More YO-3A stuff
Few people are aware of the 11 YO-3As built for the U.S. Army. They were built to conduct low-level night-time surveillance during the Vietnam War. It's the spy plane no one knows about. It was derived from a "Quiet thruster" test mule.
A friend of mine reminded me there is a YO-3A suspended over the Pima Air Museum's SR-71. (Where else would it be?) Low observation colors. Hunter's YO-3A is black.
In my books, the quiet airplane enables Hunter and 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.
Unlike the actual YO-3A, the Yo-Yo in my books is a highly modified aircraft; it was modified with detachable wings so it can ride inside a shipping container and carried in the back of a C-130 or C-17 cargo aircraft. Like a competition glider whose wings are detachable and can be easily reattached for flight, Hunter's YO-3A is really a different aircraft. It also has longer wings. The old night vision periscope (a relic first-generation night vision system from 'Nam) is gone from the front seat; the sensor operator has his hands full in the back seat with FLIR, Weedbusters, and a gun. He gets to do all the fun stuff when Hunter is "just the pilot."
The piece that doesn't get emphasized enough is at the CIA there is has been a moratorium on flying manned flights over hostile territories. This is not something I made up. Gary Powers changed the way manned flight would be looked at in the future. So no manned flight, therefore, these missions are supposedly the purview of unmanned systems; the "drones" that the press so woefully and inaccurately labels.
Maverick out!
Few people are aware of the 11 YO-3As built for the U.S. Army. They were built to conduct low-level night-time surveillance during the Vietnam War. It's the spy plane no one knows about. It was derived from a "Quiet thruster" test mule.
A friend of mine reminded me there is a YO-3A suspended over the Pima Air Museum's SR-71. (Where else would it be?) Low observation colors. Hunter's YO-3A is black.
In my books, the quiet airplane enables Hunter and 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.
Unlike the actual YO-3A, the Yo-Yo in my books is a highly modified aircraft; it was modified with detachable wings so it can ride inside a shipping container and carried in the back of a C-130 or C-17 cargo aircraft. Like a competition glider whose wings are detachable and can be easily reattached for flight, Hunter's YO-3A is really a different aircraft. It also has longer wings. The old night vision periscope (a relic first-generation night vision system from 'Nam) is gone from the front seat; the sensor operator has his hands full in the back seat with FLIR, Weedbusters, and a gun. He gets to do all the fun stuff when Hunter is "just the pilot."
The piece that doesn't get emphasized enough is at the CIA there is has been a moratorium on flying manned flights over hostile territories. This is not something I made up. Gary Powers changed the way manned flight would be looked at in the future. So no manned flight, therefore, these missions are supposedly the purview of unmanned systems; the "drones" that the press so woefully and inaccurately labels.
Maverick out!
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