What kind of airplane is that?
The short answer is: "low noise profile" airplane. James Bond had fantastical gadgets. Duncan Hunter uses a "quiet aircraft" to perform some of the CIA's most difficult counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism missions. In the Prologue of Special Access, readers are introduced to the remarkable YO-3A flying in the mountains of Colombia, sneaking up on some narco-terrorists and finding the location of a group of long-held hostages.
Duncan Hunter uses a "quiet aircraft" to perform the CIA's most difficult counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism missions. I introduced the remarkable YO-3A in Special Access and it anchors the other Duncan Hunter books. In fact, the YO-3A (affectionately called the Yo-Yo) is what separates the Hunter books from other novels. Duncan Hunter is a contract pilot for the CIA. The Yo-Yo gets into places where other aircraft cannot. But there is more to it than that. A little history is necessary. Quiet airplanes came from a program that developed the "Quiet Thrusters." Declassified program.
The YO-3As were built by the Lockheed Aircraft Company in 1969 for Vietnam. Many of those in uniform know of the U.S. Air Force's U-2s and SR-71s spy planes. The idea for those aircraft came out of an office at the CIA in the 1950s and 60s. They were developed at a time when manned flight over hostile territory was standard operating procedure--until Gary Powers was shot down and CIA directors vowed to "never again" put a man in an airplane to fly over the USSR or China. Basically, the CIA's spy plane program was killed off by the Powers' incident and those assets and missions were transferred to the Air Force, and they became the beneficiary of the spy plane technology that Lockheed built.
Few knew anything about the 11 YO-3As built for the U.S. Army to conduct low-level night-time surveillance in Vietnam. In my books, the quiet airplane enables Hunter and his partner Greg Lynche to get into places and do those counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism things that just cannot be done from a satellite or a high flying jet.
When hunting the world's worst terrorists you have to bring out the old stuff. Old guys like Duncan Hunter and Greg Lynche.
And of course, a jet-black super-quiet YO-3A.
Maverick out!
The short answer is: "low noise profile" airplane. James Bond had fantastical gadgets. Duncan Hunter uses a "quiet aircraft" to perform some of the CIA's most difficult counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism missions. In the Prologue of Special Access, readers are introduced to the remarkable YO-3A flying in the mountains of Colombia, sneaking up on some narco-terrorists and finding the location of a group of long-held hostages.
Duncan Hunter uses a "quiet aircraft" to perform the CIA's most difficult counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism missions. I introduced the remarkable YO-3A in Special Access and it anchors the other Duncan Hunter books. In fact, the YO-3A (affectionately called the Yo-Yo) is what separates the Hunter books from other novels. Duncan Hunter is a contract pilot for the CIA. The Yo-Yo gets into places where other aircraft cannot. But there is more to it than that. A little history is necessary. Quiet airplanes came from a program that developed the "Quiet Thrusters." Declassified program.
The YO-3As were built by the Lockheed Aircraft Company in 1969 for Vietnam. Many of those in uniform know of the U.S. Air Force's U-2s and SR-71s spy planes. The idea for those aircraft came out of an office at the CIA in the 1950s and 60s. They were developed at a time when manned flight over hostile territory was standard operating procedure--until Gary Powers was shot down and CIA directors vowed to "never again" put a man in an airplane to fly over the USSR or China. Basically, the CIA's spy plane program was killed off by the Powers' incident and those assets and missions were transferred to the Air Force, and they became the beneficiary of the spy plane technology that Lockheed built.
Few knew anything about the 11 YO-3As built for the U.S. Army to conduct low-level night-time surveillance in Vietnam. In my books, the quiet airplane enables Hunter and his partner Greg Lynche to get into places and do those counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism things that just cannot be done from a satellite or a high flying jet.
When hunting the world's worst terrorists you have to bring out the old stuff. Old guys like Duncan Hunter and Greg Lynche.
And of course, a jet-black super-quiet YO-3A.
Maverick out!
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