The aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, a strangely shaped aircraft, is in the ejection position.

The big head, small body, and the back half of the body are extremely slender, as if it were a strange big insect.

The engine, on both sides of the belly, this shape, extremely weird, at the same time, this is also a common carrier-based aircraft on American aircraft carriers, A-6.

The A-6 can be traced back to more than 20 years ago, when after the Korean War, the U.S. Navy felt that it urgently needed an all-weather carrier-based attack aircraft, so it campaigned among several aircraft companies, and finally singled out the Grumman design, so a generation of famous aircraft A-6 began its career.

Although it is only a subsonic aircraft, it has a solid structure and reliable flight, and it immediately became the attack core of the US aircraft carrier formation, especially at night at low altitude and large speed.

After nearly 20 years of development, the first batch of A-6 has been old, especially the electronic equipment at that time, it is too complicated, resulting in very difficult maintenance, every hour of flight, it takes 80 hours of maintenance, it is simply appalling, so the US Navy transformed this initial aircraft, dismantled the avionics of the A-6A, replaced it with refueling hoses and control equipment, and became the standard carrier-based tanker of the US Navy, KA-6D.

It still looks unsightly, and it is impractical to want the Navy to have a big body like the Air Force and convert air tankers with large passenger aircraft, because the Navy's aircraft carriers cannot take off and land, so they can only use their existing carrier-based aircraft to refit.

After modification, it has a maximum take-off weight of more than 26 tons and can carry more than 14 tons of fuel, which can be regarded as basically meeting the conditions for being a tanker.

Now, having received the order, the tanker was lifted up from the hangar and brought to the take-off position on the deck, and the pilot looked at the catapult in front of him with excitement.

There aren't many opportunities to take off on your own.

As the catapult's righteousness permeated, the tanker roared, the two turbojet engines in the belly were at full power, and the air tanker left the deck and flew north.

The E-2C, which had taken off early, had already found the location of its returning fighters, and as long as it flew north, it would be able to join its own aircraft.

At this time, Nathan was piloting the fighter plane, flying at an ultra-low altitude, and had already escaped from the pursuit behind.

On my back, I was soaking wet.

Driving a fighter plane, it was a physical work, every time a large overload maneuver, it was like a few people pressing on his body, and after a toss, Nathan's physical exertion was very large.

Now, Nathan is flying the fighter smoothly and has begun to climb, and after evading the Soviets, he does not need to continue to fly at ultra-low altitude in safe airspace, which is also very exhausting and fuel-intensive.

"There's enough fuel to burn for three minutes." Guss said in the back.

Surrounded by the vast sea, there are still more than 200 kilometers from the aircraft carrier, is it really necessary to fly until the fuel is consumed clean, and then fall into the sea? The weather is still very cold, the sea is cold, and it is not a good thing to fall.

"The Lone Ranger calls Kitty Hawk, and the Lone Ranger calls Kitty Hawk." Nathan pressed the intercom again: "How long will it take for the tanker?" ”

Can't hold on, when will the tanker fly over?

"Lone ranger, hold on, the refueling opportunity will be there in five minutes."

Five minutes? In less than five minutes, his plane fell!

If it is an aircraft like the MiG-25, one engine can be turned off and only one engine remains, which can greatly extend the time.

However, the Tomcat is not good, the two engines in the tail of the Tomcat, more than a meter apart, when it was originally designed, it was for one engine to catch fire, and it would not affect the other, but a side effect is that once one is turned off, the other will be pushed, and the fighter will definitely have a considerable yaw torque.

Nathan didn't dare to do that.

So, how do you want to make the fighter fly longer?

As long as the time is the longest, not the farthest, because the refueling machine will fly over, so, of course, Nathan pushed the two engines to a slow state.

What is the Slow Train State? It is the state of the lowest speed that has just been started, in this state, the ground crew can overhaul the engine, the engine has almost no thrust, and it will not propel the fighter to fly.

In this state, the fuel provided to the engine is only enough for the engine to run on its own, which is the most fuel-efficient, but it is out of power.

As a result, Guss in the back seat sensed that something was wrong: "Lone ranger, we seem to be dropping heights?" ”

"Yes, we're dropping heights." Nathan put it bluntly: "We need to drop the height for five minutes. ”

How much will it drop in five minutes? Gus has already had a bad feeling that he is going to fall into the sea!

But Gus knows that he has no choice but to trust Nathan, Nathan has always been good at creating miracles, and this time, he will definitely be able to!

Fly, keep flying!

Just before the call to the Kitty Hawk, it was already five thousand meters at an altitude, and now, the fighter began to descend slowly and leisurely, four thousand meters, three thousand meters... When it was lowered to two thousand meters, suddenly, Nathan pulled the lever back slightly, and the fighter's head turned upward, and it actually began to increase in altitude!

What's going on?

"Just encountered an updraft." Nathan said, "God has not forsaken us! ”

The flames on the tail of the Tomcat fighter were almost invisible, and when it kept falling, there was actually an updraft!

The movement of the atmosphere, there is a horizontal airflow, there is a vertical airflow, the horizontal airflow is the wind, and the vertical airflow, is very terrible, for example, once the airliner encounters a downdraft, the sudden descent will make the passengers in the airliner weightless and float, it must be a death cry.

Now, Nathan was glad that he had encountered an updraft during the flight, and he adjusted the plane's attitude to make the most of it, so he jumped up another three thousand meters.

Hold on, hold on!

The Tomcat swayed and continued to fly forward, and the altitude began to drop again, and when the altitude dropped to a thousand meters, finally, a voice came from the headphones: "Batman calls the Lone Ranger, Batman calls the Lone Ranger." ”

"Lone Ranger received, please fly in front of us immediately." "My fuel is all empty and I can't climb," Nathan said. ”

Generally speaking, it is the oil tanker to find the air tanker, and for safety, the height of refueling is generally about 3,000 meters, if the air force tanker, it can even rise to more than 6,000 meters, the higher it is, the less affected by the air.

But now, Nathan didn't dare to fly more.