‘No problem.’
The two men shook hands and Swan watched as Barnett exited the room, shaking hands with other members of the party as he made his way back to his office.
Swan then re-joined Gable, relieving him of his boredom of reading the staff notices. ‘How did it go?’ he asked.
‘Very well indeed, Arthur. HB is a nice and friendly chap and has invited us out for drinks at a local pub. I think he may have something on his mind, and I seemed to have appealed to his good nature. So, let’s see how much he is prepared to let me into his confidence; I’m certain he wants to say more about the accident, but I won’t push him, and will just let nature take its course.’
Maitland acknowledged his colleague at his desk. ‘Have you heard the news that the Rapier is to do a few fly-bys at the SBAC next month?’
‘Yeah, I was just reading the latest communiqué from Whitehall about it. This could prove a problem if it gets that far. The British public will be on the side of Brinton to continue with the project, and as we can’t show the FB-X at the show, that ain’t gonna help our cause too good.’
Brannigan picked up the pewter model again. ‘Maybe a little accident may happen at the show. The Rapier 101 could suddenly fall out of the sky.’
Maitland turned and glanced at Brannigan, as his colleague nose-dived the model onto the desk with a whistle from his lips, followed by a sneering smile.
‘You can be a ruthless son of a bitch when you wanna be, can’t ya Jake?’
‘Brannigan put down the model. ‘I could be supervising the fittings of the Python Hawk and easily put a little somethin’ in the weapons bay that could be detonated remotely from the crowd.
It’ll be just for insurance, in case we fall behind schedule with the Spectres. Seeing that these evaluation guys are up here this week, we’ve had to take precautions to cover them up in case some goddamn inspector thinks he has authority to snoop around downstairs.’
‘You can be assured pal, that they have all been briefed that we have the only jurisdiction down there. So, we shouldn’t see any threat about that. How about some coffee?’
On a positive nod from Brannigan, Maitland rose from his chair, went into the makeshift kitchen section of the office and switched on the kettle. ‘You know Jake? Perhaps your crazy idea don’t sound too crazy after all. Especially when it will only be twelve years this year since that last crash at the SBAC show. A disaster like that again will be sure to seal the fate of this god-dammed airplane.’
The next morning, the Ministry inspectors were escorted out to The Magic Box, where the gleaming silver airframe of the Rapier stood awaiting their attention. They were met by three Brinton technicians who would be assisting them with the various evaluations they were to undertake.
Swan and Gable shook hands with a small man in overalls named Larry Smith. He handed them both a pamphlet and took them through the systems that they were to work on. Larry then led them over to the aircraft, and walked up to the front of the fuselage, beside the crew boarding ladders.
Gable could hardly contain himself as he stood looking at the streamlined mechanical spectacle before him. Swan noticed this, and smiled in appreciation, sharing in his SID colleague’s excitement.
Smith stepped forward. ‘If you would like to stand back a bit gentlemen, I will lift up the door to the avionics bay for you.’
He accessed two hidden handles and pulled out the door to reveal a selection box of wires and components, which made up the vast area of avionics. He then secured the open door with two small braces that came out of recesses on either side. ‘Right, gentlemen. If you refer to your pamphlets, you can pretty much recognise the parts. Here we have the inertia navigation system. Here’s the TACAN system, and this is the sideways looking radar array.
Gable looked at his pamphlet to check what the TACAN was, discovering that it stood for Tactical Navigation.
Smith continued. ‘Above this, is the drive that operates the Doppler equipment, and these are the batteries powering the TFR in the radome.’
Gable checked the pamphlet again, finding Terrain Following Radar, and so was ready for Smith again as he explained its functions. ‘The target acquirement unit, is on the other side of the fuselage and accessed by a similar door, and that is pretty much it. As you can see, each unit is separate and can be detached and replaced section by section, pretty much like inside a TV set.’
Swan put his head into the bay, making a few notes on his clipboard. ‘How often would you need to replace the batteries to the TFR?’
Smith thought for a minute, then stepped forward. To be honest with you sir, as we haven’t had the need yet, I would have to estimate between fifty to one hundred sorties.’
Swan made more notes, then it was Gable’s turn to maintain the charade. ‘Are there any back up batteries, should one of these fail in flight?’
Swan winked at Gable for coming up with such a constructive question and the technician pointed up to the cockpit. ‘There are two reserve batteries behind the navigator’s cockpit. We had to build a firewall to prevent any internal explosion, in case of crew ejection, as without this in place, the rockets on the seats would probably ignite the battery acid. These batteries are accessed through the panel above the fuselage.’
Gable recorded some notes on his clipboard as Smith stood at the bottom of the platform ladder leading to the cockpit. ‘Right gentlemen, I can now show you the cockpit and power up some of these systems I have explained to you.’
The three men climbed the blue framed access ladder and stood on the platform, overlooking the two open crew compartments.
Smith then climbed into the navigator’s ejection seat and pushed a few buttons and almost instantly, lights on various instruments came on. He then pointed out the different areas and demonstrated the view panels for each. ‘Here is the TACAN control, which can be placed to two settings: Low level and Altitude. The SLAR screen is here, and can either be manually set, or set as part of the automatic system. This screen here is the moving map. If you’ve seen the latest James Bond film, this is an updated model to the one that is in Connery’s Aston Martin DB5.’
Gable responded excitedly. ‘Yes, I recognise it from the film.’
Smith continued. ‘Over here is the Weapons Selection screen. Yes, you are seeing the option for the Blue Fin stand-off Nuclear weapon. Although it will not be ready for a few years, the missile’s details have already been calibrated into the attack system, and ready for operation. We are also looking at incorporating a compatibility mode on the production machines, so we can also use other weapons, such as the BOFORS anti-ship missile being developed by the Swedes. That will be a standard kit for their machines.’
Swan pointed to a small box which had been added to a spare area on the panel and incorporated a square TV screen.
Swan then pointed out a small black box recessed into the sidewall. ‘So what’s this here?’
Smith also spied the box. ‘This was only fitted this morning, by the Yanks, and is the control unit for the Python Hawk reconnaissance drone. As you can see, it is a temporary bolt-on unit at the moment, but if our own home grown proposed Blue-Eye system goes belly-up, then we will probably have the Python Hawk fitted as standard for Rapier Recce missions. All these systems are fitted with battery warning lights, and are relayed to the reserve units behind me. The only way they will not work is if there is a total system failure, in which case the crew are long gone and the aircraft will be in its final death plunge. Unlike the record breaking test aircraft that the Rapier was developed from, she would not make a very formidable glider. Incidentally, HB looked at fitting the Rapier with a crew escape capsule, similar to what the Yanks have on their new FB-X, but opted to keep faithful with Messrs Martin & Baker, and have them design these new Zero-Zero AX seats to his specification.’