately it’s true. I tried to stop it, but the orders came straight from the White House. Evidently someone there believes if we can keep the Muslims happy they won’t attack us, so most of the Rangers and some SEAL teams spend more time digging wells in Southeast Asia than killing terrorists. Not only that, but our involvement in Drug Enforcement has stopped, and the Congress hasn’t budgeted any money for Transportation to equip the Coast Guard with enough men and equipment to do the job right.”
Josh just shook his head, he hoped that the next President understood what Wynn Catlin said “Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice Doggie!' till you can find a rock!” Except he was afraid that the US had ran out of the kind of President it needed hundreds of years ago.
Josh and Bear got General Stone settled into his new house, and Bear told him that the “old Geezers” got together for their weekly shooting match every Thursday morning at the indoor shooting range.
Later that evening, Josh got a phone call from Q.
“Ok, the wife says we should go. I’ll be on the next flight to Alaska.”
“Q, I hope you don’t mind living in a trailer for a couple of months while we build your house?”
“Young Man, right now a trailer would be a Godsend. We’re living in my Son’s apartment, and his live-in Girlfriend is the most obnoxious person I have ever met!”
“Ok, Q - call me when you know when you’ll be arriving in Anchorage, and I’ll fly you to Allakaket. While you’re waiting, could you e-mail me a list of tools and supplies you’ll need and how big a building you need so we can get started on this end?”
“Josh, an Airplane Hangar would be perfect, one of the Big ones. I’ll e-mail you a list of tools and supplies. I’m glad you’re rich, because this will put a dent in even your bank account!”
“How much money were you making a year before the Tsunami hit?”
“Several million per year, net maybe $250-500 Thousand, but we had a lot of overhead.”
“Ok, call me when you know your flight number and arrival time in Anchorage.”
10 minutes later, Josh checked his e-mail. When he saw the total he said “Holy.....!” He walked over to his Dad, and said he might need a loan for this one. Ron took 1 look at the figures, called the Credit Union, and transferred $50 Million into each of his kid’s accounts, and David’s Trust Fund.
“Good timing Josh, My broker said I just doubled my investment again, so I could easily afford to do this. From what you told me of this Q character, it should be a good investment on your part. I’ve got a huge hangar we don’t need any more since Ralph’s Snow Bug business relocated to Fairbanks with the new owner. I think Ralph was smart to sell when he did, the market’s just about saturated. He got double his initial investment out of it, plus all the profit he made over the years. Not that he needed the money since Doc died. If you can use it, go ahead.”
“Thanks Dad. I’ll drive over and check it out.”
When he opened the Hangar doors, Josh was astounded at how much equipment they left. All the air compressors, hydraulic lifts, and a whole bunch of stuff were left behind, and in good shape. This should cut the cost of getting Q up and running considerably. The Hangar itself was 100 feet wide by 600 feet long with a 30-foot high door and he knew that Ralph fit 30 Snow bugs in here at once with room to work on them all, so he should have plenty of room. Josh saw a huge radiator up in a corner with a fan behind it, and traced the plumbing to the output of the Geothermal heating system. Evidently this place was heated by Geothermal heat, so the only monthly expense would be phone and electric. His shoe phone rang, and Q said he’d be in to Anchorage at 0900 tomorrow. He gave Josh his airline and flight number, and Josh told Q someone from Alaska Airlines would meet him at the gate, and collect their bags, then drive them to the VIP terminal, and he’d fly them to Allakaket.
“Giving us the VIP treatment I see - Good idea! Is Sheila coming with you?”
Josh laughed thinking the last time Sheila met Q, and said he didn’t think it was a good idea since Sheila was armed 24/7, and might not be able to resist the urge to shoot him this time!
Q gulped audibly, then realized Josh was pulling his leg.
“Q, I’ve already got a huge hangar set aside for you that used to house an automotive manufacturing company, so they already have lifts and air compressors with pipes running everywhere.”
“Sounds like a set-up, I can’t wait to see it. Bye until tomorrow.” Josh listened to the dial tone for a second, then realized Q had hung up on him, and turned the phone off.
Josh called Jake, and asked if the Airport Manager could have his SuperGoose ready to go at 0700 tomorrow morning for a flight to Anchorage. Jake said “No problem Bro” and disconnected before Josh could even say thanks. He guessed Jake was busy trying to learn how to run an airline. BA’s sons Mike and Larry were a big help, but the 2 of them were still very busy. Sometimes Jake told Josh he wished he’d stuck to flying and guiding. Diane was busy homeschooling their kids, and the only time they had to themselves was during the weekend, since Josh had talked Jake into working out with him in the morning again just like they used to. Diane was still beautiful after 4 kids, partly because of her Inuit heritage, and partly because she took the kids to the pool and the shooting range 3 times a week, and she worked out in the gym while they were in their swimming classes.
Neil and Sally were busy between raising their 4 kids, and running the Gold Mine. Sally and Diane worked out together twice a week, and Neil joined them whenever he could. He spent a lot of time flying the 007 back and forth to the mine, enough that he was considering getting his Rotary Wing Pilot’s license. Neil decided he needed his own helicopter to fly back and forth to the mine since the 007's were getting too busy when a surplus MD-500 came on the market. Neil checked into it, and it was owned by Anchorage Regional Hospital. He remembered something about selling them SuperGoose aircraft, and called Ron for the details. Ron called Steve, the Head of Emergency Services, and he told Ron that the Hospital Administrators just declared the helicopter surplus since their fleet of 2 SuperGoose planes were handling all the Medevac flights, and the MD-500 didn’t really have the legs or payload for Medevac in rural Alaska, with a max range of 300nm, and a top speed of around 150 knots. They got it as surplus from the DoD, so they didn’t pay that much for it, and all he wanted was enough money to justify selling it to the board, since they needed to approve the sale. Ron asked him how much he’d want for the aircraft, and Steve said $250,000 including some spare parts and manuals. Ron said that he’d have his chopper pilot call him back with the info, and if he was satisfied, he’d offer whatever the chopper pilot suggested up to $250,000.
Steve thanked Ron, and gave him a contact name and number in their aircraft maintenance department. Ron called the airport, spoke to Jim, the 007 helicopter pilot, who was amazed that they had located an MD-500 for sale with an airworthiness cert. Ron told him to make sure, since Steve never mentioned one. He gave Jim the name and number of the aircraft maintenance supervisor. 2 hours later, he called Ron back “According to the Maintenance Supervisor, this aircraft is a hangar queen, and hasn’t been flown in 2 years. It’s got an airworthiness cert, and a fresh overhaul on the turbine. Their asking price is ridiculously low, and I’d highly suggest offering their asking price, right now!”
“Thanks, I’ll call you back and let you know!”
Ron called Steve “My helicopter pilot said we should offer the $250,000. I can either have them deliver a check or a wire transfer once they get a look at it.”
“Ron, just have them bring a check, the board doesn’t meet until later this week.”
“Ok if my pilot flies out and takes a look at it today?”
“I’ll be here all week.”
“Thanks Steve.”
Ron called Jim and Neil, and told them to get aboard the next SuperGoose bound for Anchorage, and check the MD-500 out at the hospital’s airfield. Neil could have flown there all by himself, he was so happy. 2 hours later, they landed at Anchorage International, and caught a cab to the hospital’s airfield. Someone must have recently washed the helicopter, and it looked like a new helicopter. The blue and white paint scheme was one of MD’s standard civilian paint jobs. Neil was surprised to see a pair of floats off to one side, and asked Jim about it.
“The pontoons allow you to land on water, but the extra weight and drag cut into your range enough to make you leave them at home most of the time.”
Neil thought the small 4-seater was perfect, until Jim explained how much work and money it cost to get certified as a Helicopter pilot. Seeing Neil’s downcast expression, Jim had an idea.
“How about you fly up front from now on when we go to and from the mine? I’m pretty sure my FAA IP certificate is still good. It would save the cost of a co-pilot, and I could teach you the basics while we’re flying. You’ll have to study for a while and pass a test before I let you anywhere near the controls of a helicopter, but it would be cheaper than paying for lessons since I have to fly you back and forth to the mine anyway.”
Neil shook Jim’s hand and thanked him. They looked over the records of the helicopter, and Jim told Neil that it was a steal at $250,000 in the condition it was in. The maintenance supervisor offered to give them a lift over to Steve’s office, then back to the airport so they could catch a flight back home. They handed Steve the check for $250,000 and Steve said that if the board approved, the chopper was theirs, since he wouldn’t be accepting any other offers unless the board rejected the offer. Neil told Steve to call Ron if the board rejected the offer, and he was sure they could work something out.
The next day, Josh met Q at the VIP terminal. The baggage truck that met him was full of suitcases and stuff. The baggage handler looked tired by the time he was finished, so Josh tipped him a $20 dollar bill for the hard work. Q was fascinated by the SuperGoose, and Josh offered to let him walk around the plane with him while he checked it. On the way around, Q asked some very interesting questions. When they got to the air stairs, Josh asked Q if he’d rather ride up front in the co-pilot’s seat. Q looked at Josh like he had told him he just won the lottery, and scampered forward to the cockpit. Josh secured the airstairs, then walked forward and sat in the pilot’s chair. He showed Q how to buckle in, and place the headset over his ears. Once he was all set, Josh activated the intercom, and talked Q through the pre-flight checklist. Q seemed to know his way around a plane, and Josh asked him if he’d ever flown. Q smiled and said he was in the Royal Australian Air Force, and flew the F-4 Phantom, but never in combat. Josh guessed that was why Q knew his way around the aircraft. He joked with Q and said that if he was used to the Phantom, he might want to get out and push, since this aircraft had a top speed of less than 300 knots. Q said he actually liked flying low and slow. You couldn’t see much flying the speed of heat at 30,000 feet. He asked if Q wanted him to try a max-performance take-off, and Q advised him that some of the equipment in back was fragile, so he decided to try the sedate approach instead, and flew the plane like he had a load of bombs aboard. With Q around, One never knew. They talked on the way to Allakaket, and Josh found out that Q, who’s real name was Herbert, was a natural tinkerer, and got discharged from the RAAF for tinkering with the engines of his plane to make them go faster. The funny thing was Pratt & Whitney did almost the exact same thing when they introduced the G Model Phantom II.
Josh told Q about his idea for the Ultimate Bug-Out vehicle. Q pointed out that unless it flew, it wouldn’t be much use in the interior of Alaska from what he could see! Josh said there were plenty of places you could go in and around Allakaket and not need a plane, you just needed something like a huge half-track to navigate the rough terrain and knock over any small trees in your way. Q suggested a German track system instead of the US design, since it covered more of the wheelbase, had bigger and more bogie wheels, which make it harder to slip a track, and had a torsion bar suspension just like his trailer had. He could build a 40-50 foot long vehicle using a large Turbocharged Cummins motor like the 525 ISX with an Allison 6-speed transmission and a two-speed transfer case that included a PTO for a heavy-duty winch. Q suggested a sandwich of ceramic, rigid Kevlar, carbon fiber for strength, and armor plate he had been working on as the latest and greatest in vehicular armor plate. It was lighter than Aluminum, yet almost as bullet and high-explosive resistant as Chobham armor. He wouldn’t put it up against anything bigger than a 75mm tank round, and even then it had a 50/50 chance of penetrating. Q had his microcassette recorder on, recording Josh’s every word. He found that it worked better than taking notes, and his memory wasn’t what it used to be. When they landed at Allakaket, Q thought the approach was borderline scary, since he was used to landing his Phantom on a nice flat long runway instead of floating in on a steep angle with a high descent rate. He was amazed at how softly the plane landed after that steep of an approach, then Josh explained the SuperGoose was designed for Short Take-off and landing, and the high wing, huge flaps and leading edge slats allowed the plane to fly very close to a stall, and land at very slow speeds, then if he reversed the props, he could land on a very small lake. They taxied up to the ramp, and Josh remembered to put down the landing gear just in time. Once they were parked and the turbines spun down, a couple of baggage handlers unloaded Q’s stuff into the back of Josh’s pickup.
Q asked “what happened to the Hummer?”
“I had to leave it in Australia, at Sheila’s parent’s place. Your design saved our lives several times. I wish I had the time to fly you over there so you could see how much damage it sustained without letting anything into the passenger or engine compartment.”
“Maybe they could send pictures?”
“If that would help, I’ll call them and ask.”
“If they tape a ruler next to the bullet holes, I can blow up the image and see how big the holes are, and how deep they penetrated. My guess is that nothing penetrated more than half-depth, that Kevlar Armor is tough. The Apache and Blackhawk carry over ½" of the same Kevlar panel. I figured you wouldn’t be up against anything much heavier than 30 caliber rifle fire, and the 1/4" panel defeats that easily. For your Ultimate Bug Out Vehicle, I’m installing half-inch panels that should stop anything less than 20mm Autocannon. I’m pretty sure a 25mm Bushmaster HE round would have a 50% or better chance of penetrating it, and a TOW would easily defeat it.”
Josh told Q he’d send some pictures, then Q changed the subject.
“So what kind of armaments do you want on the Ultimate Bug Out Machine?”
Josh scratched his head, and admitted he never thought of that. A 25mm Bushmaster would be too heavy, and a 7.62 mini-gun wouldn’t have enough punch. He asked Q who suggested a simple Ma Deuce in a turret with remote control, and a forward 7.62 machine gun on it’s own turret mounted forward of and below the Ma Deuce’s turret with a 160-degree field of fire. He suggested a rocket launcher up front and back. Josh quipped “What, no Hellfire Missile Launcher?”
Q said that he could put a separate turret behind the Ma Deuce with a pop-up “hammerhead” launcher to engage anything too big for the Ma Deuce to handle. Q said with a driver, commander/gunner, Crew chief/loader/gunner arrangement, the UBOM would be a formidable All-Season Bug Out Vehicle. With the diesel halftrack and high-mounted snorkel, once they were buttoned up, they could ford water up to the snorkel, which would be at the top of the Cab, or more than 9 feet in the air. He said if they tried it, it might not work too well, because the UBOM would be too buoyant with that huge cargo box. Josh suggested if it were heavily loaded, it would sink like a rock, and give them all the traction they needed. Q agreed since he knew that if worse came to worse, he could design it will ballast tanks to take on water. He wondered how long it could travel underwater. Probably as long as they could breathe, as long as the snorkel wasn’t under water. Maybe he could put a float and a flexible extension tube on the snorkel so they could cross shallow lakes?
Chapter 2 - Aftershocks
Bill, the original Mayor and Minister of Allakaket was in his 80's, and had turned the reins of the town and his ministerial duties over to a half-inuit man whom he and Carl had watched over the years, and felt he’d make a suitable replacement for them. They had encouraged Michael’s study of the Bible and famous theological studies. Bill told him that each of the “great masters” had a kernel of truth in their writing, but the final source should be the Bible. Bill had him read the sermons of Charles Spurgeon and John Calvin, then turned him loose in his library of great Theological books. It took him 10 years, but the end result was a well-rounded education in Theology, Bible knowledge, Church History, and a working knowledge of Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew. He found several Christian websites selling Bible software that allowed him to cross-reference various translations and the Strong’s Dictionary on a verse-by-verse basis. When they were ready to retire, they held a joint ordination, and filed the State paperwork for his official ordination. Michael was 35 when he took over as the town minister, serving both the Inuit and non-Inuit communities. He also took on some of Bill’s duties, but since the town had grown, they had a real mayor and town council, so he wasn’t as busy as Bill used to be. The Credit union had a full-time manager who doubled as the teller, so Michael spent most of his time ministering to his flock.
10 years after Michael took over, Carl called and told him that Bill had died in his sleep. Michael knew that his mentor was in Heaven, still he missed him. He fell to his knees in prayer, asking for Divine Guidance, when several Scriptures came to mind. Picking up his notepad, he wrote them down, then started working on Bill’s eulogy. He knew Bill would want something simple and dignified, so he stuck to the basics. The next morning, the entire community met at the church. With the new wealth of the area, the new church was easily able to accommodate all of them.
As part of his Eulogy Michael read from Paul’s 2nd Letter to Timothy, from verses 6-8:
“6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand.
7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
8 Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.”
Ron was very moved by the Eulogy, and praised Michael “Bill trained you well, I’m sure he’s proud of you!”
Bill requested his body be cremated and the ashes scattered on the water next to Allakaket. Carl and Michael took care of Bill’s second to last request. When they opened his will, they discovered that he had transferred the bulk of his assets into 2 Scholarship funds. 1 for Allakaket Children who wouldn’t otherwise be able to go to college, and another for students at Bible Colleges making a commitment to serve remote rural congregations. The amount of money he put in enabled students to go to school on full scholarships for decades to come. The interest alone on the money was enough to pay for 10 4-year scholarships per year. Ron and BA had talked to Bill, and had already established scholarship funds for Allakaket, but they had pretty strict economic qualifications. Bill’s scholarship requirements were less stringent, and the end result was almost every teenager who wanted to go to college or a technical school in Allakaket was able to get at least a partial scholarship.
Several weeks after his arrival in Allakaket, Q’s equipment and supplies started showing up. He had gotten an extension from the Royal Saudi Family for their armored Mercedes sedans and Hummer defensive vehicles. Q stood there slack-jawed when he saw his Mercedes flying into Allakaket slung underneath the Super Stallion. The next day they delivered his Hummer, and Q got to work. He used his new composite armor, and after he tested some test panels, realized that he might have stumbled onto something, and checked it against the specifications of other composite armors. It wasn’t as penetration-resistant as Chobham armor, but it was significantly lighter, and stronger in some aspects. He was pretty sure you could build an airframe out if it, which would be much lighter than conventional construction, and have significant penetration resistance.
Once he finished the contracts he was working on, Q decided to build Josh’s “Ultimate Bug-Out Machine”. He got lucky when he found a Cummins dealer in Anchorage, and had them ship the Cummins 525 ISX turbo-diesel and an Allison semi-auto 6-speed transmission. He called Advanced Adapters, and they said “You want to do WHAT?” After talking with one of their engineers, they located a 2-speed full-time transfer case (2H/2L/4H/4L) with the correct ratios and a PTO adapter that could handle the horsepower and torque specs from the Cummins diesel engine. They told Q that what he wanted to do would require some adapters, and Q said “So?” They sent a quote to Q before they did anything else. Most of their transfer cases cost several thousand dollars, but this huge unit that they had in back unsold listed for $10 grand, and they sold it to him as used equipment with a standard warranty for $8 grand. Q had them build the drive shafts and yokes to match up to the differentials and transfer case once he had the lengths figured out. Q realized the track would be a bunch of custom work, since no existing half-track would be as heavy or large as the UBOM. He did some research, located a design for the German Sdkfz 251, and called a friend of his that was into German WWII reenacting, and located someone with the plans for the German halftrack. He called another friend of his who made custom aluminum wheels, and sent him the specs and dimensions for the German bogie wheels. Modern aluminum wheels are not only lighter, but stronger than WWII-era steel wheels, so he had him make all the bogies out of aluminum. He needed to make the drive sprockets out of steel since they were a high-wear part. He located surplus Israeli tracks with removable rubber tread blocks that would fit, and ordered 6 sets.
With all the parts ordered, he started working on the frame and body. He decided to bury all the fuel and water tanks between the frame rails again, and instead of a conventional radiator, he used the engine heat to keep the oil and fuel warm using imbedded thermostatically controlled heat exchangers and a small oil cooler to keep the engine cool during the summer, which was also thermostatically controlled and used a novel air scoop to duct air to the cooler when needed. The entire hood tilted forward as one piece, and came off when you removed the hinge pins for easier access to the engine. There was enough spare room under the hood to install a pop-up 6-round 2.75" rocket launcher, so he did. The vehicle didn’t have a conventional windshield, instead the driver used day/night video cameras and monitors or periscopic vision blocks to see out front. He had a matching camera out back for rear-view, and could switch views with a steering wheel mounted toggle switch. To his right was the commander/gunner position, which controlled the Ma Deuce on the remote turret on the roof, as well as the Browning 1919-A4 machine gun out front in a smaller lower-mounted turret for anti-personnel use. The Hellfire launcher was mounted in the same turret as the BMG-50, and used the same laser designator. He’d gotten a look at the Bradley Robo-gun, and it gave him a bunch of ideas. He didn’t need that big of a gun, but he copied most of its features, including the video, aiming, and stabilization systems.
Behind the driver and gunner/commander was a 3rd seat for a Crew Chief/loader/gunner who was responsible for keeping everything in the complex vehicle running, and could double as a gunner if the electronics failed and he needed to manually fire the Ma Deuce. Behind him was seating for up to 8 or extra cargo space depending on whether the seats were installed. Even with the seats installed, they had more than 2000 cubic feet of cargo space. Q built the UBOM with a 12-foot wide track, and a 50-foot wheelbase. The tracks supported 45 feet of wheelbase, leaving the 2 huge military tires up front for steering, and if needed, the transfer case could be switched to 4wd mode, and the wheels could pull as well. With 525 horsepower, the 10,000 pound vehicle had a great power to weight ratio, and could safely carry 10,000 pounds of cargo, and tow another 20,000 pounds. Q abandoned the idea for the underwater swim kit, and decided to stick with making the vehicle watertight and equip it with a snorkel that gave them a 10-foot fording depth with a 2-foot margin. The vehicle had a 3-foot ground clearance to the bottom of the skid plate, and the top of the vehicle was 12 feet above the ground. The rear of the vehicle was equipped with a combination loading ramp and bobtail lift. The crew compartment had a roof hatch and ladder rungs for access/egress when the cargo compartment was too full to enter and exit the vehicle that way. Once Q finished the UBOM, he took a break, then realized his composite armor might be a huge source of income, and decided to shop around for licensing agreements.
Northrop/Grumman designed a follow-on to the PBY Catalina based on Russian design for a Wing In Ground-effect (WIG) aircraft, only bigger, faster and about 3 times the cost. Jake was looking to expand their business when he heard about the NG Gooney Bird. Q being the enterprising soul he was, had contacted Northrop/Grumman and showed them his aluminum/carbon fiber/Kevlar composite he had developed for armor. NG’s engineers were amazed, and realized with this new material, they could eliminate almost all of the interior structural bracing of the fuselage and most of it in the wings. Kevlar and carbon fiber had come way down in price since the 1990's, and they realized that the plane could be bigger, lighter and stronger than the just-announced Boeing Pelican, giving them a much better plane than the conventionally constructed Pelican. Q’s first licensing check allowed him to pay back Josh his entire investment, and renegotiate their contract so Q got 50% of the profit as well. Q would receive annual checks from NG from their licensing agreement between $2 and $5 Million per year based on the use of his invention, and any developments NG made in new composites based on it. Q also received rights to license any new composites developed by NG for use in his armored vehicles. NG thought that was a good idea, because they didn’t want to risk multi-million dollar aircraft field testing the armor characteristics of their composites. When Q indicated that he had a laboratory with access to military weapons, and the ability to test composites for armor qualities, they also made Q a consultant for any future composite armor testing, since they didn’t have access to the weapons needed to test their new armor composites thanks to anti-gun laws in California.
The Boeing Pelican was first to market with a huge Military Contract, and when Northrop Grumman’s engineers got a got look at it, they knew they could design something bigger, faster, and more efficient, using Q’s new composites. Their plane, dubbed the “Gooney Bird” by some wag engineer was 600 feet long vs. Boeing’s 400 foot plane, and instead of making the main wing a ridiculously wide 750 feet, they added a 300-foot forward canard right behind the cockpit, giving the plane the same lift as a 900-foot main wing, with lower drag and 2 fewer landing gear. The main wing was just over 500 feet wide with 6 counter-rotating pusher turbo-props, built by Royce/Allison. It was a true flying boat and never had to land at airports, so they built it big and wide. It had wheels, but was only supposed to beach long enough to load and unload passengers and cargo, and it landed and took off on water. Northrop described it as a ship with wings, except this ship traveled at 400 knots! Once the prototype completed testing, the military cancelled the rest of Boeing’s contract in favor of the Gooney Bird. The Navy had plenty of harbors and loading equipment they used to use to load ships. Allakaket Airlines initial purchase from N/G was 12 GB’s at $50 Million each, and Jake leased terminal space in Southern California, Anchorage, Hawaii, Australia, Japan and France. Russia asked if they could install a terminal on their East coast for freight and passengers since Aeroflot was bankrupt, and they had to rely on outside contractors for passenger and freight to and from Russia. Jake e-mailed them his design for a passenger/cargo terminal that took advantage of the GB’s Ro-Ro capablity. They formed a new publicly-traded corporation called WIG Transport International. It was listed on the NYSE as WTI, and the initial offering sold out the first day it was offered at $10/share. By the end of the month, when they had effectively cornered the international overnight long-haul freight and passenger service, WTI stock was selling at almost $50 per share and was heading higher. Ron and the rest of his family’s fortunes doubled in their first year, and WTI was now listed on Forbes Fortune 100. Allakaket was now one of the biggest most wealthy towns in Alaska, and was experiencing a construction boom.
Q took his composite design to Sikorsky (The license to NG wasn’t exclusive - only limited to fixed wing aircraft) and asked them to make a dozen S-76 with the new composite armor, and the 007 weapons package, except they might see if some AIM-9L Sidewinders would work instead of short-range Stingers. The engineers explained the avionics of the S-76 wouldn’t support the Sidewinder, but they knew of an upgraded Stinger they could install - it had the same external dimensions, just better software so it wouldn’t go “goofy” as easily, and had a wider acquisition cone and better sensitivity on the IR sensor, so you didn’t have to point the helicopter right at the heat source. They offered to build a dozen Third-generation S-76's instead of paying him a royalty fee -ever. At over $6 million dollars per copy, Q thought that was a good trade, and stipulated that NG already had a license for Fixed wing aircraft, so they couldn’t use the armor on fixed wing aircraft without violating their license agreement. Sikorsky was almost 100% rotary wing by now, so that wasn’t a problem. They signed the agreement and stopped production of the current S-76 when Q showed them his test data indicating the armor would defeat a 25mm round. The A-10 Warthog was due to retire, so the biggest airborne cannons would soon be 20mm Gatling guns. With that piece of info, they knew the new armor would be invulnerable to anything except an airborne or ground-launched Anti-aircraft missile, which was a big improvement over the existing Blackhawk armor package.
In 2035, Ron announced his retirement as CEO and President of Allakaket Airlines. He would remain the Chairman of the Board, and his sons Jake and Josh were taking over day to day operations officially. In a big retirement party, Josh and Jake flew their parents to their new terminal in Anchorage and showed them their latest idea, a collaboration between WTI and NG, which converted one of the Gooney Birds to a Luxury cruise ship. Instead of spending weeks getting there, you got to spend weeks at your location in a huge floating hotel. Instead of huge cargo spaces, the plane was redesigned as a cruise ship, and except for baggage and mail, there was no cargo aboard the ship. The rear of the ship featured a flooding well deck that could submerge to allow small boats that were larger than their speedboats, jet skis, etc. to dock and load/unload passengers at islands that were too small to accommodate the massive terminal and ramp space needed by the huge WIG transport. Because there was no conventional tail on the WIG, they were able to install a huge rear ramp/flooding well that would operate on land or sea, and a smaller floating dock on the side of the fuselage that would be used to handle smaller craft like 12-passenger speedboats and jet skis of all types. The roof of the aircraft was designed as a Heliport with an elevator that could transfer helicopters from the storage hangar in the plane to the roof for landing and take-off. The front half of the upper fuselage could be used as a deck with shuffle board and lawn chairs when they weren’t moving. The plane had all the amenities of a regular cruise ship, minus the sea sickness, and it could travel from Los Angeles to Hong Kong in less than a day at 400 knots. Since the cabin wasn’t pressurized, they could have huge bay windows in the VIP suites, but they didn’t open for safety reasons. The lack of balcony space was a small price to pay for the speed and reduced transportation costs.
The maiden voyage of the SuperCruiser was from Anchorage to the Solomon Islands. Ron had always talked about going to them since he still loved diving, but never got a chance until now. Josh and Jake had invited every one of Ron and Nancy’s friends to come along, including Ronnie Barrett, and the new CEO of Northrop Grumman, who was hired to clean up the company and was a Born-Again Christian. With his squeaky-clean image and demanding ethics, he soon mucked out Northrop-Grumman of every corrupt employee he could find. He demanded that all their contracts would be renegotiated, and stuck to his guns about not paying bribes to Federal officials, or anyone else. Boeing and the rest of the industry went along with it, actually they were dragged kicking and screaming by Mike Coughlin, who threatened to blow the whistle unless they went along. The General Accounting Office stood behind him, since investigating kickbacks would be so much easier if it weren’t so rampant, and that was that.
They all met in Anchorage, and Ron was surprised when he saw the interior of the SuperCruiser. Their personal stateroom was huge, with a 6x6 bay window on the port side of the fuselage in the middle of the plane between the canard and main wings where it was the quietest. Instead of structural bracing, NG had added extra insulation to the SuperCruiser, so all the passengers could hear when the massive turboprops were running was a low hum. Once they were all aboard, the WIG took off for the Solomon Islands. It took a while for Ron to get used to flying 50-100 feet off the water until a helpful steward explained the entire plane was controlled by computers with a millimeter-band forward-looking radar that detected obstructions, and commanded a smooth clearance route, and a return to the optimum Wing-in-Ground-Effect altitude. They carried enough fuel to circle the globe without refueling, and were so fuel efficient that they were quickly replacing conventional ships for everything but oil tankers and super-heavy cargo. Configured as a cargo hauler, the Gooney Bird could haul as much cargo as the biggest container ships, and still carry over 100 passengers in comfort. The other configuration could haul up to 1,000 passengers, and the rest in cargo. Unused passenger areas could quickly be converted to haul express packages pre-loaded in containers, so if they only filled the top deck with passengers, the remaining 3 decks could be filled with light cargo.
Before they sailed, they held a christening ceremony, and named SuperCruiser #1 the “Anne Williams” in honor of his mother. They all boarded, and once everything was secure, a huge powerful tug backed the mammoth craft back away from the terminal, and out into the bay. Once they were facing the open water of the Pacific, and had received clearance, they started all 6 enormous turboprops, and slowly built up speed. Once they came up on plane, they quickly reached rotation velocity, the computer commands selected the proper attitude, and the SuperCruiser was flying in ground effect. The ship was so computerized that all the pilots did was monitor the systems, including a powerful forward-looking radar, and an anti-collision radar system that would either change course or altitude to avoid surface contacts. With the calm sea state, they were flying at the optimum height of 50 feet above the water, and were averaging 400 knots. 12-13 hours later, they should be at their destination. They touched down in the Solomon Islands, and taxied toward the center of 5 dive sites they wanted to explore, then shut down the turboprops and switched to inverter power. The upper surfaces were covered with Quantum Dot photovoltaic paint which generated enough power to replace the power generated by the turboprops. They had a backup turbine generator to supplement the output of the solar collectors in the event of cloudy weather, or high draw during darkness.
There was hardly any motion to the vessel, which was bigger than some Naval vessels. The fuselage itself was bigger than the Ticonderoga Class Cruisers. With the wingtip stabilizers deployed, the ship’s roll was virtually eliminated, and the 600-foot length minimized pitch changes. Once everything was set, they hauled the runabout/dive boats out of storage, lifted them on a sling out the starboard floating dock and set them in the water. Jake had made sure to hire several qualified Dive masters as part of the crew, since they liked diving so much. They didn’t have a galley in the runabouts, so everyone changed into their wetsuits in their cabins. Most everyone wore Lycra suits since the water was over 80 degrees. In order to avoid giving Bear a heart attack, Nancy and several other women chose to wear regular wet suits. That didn’t stop them from teasing poor old Bear, who was in his late 70's by now. Josh made a show of packing the Auto-Defibrillator for Bear. Everyone had a good laugh remembering when a much-younger Nancy went diving with Bear and almost gave him a heart attack. Josh looked at his Mom, and while she was still pretty, he couldn’t imagine Bear having a heart attack over her. He wisely decided to ask his dad at a more opportune moment if he had any pictures of Nancy when she was younger. He wondered if there was any truth to the saying that men married women that resembled their mothers, because both he and Jake married a couple of Hotties! He remembered his dad saying something that Samantha was a serious Hottie in her day. Judging by Bert’s girlfriend, he could see that there might be some truth to the old wive’s tale.
In order to avoid crowding, they were going to dive 3 sites using 3 boats. One boat was just for snorkelers, who would go to the shallow sites, one was for non-certified divers with several diving instructors, and 1 was for certified divers, with the dive master aboard. Josh and Jake had kept their certificates current, as had their Mom and Dad. Sheila and Diane joined them, but were supposed to not dive deeper than 30 feet, since they didn’t have a full open-water certificate. Bear was grumbling to Mary about being relegated to the Kiddie Pool until Mary pointed out at his age he was lucky to be diving at all. Bear stopped grumbling, at least out loud. When they reached the diving site, the diving safety crewman took out several floating battery powered diving compressors that could provide air to 6 divers at a time down to 20 feet. He said the battery should last the whole day since the top was covered with the same photovoltaic paint as the SuperCruiser.
Bear already had his mask, fins, and snorkel on, and dove into the water with Mary, Steve, General Stone, Dan, and Rebecca. The rest of the kids were supervised and kept in the shallow water close to shore. Bear explained the safety rules to everyone, and they submerged. Bear was quickly lost by the beauty of diving in the warm clear South Pacific lagoon. It was like diving in a Salt water aquarium. They were each given a simple digital underwater camera, and Bear spent the entire dive taking pictures of the fish. 2 hours later, he heard an underwater buzzer, and realizing he had been underwater for 2 hours, came to the surface for a mandatory surface rest. He floated on his back in the salt water, enjoying the zero gee sensation of the water supporting his tired old body. Once he had been on the surface for half an hour, he was allowed to go down again. The next break included sandwiches and all the water they could drink. Bear forgot how dehydrating diving could be, and drank a whole quart of water by himself. He decided to lie on the beach for the next diving session, and was grateful that someone had thoughtfully set up beach loungers with canopies to prevent him from getting a sunburn. He fell asleep, and was bummed when he woke up, and Mary was telling him it was time to go back to the boat. He wanted to dive some more, then he realized how tired he was.
He made it out to the runabout, and was surprised at how quiet it was. The Captain explained that due to the Pollution Control law of 2020, all watercraft were required to be 100% electrically powered, so the runabout used solar power from a new photovoltaic paint that covered the hull to drive electric motors that ran the jet pump for the shallow-draft boat. Bear asked him what they would do if they ran out of power. The first mate grinned and said that the PC law of 2023, introduced after a major accident resulted in the loss of over 100 people from a boat that lost electric power in a quickly building storm which swamped the powerless boat, allowed for “emergency” generators aboard any watercraft designed for more than 2 people, and suddenly everyone was adding small diesel or turbine powered generators to their larger watercraft. Bear had to laugh and said “Wouldn’t it have reduced pollution more by just shutting down DC?” The skipper and first mate laughed their heads off then went back to their work.
When they approached the SuperCruiser, Bear saw all kinds of watercraft swarming around the ship. The captain slowed to a crawl to navigate among all the small jet skis. Bear realized that they were battery powered too when he didn’t hear any engine noises from the jet skis. He remembered when Jet Skis had big powerful and loud engines to drive their jet pumps. Was it really that long ago? He shook his head and paid attention to the runabout’s docking procedure. They handled the docking like a good Navy sailor would, and lightly touched the bumpers before securing the aft and forward lines to the dock. Once everyone was disembarked, the overhead gantry slid out with 2 slings that were fixed under the boat, and the boat was lifted out of the water and carried back inside the hull of the SuperCruiser. Bear made his way to their cabin where he took off the lycra suit, and took a shower. They were too tired to go down to the main dining room for dinner, so Mary ordered room service. Bear was glad he still had all his teeth, and ordered a nice big medium rare ribeye with all the trimmings. Right after dinner, they went to bed, and were soon fast asleep.
Chapter 3 - The Mad Scientist
Q was in his laboratory when he hit on a novel idea to combine WIG with a Hovercraft. As big as the flooding well was, they could easily store 2 WIG/Hovercraft nose to tail that could hold 100 passengers each. He started working on his design, and thought if he used his new composite, he could make the hovercraft much lighter than existing hovercraft, and more aerodynamic, to the point that it could average 400 knots and 1,000nm range in WIG mode, and 50 knots/250nm in hover mode. He realized when they came back from the maiden voyage of the SuperCruiser that they wouldn’t always be stopping at ports with the appropriate terminals, and they needed something bigger and faster than the runabouts to transfer passengers and supplies/cargo between the SuperCruiser and the shore. The helicopters could only carry 8 people at a time, and were no faster than maybe 180 knots. He covered his huge erasable white board with equations and drawings until he came up with a workable design. Ordinarily the skirts on a hovercraft were very flexible, and were constantly getting torn. He had access to newer tear-resistant materials, so he decided to go with a rigid skirt, and an aerodynamic cowling so the hovercraft’s body would become a lifting body at speed, and he could divert the 2 high-bypass turbofan engines that provided lift in hover mode to provide thrust. Once it was in full WIG mode, it could quickly accelerate to 400 knots. The winglets needed to provide enough lift for WIG mode folded for storage in the well deck. Even though it didn’t need that much electricity, Q decided to include the photovoltaic paint since all the other WIG craft were using it. He contacted several aircraft manufactures and started a bidding war between Northrop/Grumman, Boeing, and Airbus. Boeing won the war when it offered Q $5 Million up front, plus 5% of the net profit for 10 years. He got a sweetheart deal for WTI to purchase as many WIG/Hover craft at 5% over cost as they wanted. Josh had to admire Q when he heard what he had pulled off, he would quickly become one of the richer men in Allakaket if he kept this up.
Q thought of some other applications of the WIG, and came up with some neat toys for WTI to put in their cruise liners, including a 6 passenger WIG runabout that was propelled by a conventional propeller on a long shaft, using an updated Moller Rotary Engine, rated at 200 horsepower burning gasoline, which could burn just about any fuel including JP-5 and had a top speed of 100 knots. It was designed as a rental craft, and could pull skiers or a para-glider at reduced speed. His other design was much faster, and powered by single high-bypass turbofan. It could travel 500 miles at 500 knots and carry 4 people and 20 cubic feet of storage. It had landing gear so it could beach on a hard surface ramp. It was for the use of the crew or authorized trained passengers. He looked into some older piston-driven helicopter designs, like the Scorpion that used a Rotax engine, and considered building something similar with a fully enclosed cockpit (it was too dang cold in Alaska 9 months out of the year to fly around in an open cockpit, even at 80 knots.) He realized the Moller Rotary Engine he used in the WIG Runabout would make a great helicopter motor with a turbocharger to boost the horsepower to over 300hp. If he made the body out of his lightweight composite, and kept the weight down, he might get a 100kt cruise speed, and a top speed of 140 knots with a range of around 200nm.
When they came back from the trip to the Solomon Islands, David and Heather got right to work on his new projects. Heather had become more like his right hand than an employee. She really knew her way around a graphic design project, and her help and suggestions had been invaluable several times already. Levon was really becoming attached to David, and he noticed that Heather was getting much more cuddly after his grandma’s funeral. He didn’t want to rush into things, but he started thinking differently about Heather.
Jake had invited the editors of several travel magazines on the maiden voyage of the Anne Williams, and their articles brought in a flood of requests for travel dates. Realizing he might be on to something, he called Ron, Josh, Sarah and David together and asked for their advice. Northrop/Grumman could deliver a new SuperCruiser at a rate of 1 every 90 days, and if he wanted them, he needed to order them now. Ron suggested they place the order now, and start lining up crews for the new high-speed cruise ships. He said that this was a revolution in cruising, instead of spending days or weeks on the open ocean getting to your destination, you spent a day getting there in comfort and style, then you had the rest of the cruise to enjoy and explore the destination. Josh, Sarah and David agreed, so Jake called the CEO of Northrop/Grumman and ordered the next 2 years worth of production. Larry was positively giddy, and told Jake that they had a very good moneymaker on their hands. Ron asked if he could talk to him, and told him that he could have a suite on the VIP floor of the Anne Williams for his personal use whenever he wanted to. Larry thanked Ron, and said he’d take him up on it when he wasn’t so busy. Just filling the orders for WTI would keep their production line in Southern California busy for the immediate future. When he hung up, Jake explained that he had already ordered their entire first 5-year’s production of Gooney Birds, since everyone wanted WTI to fly to their destination, and several cargo companies were approaching WTI for not only priority cargo, but regular cargo runs that could be handled with a conventional ship when they found out he was charging less than conventional shippers because he charged by the ton, so it was cheaper to ship light bulky stuff through WTI than conventionally. It was 10 times quicker, which manufacturers loved. Instead of ordering parts 6 months in advance, they could reduce their lead time by the difference in shipping time, which could be as much as 90 days. That reduced their costs because their line of credit wouldn’t be tied up so long.
Later, Q was mulling over how to build his super-sport chopper when he ran into Jim, the corporate helicopter pilot, quite literally. When Q picked himself off the ground, Jim helped him up and introduced himself. Q said “Man am I glad I ran into you. The reason I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going is I’m trying to design a 2-seater helicopter using my new composite and a Moller Rotary engine.”
“I’m not doing anything right now, let’s go to your lab so I can show you some stuff.”
They walked into Q’s lab, and sat down with 2 mugs of steaming hot coffee, black with sugar. Q explained what he wanted, and Jim made some suggestions.
“First of all, if you want any speed and lift capacity, go with a 4-bladed rotor. Second, you said that Moller Rotary engine puts out 200hp normally aspirated, how about adding a turbocharger? The slight increase in weight might be worth an extra 50-100 horsepower. You said something about a fully enclosed cockpit. If you design it with a nose like the Sikorsky S-76 and made the body aerodynamic, you gain speed and lose drag. As small as you want this to be, I’d use fixed skids for landing. The Sikorsky is made mostly of composites, but from what you tell me, your composite is lighter and stronger than the stuff they made the old 007's out of, so you might be able to make a monocoque frame, with the skin replacing the structural members. If you could pull that off, you’d save a lot of weight, and weight in a helicopter is critical since the engine has to lift everything, instead of a fixed wing where the wing does the lifting, and all the engine has to do is push.”
“I wanted to possibly arm this helicopter - How about a centerline mounted Ma Deuce?”
“Too heavy and too much recoil for that small chopper. You realize your helicopter will weigh less than the old MD-500? .50 caliber ammo is heavy too. What were you thinking of shooting at, tanks and armored vehicles?”
“Not really, more like troops on the ground. We’ve got bigger planes with big guns to do that.”
“How about a 5.56mm Mini-gun?’
“Huh? I thought the smallest minigun was 7.62 NATO?”
“Take the 7.62 NATO Minigun and re-barrel it for .223! The ammo is almost 1/3 the weight of the 7.62 NATO, so you can carry 3 times as much, say 6,000 rounds. At slow speed, 1000rpm, that would be 6 minutes worth of ammo. At high Speed, 3000rpm, that would be 2 minutes worth of ammo. But remember you only fire 1-3 second bursts at a time, or you’re wasting ammo.”
“How’s that?”
“You’re flying, or hovering so you’re point of aim is constantly changing. You might start off on target, but a second or two later, you could be 50-100 feet off target. Your GE Minigun would really be better as an area weapon, to sweep left and right using your anti-torque pedals. A 3 second burst would cover a large area with a good pedal sweep. Just make sure there are no friendlies in the area, since the minigun would be pretty indiscriminate. If you were planning on belly mounting the gun, you could build a integral belly pod to house the gun so only a couple of inches of barrel sticks out, protecting the gun from weather and ground fire. If you stretched the cab, you could mount a 6,000 round ammo container behind the seats to feed the gun with a short flexible coupler. By the way, what kind of fuel does the Moller Rotary run on?”
“That’s the beauty of it, it can burn practically anything from Jet Fuel, to Diesel, to Kerosene, to various octanes of gasoline, and Methanol. If you burn methanol, you need to change a couple of things since the Methanol is corrosive to some of the components.”
“Didn’t I see a Moller Rotary Generator?”
“They build multi-fuel generators as well that can also run on Propane or Natural gas.”
“Cool, that’s something we should look into for other applications. All our wheeled transports burn diesel or Avgas. If we could build some wheeled vehicles with the Moller rotary engine, it would be a true multi-fuel, and if we ran out of 1 fuel, we could switch fuels and keep them running.”
Jim’s last statement got Q thinking, and he started taking notes furiously. Jim looked over his shoulder and Q had listed: 2-seater single-track Snowmobile 125hp, Snow bug 125hp, APC 300hp, generators 75hp, armed & armored airplane 300hp, 4wd passenger vehicle/pickup 125hp & 300hp. Q was a big fan of old warbirds, and thought that if he built a straight-wing monoplane out of his composite, he could make a light fast attack aircraft that could carry almost it’s weight in bombs, and still have a deadly armament. Because it was a defensive aircraft, it didn’t have to be blazingly fast or have long range, so he started writing his design based on the US P-51 Mustang design, with 6 Ma Deuce machine guns in the wings, and bomb racks under the wings. The plane would only weigh 3,000 pounds fully loaded, so the 300hp Moller rotary engine would be enough to give it good performance and a maximum speed around 400 knots. He spent the rest of the day researching any available plans for the P-51 Mustang, then realized he wasn’t making a direct copy, since the materials he was using were far superior to WWII-era materials. He decided the easiest design would be a tail-dragger like the Mustang to help clear the big prop.
When he realized what he was doing, he started checking into the old Warthog, which was a similar design, but a designated tank buster with the huge GAU-8/A 30mm gun. He was intrigued by all the weapons the Warthog could carry under it’s wings, and double checked the weights and sizes. He thought the Sidewinders would be cool sitting out on the wingtips, and knew that the MK-82 500 pound bombs and the CBU’s would be great for defensive bombing and strafing runs. Obviously he couldn’t carry 16,000 pounds of ordinance, but he could carry say 4-6 MK-82s, or 4 CBU-52's and still have a full load of fuel and rounds for the Ma Deuce machine guns. A spread of 4 CBU’s could ruin an enemy general’s whole day!
He e-mailed his design to a friend of his who was an Aviation Engineer, who suggested reducing the number of machine guns to 4 and increasing the ammo storage to 400 rounds per gun. He said that the plane would be slow and sluggish lugging all those bombs, and he’d be better off building a twin-engine version with a 50BMG mini-gun in the nose. That got Q thinking. 2 300hp engines spinning props, only adding maybe 150 pounds of weight (100 for the engine, and 50 for the cowling and bracing) say the weight went up to 3500 pounds, but now he had 600hp on tap, that changed his power to weight ratio from 1:10 to 1:6. The P-51 Mustang only had a 1:7 power to weight ratio! He sent his friend the new design, and he said with 600 horsepower available, he could easily haul 2-3 thousand pounds of ordinance along with the 50-caliber GE Minigun and 3,000 rounds of combat mix. His top speed would still be around 400 knots, but his rate of climb would be much greater, and if he designed the control surfaces properly, it would be very maneuverable.
Q asked his friend to finish the design for him, and he’d pay him for his time. 2 weeks later, his friend e-mailed Q a preliminary design, and a bill for $500 dollars (which happened to be exactly the amount of money he owed Q from his last project). Q laughed and replied that the debt was settled, and if he made any money off the design, he’d send some money his way. He replied that they’d be square as long as Q named the new plane the Chicken Hawk. Q laughed at the old joke. During his RAAF days, that was what his squadron mates called him as a joke, and it kind of stuck. Q replied to his e-mail and said that he’d be honored. Q ordered the engines set up for use in an airplane, which included a thrust bearing, and a huge turbocharger with an adjustable waste gate so it could still make horsepower at altitude. Q thought about that, and added an oxygen bottle with enough capacity to last twice as long as he needed since he didn’t want to mess with a pressurized cockpit. He bought a surplus ejection seat in case he had to bail out, and the design arrived in the mail in a huge plan tube. Q got with his fabricator, and they started cutting sheets of his composite armor to make the airframe and skin. He sent the design to the FAA so he could register it as an Experimental aircraft. Because his buddy was a certified aeronautical engineer, they approved the plans as a home built experimental aircraft. He left the GE minigun and weapons hardpoints out of the plans he sent to the FAA, but what they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. They just assumed he wanted an aerobatic sport plane instead of a Close Air Support aircraft.
By now Allakaket had upgraded their 10,000 ft runway to a 12,000 foot hard-surface runway and upgraded the facilities to a International Airport, allowing private planes that weren’t amphibians to land there as well. With the new airport, Allakaket Airlines bought several small jet airliners from Boeing to expand their services to a regional airline. Alaska Airlines had been in decline for the last couple of years, and when it was obvious that they were going under, Jake made a bid to buy them out. Buying the company gave them Alaska Airlines routes. Jake sold their obsolete planes, replacing them with smaller 100 passenger planes. They also got their deicing equipment, and Jake decided that they had enough money to make the airport open year round and purchased heavy-duty snow removal equipment. Their fuel distributor built a pipeline from the nearest port and installed tanks when they realized just how big Allakaket Airlines could get, and wanted an exclusive contract.
Q thought about his 2 latest inventions, and realized he would have his own little Air Force if he kept it up. The helicopter was finished before the airplane, and Jim volunteered to be his test pilot. When he came back, he said that it was a sweet-handling little helicopter, but the controls required a light touch with the Moller Rotary engine putting out 300hp. He took Q up in the passenger seat, and he had to admit that Jim knew what he was talking about. The little helicopter was nimble and quick. It topped out at 140 knots straight and level, but got there in a hurry, and climbed like an express elevator. Jim had set up a target range at the Survival School, and fired a couple of bursts from the 5.56 minigun into a junk car body. The body metal looked like Swiss Cheese when they sat down to examine it. Jim told Q the tiny 5.56mm bullet didn’t have much in the way of penetrating power, but would work great for troops on the ground, or light skinned vehicles. Q told him of the CAS plane that he was building, and Jim said that the 50-caliber GE Minigun could ruin your day in a hurry. He told Q to forget about the Mark 82 iron bombs, and concentrate on the CBU-52, since the little unguided 250 pound bomb was really a point weapon compared to the CBU, and took some serious marksmanship to put the bomb on target, whereas the CBU-52 could blanket a whole area with bomblets, and take out everything in it’s dispersion pattern. Q built the plane as a simple stick and rudder plane and didn’t include the avionics necessary to use the smart bombs, since he doubted they would ever be needed. Q was an old warbirds fanatic, and built the plane as a simple stick and rudder setup just because wanted to.
3 months later, the Chicken Hawk was ready to fly. Q had somehow managed to maintain his pilot’s license, and insisted on being the first pilot to fly the CH. Q was wearing a flight suit, a G-suit, and a surplus fighter pilot’s helmet with the oxygen mask when he climbed up the ladder to the Chicken Hawk. The chief mechanic was there to assist, and finally Q got himself strapped in and connected his oxygen and radio pigtails. He flipped a switch, and the canopy motored closed. He got the canopy and the seat from the same F-16, and had them checked over before he installed them. The plane wasn’t painted yet, so it was a golden brown color, which Q thought was a perfect color for a Chicken Hawk. He started the engines, and once the gauges were in the green, he had the mechanic pull the chocks, and he taxied to the runway.
“Chicken Hawk 1 requesting clearance for take-off and test flight.”
“Roger Chicken Hawk, Stay below 1,000 feet until 10 miles away. The area Northeast of the tower is clear above 2,000 feet for test flight. Good luck, and clear for take-off.”
Q was facing the end of the runway by the time the tower called back. He immediately advanced both throttles and roared down the runway. At 85 knots the plane wanted to fly, and by 95 knots, he was flying, so he pulled back gently on the stick, retracted the gear, and climbed to 1,000 feet. When he was 10 miles out, he called back to the tower.
“Allakaket Tower, at the 10 mile limit, beginning test flight.”
“Roger, Chicken Hawk - have fun. Call when you’re ready to return to airport.”
Q advanced the throttles again and said to himself, “Let’s see what this baby can do!” as the airspeed indicator wrapped around, he pulled back on the stick, and 4 minutes later, his altimeter said he was at 10,600 feet. Doing the math in his head, he realized that he had managed a 2150 feet per minute climb rate. Not bad for a home built. With a full bomb load, he’d be lucky to break 1,000 feet per minute. After performing some basic aerobatics, he turned toward Allakaket, and called the tower.
“Chicken Hawk 1 requesting landing clearance.”
“Chicken Hawk, the pattern is clear, you’re clear to land.”
5 minutes later, the Chicken Hawk was on the ground. When he finally got out of the plane, Josh was standing there.
“How’d it go Q?”
“Magnificent Sir. She handles like a dream, and I managed a 2100 foot per minute climb rate. Even with a full load of bombs she should be good for 1,000 feet per minute.”
“Mind if I take her up?”
Q was reluctant to let anyone else fly his baby, but he knew Josh was an excellent pilot on top of being his boss, having flow numerous times with him before, so he told him to suit up while he refueled the plane and checked it out.
Josh came back 10 minutes later wearing a flight suit, G-suit, and carrying his helmet. Q was stunned, and asked Josh were he got the gear.
“Probably the same place you did. I knew you were building the Chicken Hawk, and I’ve never flown a military aircraft before, but I have flown numerous twins, and I’ve done aerobatics.”
“Do be careful sir!”
“Don’t worry Q, I won’t leave a scratch on her.”
Q helped Josh plug in, and explained the controls - what little there were. The plane was a simple stick and rudder plane, with the FAA minimum of gauges and gear. Once Josh said he was OK, Q climbed down, and Josh started the engines. He taxied to the flight line, and took off as soon as he had clearance. Since the pattern was wide open, and Josh was the Boss, he did a max performance take-off, and went from the deck to 10,000 feet in under 5 minutes. He immediately pulled a wing-over, bottoming his dive at 1,000 feet AGL. He used his speed to zoom climb back up to 10,000 feet where he did a series aerobatic maneuvers including a Cuban-8, Immelmann Rolls, split-S’s, and for good measure, he tested the stall characteristics of the plane. It didn’t stall easily, and recovered very easily. When he looked at his fuel gauge, he knew it was time to get back to the field. Aerobatics really ate up fuel. He landed with maybe 1 gallon left in the tank.
When he climbed out, Josh said “Q, this plane is a dream to fly, is there any way you can add some fuel storage without messing it up.”
“How many gallons were you thinking, Sir?”
“Maybe a 5-gallon reserve tank. Aerobatics or Air Combat Maneuvering eats up a lot of fuel. With a bomb load, it would go even faster.”
“I’ll get right on it!”
“How much would it cost to build 6 more copies with the 5 gallon reserve tank?”
“Including the Mini-gun and stuff, right around $100 thousand per copy.”
“Great, here’s a check for $1 Million, make 10 of them.”
“Yes sir!”
Q knew he needed to build an assembly line to mass produce the planes, plus whatever else they were going to build in the next couple of years. He called a couple of his RAAF buddies, and soon had a small team of craftsmen who could build anything from a set of plans. He checked with Josh, and got permission to hire a dozen apprentices from town to teach them everything they needed to know to build and design all the toys Q was coming up with.
Chapter 4 - Bon Voyage
Once Ron realized the company was in good hands, he talked to his kids, and they told him to go ahead and enjoy themselves. If they needed anything, they could get hold of him via his Satellite phone anywhere in the world. Communications had evolved to the point that satellite phones were just as cheap as regular cellular phones for high-end users, and encryption was so common and so robust that the NSA threw their hands up and gave up trying to intercept phone calls Computers were so small and powerful that 100 times the processing power and memory of a typical 2000 Pentium 4 system was now available in a device the size of a 2000-era PDA. They either had a 8-line text message display or a roll-up 2-foot square monitor (the ultimate “flat screen monitor”) that came with a prop for viewing upright, or could be laid flat on a table. Input was either from an intelligent 12-key chording keyboard, or else voice input. A small touch-sensitive spot on the keyboard served as a “mouse” but when it was combined with the intelligent keyboard, it could do much more than your average 2000-era mouse. The entire system seamlessly interfaced with the satellite phone system at a terra-byte rate to connect to an unbelievably sophisticated Internet. Webpages were updated in real time, and purchasing could be accomplished with a keystroke, and was 100% secure. Decades ago, the software developers hired all the “hackers” or at least the white hats, and put them to work designing a hacker-proof security system, then kept them on the payroll testing the system and upgrading it.
All that meant was Ron Williams could travel the world in style, and never be out of touch with his kids, or the business. He made a list of places he always wanted to see, and the captain of the Anne Williams programmed the navigation computer with all the locations in a logical sequence. One of their first stops was Brisbane Australia to pick up Sheila’s parents for a long-earned vacation. They took the WIG/Hovercraft from just off the coast of Brisbane, and flew it to Sheila’s parents house, then back out to the Anne Williams. Once Sheila’s parents were on board, they flew the SuperCruiser to the Great Barrier reef, and spent the next month diving all the sites on the reef.
Ron tried to log into the internet one day, and for the first time in years, he couldn’t get on. He sought out the Captain, and asked him if he knew why his satellite phone wasn’t working, they were supposed to work everywhere. The Captain told him that they had received an alert the other day that a large X class solar flare and accompanying CME might interfere with Satellite navigation systems, so they were to test and verify their location with their GPS while they could, then calibrate their LORAN receivers against the GPS coordinates in case they had to navigate via LORAN. Ron was puzzled, he didn’t know that sunspots could cause that much damage.
The next day when the effects cleared up, he logged onto the internet and did a Google on Solar Flares, CME’s and Sunspots. He got more information than he bargained for, and one site in particular set him thinking in uncomfortable directions. A bulletin board site called TimeBomb2000 of all things had several people on it that were very well educated amateurs, who gave him links to the professional websites where the NASA/ESA SOHO data was, and other links to other sites involved in studying solar phenomena. What he read deeply disturbed him. It seemed that 99% of all solar phenomena didn’t do much other than sometimes inconvenience satellite users and Ham radio operators working HF frequencies. However, that 1% of the time, a large X-Class flare and Coronal Mass Ejection could hit the Earth head-on when it was out of phase with the Earth’s magnetic field, and go right through to wreck havoc on terrestrial power systems and anything connected to it, or anything connected to an antenna, or sensitive electronics. Several scientists claimed that solar activity was not only increasing in frequency, but intensity as well. According to 1 site, one of the great power outages in the US was supposed to have been caused by a smaller M-class flare and it’s associated CME. If an X-class flare produced a massive CME, and it came through the Earth’s magnetic field, it could result in world-wide EMP damage to unprotected electronics. Since the protective measures were similar, he started researching EMP protection. Once he had enough information, he sent an e-mail to Jake and Josh, and they checked into it.
With the kind of money the Corporation was bringing in, they felt it was money well spent to protect that investment, and they started hardening their hangars and other assets against EMP damage way beyond Military spec, or even their most paranoid probabilities, and purchased over $100 Million worth of spares of essential equipment that might be damaged by EMP that couldn’t be shut down or disconnected. The spares were stored in the basement of the EMP-protected shelter in a large Faraday cage to ensure their protection against EMP. When Q saw what they were doing, he quickly followed suit, and hardened all his current projects against EMP, and turned his hangar into a huge Faraday cage, including the doors. When they closed, they completed circuits so the entire hangar was protected. He took his computer chip and electronic component storage and put it in a separate Faraday cage with instructions that the cage should never be left open any more than was essential, and to never have the front doors and the cage open at the same time - ever! Allakaket Power and Light realized they were especially vulnerable, and purchased special over-voltage disconnects, and spares of all essential equipment, and stored them in the bunker as well.
Once they were as prepared as they could be, Ron sent them another e-mail with links to the SOHO site, and other sites that monitored solar activity, and added the Java code from the site to their screen saver to indicate Solar activity, or Flare/CME dangers. The company-wide internet was triple-redundant, as were the protections against EMP, Surge, and over/under voltage. Someone was always monitoring the systems 24/7, and would broadcast a warning if a dangerous X-class Flare or CME were headed to Earth. If the CME was out of phase, he would send out an order grounding all non-essential aircraft, and parking as many as possible inside EMP protected shelters. Ron sent an E-mail to Larry at Northrop-Grumman, but never got a reply. Ronnie Barrett took his warning seriously, and was able to protect his equipment against EMP damage.
The problem was everyone was worried about nuclear EMP, and wasn’t even aware of the risk of Solar EMP. Ron had a sick feeling that the US and the rest of the world would be in sad shape if they got hit with that 1% chance out-of-phase CME head-on.
Jake and Josh had a surprise for their dad. Not only did they EMP harden the hangars, they sprayed them with a foot of reinforced shotcrete in the process, hardening them against attack from the air as well. Josh checked the surplus market, and found 8 F-15E Strike Eagles available without engines or avionics. He knew the Israelis were still producing modern engines and avionics for the F-15E, and ordered enough for each plane, and for spares. Once they were delivered, they quickly militarized their aircraft and hired pilots and RIOs to fly the planes. They had plenty of bombs and missiles in inventory thanks to Gene and Gen. Kelly Stone, so now they had a real Air Force as well as the 10 CAS aircraft and 8 of Q’s armed helicopters. All of the helicopter pilots volunteered to fly the little Hawk, since it was so much fun to fly, as part of their Militia duties. Alaska had gotten fed up with the BS from Washington, and secretly joined the Secessionist movement. Governor Adkins of Alaska visited Allakaket, and made their Militia official and legal. He grinned from ear to ear when he saw the fully-armed F-15 Strike Eagles and the Chicken Hawk CAS aircraft. He ordered enough Chicken Hawks to outfit 20 State Militia Squadrons with the simple stick and rudder aircraft, since he was expecting a show-down with the Feds any day. What was especially troubling was Chelsea Clinton had married a descendent of the Kennedy Clan, and was now known as Chelsea Clinton-Kennedy, and was starting to become a popular and powerful politician. She hid her true views from everyone but a few select insiders, but she made her mother Hillary look like the Good Witch of the North in comparison.
The other members of the Williams clan had been busy as well, and Josh’s son Isaac was 2 years old, and was about to have a baby brother or sister, Jake and Diane had stopped at 4 kids, who now ranged in age from 14-7 years old. Sarah and Neil stopped at 4 as well, and their kids now ranged from 13 to 7. David and Heather were romantically involved since they had both gotten through the mourning process. Finally 1 day David stood up unexpectedly and bumped into Heather face to face. He blushed with embarrassment, then Heather grinned, slipped her arms around him, and kissed him on the lips for the first time since they met. David responded, then when they stopped kissing, he said “We need to get married before we take this any further.”
“Let’s get married soon, David. I don’t know how much longer I can wait. We used to have sex fairly regularly, and now that I’m done mourning, I’m starting to miss it. Levon’s old enough to appreciate a kid brother or sister, and I’m not getting any younger.”
David kissed Heather again and asked “Heather, will you marry me?”
“Of course I will - let’s call Michael and set the date.”
Heather called Michael while David went back to work - they were still on a tight timeline even if they were in love. She walked back into the room, hugged David from behind, and said “Michael’s free this weekend. Is Saturday at Noon too soon for you?”
“If you keep holding me like this, it might not be soon enough!”
She giggled, and David turned around to kiss his Fiancé. Next he called his Mom and Dad, then his brothers and sisters to give them the good news. They said they’d be at the church Saturday morning for the big event. Ron called the Captain of the SuperCruiser and told him to fly it immediately to Anchorage, he had a wedding to attend Saturday. They were visiting Hong Kong, so it took several hours to get the passengers back aboard and the Anne Williams fueled and serviced. The next morning they docked at the terminal in Anchorage and flew one of the WIG/Hover transporters to Allakaket with everyone who was attending the wedding. Sheila’s parents were still aboard, and wanted to see their daughter anyway, since she was about due to give birth, so this worked out well for them. They spent the time before the wedding visiting with Josh and Sheila, and catching up with their grandson Isaac.
David and Heather took some time off their busy schedule to go to the jewelers to buy the rings, and the dress shop to buy her dress. David’s tux still fit, and remembering the last two times he wore it, bought a new one. David and Heather met Ron and Nancy at Ron’s house. They both knew Heather, and approved. Ron took his son aside and said “I called BA on the way home. I’m rescinding your trust agreement if you want me to, and restoring full access to your trust.”
“Thanks Dad, I trust Heather with my life, and I know she’s not after my money. Having access to that kind of money would allow me to expand my business, hire some help, and really make some money. You wouldn’t realize how much money a good Graphic Arts company with the right people and equipment can make. Probably not as much as WTI, but enough to keep it interesting. Speaking of which, here’s some stuff I was working for Jake on.” David handed his dad a small storage chip, and gave him a hug. Later that evening when he was alone, Ron inserted the chip into his machine, and was amazed at the quality of David’s work. He could make a fortune in the Graphic Arts business with this talent, and the $100 million sitting in his trust account.
Finally Saturday morning was there. David and Heather got dressed, and he made breakfast for everyone since he knew Heather would be busy this morning. She came to the table with green goop on her face, and her hair in rollers. David started laughing and Heather said “what’s so funny?”
“I was envisioning you at the altar, and you’d forgotten to take your mask off and your curlers out.”
“Wait until you see the “After” David Williams!”
“Can’t wait dear. Make sure my Mom knows she needs to babysit Levon for a couple of days.”
Heather sounded disappointed when she said “Just a couple of days?”
“I’m not 18 dear, and I don’t think I could handle much more than that.”
“I guess this means I’ll be on top most of the time?”
“Just as long as you skip the reins and spurs.”
They both laughed hysterically, then ate breakfast before it got cold.
Heather got Levon dressed and fed, then they drove to the church. Right at noon, Heather marched down the aisle behind her maid of honor. One of David’s friends served as his best man, and Michael stood at the Altar waiting for them. Because this was a second marriage for them, they had requested a basic service, and half an hour later, they were Mr. and Mrs. David and Heather Williams. Michael had been tipped off by Carl, and didn’t panic until someone turned blue at a Williams wedding. They met at Ron and Nancy’s place for an intimate reception, then left Levon with his new grandma and drove to their new house to start the honeymoon. 2 days later, David was tired and sore, but grinning from ear to ear, and Heather was pretty sure she was pregnant. 9 months later, to the day, she had her second son, Michael, who they decided to call Mike most of the time, except when Heather was upset with him. Things were going swimmingly for the Williams clan, and Ron knew that was usually a foreboding omen of bad times ahead.
Fleataxi
If you're really nice, I'll start writing The Daedalus again (Book V in the series), but you've got to be good!
Fleataxi
Without Further Ado - The Kids are Alright by Fleataxi
The Kids are Alright
Book IV
in the “North to Alaska” Series
by Fleataxi
Chapter 1 - The Kids are AlrightBook IV
in the “North to Alaska” Series
by Fleataxi
Coming back from his Grandma’s Funeral David wept uncontrollably. Heather held him as he cried, remembering how he had held her when she needed someone. Josh, Jake, and Sarah were taking it better, but were still devastated at the sudden death of their grandmother. Josh had only been home two weeks when Gene died, then his Grandma died shortly after he got back from Gene’s funeral. Josh was glad this was only a 45-minute flight, or he might have been tempted to lean over and smack his whiny little brother. When he got back to his dad’s house, he asked if he could use the computer, and check his Hotmail account. He had dozens of junk e-mails, and one cryptic e-mail that he almost deleted until he saw it was from Q. He had wondered if Q survived the Tsunami, now it appeared he had. He opened it, and all it said was “What’s up Doc?” Josh thought that was strange, because he wasn’t a Doctor, then he remembered that his SEAL team buddies always called him Doc.
He replied “Glad to see you survived the Tsunami.”
He was surfing the internet, when his mail server said that he had mail. He saw that Q had replied to his e-mail:
“Survived with the clothes on my back - I was delivering a vehicle in Perth when the Tsunami hit - Shop wrecked.”
Josh replied “How do you like Snow?”
A few hours later, he checked, and Q replied: “Beats Tsunamis!”
Josh showed Ron the e-mails, then told his dad about his idea. Ron said “It’s your money.”
Josh took that as a yes, and e-mailed Q: “How would you like if I set you up a huge shop in Alaska with as much of a budget as you need, and all the Military toys you want to play with? Call me.”
2 minutes later Josh’s shoe phone rang.
“Doc, it’s Q. I’m between a rock and a hard place. My lab was destroyed, and I’ve got contracts to fulfill. The shop was insured, but it will take me years to collect from the insurance company if I can at all. What part of Alaska do you live in, hopefully no where near the coast?”
“Q, I live in Allakaket, just north of Mount McKinley, midway between Anchorage and Fairbanks Alaska. We’re several hundred miles inland, and the only way in or out is to fly.”
“I guess that means you don’t get Tsunamis. What are you offering me?”
“I want to set you up in business, buy all your equipment, put you up in a nice house, and all for 50% of the profit. I’ll pay you a great salary, say $100 grand per year, 10% of the profit, with 50% to me, and the balance going back into the company for new equipment and stuff. You can hire whomever you want, but I want to turn a profit.”
“I heard about the setup you have there, is it true you can play with just about anything Military up there?”
“Until a couple of weeks ago, the Ex-JSOC lived here, and he brought everything with him. I run a DOD survival school, so I’ve got access to military hardware, and Elmendorf is an excellent source for surplus stuff. We’ve got a Super Stallion that can carry almost 40,000 pounds between Anchorage and Allakaket.”
“Sounds like the ideal setup. I’ve got to wade through mounds of paperwork to get these pantywaists to let me install anything worthwhile in an armored vehicle. They are so anti-gun that they won’t even let me build stuff for export to Saudi.”
“I’ve got some ideas for stuff too. Anyway, you interested?”
“I’ll have to talk it over with the wife. I’ll let you know tomorrow.”
Once they hung up, Josh realized that without Gene there, they were vulnerable to the Liberals in Congress who would love to take their toys away. He called Steve, who made a couple of phone calls, and the General that took over for Gene was more than ready to retire, so Steve made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. He knew about Gene’s setup, and asked them if there was anything they needed, and to make a list and e-mail it to him.
Josh called Bear, and they went over the inventory. They’d shot up a lot of ammo practicing, and they wanted some new stuff too. Bear added a TLAM-N to the bottom of the list, and told Josh to send it as is. The next day, General Kelly Stone approved the list, and called Bear.
“Chief Simmons, I saw you wanted a TLAM-N. The answer is “It’s STILL not time, you Aquatic Freak!”
Bear guessed that Gene had told General Stone that joke. He laughed, and said “Aye, Aye Sir!”
“Chief, the rest of the order is approved. I’m flying out in a week or two to retire to Allakaket, so I’ll see you then.”
“Yes Sir, I’ll be waiting for you.”
A week later, Bear got a call from Elmendorf, A C-5A Galaxy had shown up asking where Allakaket was. He guessed that the stuff in there was for him. Bear said he’d take care of it, and called Josh, and told him to take care of it. Josh commandeered all their helicopters and available SuperGoose to fly to Elmendorf and load up. Josh stood there open mouthed on the Tarmac when the crew chief for the C-5a said that the entire 100-ton load was for Allakaket, and would he please sign for it, so he could get it unloaded and get back home for dinner. Josh shook his head, and signed for it. The Crew chief hustled to unload the aircraft, and Josh hustled to find aircraft to carry the load to Allakaket. All 4 helicopters flew non-stop for the next couple of days, with the heavy-lift choppers carrying the bulk of the load. Bear had hired some extra people to unload it and store it in the armory on the other end. When they were finished, the Armory was full again, and they had some stuff they didn’t have before. The Army was obsoleting the 105mm Howitzer, and Gen. Stone sent them 6 howitzers and several huge containers full of ammo. They also received dozens of pallets full of crated .223, .308 Match, 7.62 Linked, .50 cal linked, 20mm and 25mm ammo, plus obsolete rockets, missiles, mines, and miscellaneous stuff. The next day Gen. Stone showed up. Bear greeted him with “Isn’t Santa Claus supposed to wear a red suit?”
Gen. Stone and Bear both laughed themselves silly, then Bear introduced Josh Williams, a former Lt. Commander in the SEALS who was taking over for him as the head of Alaska Survival Inc. since Bear was officially retired.
“ Lt. Commander Williams, Ok, I remember you. Sorry about Commander Jackson. I wanted you to know that after that accident, I grounded and sent all the same aircraft to the boneyard for destruction, then ordered new planes out of discretionary funds. Sorry it took the death of your commander to get those old deathtraps removed from inventory.”
“That’s OK Sir, I understand accidents happen. I don’t regret resigning my Commission, especially when I hear what DC is doing to Special Forces. I heard that the Rangers were spending more time acting like Social workers than Warriors.”
“Unfortunately it’s true. I tried to stop it, but the orders came straight from the White House. Evidently someone there believes if we can keep the Muslims happy they won’t attack us, so most of the Rangers and some SEAL teams spend more time digging wells in Southeast Asia than killing terrorists. Not only that, but our involvement in Drug Enforcement has stopped, and the Congress hasn’t budgeted any money for Transportation to equip the Coast Guard with enough men and equipment to do the job right.”
Josh just shook his head, he hoped that the next President understood what Wynn Catlin said “Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice Doggie!' till you can find a rock!” Except he was afraid that the US had ran out of the kind of President it needed hundreds of years ago.
Josh and Bear got General Stone settled into his new house, and Bear told him that the “old Geezers” got together for their weekly shooting match every Thursday morning at the indoor shooting range.
Later that evening, Josh got a phone call from Q.
“Ok, the wife says we should go. I’ll be on the next flight to Alaska.”
“Q, I hope you don’t mind living in a trailer for a couple of months while we build your house?”
“Young Man, right now a trailer would be a Godsend. We’re living in my Son’s apartment, and his live-in Girlfriend is the most obnoxious person I have ever met!”
“Ok, Q - call me when you know when you’ll be arriving in Anchorage, and I’ll fly you to Allakaket. While you’re waiting, could you e-mail me a list of tools and supplies you’ll need and how big a building you need so we can get started on this end?”
“Josh, an Airplane Hangar would be perfect, one of the Big ones. I’ll e-mail you a list of tools and supplies. I’m glad you’re rich, because this will put a dent in even your bank account!”
“How much money were you making a year before the Tsunami hit?”
“Several million per year, net maybe $250-500 Thousand, but we had a lot of overhead.”
“Ok, call me when you know your flight number and arrival time in Anchorage.”
10 minutes later, Josh checked his e-mail. When he saw the total he said “Holy.....!” He walked over to his Dad, and said he might need a loan for this one. Ron took 1 look at the figures, called the Credit Union, and transferred $50 Million into each of his kid’s accounts, and David’s Trust Fund.
“Good timing Josh, My broker said I just doubled my investment again, so I could easily afford to do this. From what you told me of this Q character, it should be a good investment on your part. I’ve got a huge hangar we don’t need any more since Ralph’s Snow Bug business relocated to Fairbanks with the new owner. I think Ralph was smart to sell when he did, the market’s just about saturated. He got double his initial investment out of it, plus all the profit he made over the years. Not that he needed the money since Doc died. If you can use it, go ahead.”
“Thanks Dad. I’ll drive over and check it out.”
When he opened the Hangar doors, Josh was astounded at how much equipment they left. All the air compressors, hydraulic lifts, and a whole bunch of stuff were left behind, and in good shape. This should cut the cost of getting Q up and running considerably. The Hangar itself was 100 feet wide by 600 feet long with a 30-foot high door and he knew that Ralph fit 30 Snow bugs in here at once with room to work on them all, so he should have plenty of room. Josh saw a huge radiator up in a corner with a fan behind it, and traced the plumbing to the output of the Geothermal heating system. Evidently this place was heated by Geothermal heat, so the only monthly expense would be phone and electric. His shoe phone rang, and Q said he’d be in to Anchorage at 0900 tomorrow. He gave Josh his airline and flight number, and Josh told Q someone from Alaska Airlines would meet him at the gate, and collect their bags, then drive them to the VIP terminal, and he’d fly them to Allakaket.
“Giving us the VIP treatment I see - Good idea! Is Sheila coming with you?”
Josh laughed thinking the last time Sheila met Q, and said he didn’t think it was a good idea since Sheila was armed 24/7, and might not be able to resist the urge to shoot him this time!
Q gulped audibly, then realized Josh was pulling his leg.
“Q, I’ve already got a huge hangar set aside for you that used to house an automotive manufacturing company, so they already have lifts and air compressors with pipes running everywhere.”
“Sounds like a set-up, I can’t wait to see it. Bye until tomorrow.” Josh listened to the dial tone for a second, then realized Q had hung up on him, and turned the phone off.
Josh called Jake, and asked if the Airport Manager could have his SuperGoose ready to go at 0700 tomorrow morning for a flight to Anchorage. Jake said “No problem Bro” and disconnected before Josh could even say thanks. He guessed Jake was busy trying to learn how to run an airline. BA’s sons Mike and Larry were a big help, but the 2 of them were still very busy. Sometimes Jake told Josh he wished he’d stuck to flying and guiding. Diane was busy homeschooling their kids, and the only time they had to themselves was during the weekend, since Josh had talked Jake into working out with him in the morning again just like they used to. Diane was still beautiful after 4 kids, partly because of her Inuit heritage, and partly because she took the kids to the pool and the shooting range 3 times a week, and she worked out in the gym while they were in their swimming classes.
Neil and Sally were busy between raising their 4 kids, and running the Gold Mine. Sally and Diane worked out together twice a week, and Neil joined them whenever he could. He spent a lot of time flying the 007 back and forth to the mine, enough that he was considering getting his Rotary Wing Pilot’s license. Neil decided he needed his own helicopter to fly back and forth to the mine since the 007's were getting too busy when a surplus MD-500 came on the market. Neil checked into it, and it was owned by Anchorage Regional Hospital. He remembered something about selling them SuperGoose aircraft, and called Ron for the details. Ron called Steve, the Head of Emergency Services, and he told Ron that the Hospital Administrators just declared the helicopter surplus since their fleet of 2 SuperGoose planes were handling all the Medevac flights, and the MD-500 didn’t really have the legs or payload for Medevac in rural Alaska, with a max range of 300nm, and a top speed of around 150 knots. They got it as surplus from the DoD, so they didn’t pay that much for it, and all he wanted was enough money to justify selling it to the board, since they needed to approve the sale. Ron asked him how much he’d want for the aircraft, and Steve said $250,000 including some spare parts and manuals. Ron said that he’d have his chopper pilot call him back with the info, and if he was satisfied, he’d offer whatever the chopper pilot suggested up to $250,000.
Steve thanked Ron, and gave him a contact name and number in their aircraft maintenance department. Ron called the airport, spoke to Jim, the 007 helicopter pilot, who was amazed that they had located an MD-500 for sale with an airworthiness cert. Ron told him to make sure, since Steve never mentioned one. He gave Jim the name and number of the aircraft maintenance supervisor. 2 hours later, he called Ron back “According to the Maintenance Supervisor, this aircraft is a hangar queen, and hasn’t been flown in 2 years. It’s got an airworthiness cert, and a fresh overhaul on the turbine. Their asking price is ridiculously low, and I’d highly suggest offering their asking price, right now!”
“Thanks, I’ll call you back and let you know!”
Ron called Steve “My helicopter pilot said we should offer the $250,000. I can either have them deliver a check or a wire transfer once they get a look at it.”
“Ron, just have them bring a check, the board doesn’t meet until later this week.”
“Ok if my pilot flies out and takes a look at it today?”
“I’ll be here all week.”
“Thanks Steve.”
Ron called Jim and Neil, and told them to get aboard the next SuperGoose bound for Anchorage, and check the MD-500 out at the hospital’s airfield. Neil could have flown there all by himself, he was so happy. 2 hours later, they landed at Anchorage International, and caught a cab to the hospital’s airfield. Someone must have recently washed the helicopter, and it looked like a new helicopter. The blue and white paint scheme was one of MD’s standard civilian paint jobs. Neil was surprised to see a pair of floats off to one side, and asked Jim about it.
“The pontoons allow you to land on water, but the extra weight and drag cut into your range enough to make you leave them at home most of the time.”
Neil thought the small 4-seater was perfect, until Jim explained how much work and money it cost to get certified as a Helicopter pilot. Seeing Neil’s downcast expression, Jim had an idea.
“How about you fly up front from now on when we go to and from the mine? I’m pretty sure my FAA IP certificate is still good. It would save the cost of a co-pilot, and I could teach you the basics while we’re flying. You’ll have to study for a while and pass a test before I let you anywhere near the controls of a helicopter, but it would be cheaper than paying for lessons since I have to fly you back and forth to the mine anyway.”
Neil shook Jim’s hand and thanked him. They looked over the records of the helicopter, and Jim told Neil that it was a steal at $250,000 in the condition it was in. The maintenance supervisor offered to give them a lift over to Steve’s office, then back to the airport so they could catch a flight back home. They handed Steve the check for $250,000 and Steve said that if the board approved, the chopper was theirs, since he wouldn’t be accepting any other offers unless the board rejected the offer. Neil told Steve to call Ron if the board rejected the offer, and he was sure they could work something out.
The next day, Josh met Q at the VIP terminal. The baggage truck that met him was full of suitcases and stuff. The baggage handler looked tired by the time he was finished, so Josh tipped him a $20 dollar bill for the hard work. Q was fascinated by the SuperGoose, and Josh offered to let him walk around the plane with him while he checked it. On the way around, Q asked some very interesting questions. When they got to the air stairs, Josh asked Q if he’d rather ride up front in the co-pilot’s seat. Q looked at Josh like he had told him he just won the lottery, and scampered forward to the cockpit. Josh secured the airstairs, then walked forward and sat in the pilot’s chair. He showed Q how to buckle in, and place the headset over his ears. Once he was all set, Josh activated the intercom, and talked Q through the pre-flight checklist. Q seemed to know his way around a plane, and Josh asked him if he’d ever flown. Q smiled and said he was in the Royal Australian Air Force, and flew the F-4 Phantom, but never in combat. Josh guessed that was why Q knew his way around the aircraft. He joked with Q and said that if he was used to the Phantom, he might want to get out and push, since this aircraft had a top speed of less than 300 knots. Q said he actually liked flying low and slow. You couldn’t see much flying the speed of heat at 30,000 feet. He asked if Q wanted him to try a max-performance take-off, and Q advised him that some of the equipment in back was fragile, so he decided to try the sedate approach instead, and flew the plane like he had a load of bombs aboard. With Q around, One never knew. They talked on the way to Allakaket, and Josh found out that Q, who’s real name was Herbert, was a natural tinkerer, and got discharged from the RAAF for tinkering with the engines of his plane to make them go faster. The funny thing was Pratt & Whitney did almost the exact same thing when they introduced the G Model Phantom II.
Josh told Q about his idea for the Ultimate Bug-Out vehicle. Q pointed out that unless it flew, it wouldn’t be much use in the interior of Alaska from what he could see! Josh said there were plenty of places you could go in and around Allakaket and not need a plane, you just needed something like a huge half-track to navigate the rough terrain and knock over any small trees in your way. Q suggested a German track system instead of the US design, since it covered more of the wheelbase, had bigger and more bogie wheels, which make it harder to slip a track, and had a torsion bar suspension just like his trailer had. He could build a 40-50 foot long vehicle using a large Turbocharged Cummins motor like the 525 ISX with an Allison 6-speed transmission and a two-speed transfer case that included a PTO for a heavy-duty winch. Q suggested a sandwich of ceramic, rigid Kevlar, carbon fiber for strength, and armor plate he had been working on as the latest and greatest in vehicular armor plate. It was lighter than Aluminum, yet almost as bullet and high-explosive resistant as Chobham armor. He wouldn’t put it up against anything bigger than a 75mm tank round, and even then it had a 50/50 chance of penetrating. Q had his microcassette recorder on, recording Josh’s every word. He found that it worked better than taking notes, and his memory wasn’t what it used to be. When they landed at Allakaket, Q thought the approach was borderline scary, since he was used to landing his Phantom on a nice flat long runway instead of floating in on a steep angle with a high descent rate. He was amazed at how softly the plane landed after that steep of an approach, then Josh explained the SuperGoose was designed for Short Take-off and landing, and the high wing, huge flaps and leading edge slats allowed the plane to fly very close to a stall, and land at very slow speeds, then if he reversed the props, he could land on a very small lake. They taxied up to the ramp, and Josh remembered to put down the landing gear just in time. Once they were parked and the turbines spun down, a couple of baggage handlers unloaded Q’s stuff into the back of Josh’s pickup.
Q asked “what happened to the Hummer?”
“I had to leave it in Australia, at Sheila’s parent’s place. Your design saved our lives several times. I wish I had the time to fly you over there so you could see how much damage it sustained without letting anything into the passenger or engine compartment.”
“Maybe they could send pictures?”
“If that would help, I’ll call them and ask.”
“If they tape a ruler next to the bullet holes, I can blow up the image and see how big the holes are, and how deep they penetrated. My guess is that nothing penetrated more than half-depth, that Kevlar Armor is tough. The Apache and Blackhawk carry over ½" of the same Kevlar panel. I figured you wouldn’t be up against anything much heavier than 30 caliber rifle fire, and the 1/4" panel defeats that easily. For your Ultimate Bug Out Vehicle, I’m installing half-inch panels that should stop anything less than 20mm Autocannon. I’m pretty sure a 25mm Bushmaster HE round would have a 50% or better chance of penetrating it, and a TOW would easily defeat it.”
Josh told Q he’d send some pictures, then Q changed the subject.
“So what kind of armaments do you want on the Ultimate Bug Out Machine?”
Josh scratched his head, and admitted he never thought of that. A 25mm Bushmaster would be too heavy, and a 7.62 mini-gun wouldn’t have enough punch. He asked Q who suggested a simple Ma Deuce in a turret with remote control, and a forward 7.62 machine gun on it’s own turret mounted forward of and below the Ma Deuce’s turret with a 160-degree field of fire. He suggested a rocket launcher up front and back. Josh quipped “What, no Hellfire Missile Launcher?”
Q said that he could put a separate turret behind the Ma Deuce with a pop-up “hammerhead” launcher to engage anything too big for the Ma Deuce to handle. Q said with a driver, commander/gunner, Crew chief/loader/gunner arrangement, the UBOM would be a formidable All-Season Bug Out Vehicle. With the diesel halftrack and high-mounted snorkel, once they were buttoned up, they could ford water up to the snorkel, which would be at the top of the Cab, or more than 9 feet in the air. He said if they tried it, it might not work too well, because the UBOM would be too buoyant with that huge cargo box. Josh suggested if it were heavily loaded, it would sink like a rock, and give them all the traction they needed. Q agreed since he knew that if worse came to worse, he could design it will ballast tanks to take on water. He wondered how long it could travel underwater. Probably as long as they could breathe, as long as the snorkel wasn’t under water. Maybe he could put a float and a flexible extension tube on the snorkel so they could cross shallow lakes?
Chapter 2 - Aftershocks
Bill, the original Mayor and Minister of Allakaket was in his 80's, and had turned the reins of the town and his ministerial duties over to a half-inuit man whom he and Carl had watched over the years, and felt he’d make a suitable replacement for them. They had encouraged Michael’s study of the Bible and famous theological studies. Bill told him that each of the “great masters” had a kernel of truth in their writing, but the final source should be the Bible. Bill had him read the sermons of Charles Spurgeon and John Calvin, then turned him loose in his library of great Theological books. It took him 10 years, but the end result was a well-rounded education in Theology, Bible knowledge, Church History, and a working knowledge of Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew. He found several Christian websites selling Bible software that allowed him to cross-reference various translations and the Strong’s Dictionary on a verse-by-verse basis. When they were ready to retire, they held a joint ordination, and filed the State paperwork for his official ordination. Michael was 35 when he took over as the town minister, serving both the Inuit and non-Inuit communities. He also took on some of Bill’s duties, but since the town had grown, they had a real mayor and town council, so he wasn’t as busy as Bill used to be. The Credit union had a full-time manager who doubled as the teller, so Michael spent most of his time ministering to his flock.
10 years after Michael took over, Carl called and told him that Bill had died in his sleep. Michael knew that his mentor was in Heaven, still he missed him. He fell to his knees in prayer, asking for Divine Guidance, when several Scriptures came to mind. Picking up his notepad, he wrote them down, then started working on Bill’s eulogy. He knew Bill would want something simple and dignified, so he stuck to the basics. The next morning, the entire community met at the church. With the new wealth of the area, the new church was easily able to accommodate all of them.
As part of his Eulogy Michael read from Paul’s 2nd Letter to Timothy, from verses 6-8:
“6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand.
7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
8 Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.”
Ron was very moved by the Eulogy, and praised Michael “Bill trained you well, I’m sure he’s proud of you!”
Bill requested his body be cremated and the ashes scattered on the water next to Allakaket. Carl and Michael took care of Bill’s second to last request. When they opened his will, they discovered that he had transferred the bulk of his assets into 2 Scholarship funds. 1 for Allakaket Children who wouldn’t otherwise be able to go to college, and another for students at Bible Colleges making a commitment to serve remote rural congregations. The amount of money he put in enabled students to go to school on full scholarships for decades to come. The interest alone on the money was enough to pay for 10 4-year scholarships per year. Ron and BA had talked to Bill, and had already established scholarship funds for Allakaket, but they had pretty strict economic qualifications. Bill’s scholarship requirements were less stringent, and the end result was almost every teenager who wanted to go to college or a technical school in Allakaket was able to get at least a partial scholarship.
Several weeks after his arrival in Allakaket, Q’s equipment and supplies started showing up. He had gotten an extension from the Royal Saudi Family for their armored Mercedes sedans and Hummer defensive vehicles. Q stood there slack-jawed when he saw his Mercedes flying into Allakaket slung underneath the Super Stallion. The next day they delivered his Hummer, and Q got to work. He used his new composite armor, and after he tested some test panels, realized that he might have stumbled onto something, and checked it against the specifications of other composite armors. It wasn’t as penetration-resistant as Chobham armor, but it was significantly lighter, and stronger in some aspects. He was pretty sure you could build an airframe out if it, which would be much lighter than conventional construction, and have significant penetration resistance.
Once he finished the contracts he was working on, Q decided to build Josh’s “Ultimate Bug-Out Machine”. He got lucky when he found a Cummins dealer in Anchorage, and had them ship the Cummins 525 ISX turbo-diesel and an Allison semi-auto 6-speed transmission. He called Advanced Adapters, and they said “You want to do WHAT?” After talking with one of their engineers, they located a 2-speed full-time transfer case (2H/2L/4H/4L) with the correct ratios and a PTO adapter that could handle the horsepower and torque specs from the Cummins diesel engine. They told Q that what he wanted to do would require some adapters, and Q said “So?” They sent a quote to Q before they did anything else. Most of their transfer cases cost several thousand dollars, but this huge unit that they had in back unsold listed for $10 grand, and they sold it to him as used equipment with a standard warranty for $8 grand. Q had them build the drive shafts and yokes to match up to the differentials and transfer case once he had the lengths figured out. Q realized the track would be a bunch of custom work, since no existing half-track would be as heavy or large as the UBOM. He did some research, located a design for the German Sdkfz 251, and called a friend of his that was into German WWII reenacting, and located someone with the plans for the German halftrack. He called another friend of his who made custom aluminum wheels, and sent him the specs and dimensions for the German bogie wheels. Modern aluminum wheels are not only lighter, but stronger than WWII-era steel wheels, so he had him make all the bogies out of aluminum. He needed to make the drive sprockets out of steel since they were a high-wear part. He located surplus Israeli tracks with removable rubber tread blocks that would fit, and ordered 6 sets.
With all the parts ordered, he started working on the frame and body. He decided to bury all the fuel and water tanks between the frame rails again, and instead of a conventional radiator, he used the engine heat to keep the oil and fuel warm using imbedded thermostatically controlled heat exchangers and a small oil cooler to keep the engine cool during the summer, which was also thermostatically controlled and used a novel air scoop to duct air to the cooler when needed. The entire hood tilted forward as one piece, and came off when you removed the hinge pins for easier access to the engine. There was enough spare room under the hood to install a pop-up 6-round 2.75" rocket launcher, so he did. The vehicle didn’t have a conventional windshield, instead the driver used day/night video cameras and monitors or periscopic vision blocks to see out front. He had a matching camera out back for rear-view, and could switch views with a steering wheel mounted toggle switch. To his right was the commander/gunner position, which controlled the Ma Deuce on the remote turret on the roof, as well as the Browning 1919-A4 machine gun out front in a smaller lower-mounted turret for anti-personnel use. The Hellfire launcher was mounted in the same turret as the BMG-50, and used the same laser designator. He’d gotten a look at the Bradley Robo-gun, and it gave him a bunch of ideas. He didn’t need that big of a gun, but he copied most of its features, including the video, aiming, and stabilization systems.
Behind the driver and gunner/commander was a 3rd seat for a Crew Chief/loader/gunner who was responsible for keeping everything in the complex vehicle running, and could double as a gunner if the electronics failed and he needed to manually fire the Ma Deuce. Behind him was seating for up to 8 or extra cargo space depending on whether the seats were installed. Even with the seats installed, they had more than 2000 cubic feet of cargo space. Q built the UBOM with a 12-foot wide track, and a 50-foot wheelbase. The tracks supported 45 feet of wheelbase, leaving the 2 huge military tires up front for steering, and if needed, the transfer case could be switched to 4wd mode, and the wheels could pull as well. With 525 horsepower, the 10,000 pound vehicle had a great power to weight ratio, and could safely carry 10,000 pounds of cargo, and tow another 20,000 pounds. Q abandoned the idea for the underwater swim kit, and decided to stick with making the vehicle watertight and equip it with a snorkel that gave them a 10-foot fording depth with a 2-foot margin. The vehicle had a 3-foot ground clearance to the bottom of the skid plate, and the top of the vehicle was 12 feet above the ground. The rear of the vehicle was equipped with a combination loading ramp and bobtail lift. The crew compartment had a roof hatch and ladder rungs for access/egress when the cargo compartment was too full to enter and exit the vehicle that way. Once Q finished the UBOM, he took a break, then realized his composite armor might be a huge source of income, and decided to shop around for licensing agreements.
Northrop/Grumman designed a follow-on to the PBY Catalina based on Russian design for a Wing In Ground-effect (WIG) aircraft, only bigger, faster and about 3 times the cost. Jake was looking to expand their business when he heard about the NG Gooney Bird. Q being the enterprising soul he was, had contacted Northrop/Grumman and showed them his aluminum/carbon fiber/Kevlar composite he had developed for armor. NG’s engineers were amazed, and realized with this new material, they could eliminate almost all of the interior structural bracing of the fuselage and most of it in the wings. Kevlar and carbon fiber had come way down in price since the 1990's, and they realized that the plane could be bigger, lighter and stronger than the just-announced Boeing Pelican, giving them a much better plane than the conventionally constructed Pelican. Q’s first licensing check allowed him to pay back Josh his entire investment, and renegotiate their contract so Q got 50% of the profit as well. Q would receive annual checks from NG from their licensing agreement between $2 and $5 Million per year based on the use of his invention, and any developments NG made in new composites based on it. Q also received rights to license any new composites developed by NG for use in his armored vehicles. NG thought that was a good idea, because they didn’t want to risk multi-million dollar aircraft field testing the armor characteristics of their composites. When Q indicated that he had a laboratory with access to military weapons, and the ability to test composites for armor qualities, they also made Q a consultant for any future composite armor testing, since they didn’t have access to the weapons needed to test their new armor composites thanks to anti-gun laws in California.
The Boeing Pelican was first to market with a huge Military Contract, and when Northrop Grumman’s engineers got a got look at it, they knew they could design something bigger, faster, and more efficient, using Q’s new composites. Their plane, dubbed the “Gooney Bird” by some wag engineer was 600 feet long vs. Boeing’s 400 foot plane, and instead of making the main wing a ridiculously wide 750 feet, they added a 300-foot forward canard right behind the cockpit, giving the plane the same lift as a 900-foot main wing, with lower drag and 2 fewer landing gear. The main wing was just over 500 feet wide with 6 counter-rotating pusher turbo-props, built by Royce/Allison. It was a true flying boat and never had to land at airports, so they built it big and wide. It had wheels, but was only supposed to beach long enough to load and unload passengers and cargo, and it landed and took off on water. Northrop described it as a ship with wings, except this ship traveled at 400 knots! Once the prototype completed testing, the military cancelled the rest of Boeing’s contract in favor of the Gooney Bird. The Navy had plenty of harbors and loading equipment they used to use to load ships. Allakaket Airlines initial purchase from N/G was 12 GB’s at $50 Million each, and Jake leased terminal space in Southern California, Anchorage, Hawaii, Australia, Japan and France. Russia asked if they could install a terminal on their East coast for freight and passengers since Aeroflot was bankrupt, and they had to rely on outside contractors for passenger and freight to and from Russia. Jake e-mailed them his design for a passenger/cargo terminal that took advantage of the GB’s Ro-Ro capablity. They formed a new publicly-traded corporation called WIG Transport International. It was listed on the NYSE as WTI, and the initial offering sold out the first day it was offered at $10/share. By the end of the month, when they had effectively cornered the international overnight long-haul freight and passenger service, WTI stock was selling at almost $50 per share and was heading higher. Ron and the rest of his family’s fortunes doubled in their first year, and WTI was now listed on Forbes Fortune 100. Allakaket was now one of the biggest most wealthy towns in Alaska, and was experiencing a construction boom.
Q took his composite design to Sikorsky (The license to NG wasn’t exclusive - only limited to fixed wing aircraft) and asked them to make a dozen S-76 with the new composite armor, and the 007 weapons package, except they might see if some AIM-9L Sidewinders would work instead of short-range Stingers. The engineers explained the avionics of the S-76 wouldn’t support the Sidewinder, but they knew of an upgraded Stinger they could install - it had the same external dimensions, just better software so it wouldn’t go “goofy” as easily, and had a wider acquisition cone and better sensitivity on the IR sensor, so you didn’t have to point the helicopter right at the heat source. They offered to build a dozen Third-generation S-76's instead of paying him a royalty fee -ever. At over $6 million dollars per copy, Q thought that was a good trade, and stipulated that NG already had a license for Fixed wing aircraft, so they couldn’t use the armor on fixed wing aircraft without violating their license agreement. Sikorsky was almost 100% rotary wing by now, so that wasn’t a problem. They signed the agreement and stopped production of the current S-76 when Q showed them his test data indicating the armor would defeat a 25mm round. The A-10 Warthog was due to retire, so the biggest airborne cannons would soon be 20mm Gatling guns. With that piece of info, they knew the new armor would be invulnerable to anything except an airborne or ground-launched Anti-aircraft missile, which was a big improvement over the existing Blackhawk armor package.
In 2035, Ron announced his retirement as CEO and President of Allakaket Airlines. He would remain the Chairman of the Board, and his sons Jake and Josh were taking over day to day operations officially. In a big retirement party, Josh and Jake flew their parents to their new terminal in Anchorage and showed them their latest idea, a collaboration between WTI and NG, which converted one of the Gooney Birds to a Luxury cruise ship. Instead of spending weeks getting there, you got to spend weeks at your location in a huge floating hotel. Instead of huge cargo spaces, the plane was redesigned as a cruise ship, and except for baggage and mail, there was no cargo aboard the ship. The rear of the ship featured a flooding well deck that could submerge to allow small boats that were larger than their speedboats, jet skis, etc. to dock and load/unload passengers at islands that were too small to accommodate the massive terminal and ramp space needed by the huge WIG transport. Because there was no conventional tail on the WIG, they were able to install a huge rear ramp/flooding well that would operate on land or sea, and a smaller floating dock on the side of the fuselage that would be used to handle smaller craft like 12-passenger speedboats and jet skis of all types. The roof of the aircraft was designed as a Heliport with an elevator that could transfer helicopters from the storage hangar in the plane to the roof for landing and take-off. The front half of the upper fuselage could be used as a deck with shuffle board and lawn chairs when they weren’t moving. The plane had all the amenities of a regular cruise ship, minus the sea sickness, and it could travel from Los Angeles to Hong Kong in less than a day at 400 knots. Since the cabin wasn’t pressurized, they could have huge bay windows in the VIP suites, but they didn’t open for safety reasons. The lack of balcony space was a small price to pay for the speed and reduced transportation costs.
The maiden voyage of the SuperCruiser was from Anchorage to the Solomon Islands. Ron had always talked about going to them since he still loved diving, but never got a chance until now. Josh and Jake had invited every one of Ron and Nancy’s friends to come along, including Ronnie Barrett, and the new CEO of Northrop Grumman, who was hired to clean up the company and was a Born-Again Christian. With his squeaky-clean image and demanding ethics, he soon mucked out Northrop-Grumman of every corrupt employee he could find. He demanded that all their contracts would be renegotiated, and stuck to his guns about not paying bribes to Federal officials, or anyone else. Boeing and the rest of the industry went along with it, actually they were dragged kicking and screaming by Mike Coughlin, who threatened to blow the whistle unless they went along. The General Accounting Office stood behind him, since investigating kickbacks would be so much easier if it weren’t so rampant, and that was that.
They all met in Anchorage, and Ron was surprised when he saw the interior of the SuperCruiser. Their personal stateroom was huge, with a 6x6 bay window on the port side of the fuselage in the middle of the plane between the canard and main wings where it was the quietest. Instead of structural bracing, NG had added extra insulation to the SuperCruiser, so all the passengers could hear when the massive turboprops were running was a low hum. Once they were all aboard, the WIG took off for the Solomon Islands. It took a while for Ron to get used to flying 50-100 feet off the water until a helpful steward explained the entire plane was controlled by computers with a millimeter-band forward-looking radar that detected obstructions, and commanded a smooth clearance route, and a return to the optimum Wing-in-Ground-Effect altitude. They carried enough fuel to circle the globe without refueling, and were so fuel efficient that they were quickly replacing conventional ships for everything but oil tankers and super-heavy cargo. Configured as a cargo hauler, the Gooney Bird could haul as much cargo as the biggest container ships, and still carry over 100 passengers in comfort. The other configuration could haul up to 1,000 passengers, and the rest in cargo. Unused passenger areas could quickly be converted to haul express packages pre-loaded in containers, so if they only filled the top deck with passengers, the remaining 3 decks could be filled with light cargo.
Before they sailed, they held a christening ceremony, and named SuperCruiser #1 the “Anne Williams” in honor of his mother. They all boarded, and once everything was secure, a huge powerful tug backed the mammoth craft back away from the terminal, and out into the bay. Once they were facing the open water of the Pacific, and had received clearance, they started all 6 enormous turboprops, and slowly built up speed. Once they came up on plane, they quickly reached rotation velocity, the computer commands selected the proper attitude, and the SuperCruiser was flying in ground effect. The ship was so computerized that all the pilots did was monitor the systems, including a powerful forward-looking radar, and an anti-collision radar system that would either change course or altitude to avoid surface contacts. With the calm sea state, they were flying at the optimum height of 50 feet above the water, and were averaging 400 knots. 12-13 hours later, they should be at their destination. They touched down in the Solomon Islands, and taxied toward the center of 5 dive sites they wanted to explore, then shut down the turboprops and switched to inverter power. The upper surfaces were covered with Quantum Dot photovoltaic paint which generated enough power to replace the power generated by the turboprops. They had a backup turbine generator to supplement the output of the solar collectors in the event of cloudy weather, or high draw during darkness.
There was hardly any motion to the vessel, which was bigger than some Naval vessels. The fuselage itself was bigger than the Ticonderoga Class Cruisers. With the wingtip stabilizers deployed, the ship’s roll was virtually eliminated, and the 600-foot length minimized pitch changes. Once everything was set, they hauled the runabout/dive boats out of storage, lifted them on a sling out the starboard floating dock and set them in the water. Jake had made sure to hire several qualified Dive masters as part of the crew, since they liked diving so much. They didn’t have a galley in the runabouts, so everyone changed into their wetsuits in their cabins. Most everyone wore Lycra suits since the water was over 80 degrees. In order to avoid giving Bear a heart attack, Nancy and several other women chose to wear regular wet suits. That didn’t stop them from teasing poor old Bear, who was in his late 70's by now. Josh made a show of packing the Auto-Defibrillator for Bear. Everyone had a good laugh remembering when a much-younger Nancy went diving with Bear and almost gave him a heart attack. Josh looked at his Mom, and while she was still pretty, he couldn’t imagine Bear having a heart attack over her. He wisely decided to ask his dad at a more opportune moment if he had any pictures of Nancy when she was younger. He wondered if there was any truth to the saying that men married women that resembled their mothers, because both he and Jake married a couple of Hotties! He remembered his dad saying something that Samantha was a serious Hottie in her day. Judging by Bert’s girlfriend, he could see that there might be some truth to the old wive’s tale.
In order to avoid crowding, they were going to dive 3 sites using 3 boats. One boat was just for snorkelers, who would go to the shallow sites, one was for non-certified divers with several diving instructors, and 1 was for certified divers, with the dive master aboard. Josh and Jake had kept their certificates current, as had their Mom and Dad. Sheila and Diane joined them, but were supposed to not dive deeper than 30 feet, since they didn’t have a full open-water certificate. Bear was grumbling to Mary about being relegated to the Kiddie Pool until Mary pointed out at his age he was lucky to be diving at all. Bear stopped grumbling, at least out loud. When they reached the diving site, the diving safety crewman took out several floating battery powered diving compressors that could provide air to 6 divers at a time down to 20 feet. He said the battery should last the whole day since the top was covered with the same photovoltaic paint as the SuperCruiser.
Bear already had his mask, fins, and snorkel on, and dove into the water with Mary, Steve, General Stone, Dan, and Rebecca. The rest of the kids were supervised and kept in the shallow water close to shore. Bear explained the safety rules to everyone, and they submerged. Bear was quickly lost by the beauty of diving in the warm clear South Pacific lagoon. It was like diving in a Salt water aquarium. They were each given a simple digital underwater camera, and Bear spent the entire dive taking pictures of the fish. 2 hours later, he heard an underwater buzzer, and realizing he had been underwater for 2 hours, came to the surface for a mandatory surface rest. He floated on his back in the salt water, enjoying the zero gee sensation of the water supporting his tired old body. Once he had been on the surface for half an hour, he was allowed to go down again. The next break included sandwiches and all the water they could drink. Bear forgot how dehydrating diving could be, and drank a whole quart of water by himself. He decided to lie on the beach for the next diving session, and was grateful that someone had thoughtfully set up beach loungers with canopies to prevent him from getting a sunburn. He fell asleep, and was bummed when he woke up, and Mary was telling him it was time to go back to the boat. He wanted to dive some more, then he realized how tired he was.
He made it out to the runabout, and was surprised at how quiet it was. The Captain explained that due to the Pollution Control law of 2020, all watercraft were required to be 100% electrically powered, so the runabout used solar power from a new photovoltaic paint that covered the hull to drive electric motors that ran the jet pump for the shallow-draft boat. Bear asked him what they would do if they ran out of power. The first mate grinned and said that the PC law of 2023, introduced after a major accident resulted in the loss of over 100 people from a boat that lost electric power in a quickly building storm which swamped the powerless boat, allowed for “emergency” generators aboard any watercraft designed for more than 2 people, and suddenly everyone was adding small diesel or turbine powered generators to their larger watercraft. Bear had to laugh and said “Wouldn’t it have reduced pollution more by just shutting down DC?” The skipper and first mate laughed their heads off then went back to their work.
When they approached the SuperCruiser, Bear saw all kinds of watercraft swarming around the ship. The captain slowed to a crawl to navigate among all the small jet skis. Bear realized that they were battery powered too when he didn’t hear any engine noises from the jet skis. He remembered when Jet Skis had big powerful and loud engines to drive their jet pumps. Was it really that long ago? He shook his head and paid attention to the runabout’s docking procedure. They handled the docking like a good Navy sailor would, and lightly touched the bumpers before securing the aft and forward lines to the dock. Once everyone was disembarked, the overhead gantry slid out with 2 slings that were fixed under the boat, and the boat was lifted out of the water and carried back inside the hull of the SuperCruiser. Bear made his way to their cabin where he took off the lycra suit, and took a shower. They were too tired to go down to the main dining room for dinner, so Mary ordered room service. Bear was glad he still had all his teeth, and ordered a nice big medium rare ribeye with all the trimmings. Right after dinner, they went to bed, and were soon fast asleep.
Chapter 3 - The Mad Scientist
Q was in his laboratory when he hit on a novel idea to combine WIG with a Hovercraft. As big as the flooding well was, they could easily store 2 WIG/Hovercraft nose to tail that could hold 100 passengers each. He started working on his design, and thought if he used his new composite, he could make the hovercraft much lighter than existing hovercraft, and more aerodynamic, to the point that it could average 400 knots and 1,000nm range in WIG mode, and 50 knots/250nm in hover mode. He realized when they came back from the maiden voyage of the SuperCruiser that they wouldn’t always be stopping at ports with the appropriate terminals, and they needed something bigger and faster than the runabouts to transfer passengers and supplies/cargo between the SuperCruiser and the shore. The helicopters could only carry 8 people at a time, and were no faster than maybe 180 knots. He covered his huge erasable white board with equations and drawings until he came up with a workable design. Ordinarily the skirts on a hovercraft were very flexible, and were constantly getting torn. He had access to newer tear-resistant materials, so he decided to go with a rigid skirt, and an aerodynamic cowling so the hovercraft’s body would become a lifting body at speed, and he could divert the 2 high-bypass turbofan engines that provided lift in hover mode to provide thrust. Once it was in full WIG mode, it could quickly accelerate to 400 knots. The winglets needed to provide enough lift for WIG mode folded for storage in the well deck. Even though it didn’t need that much electricity, Q decided to include the photovoltaic paint since all the other WIG craft were using it. He contacted several aircraft manufactures and started a bidding war between Northrop/Grumman, Boeing, and Airbus. Boeing won the war when it offered Q $5 Million up front, plus 5% of the net profit for 10 years. He got a sweetheart deal for WTI to purchase as many WIG/Hover craft at 5% over cost as they wanted. Josh had to admire Q when he heard what he had pulled off, he would quickly become one of the richer men in Allakaket if he kept this up.
Q thought of some other applications of the WIG, and came up with some neat toys for WTI to put in their cruise liners, including a 6 passenger WIG runabout that was propelled by a conventional propeller on a long shaft, using an updated Moller Rotary Engine, rated at 200 horsepower burning gasoline, which could burn just about any fuel including JP-5 and had a top speed of 100 knots. It was designed as a rental craft, and could pull skiers or a para-glider at reduced speed. His other design was much faster, and powered by single high-bypass turbofan. It could travel 500 miles at 500 knots and carry 4 people and 20 cubic feet of storage. It had landing gear so it could beach on a hard surface ramp. It was for the use of the crew or authorized trained passengers. He looked into some older piston-driven helicopter designs, like the Scorpion that used a Rotax engine, and considered building something similar with a fully enclosed cockpit (it was too dang cold in Alaska 9 months out of the year to fly around in an open cockpit, even at 80 knots.) He realized the Moller Rotary Engine he used in the WIG Runabout would make a great helicopter motor with a turbocharger to boost the horsepower to over 300hp. If he made the body out of his lightweight composite, and kept the weight down, he might get a 100kt cruise speed, and a top speed of 140 knots with a range of around 200nm.
When they came back from the trip to the Solomon Islands, David and Heather got right to work on his new projects. Heather had become more like his right hand than an employee. She really knew her way around a graphic design project, and her help and suggestions had been invaluable several times already. Levon was really becoming attached to David, and he noticed that Heather was getting much more cuddly after his grandma’s funeral. He didn’t want to rush into things, but he started thinking differently about Heather.
Jake had invited the editors of several travel magazines on the maiden voyage of the Anne Williams, and their articles brought in a flood of requests for travel dates. Realizing he might be on to something, he called Ron, Josh, Sarah and David together and asked for their advice. Northrop/Grumman could deliver a new SuperCruiser at a rate of 1 every 90 days, and if he wanted them, he needed to order them now. Ron suggested they place the order now, and start lining up crews for the new high-speed cruise ships. He said that this was a revolution in cruising, instead of spending days or weeks on the open ocean getting to your destination, you spent a day getting there in comfort and style, then you had the rest of the cruise to enjoy and explore the destination. Josh, Sarah and David agreed, so Jake called the CEO of Northrop/Grumman and ordered the next 2 years worth of production. Larry was positively giddy, and told Jake that they had a very good moneymaker on their hands. Ron asked if he could talk to him, and told him that he could have a suite on the VIP floor of the Anne Williams for his personal use whenever he wanted to. Larry thanked Ron, and said he’d take him up on it when he wasn’t so busy. Just filling the orders for WTI would keep their production line in Southern California busy for the immediate future. When he hung up, Jake explained that he had already ordered their entire first 5-year’s production of Gooney Birds, since everyone wanted WTI to fly to their destination, and several cargo companies were approaching WTI for not only priority cargo, but regular cargo runs that could be handled with a conventional ship when they found out he was charging less than conventional shippers because he charged by the ton, so it was cheaper to ship light bulky stuff through WTI than conventionally. It was 10 times quicker, which manufacturers loved. Instead of ordering parts 6 months in advance, they could reduce their lead time by the difference in shipping time, which could be as much as 90 days. That reduced their costs because their line of credit wouldn’t be tied up so long.
Later, Q was mulling over how to build his super-sport chopper when he ran into Jim, the corporate helicopter pilot, quite literally. When Q picked himself off the ground, Jim helped him up and introduced himself. Q said “Man am I glad I ran into you. The reason I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going is I’m trying to design a 2-seater helicopter using my new composite and a Moller Rotary engine.”
“I’m not doing anything right now, let’s go to your lab so I can show you some stuff.”
They walked into Q’s lab, and sat down with 2 mugs of steaming hot coffee, black with sugar. Q explained what he wanted, and Jim made some suggestions.
“First of all, if you want any speed and lift capacity, go with a 4-bladed rotor. Second, you said that Moller Rotary engine puts out 200hp normally aspirated, how about adding a turbocharger? The slight increase in weight might be worth an extra 50-100 horsepower. You said something about a fully enclosed cockpit. If you design it with a nose like the Sikorsky S-76 and made the body aerodynamic, you gain speed and lose drag. As small as you want this to be, I’d use fixed skids for landing. The Sikorsky is made mostly of composites, but from what you tell me, your composite is lighter and stronger than the stuff they made the old 007's out of, so you might be able to make a monocoque frame, with the skin replacing the structural members. If you could pull that off, you’d save a lot of weight, and weight in a helicopter is critical since the engine has to lift everything, instead of a fixed wing where the wing does the lifting, and all the engine has to do is push.”
“I wanted to possibly arm this helicopter - How about a centerline mounted Ma Deuce?”
“Too heavy and too much recoil for that small chopper. You realize your helicopter will weigh less than the old MD-500? .50 caliber ammo is heavy too. What were you thinking of shooting at, tanks and armored vehicles?”
“Not really, more like troops on the ground. We’ve got bigger planes with big guns to do that.”
“How about a 5.56mm Mini-gun?’
“Huh? I thought the smallest minigun was 7.62 NATO?”
“Take the 7.62 NATO Minigun and re-barrel it for .223! The ammo is almost 1/3 the weight of the 7.62 NATO, so you can carry 3 times as much, say 6,000 rounds. At slow speed, 1000rpm, that would be 6 minutes worth of ammo. At high Speed, 3000rpm, that would be 2 minutes worth of ammo. But remember you only fire 1-3 second bursts at a time, or you’re wasting ammo.”
“How’s that?”
“You’re flying, or hovering so you’re point of aim is constantly changing. You might start off on target, but a second or two later, you could be 50-100 feet off target. Your GE Minigun would really be better as an area weapon, to sweep left and right using your anti-torque pedals. A 3 second burst would cover a large area with a good pedal sweep. Just make sure there are no friendlies in the area, since the minigun would be pretty indiscriminate. If you were planning on belly mounting the gun, you could build a integral belly pod to house the gun so only a couple of inches of barrel sticks out, protecting the gun from weather and ground fire. If you stretched the cab, you could mount a 6,000 round ammo container behind the seats to feed the gun with a short flexible coupler. By the way, what kind of fuel does the Moller Rotary run on?”
“That’s the beauty of it, it can burn practically anything from Jet Fuel, to Diesel, to Kerosene, to various octanes of gasoline, and Methanol. If you burn methanol, you need to change a couple of things since the Methanol is corrosive to some of the components.”
“Didn’t I see a Moller Rotary Generator?”
“They build multi-fuel generators as well that can also run on Propane or Natural gas.”
“Cool, that’s something we should look into for other applications. All our wheeled transports burn diesel or Avgas. If we could build some wheeled vehicles with the Moller rotary engine, it would be a true multi-fuel, and if we ran out of 1 fuel, we could switch fuels and keep them running.”
Jim’s last statement got Q thinking, and he started taking notes furiously. Jim looked over his shoulder and Q had listed: 2-seater single-track Snowmobile 125hp, Snow bug 125hp, APC 300hp, generators 75hp, armed & armored airplane 300hp, 4wd passenger vehicle/pickup 125hp & 300hp. Q was a big fan of old warbirds, and thought that if he built a straight-wing monoplane out of his composite, he could make a light fast attack aircraft that could carry almost it’s weight in bombs, and still have a deadly armament. Because it was a defensive aircraft, it didn’t have to be blazingly fast or have long range, so he started writing his design based on the US P-51 Mustang design, with 6 Ma Deuce machine guns in the wings, and bomb racks under the wings. The plane would only weigh 3,000 pounds fully loaded, so the 300hp Moller rotary engine would be enough to give it good performance and a maximum speed around 400 knots. He spent the rest of the day researching any available plans for the P-51 Mustang, then realized he wasn’t making a direct copy, since the materials he was using were far superior to WWII-era materials. He decided the easiest design would be a tail-dragger like the Mustang to help clear the big prop.
When he realized what he was doing, he started checking into the old Warthog, which was a similar design, but a designated tank buster with the huge GAU-8/A 30mm gun. He was intrigued by all the weapons the Warthog could carry under it’s wings, and double checked the weights and sizes. He thought the Sidewinders would be cool sitting out on the wingtips, and knew that the MK-82 500 pound bombs and the CBU’s would be great for defensive bombing and strafing runs. Obviously he couldn’t carry 16,000 pounds of ordinance, but he could carry say 4-6 MK-82s, or 4 CBU-52's and still have a full load of fuel and rounds for the Ma Deuce machine guns. A spread of 4 CBU’s could ruin an enemy general’s whole day!
He e-mailed his design to a friend of his who was an Aviation Engineer, who suggested reducing the number of machine guns to 4 and increasing the ammo storage to 400 rounds per gun. He said that the plane would be slow and sluggish lugging all those bombs, and he’d be better off building a twin-engine version with a 50BMG mini-gun in the nose. That got Q thinking. 2 300hp engines spinning props, only adding maybe 150 pounds of weight (100 for the engine, and 50 for the cowling and bracing) say the weight went up to 3500 pounds, but now he had 600hp on tap, that changed his power to weight ratio from 1:10 to 1:6. The P-51 Mustang only had a 1:7 power to weight ratio! He sent his friend the new design, and he said with 600 horsepower available, he could easily haul 2-3 thousand pounds of ordinance along with the 50-caliber GE Minigun and 3,000 rounds of combat mix. His top speed would still be around 400 knots, but his rate of climb would be much greater, and if he designed the control surfaces properly, it would be very maneuverable.
Q asked his friend to finish the design for him, and he’d pay him for his time. 2 weeks later, his friend e-mailed Q a preliminary design, and a bill for $500 dollars (which happened to be exactly the amount of money he owed Q from his last project). Q laughed and replied that the debt was settled, and if he made any money off the design, he’d send some money his way. He replied that they’d be square as long as Q named the new plane the Chicken Hawk. Q laughed at the old joke. During his RAAF days, that was what his squadron mates called him as a joke, and it kind of stuck. Q replied to his e-mail and said that he’d be honored. Q ordered the engines set up for use in an airplane, which included a thrust bearing, and a huge turbocharger with an adjustable waste gate so it could still make horsepower at altitude. Q thought about that, and added an oxygen bottle with enough capacity to last twice as long as he needed since he didn’t want to mess with a pressurized cockpit. He bought a surplus ejection seat in case he had to bail out, and the design arrived in the mail in a huge plan tube. Q got with his fabricator, and they started cutting sheets of his composite armor to make the airframe and skin. He sent the design to the FAA so he could register it as an Experimental aircraft. Because his buddy was a certified aeronautical engineer, they approved the plans as a home built experimental aircraft. He left the GE minigun and weapons hardpoints out of the plans he sent to the FAA, but what they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. They just assumed he wanted an aerobatic sport plane instead of a Close Air Support aircraft.
By now Allakaket had upgraded their 10,000 ft runway to a 12,000 foot hard-surface runway and upgraded the facilities to a International Airport, allowing private planes that weren’t amphibians to land there as well. With the new airport, Allakaket Airlines bought several small jet airliners from Boeing to expand their services to a regional airline. Alaska Airlines had been in decline for the last couple of years, and when it was obvious that they were going under, Jake made a bid to buy them out. Buying the company gave them Alaska Airlines routes. Jake sold their obsolete planes, replacing them with smaller 100 passenger planes. They also got their deicing equipment, and Jake decided that they had enough money to make the airport open year round and purchased heavy-duty snow removal equipment. Their fuel distributor built a pipeline from the nearest port and installed tanks when they realized just how big Allakaket Airlines could get, and wanted an exclusive contract.
Q thought about his 2 latest inventions, and realized he would have his own little Air Force if he kept it up. The helicopter was finished before the airplane, and Jim volunteered to be his test pilot. When he came back, he said that it was a sweet-handling little helicopter, but the controls required a light touch with the Moller Rotary engine putting out 300hp. He took Q up in the passenger seat, and he had to admit that Jim knew what he was talking about. The little helicopter was nimble and quick. It topped out at 140 knots straight and level, but got there in a hurry, and climbed like an express elevator. Jim had set up a target range at the Survival School, and fired a couple of bursts from the 5.56 minigun into a junk car body. The body metal looked like Swiss Cheese when they sat down to examine it. Jim told Q the tiny 5.56mm bullet didn’t have much in the way of penetrating power, but would work great for troops on the ground, or light skinned vehicles. Q told him of the CAS plane that he was building, and Jim said that the 50-caliber GE Minigun could ruin your day in a hurry. He told Q to forget about the Mark 82 iron bombs, and concentrate on the CBU-52, since the little unguided 250 pound bomb was really a point weapon compared to the CBU, and took some serious marksmanship to put the bomb on target, whereas the CBU-52 could blanket a whole area with bomblets, and take out everything in it’s dispersion pattern. Q built the plane as a simple stick and rudder plane and didn’t include the avionics necessary to use the smart bombs, since he doubted they would ever be needed. Q was an old warbirds fanatic, and built the plane as a simple stick and rudder setup just because wanted to.
3 months later, the Chicken Hawk was ready to fly. Q had somehow managed to maintain his pilot’s license, and insisted on being the first pilot to fly the CH. Q was wearing a flight suit, a G-suit, and a surplus fighter pilot’s helmet with the oxygen mask when he climbed up the ladder to the Chicken Hawk. The chief mechanic was there to assist, and finally Q got himself strapped in and connected his oxygen and radio pigtails. He flipped a switch, and the canopy motored closed. He got the canopy and the seat from the same F-16, and had them checked over before he installed them. The plane wasn’t painted yet, so it was a golden brown color, which Q thought was a perfect color for a Chicken Hawk. He started the engines, and once the gauges were in the green, he had the mechanic pull the chocks, and he taxied to the runway.
“Chicken Hawk 1 requesting clearance for take-off and test flight.”
“Roger Chicken Hawk, Stay below 1,000 feet until 10 miles away. The area Northeast of the tower is clear above 2,000 feet for test flight. Good luck, and clear for take-off.”
Q was facing the end of the runway by the time the tower called back. He immediately advanced both throttles and roared down the runway. At 85 knots the plane wanted to fly, and by 95 knots, he was flying, so he pulled back gently on the stick, retracted the gear, and climbed to 1,000 feet. When he was 10 miles out, he called back to the tower.
“Allakaket Tower, at the 10 mile limit, beginning test flight.”
“Roger, Chicken Hawk - have fun. Call when you’re ready to return to airport.”
Q advanced the throttles again and said to himself, “Let’s see what this baby can do!” as the airspeed indicator wrapped around, he pulled back on the stick, and 4 minutes later, his altimeter said he was at 10,600 feet. Doing the math in his head, he realized that he had managed a 2150 feet per minute climb rate. Not bad for a home built. With a full bomb load, he’d be lucky to break 1,000 feet per minute. After performing some basic aerobatics, he turned toward Allakaket, and called the tower.
“Chicken Hawk 1 requesting landing clearance.”
“Chicken Hawk, the pattern is clear, you’re clear to land.”
5 minutes later, the Chicken Hawk was on the ground. When he finally got out of the plane, Josh was standing there.
“How’d it go Q?”
“Magnificent Sir. She handles like a dream, and I managed a 2100 foot per minute climb rate. Even with a full load of bombs she should be good for 1,000 feet per minute.”
“Mind if I take her up?”
Q was reluctant to let anyone else fly his baby, but he knew Josh was an excellent pilot on top of being his boss, having flow numerous times with him before, so he told him to suit up while he refueled the plane and checked it out.
Josh came back 10 minutes later wearing a flight suit, G-suit, and carrying his helmet. Q was stunned, and asked Josh were he got the gear.
“Probably the same place you did. I knew you were building the Chicken Hawk, and I’ve never flown a military aircraft before, but I have flown numerous twins, and I’ve done aerobatics.”
“Do be careful sir!”
“Don’t worry Q, I won’t leave a scratch on her.”
Q helped Josh plug in, and explained the controls - what little there were. The plane was a simple stick and rudder plane, with the FAA minimum of gauges and gear. Once Josh said he was OK, Q climbed down, and Josh started the engines. He taxied to the flight line, and took off as soon as he had clearance. Since the pattern was wide open, and Josh was the Boss, he did a max performance take-off, and went from the deck to 10,000 feet in under 5 minutes. He immediately pulled a wing-over, bottoming his dive at 1,000 feet AGL. He used his speed to zoom climb back up to 10,000 feet where he did a series aerobatic maneuvers including a Cuban-8, Immelmann Rolls, split-S’s, and for good measure, he tested the stall characteristics of the plane. It didn’t stall easily, and recovered very easily. When he looked at his fuel gauge, he knew it was time to get back to the field. Aerobatics really ate up fuel. He landed with maybe 1 gallon left in the tank.
When he climbed out, Josh said “Q, this plane is a dream to fly, is there any way you can add some fuel storage without messing it up.”
“How many gallons were you thinking, Sir?”
“Maybe a 5-gallon reserve tank. Aerobatics or Air Combat Maneuvering eats up a lot of fuel. With a bomb load, it would go even faster.”
“I’ll get right on it!”
“How much would it cost to build 6 more copies with the 5 gallon reserve tank?”
“Including the Mini-gun and stuff, right around $100 thousand per copy.”
“Great, here’s a check for $1 Million, make 10 of them.”
“Yes sir!”
Q knew he needed to build an assembly line to mass produce the planes, plus whatever else they were going to build in the next couple of years. He called a couple of his RAAF buddies, and soon had a small team of craftsmen who could build anything from a set of plans. He checked with Josh, and got permission to hire a dozen apprentices from town to teach them everything they needed to know to build and design all the toys Q was coming up with.
Chapter 4 - Bon Voyage
Once Ron realized the company was in good hands, he talked to his kids, and they told him to go ahead and enjoy themselves. If they needed anything, they could get hold of him via his Satellite phone anywhere in the world. Communications had evolved to the point that satellite phones were just as cheap as regular cellular phones for high-end users, and encryption was so common and so robust that the NSA threw their hands up and gave up trying to intercept phone calls Computers were so small and powerful that 100 times the processing power and memory of a typical 2000 Pentium 4 system was now available in a device the size of a 2000-era PDA. They either had a 8-line text message display or a roll-up 2-foot square monitor (the ultimate “flat screen monitor”) that came with a prop for viewing upright, or could be laid flat on a table. Input was either from an intelligent 12-key chording keyboard, or else voice input. A small touch-sensitive spot on the keyboard served as a “mouse” but when it was combined with the intelligent keyboard, it could do much more than your average 2000-era mouse. The entire system seamlessly interfaced with the satellite phone system at a terra-byte rate to connect to an unbelievably sophisticated Internet. Webpages were updated in real time, and purchasing could be accomplished with a keystroke, and was 100% secure. Decades ago, the software developers hired all the “hackers” or at least the white hats, and put them to work designing a hacker-proof security system, then kept them on the payroll testing the system and upgrading it.
All that meant was Ron Williams could travel the world in style, and never be out of touch with his kids, or the business. He made a list of places he always wanted to see, and the captain of the Anne Williams programmed the navigation computer with all the locations in a logical sequence. One of their first stops was Brisbane Australia to pick up Sheila’s parents for a long-earned vacation. They took the WIG/Hovercraft from just off the coast of Brisbane, and flew it to Sheila’s parents house, then back out to the Anne Williams. Once Sheila’s parents were on board, they flew the SuperCruiser to the Great Barrier reef, and spent the next month diving all the sites on the reef.
Ron tried to log into the internet one day, and for the first time in years, he couldn’t get on. He sought out the Captain, and asked him if he knew why his satellite phone wasn’t working, they were supposed to work everywhere. The Captain told him that they had received an alert the other day that a large X class solar flare and accompanying CME might interfere with Satellite navigation systems, so they were to test and verify their location with their GPS while they could, then calibrate their LORAN receivers against the GPS coordinates in case they had to navigate via LORAN. Ron was puzzled, he didn’t know that sunspots could cause that much damage.
The next day when the effects cleared up, he logged onto the internet and did a Google on Solar Flares, CME’s and Sunspots. He got more information than he bargained for, and one site in particular set him thinking in uncomfortable directions. A bulletin board site called TimeBomb2000 of all things had several people on it that were very well educated amateurs, who gave him links to the professional websites where the NASA/ESA SOHO data was, and other links to other sites involved in studying solar phenomena. What he read deeply disturbed him. It seemed that 99% of all solar phenomena didn’t do much other than sometimes inconvenience satellite users and Ham radio operators working HF frequencies. However, that 1% of the time, a large X-Class flare and Coronal Mass Ejection could hit the Earth head-on when it was out of phase with the Earth’s magnetic field, and go right through to wreck havoc on terrestrial power systems and anything connected to it, or anything connected to an antenna, or sensitive electronics. Several scientists claimed that solar activity was not only increasing in frequency, but intensity as well. According to 1 site, one of the great power outages in the US was supposed to have been caused by a smaller M-class flare and it’s associated CME. If an X-class flare produced a massive CME, and it came through the Earth’s magnetic field, it could result in world-wide EMP damage to unprotected electronics. Since the protective measures were similar, he started researching EMP protection. Once he had enough information, he sent an e-mail to Jake and Josh, and they checked into it.
With the kind of money the Corporation was bringing in, they felt it was money well spent to protect that investment, and they started hardening their hangars and other assets against EMP damage way beyond Military spec, or even their most paranoid probabilities, and purchased over $100 Million worth of spares of essential equipment that might be damaged by EMP that couldn’t be shut down or disconnected. The spares were stored in the basement of the EMP-protected shelter in a large Faraday cage to ensure their protection against EMP. When Q saw what they were doing, he quickly followed suit, and hardened all his current projects against EMP, and turned his hangar into a huge Faraday cage, including the doors. When they closed, they completed circuits so the entire hangar was protected. He took his computer chip and electronic component storage and put it in a separate Faraday cage with instructions that the cage should never be left open any more than was essential, and to never have the front doors and the cage open at the same time - ever! Allakaket Power and Light realized they were especially vulnerable, and purchased special over-voltage disconnects, and spares of all essential equipment, and stored them in the bunker as well.
Once they were as prepared as they could be, Ron sent them another e-mail with links to the SOHO site, and other sites that monitored solar activity, and added the Java code from the site to their screen saver to indicate Solar activity, or Flare/CME dangers. The company-wide internet was triple-redundant, as were the protections against EMP, Surge, and over/under voltage. Someone was always monitoring the systems 24/7, and would broadcast a warning if a dangerous X-class Flare or CME were headed to Earth. If the CME was out of phase, he would send out an order grounding all non-essential aircraft, and parking as many as possible inside EMP protected shelters. Ron sent an E-mail to Larry at Northrop-Grumman, but never got a reply. Ronnie Barrett took his warning seriously, and was able to protect his equipment against EMP damage.
The problem was everyone was worried about nuclear EMP, and wasn’t even aware of the risk of Solar EMP. Ron had a sick feeling that the US and the rest of the world would be in sad shape if they got hit with that 1% chance out-of-phase CME head-on.
Jake and Josh had a surprise for their dad. Not only did they EMP harden the hangars, they sprayed them with a foot of reinforced shotcrete in the process, hardening them against attack from the air as well. Josh checked the surplus market, and found 8 F-15E Strike Eagles available without engines or avionics. He knew the Israelis were still producing modern engines and avionics for the F-15E, and ordered enough for each plane, and for spares. Once they were delivered, they quickly militarized their aircraft and hired pilots and RIOs to fly the planes. They had plenty of bombs and missiles in inventory thanks to Gene and Gen. Kelly Stone, so now they had a real Air Force as well as the 10 CAS aircraft and 8 of Q’s armed helicopters. All of the helicopter pilots volunteered to fly the little Hawk, since it was so much fun to fly, as part of their Militia duties. Alaska had gotten fed up with the BS from Washington, and secretly joined the Secessionist movement. Governor Adkins of Alaska visited Allakaket, and made their Militia official and legal. He grinned from ear to ear when he saw the fully-armed F-15 Strike Eagles and the Chicken Hawk CAS aircraft. He ordered enough Chicken Hawks to outfit 20 State Militia Squadrons with the simple stick and rudder aircraft, since he was expecting a show-down with the Feds any day. What was especially troubling was Chelsea Clinton had married a descendent of the Kennedy Clan, and was now known as Chelsea Clinton-Kennedy, and was starting to become a popular and powerful politician. She hid her true views from everyone but a few select insiders, but she made her mother Hillary look like the Good Witch of the North in comparison.
The other members of the Williams clan had been busy as well, and Josh’s son Isaac was 2 years old, and was about to have a baby brother or sister, Jake and Diane had stopped at 4 kids, who now ranged in age from 14-7 years old. Sarah and Neil stopped at 4 as well, and their kids now ranged from 13 to 7. David and Heather were romantically involved since they had both gotten through the mourning process. Finally 1 day David stood up unexpectedly and bumped into Heather face to face. He blushed with embarrassment, then Heather grinned, slipped her arms around him, and kissed him on the lips for the first time since they met. David responded, then when they stopped kissing, he said “We need to get married before we take this any further.”
“Let’s get married soon, David. I don’t know how much longer I can wait. We used to have sex fairly regularly, and now that I’m done mourning, I’m starting to miss it. Levon’s old enough to appreciate a kid brother or sister, and I’m not getting any younger.”
David kissed Heather again and asked “Heather, will you marry me?”
“Of course I will - let’s call Michael and set the date.”
Heather called Michael while David went back to work - they were still on a tight timeline even if they were in love. She walked back into the room, hugged David from behind, and said “Michael’s free this weekend. Is Saturday at Noon too soon for you?”
“If you keep holding me like this, it might not be soon enough!”
She giggled, and David turned around to kiss his Fiancé. Next he called his Mom and Dad, then his brothers and sisters to give them the good news. They said they’d be at the church Saturday morning for the big event. Ron called the Captain of the SuperCruiser and told him to fly it immediately to Anchorage, he had a wedding to attend Saturday. They were visiting Hong Kong, so it took several hours to get the passengers back aboard and the Anne Williams fueled and serviced. The next morning they docked at the terminal in Anchorage and flew one of the WIG/Hover transporters to Allakaket with everyone who was attending the wedding. Sheila’s parents were still aboard, and wanted to see their daughter anyway, since she was about due to give birth, so this worked out well for them. They spent the time before the wedding visiting with Josh and Sheila, and catching up with their grandson Isaac.
David and Heather took some time off their busy schedule to go to the jewelers to buy the rings, and the dress shop to buy her dress. David’s tux still fit, and remembering the last two times he wore it, bought a new one. David and Heather met Ron and Nancy at Ron’s house. They both knew Heather, and approved. Ron took his son aside and said “I called BA on the way home. I’m rescinding your trust agreement if you want me to, and restoring full access to your trust.”
“Thanks Dad, I trust Heather with my life, and I know she’s not after my money. Having access to that kind of money would allow me to expand my business, hire some help, and really make some money. You wouldn’t realize how much money a good Graphic Arts company with the right people and equipment can make. Probably not as much as WTI, but enough to keep it interesting. Speaking of which, here’s some stuff I was working for Jake on.” David handed his dad a small storage chip, and gave him a hug. Later that evening when he was alone, Ron inserted the chip into his machine, and was amazed at the quality of David’s work. He could make a fortune in the Graphic Arts business with this talent, and the $100 million sitting in his trust account.
Finally Saturday morning was there. David and Heather got dressed, and he made breakfast for everyone since he knew Heather would be busy this morning. She came to the table with green goop on her face, and her hair in rollers. David started laughing and Heather said “what’s so funny?”
“I was envisioning you at the altar, and you’d forgotten to take your mask off and your curlers out.”
“Wait until you see the “After” David Williams!”
“Can’t wait dear. Make sure my Mom knows she needs to babysit Levon for a couple of days.”
Heather sounded disappointed when she said “Just a couple of days?”
“I’m not 18 dear, and I don’t think I could handle much more than that.”
“I guess this means I’ll be on top most of the time?”
“Just as long as you skip the reins and spurs.”
They both laughed hysterically, then ate breakfast before it got cold.
Heather got Levon dressed and fed, then they drove to the church. Right at noon, Heather marched down the aisle behind her maid of honor. One of David’s friends served as his best man, and Michael stood at the Altar waiting for them. Because this was a second marriage for them, they had requested a basic service, and half an hour later, they were Mr. and Mrs. David and Heather Williams. Michael had been tipped off by Carl, and didn’t panic until someone turned blue at a Williams wedding. They met at Ron and Nancy’s place for an intimate reception, then left Levon with his new grandma and drove to their new house to start the honeymoon. 2 days later, David was tired and sore, but grinning from ear to ear, and Heather was pretty sure she was pregnant. 9 months later, to the day, she had her second son, Michael, who they decided to call Mike most of the time, except when Heather was upset with him. Things were going swimmingly for the Williams clan, and Ron knew that was usually a foreboding omen of bad times ahead.
Fleataxi