Science fiction. The aviator

Science fiction. The aviator

"Whorooom, whorooom, clack, clack , bangggg!"

This was the vocabulary of sounds that I heard when the crash took place. It was two of us who had entered into a simulated dog fight for training purposes only, and we were supposed to cross an area that lies in the Triangle of Tragedies. Aerial tragedies I mean. And for most of us, pilots, it is the ultimate test to assess our presence of mind and ability to be in command of the machine that is worth 2 billion dollars.

Flying such an advanced machine has two psychological impacts:

1: You feel you are somebody who can claim anything in the sky. I will limit it to the sky only, because our planes still need air for efficient combustion. And to go beyond the sky, into space, there are different pilots who fly totally different machines, and I am not one of them.

2: You become extra conscious not to do anything wrong, and this often leads to a brief spell of nervousness. Once you have dealt with it, you become the true owner of the machine worth 2 billion dollars.

When I say you are the owner, I really mean it. Because unless you do not have the feeling of owning it like your only object of fascination, the strict protocols of the federal government will never let you graduate as a pilot.

And we both had achieved this graduation milestone. But to become world class and preeminent combat pilots, passing through the Triangle of Tragedies was the only milestone left to achieve.

Both of us had studied a lot of literature on this subject and we also had consulted a few of our senior combat pilots who had flown their 2 billion dollar machines through the Triangle of Tragedies. Overall, we were very confident and we reported at the flying base at 10:00 am sharp.

Our combat jets were ready and they were the machines you would undoubtedly fall in love with because they were sleek, undetectable, travelled almost nearing the speed of light, broke many barriers, one of them being the sound barrier, and they could destroy any approaching missile. There were many other features that offered them aerial supremacy, but their main flying supremacy was defined by their new generation of turbo engines.

Their design and their fans were modelled in such a way that they developed 50 times more thrust. And our country has achieved this groundbreaking design enhancement by working on the handicap of existing turbo engines. It was surprising that nobody had been able to spot it over so many decades.

But the age of turbo engines will be over soon, so our combat planes are also mounted with the latest secret engines that work on a totally different technology and it is these engines that we need to test once we have entered the Triangle of Tragedies using the latest generation of turbo engines. Which we would be turning off as soon as we enter the Triangle, in order to allow the latest secret engines to offer us the needed thrust, and test their efficiency.

"Good day officers! Are you ready for the big day?"

As usual the energy of our commanding officer was encouraging and she surely appeared to be more excited than both of us. And we liked this quality of hers. So, the moment we saw her, we felt a professional compulsion with a strong sense of personal obligation, to express similar enthusiasm and acknowledge her morning greeting. That for 5 years has been a dual greeting- A morning wish with a question attached to it. And today is not the first time, but if we cross the Triangle of Tragedies successfully and return alive or otherwise, it might be the last greeting we will get to hear from her as our commanding officer. Because if we return alive we shall be joining different bases as independent pilots. And our ranks would differ, not because we will be flying machines worth 2 billion dollars. But due to other technical reasons.