The amazing YO-3A
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 real 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 and those assets and missions were transferred to the Air Force, they became the beneficiary of the spy plane technology that Lockheed built.
Check out the Quiet Aircraft Association website: www.YO-3A.com
Maverick out!
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 real 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 and those assets and missions were transferred to the Air Force, they became the beneficiary of the spy plane technology that Lockheed built.
Check out the Quiet Aircraft Association website: www.YO-3A.com
Maverick out!
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