Chapter 22 No Brakes
Closer, closer, finally I saw the coastline! Andre felt that he was lucky today. As the altitude dropped further, he caught up with an air current blowing from east to west. With a tailwind, he could save more fuel.
I'm back, I'm finally back! From the tower window, holding a telescope, Kozhidub looked at the fighter plane in the distance that was entering the landing route. Was this guy just lying to me? With only one and a half tons of fuel, he flew hundreds of kilometers? How is this possible?
However, according to calculations, this guy who fled to the sky over the island country of Hokkaido must not have much fuel left in the fuel tank of his plane.
The mystery was soon solved. His partner, Colonel Ivanov, the commander of the 513th Regiment, returned after leading the entire aviation regiment to attack. After landing, he went straight to the tower to inquire about the situation of his reckless subordinate.
Now, standing at a railing outside the tower, he could visually observe the difference of this MiG-25: one of the tail engines had stalled!
Is it a mechanical failure? It shouldn't be, otherwise Andre would have reported it. Then, the only other possibility is that this guy took the initiative to turn off an engine to extend the flight range!
Recently, Andrei has been a little strange. These practices are completely different from the impressions in the previous group! Ivanov frowned and thought, but what Andrei did this time was really inspiring.
With one engine shut down, the fighter jet becomes somewhat difficult to control. It is not a problem when cruising at high altitude, but now it has to be landed, and the danger comes with it.
You know, normal aircraft are dangerous during takeoff and landing, not to mention shutting down an engine! However, shutting down is easy, but starting in the air is not so easy. Andre can only push the joystick gently, very gently.
After several flights, Andre has mastered the essentials. This type of fighter, because of its high-altitude performance, has too much aerodynamic torque at low altitudes. The result is similar to pilot induced oscillation (PIO). If the amount of operation stick is too large, it will cause the fighter to maneuver in the opposite direction, and then reverse operation will further aggravate the shaking of the fighter. Finally, it becomes the biggest enemy of the fly-by-wire system, pilot induced oscillation.
The solution is simple, just be careful!
Pushing the joystick little by little and accurately entering the descent route, Andre knew that he only had one chance. The fuel gauge had reached the bottom and there might not even be enough fuel for a go-around.
Descend, descend again! Finally, the fighter plane shook and the main landing gear touched the runway!
Feeling relieved, Andre breathed a sigh of relief.
The nose of the plane continued to raise its head and slid forward for a few seconds. The front landing gear also touched the ground. At this moment, the roar of the tail completely disappeared.
The other engine also stalled! The fuel was completely used up. This operation was really exciting!
Andre sat in the cockpit, watching the fighter plane continue to slide forward, and stepped on the rudder with both feet at the same time, preparing to brake the wheels.
When in the air, pressing one rudder alone will control the rear rudder surface. On the ground, pressing both feet at the same time will inject hydraulic oil into the brake mechanism of the main landing gear, acting as a brake.
Now, when he stepped down with both feet at the same time, he found that the ground under his feet was hard and he could not move.
Oh no! The engine has stalled! Andre only then remembered that he had missed a point. In the era when fly-by-wire operation was not yet popular, the control of fighter planes was hydraulic. The engine of the fighter plane drove the hydraulic pump to pressurize the operating system. Otherwise, it would not work at all!
But now, the engine is stalled and there is no pressurization. I can't control the brakes with my own feet!
Even the drag parachute at the tail was released by a hydraulic mechanism! Just like that, watching his fighter plane moving forward quickly like a car on the highway, Andre knew that the situation was not good.
The runway of the base is three thousand meters long, which is usually long enough for use. But now, with the brakes failing, this three thousand meter runway is quite short in front of a fighter jet taxiing at more than two hundred kilometers per hour.
The speed of the fighter plane was decreasing and the runway was shortening rapidly. When Andre saw the end of the runway in front of him, the speed of the fighter plane was still at least 50 kilometers per hour.
It must be impossible to stop! At the end of the runway is the woods. If I crash into it, my fighter plane will need a major overhaul. It seems that I can't escape a severe punishment.
"Bang." At this moment, a noise came from below. Andre thought to himself, "Oh no, it's raining cats and dogs!" The wheel exploded!
The fighter plane suddenly tilted, and then began to bump up and down violently. Although Andre was strapped to the seat with a seat belt and wearing a helmet, he still felt his head hit something next to him. His eyes went black and he knew nothing.
…………
Where is this? When Andre woke up again, everything was white. A dim light bulb hung from the ceiling. Next to it was a large blue oxygen tank, which was a little mottled. On the other side, on a yellow painted table, there was an old green iron instrument. At this time, the wavy lines on the instrument were constantly jumping.
His head hurt a little, and the smell of disinfectant kept entering Andre's nose. He knew that he was in the hospital. Moreover, looking at the heart monitoring device, Andre knew that he was still in the Soviet Union in 1976.
Sitting up, pulling off a few wires on his chest, and looking at a tuft of black heart hair that appeared on his chest, Andre suddenly felt helpless.
The time travel that day was so sudden that Andrei almost did not sleep that night. In addition to thinking about the traitor Belenko, he was more worried about the uneasiness in his heart.
He didn't want to come here, he wanted to go back to his original world! All this seemed like a dream!
What they did in the past two days, whether it was using the MiG-25 to cut open the wings and engine of the EP-3, or flying the MiG-25 around the island country of Hokkaido, was brave and bold, as if they did not take their lives seriously at all. In fact, it was all due to some kind of unwillingness in their subconscious mind.
Perhaps, at that time, he thought that he could still travel back in the fiercely maneuvering fighter plane?
Pinching himself hard, Andrei was sure that he was not dreaming, but had actually traveled through time and space to the Soviet Union, becoming a MiG-25 pilot defending Soviet airspace!