CHAPTER 102

EAGLE FLIGHT

ENROUTE TO NEW MEMPHIS

 Ben's fingers caressed the control stick of the MH-53EJ PAVE LOW IV adjusting their course by one degree. Ben was in his glory, as the PAVE LOW IV was the aircraft he had started his career in the Air Force flying. At the time, it was the most highly advanced flying craft of any country in the world, rivaling even the space shuttle. It was the only rotary winged aircraft in the world that had an auto-pilot, terrain following and terrain avoidance radars, inertia navigation system, GPS Doppler computer system, and integrated avionics. The cockpit of the MH-53 was almost as sophisticated as that of the Raptor, and indeed, many of the systems on the Raptor were first used on the MH-53EJ. When they had discovered the vacuum sealed underground hanger at Luke AFB outside of Phoenix Ben had been thrown back dozens of years as they discovered twelve MH-53EJ's and all the equipment needed to maintain them for the next fifty years.