Midnight Ops by Mark A. Hewitt

Author:Mark A. Hewitt [Hewitt, Mark A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-03-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 41

July 18, 2020

Nine men exited three vehicles. They wore dark ballcaps, polo shirts, and light jackets as they walked across the tarmac at the Tolbert Field Airport. They entered a pristine Douglas DC-3 in Pan American Airways livery and found a seat. The interior smelled of aviation gasoline.

One man said, “This thing scares me. I think this deserves hazardous duty pay.”

Another one said, “Nice try. How do you think this thing got so old?”

Retired four-star general and Air Force fighter pilot, CIA Director Walter Todd, call sign Magoo, took the copilot position and assisted Duncan Hunter, call sign Maverick, in the pre-start duties of the old twin radial. While the powerplants were over eighty years old, the cockpit had completely modern flat panel displays and resembled the flight deck of the newest corporate jets. In-flight internet, a satphone, and a STU-III (Secure Telephone Unit) were available in the cabin. The flight plan listed Maine as the destination. Magoo selected the coordinates for Portland in the GPS. Maverick started the engines and made the required radio calls for permission to taxi.

Magoo asked, “What do these engines run on?”

Maverick responded, “If I hadn’t taken the Mazibuike administration to court, they’d be running on 87 octane, car gas. Now the Three Rivers Refinery near Hondo again produces 115/145 octane for warbird engines, especially for these radials.”

“I don’t understand.”

Over the Bose® headset, Maverick explained, “You know about Jimmy Doolittle; he was still in the Army reserves when he was hired to run Shell Oil Company’s aviation department. Doolittle wanted aviation fuels with octane ratings of over 100 so engine designers could make higher performance engines with higher compression ratios. The aircraft that carried these advanced engines would have stunning performance, especially at higher altitudes where the air is very cold, and where enemy aircraft had a distinct disadvantage: they could not reach them. All a function of octane.”

Magoo nodded, “I didn’t know that. I flew jets.”

Maverick said, “Liberals hate petroleum and they really hate gasoline, but if you want to see them melt down, mention aviation gasoline. They hate it because it won the big one. WWII.”

“Seriously?”

“It is a secret that is rarely told. The first large-scale plant dedicated to producing higher octane fuel came online in 1940, and the British were able to change their aircraft engines to use the new fuel from America for the Battle of Britain. The boosted, meaning turbocharged, engine performance of the aircraft shocked the Germans. The speed of the Spitfire increased from 340 miles per hour in 1939 to 425 miles per hour in 1944. The normal avgas used by Germany throughout WWII was what they call B-4, which had an octane rating of 91/100. The Nazis were trying to catch up with experimental fuels having octane ratings as high as 150, but the allies destroyed the Nazi’s refining capability, which prevented any use of the higher-octane avgas for Axis aircraft. Now, Mazibuike was all about global warming and hated gasoline of all shades.”

“Shades?”

“Yeah, aviation fuels come in colors and 115/145 is dyed purple.

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