Day of the Cheetah

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the United States Air Force Aeronautical Systems Division (ASD), Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, for their invaluable assistance in gathering information on America’s future fighter aircraft. ASD is a dream come true for an ex-Air Force nav, wistful fighter pilot, and fiction writer.

Space prohibits me from mentioning each of the fine persons of ASD that I had the pleasure of meeting, but I would like to thank Lt. General William E. Thurman, commander of ASD, for allowing me the privilege of a visit; Lt. Col. George H. Peck, Helen Cavanaugh, Capt. Brian Hoey, Jo Ann Rumple, and Capt. Jamie Scearse of the Office of Public Affairs for arranging my visit and escorting me through the myriad of offices and labs; Captain Myers N. Drew, AFTI/F-16 Program Manager, from the Flight Dynamics Laboratories, who showed me how a fighter could really fly sideways; Mr. James Pruner, X-29 Program Director, Mr. Ron DeCamp, mission-adaptive wing (MAW) Program Director, Mr. James Kocher, Integrated Close Air Support System (ICASS) Program Director, all of the Flight Dynamics Laboratory, Wright Aeronautical Laboratories; and a special thanks to Dr. Wayne L. Martin, acting chief of the Visual Displays System Branch of the Armstrong Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory, for allowing me to try out some of the incredible “Buck Rogers” supercockpit systems that our fighter pilots will be using five to ten years from now. I hope I have done credit to the time you extended to me.

Source for many of the technical descriptions of aircraft, weapons systems, and military forces of foreign nations was the United States Naval Institute Military Database, Arlington, Virginia. Other information sources include Western Union InfoMaster Research Database (medical articles, research papers, theses), CompuServe Information Service (encyclopedia, data storage, and computer utilities), and the Dow Jones News/ Retrieval Service (news articles, historical data, government statistics).

Thanks to Dennis T. Hall for helping arrange research trips and interviews. It’s great having you on the team.

A special thanks to George Wieser, who helped me to focus in on the real story behind Cheetah, and to Donald I. Fine, editor as well as publisher, for sharing his experience and talent with me.

And, as ever, to Jean. I’m happy you’re with me.