D is for Dragon Lady

Out of all of the members of the Piston Peak Air Attack Team, Cabbie McHale was particularly skilled at keeping his work and not work life separate. When Windlifter had first started to work on base, he assumed that the old plane was like Blade Ranger, who had created a new life for himself at Piston Peak and actively did everything he could to avoid reliving the past. But slowly over time, Windlifter realized that Cabbie maintained a surprisingly large and diverse social network. Eventually, the Skycrane discovered that the best way to discover just how deep that network flowed was to observe Cabbie outside of the park…which is how Windlifter found himself parked on the tarmac at an airport that straddled the Nevada/Utah Border.

Wendover Airfield had once played an important role in WWII's Manhattan project. Its isolated location and wide-open salt flats had made it an excellent place for the 509th Composite Group's B-29 to learn how to handle and drop atomic bombs. But after the horrors that 'Fat Man' and 'Little Boy' wrecked on Japan caused the island nation to surrender, the secret role that Wendover played in creating those bombs became a piece of history that needed to be preserved. The entire area was now not only an active airfield but also a museum…and once a year, it played host to an airshow that helped the public turn back the clock and remember what life at the Wendover Airfield in the past was like.

Held in the fall, this particular airshow was tended to be one of the latest of the year, which meant it was often one of the only airshows that Cabbie could manage to attend. And boy did he seem to enjoy attending. Given the way he was strutting around the facilities, chatting up aircraft of models that Windlifter had only ever seen in books, it was clear that Cabbie was in his element.

After spending an entire morning chatting everyone's ears off, the old plane finally seemed to come up for air and offered to buy Windlifter some lunch. They were heading off to the vendor's tents when Cabbie's eyes widened as he seemed to recognize an aircraft that was making a tight figure eight above the airfield. Instantly he broke off his conversation with Windlifter and started to switch through radio frequencies. An instant later, Cabbie was heading like a bat out of Hell towards the tarmac. Even at a distance, Windlifter could see the older plane practically force his way past the Civil Air Patrol cadets manning the flight line before he rolled quickly out onto the runway.

The Skycrane was thoroughly confused and started to flip through radio channels to figure out what in the heck Cabbie was doing…when he watched in sheer panic as the aircraft circling above came in for a landing. For a few terrifying rotor beats, Windlifter was afraid that Cabbie was going to be landed on, but then the helicopter dialed into the correct radio channel, and he discovered that the Flying Boxcar was in fact talking the delicate-looking aircraft to the ground.

Once the plane's tires were firmly planted on the ground, and it was at a complete stop, Cabbie rolled around it. It took a few more moments for Windlifter to figure out what the old plane was up to, but eventually, he determined that the old warplane was guiding the slightly smaller aircraft back to the flight line. At first, Windlifter was concerned that the plane was injured, but the airfield's fire apparatuses didn't roll out which only deepened the helicopter's curiosity even more. It turned out that Windlifter didn't have to wait for an answer, because as soon as Cabbie spotted him in the crowd, the Flying Boxcar made straight towards him with the unknown aircraft in his wake.

"Windlifter, this is Miss Susan. Susan this is Windlifter." Cabbie introduced the two aircraft with a carefully motion of his wing. "Windlifter, would you mind being Miss Susan's escort for a few minutes while I have a chat with the air show organizers?"

"Certainly." The word had barely left Windlifter's lips when the old plane made one last motion to the U-2 and then made a beeline to the airfield's tower with his flaps practically vibrating.

This left the helicopter alone with a long and narrow aircraft, that was slightly shorter than he was in both length and height but boasted a wingspan that was nearly as wide as Cabbie's. At first glance, Windlifter couldn't help but feel uncomfortable by how the plane seemed to hold herself so rigidly. It made him feel like the aircraft was looking down at him and he instantly understood why so many found Dragon Lady's to be so intimidating.

Then, he noticed how hard the aircraft was working to tilt her body to one side without letting her broad wingtip touch the ground, and the reason for her intimidating posture became instantly apparent. She was incapable of seeing anything below the tip of her nose. Given their similar heights, the only parts of the Skycrane that she could probably see clearly were his engines and his rotor blades. Windlifter pushed himself as high as he could on his tires and was finally able to see her eyes. The moment he did he could see the U-2 instantly relax a bit.

"Hello." The Skycrane said after clearing his throat.

"Hello." Miss Susan replied with a slightly exasperated sigh.

"Can I ask you a question?" The helicopter asked after a few long rotor beats.

The old plane's eyes narrowed at Windlifter. "It depends on what you wish to ask."

"I am sure that you have stories." As Windlifter spoke the U-2 seemed to get even more wound up, but that did not stop the helicopter from speaking what was on his mind. "I was hoping that you might be willing to share some about what Cabbie was like when he was younger."

The moment that Cabbie's name was brought up, all of the tension that the Dragon Lady was holding instantly dissolved, and she actually let out a low, melodic chuckle. "The Coronel has been tight lipped about his past has he?"

Windlifter shrugged his rotors. "We know that he has many painful memories from his time in the service so we don't press, but there have been times that I have wondered…has Cabbie always been such an…well I don't know any other way to put it, such an old man?"

That got a full fledge laugh out of the aircraft and her eyes began to sparkle with delight. "I can't speak to what Cabbie was like when he was young, he had been through a full-fledged war before we ever met and that has way of aging a plane. But I can tell you, by the time we first met, Cabbie was already a somewhat curmudgeonly old man." The U-2 leaned in close to Windlifter and started to whisper conspiratorially. "That said, I am pretty sure that it is mostly an act."

Windlifter gave an exaggerated raise of his eyebrows. "Do tell."

By the time Cabbie finished chewing out the air show ground crew, located the barrels containing Susan's custom food, and found the corner of the tarmac that Windlifter and the U-2 had chosen to occupy, the two aircraft were swapping tales like a pair a school children. While Cabbie complained loudly about the indignity of having the two aircraft gossip about him as he rolled up. The old plane still managed to mouth a quick 'thank you' to Windlifter, before giving an exaggerated eye roll within Susan's line of sight and trying to insist that there must be a story more interesting to prattle away about than the time the smokejumper's prank went wrong and covered him in sludge. Sadly, for Cabbie, both Windlifter and Susan disagreed.

Lockheed U-2 Dragon Lady: The U-2 is among the oldest type of aircraft among the US Airforce Fleet. It entered production and was first flown in 1955 and is scheduled to remain in service until at least 2040. The U-2's primary role is a ultra-high-altitude reconnaissance, though NASA does own a few of these aircraft that are used for high altitude weather forecasting and research.

The U-2 got the nickname 'Dragon Lady' due to its reputation as being one of the most difficult to fly aircraft ever built. In order to operate at altitudes up to 80,000 ft, this aircraft's engines were designed to run on a specialty rocket fuel blend that stays liquid under those conditions, but this fuel tends to be temperamental at lower altitudes. The Dragon Lady also has an extraordinarily low field of vision, which translates to this aircraft requiring a chase car to talk this plane through each landing because the pilot is literally unable to see the ground.