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After the predator was shot down by the Russian helicopter gunship, the CIA drove the RV to a more isolated farm field outside of Ismailly, Azerbaijan. The field they found was relatively flat and the grass was no more than four inches high. Taller grass has been known to cause problems for the landing gear of the predators.
Even if the farm’s owner caught them using their field, Leslie had found in the past that a few dollars would usually buy a farmer’s silence long enough to get the predator airborne and move the RV out of the area. Today, they decided to wait an hour before launching the second predator, just in case the Russians sent a patrol party in to look over the debris field where the first predator was shot down.
After checking the radar to make sure the sky was clear, Leslie, Brad and David went outside the RV and began to begin assembling the second predator. Leslie climbed up the ladder on the back of the RV and unlatched three long rectangular boxes from the roof. She carefully slid them off the roof and down to Brad and David who carried them out into the field.
On the side of a grassy mound where they were not visible from farm road, Leslie unlocked and opened the boxes and they pulled out the predator parts that included the fuselage, wings, and tail sections. Leslie manually cranked the landing gear down from the fuselage and the unit was soon standing on its own. She next attached the twenty-seven foot wings one at a time while Brad held each wing and David held the fuselage steady. After they attached the rear rudder tail section, the craft was fully assembled.
Leslie opened up a small door on the top of the fuselage and flipped on a power switch for the battery. A small cylinder automatically came down from the bottom of the fuselage, and the camera inside the unit rotated once.
Leslie pulled out a long clear plastic hose from an assembly box and had Brad connect it to a capped nozzle on the back of the RV. Leslie attached the other end of the hose to a small-capped nozzle on the top of the fuselage. Once the hose was connected, Leslie turned on a small battery operated pump and fuel was seen passing through the hose and into the predator.
“How many gallons do you need?” David asked.
“Fifty, I plan to have it stay up a lot longer this time.”
She reached into another box with an ‘explosive’ label on it, and she had David help her load the first of the two five-foot, one hundred-pound missiles that they carefully fastened under each of the wings.
Leslie next went into the RV and came back with a specialized laptop computer. She typed some commands on the laptop that had a built in transceiver to send radio-signaled commands to the predator. Within a few seconds the laptop was talking to the flight control computer inside the predator.
Leslie initiated a computer diagnostic program that took a few minutes and she breathes a sigh of relief when the results indicated that all electronic systems were functioning correctly. She then entered a few more commands and the engine started with a roar on the predator and the scent of fuel exhaust filled the area. With the engine idling, and the propeller turning slowly, Leslie entered another command that initiated a mechanical and hydraulic diagnostic program. Soon the ailerons, elevators and rudder were moving as the predator’s flight control and avionics systems ran through their tests. When the tests were completed, Leslie told Brad and David to stand clear while she went back to the RV to check the radar screen before they launch the predator.
Inside the RV, Leslie carefully looked over the radar and satellite imaging screens for any movement in the air or on the land around their location.
“It looks fairly clear, there’s some air traffic to the east of us coming from the airport in Baku, and it looks like that damn helicopter gunship is long gone, so we’re going airborne with predator number two.”
“It took you less than an hour to assemble it, that’s pretty good,” Hoskins said.
“Yeah, and if you came out and helped, we would’ve got done even sooner.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, but my backs been acting up lately,” Hoskins said with a smile.
“I’ll bet, that’s probably why you brought the two young guys,” Leslie said as she left the RV and went back out in the field. She typed some more commands on the laptop keyboard, and the propeller of the predator spun rapidly and sent a cloud of dust and hay from the farm field. Leslie, Brad and David shielded their eyes as they walked off the field away from the predator. When they got back near the RV, Leslie typed some commands and steered the predator to the edge of the field. She turned the predator around and lined it up in a good takeoff position to take advantage of every clear foot of the length of the field. She typed in another command that locked the brakes of the predator before she increased the throttle until the predator’s engine reached maximum RPM. With one last keystroke, Leslie released the brakes and the predator lunged forward. It used an automatic program to race across the field and into the air.
That’s incredible, it was airborne in less than 1000 feet,” Brad said.
“And less than fifteen seconds,” David said.
Leslie typed in a few more commands before she shut down the laptop and packed it away.
“What was the last thing you commanded it to do?” David asked.
“I told it to climb to two thousand feet and proceed to circle at a quarter mile radius above the RV. Okay guys, funs over, let’s get these storage boxes back on top of the RV.”
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