Gloriana

WARNING! All of my writing is intended for adults over the age of 18 ONLY. Stories may contain strong or even extreme sexual content. All people and events depicted are fictional and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Actions, situations, and responses are fictional ONLY and should not be attempted in real life.

If you are under the age or 18 or do not understand the difference between fantasy and reality or if you reside in any state, province, nation, or tribal territory that prohibits the reading of acts depicted in these stories, please stop reading immediately and move to somewhere that exists in the twenty-first century.

Archiving and reposting of this story is permitted, but only if acknowledgment of copyright and statement of limitation of use is included with the article. This story is copyright (c) 2014 by The Technician.

Individual readers may archive and/or print single copies of this story for personal, non-commercial use. Production of multiple copies of this story on paper, disk, or other fixed format is expressly forbidden.[/i]

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The XF-139 was a very special type of plane, but then Colonel Harold H. Hammen was a very special type of test pilot. The plane was an SRA, a “Slingshot Response Aircraft” capable of responding anywhere in the world in just minutes when carried aloft by a special UTV, an “Ultrasonic Transport Vehicle.” The docked pair could be kept anywhere in the world and respond instantly to anywhere in the world when a situation arose. Both the two-pilot transport and the single pilot response aircraft would need mid-air refueling and perhaps mid-air towing to return to base, but the incredibly short initial response time meant that there was nowhere in the world that US air power could not appear in the sky within minutes of an incident. Or, at least that was the design theory that Colonel “HH” Hammen was trying to prove out in this test flight.

Twelve minutes ago, the docked pair screamed off a runway from a secret base in the British Isles; one minutes ago, they separated high over the skies of Montana; and one minute from now, the SRA would make a strafing run and fire two test missiles at simulated targets off the coast of the state of Washington, just as it had successfully done in four previous tests.

So far, the SRA/UTV combination had proven successful in every anticipated battle and weather condition from Arctic to desert to jungle. This was the final test before moving on to the next level of prototype. But test number five would not be as successful because HH Hammen was about to encounter some very un-anticipated weather conditions. He was at 47,000 feet and dark thunderheads loomed in front of him.

“Climbing to 50 to avoid weathertops,” he calmly radioed as he pulled back on his controls. But when he reached 50,000 feet, the storm clouds were still above him.

“Initiating weather avoidance,” he reported as he began a climbing turn. He was not expecting a response from ground control, but even if he had expected it, there would have been none because the violent electrical activity of the storm was blotting out all communications.

Ground control had been screaming at him to abort since shortly after separation. “Mother of God,” one of the weather trackers had yelled. “Those are over 60,000 feet. Get him out of there.” The command to abort was immediately given, but HH never received it.

As Colonel Hammen continued his turn, he realized that not only were the thunderheads above him, they also encircled him. The storm had closed in around him. He was in the eye, a large clearing in the very center of a record-breaking violent storm. He was fairly sure that he could fly through the storm, but he would be tossed around quite a bit, and he was flying over mountains. Thunderstorms sometimes had extreme updrafts and downdrafts and a downdraft over mountains could easily mean trying to fly through granite.

His only safe option, and the suggested procedure in this situation, was to “top the storm” and fly over it. He put the SRA into a steep climb and tightened his circle. The climb became steeper and the circle tighter as the clouds continued to close in rapidly around him. As he passed through 65,000 feet he saw it. It was something few people have ever seen, even in photographs– a hail outflow. And this one was gigantic.

Hail is created when rain is repeatedly carried to high altitudes by the violent updraft/downdraft combinations within thunderstorms. The rain freezes at the high altitudes, and when the ice particles get big enough they drop out of the storm, or they are thrown clear at the top of the updraft and fall to the ground below.

Hail outflow at the top of a storm is somewhat like a waterfall, except it is pieces of ice. The more violent the storm and the higher the top of the updraft, the larger the pieces of hail. This was an extremely violent storm system and the tops were at near-record heights. The hailstones in the outflow were the size of baseballs– or larger– and there was no way that the SRA could avoid them.

Only a seasoned test pilot could calmly announce, “Catastrophic failure of both engines” as the two GE turbines ingested the huge ice particles and exploded, effectively shredding his wings. In an equally calm voice he added, “Structural failure to pilot compartment” as the canopy shattered around him. From that point on he acted instinctively, grabbing and pulling the ejection handle located between his legs.

His last conscious thought was, ‘This wasn’t the record I was intending to try for.’ No one had ever successfully ejected at this altitude with a standard ejection system.

Ground control watched silently as the debris field flashed brightly on their tracking screens.