“Masters Zero-Seven cleared for takeoff runway three-zero,” Sondra replied. She taxied the big jet onto the runway, lined up on the center line, held the brakes, advanced the throttles slowly and smoothly, felt the kick when the engines went to zone-one afterburner, released brakes, smoothly advanced the throttles to zone five, and lifted off in just five thousand feet. She lowered the big jet’s nose to quickly build up airspeed, retracted the landing gear and flaps, then brought the throttles back to 50 percent power to avoid busting the speed limit until they got out of McLanahan Industrial Airport‘s airspace, which would not take long at all.
“Good takeoff, Sondra,” said Hunter Noble, Sondra’s instructor on this training flight. He was in the rear seat of Sky Masters Aerospace’s MiG-25UX, a tandem-seat Mikoyan-Gurevich supersonic fighter with no combat equipment, modified for extreme high-speed and high-altitude operations. The original Russian MiG-25RU was the fastest combat jet fighter in existence, capable of almost three times the speed of sound and sixty thousand feet altitude, but after being modified by Sky Masters Aerospace, the jet was capable of achieving almost five times the speed of sound and one hundred thousand feet. “Good timing on the brakes and power. Zone one with the brakes on is okay, but anything after that will shred the brakes.”
“Roger, Boomer,” Sondra said. In fighter-pilot parlance, a “Roger” after a critique from an instructor meant that the student already knew and identified the discrepancy. A “thank you” usually meant the student missed it and acknowledged a good catch by the instructor. “I got it.”
“I show us clear of Class Charlie airspace,” Boomer said. “Heading two-zero-zero will take us to the restricted area.”
“Roger,” Sondra said. In less than two minutes they were in R-4813A and B, two restricted military training areas in the Naval Air Station Fallon complex in north-central Nevada, leased to Sky Masters Aerospace and coordinated with the FAA’s Oakland Air Traffic Control Center for high-performance aircraft testing. “I’m running the pre-high-altitude checklists now. Report when complete.”
“Will do,” Boomer said. The checklist prepared the crew to operate at extreme high altitudes, ones usually not attained by conventional fighters. It only took a few minutes. “Checklist complete. I show us inside R-4813A. Cleared when ready.”
“I got it, Boomer,” Sondra said. “Stand by.” Sondra applied full power, slowly and smoothly advancing the throttles on the MiG-25 until they were at full zone-five afterburner, and then at Mach 1 she raised the nose until they were at sixty-degrees nose-up attitude and still accelerating. As the speed increased, the gravity forces increased, and soon both were grunting against the G-forces pressing against their bodies, trying to keep blood from draining out of their lungs and brains. Both pilots wore partial-pressure space suits and space helmets, plus high-tech electronic G-suits that covered their legs and lower abdomen with a contracting fabric to help keep blood from pooling in the legs from the G-forces—but it still took work to fight off the effects of the G-forces. Soon they were at sixty-thousand-feet altitude and flying well over four times the speed of sound, with over seven times the force of gravity pressing on their bodies.
“Speak to me, Sondra,” Boomer said. “You . . . you doing okay?”
“I’m . . . fine . . . Boo . . . Boomer,” Sondra said, but it was obvious she was struggling to deal with the G-loads on her body. Suddenly the MiG-25 heeled sharply to the left and nosed down.
“Sondra?” No response. The fighter’s nose pointed Earthward. Just before he was going to take control, Boomer felt and heard the throttles retard to idle in the descent and the wings rolled level.
“You okay, Sondra?” Boomer repeated.
“Yes.” Over the intercom he could hear her breathing was a little labored, but otherwise sounded all right. “I’m okay.”
Boomer watched the altimeter and airspeed readouts carefully, making sure that Sondra had complete control of the aircraft. In the rear cockpit, he could take full control of the aircraft if necessary, but touching the controls would mean a failure for the pilot-in-command, and he didn’t want to do that unless it was absolutely necessary. After losing just ten thousand feet, Sondra started to bring the nose back up to the horizon, and as the jet came level and the airspeed went subsonic, she fed in power to keep the altitude and airspeed stable. “How are you doing, Sondra?” Boomer asked.
“I’m good, Boomer,” Sondra replied, and she sounded perfectly normal and in control. “I’ll descend back to thirty thousand feet and we’ll give it another try.”
“We won’t have enough fuel for another high-G high-altitude demo,” Boomer said. “We can do a few high-speed no-flap approaches, and then call it a day.”
“We have plenty of fuel, Boomer,” Sondra protested.
“I don’t think so, babe,” Boomer said. “Let’s do the high-ILS approach to Battle Mountain and do a no-flap power-off approach, do a missed at decision height, then do another for a full stop. Okay?”