Nexus - 0216 - New Times Magazine-pages

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‘full open' position and the Lightning — swiftly back on the controls and six times cabin pressurisation started to fail, the crouched with shock, suddenly subjected to the force of gravity pressed down on his _ gyros toppled and the controls slammed to thirty-three thousand pounds of thrust from _ body, rapidly draining the blood away from _ the right, breaking the fighter's tenuous the glowing jet nozzles. Holding the nose his brain. The python coils of his G-suit hold on the rarefied atmosphere and send- down, the pilot watched the white runway squeezed his legs and lower torso in a vice- ing it into a lethal inverted spin. As the centre-line markers flash past while the air- like grip, preventing total blackout. The Lighting dropped like a stone, the pilot's speed indicator rapidly came alive: 100 Lightning was now hurtling upwards faster pressure jerkin automatically inflated and knots, 120, 140, 160, 180 knots and he than a pistol bullet, trading its supersonic _ the visor on his Taylor-Baxter pressure hel- pulled back slightly on the stick, pressing speed for extra height in an attempt to get met slammed shut. At these altitudes a the undercarriage ‘up’ button at the same close to the target. The altimeter started complete cabin pressure failure could result time. slowing down: seventy, seventy-five, in human blood boiling in less than three Still at less than 100 feet, the Lighming’s eighty, eighty-five thousand feet. seconds. As the Lighming span helplessly wheels slammed into the wheel bays and its Without warning, the pilot suffered from ‘wards the Earth, hoar-frost started form- trim shifted slightly as the fighter increased transient vertigo as the world suddenly 8 0” the inside of the cockpit canopy, speed to more than 250 knots before cross- seemed to turn upside down. Where before blinding the pilot completely. Totally dis- ing the airfield boundary. Glancing briefly the Barth had been dark and the sky light, orientated he pulled back on the controls, at the instruments, the pilot pulled back the arth was now a bright curve and the Kicked the mdder in what he thought was hard on the controls and banked right onto sky as black as pitch, with stars twinkling the opposite direction to the spin, and his course of 105 degrees. The Lighting in ihe heavens as the Li ightning approached pushed the throttles through the afterburner was climbing like a rocket and the pilot jy. edge of space. gate. As the fighter dropped through fifty switched his attention to the machmeter. ery clean) th Lightning flattened thousand feet, the spinning blur outside the Just in time, he cancelled the afterbumers ,, V&ty Slowly the Lightning flattened out, cockpit started to decrease and the to avoid breaking the sound barrier ina US sharply swept wings struggling to keep 4 Lighting came slowly under control in an steep climb over land. grip on the rarefied atmosphere. With his inverted spiral, travelling towards the Earth "GCI, 02 climbing out on 105 degrees. + = on the sluggish controls, the in excess of mach 1.3. Still blinded, the Course to steer?" pilot flipped down the radar visor with his pilot flick-rolled as the fighter flashed "We have you 02. Tum right onto 169 A a _— — ey A bright down through thirty thousand feet, before degrees and climb to forty-two thousand Sor lediiion makox diliee a — ple shakily regaining full control. ud for high-speed run. Target is estimated at Port, ‘02, what's happening? 02 come in. more than one hundred thousand feet, Blanced out of the cockpit. " “Pressure failure, repeat pressure failure. tracking in from France. You will have to GCI, Ihave the target on radar and visu- Flying blind. Give me a course for base, zoom climb, over.” al; range two miles; no missile lock. over." "02, copied. What target, over?” = confirm negative infrared signa- "02 turn right onto 292 degrees, distance "If we knew that 02, you wouldn't be air- . —_ to run 97 miles. Did you manage to identi- borne.” "02. Confirmed negative infrared. fy the target, over?’ "Roger, copied.” Target is oval in shape with a shiny metal- "Negative. It wasn't one of theirs and it Glancing downwards, the pilot saw the ety Bape weehvea Bota 4 wasn't one of ours." East Anglian coast sliding away behind Roger 02, try to close target, copy? "02, are you calling a UFO?" him and pushed both throttles up through —-"02 copied, turning port now..." "That's affirmative GCI; unidentified fly- the afterbumer gate. Less than four min- With an explosive roar, the Lightning's ing object.” utes after the engine starter buttons were pressed, the Lightning shuddered slightly —— _—— as it passed through the sound barrier and levelled out at forty-two thousand feet. Adjusting the trim button on the controls, the pilot concentrated as the Lightning, now flying straight and level, increased speed rapidly: mach 1.1, 1.3, 1.5, 1.7... "02, turn right onto 173 degrees and pre- pare to zoom.” "02, copied." As his speed increased to maximum, the pilot checked the interception radar and selected his Firestreak missiles. He had no idea what was up there but it paid to be ready for anything, and it seemed unlikely his 30 mm cannon would be of much use. "02, turn left onto 171 degrees, zooming in ten, copy?” "02, copied." "Three, two, one, go go go The pilot's vision greyed-out as he pulled Bah NEXUS*59 a OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 1993