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Mach 7 plane featured in new novel

By General Aviation News Staff · March 5, 2013 ·

Now available from HobNob Books is “Tango Trajectory,” a thriller by Dale W. Cox that features the Taurora, a plane based on an actual Mach 7 plane.

The novel unfolds during the course of an ordinary day on a secret CIA base at Groom Lake, Nevada. Readers will follow Teresa O’Brien’s challenges after being selected by a powerful Congresswoman to be the first woman to fly Taurora, a billion dollar spy plane. She is met with a wave of hostility at the all-male base.

TangoTrajectoryMajor Rick McQuilkin, one of three resident test pilots, is assigned the task of cutting O’Brien out of the program. To McQuilkin’s surprise, he finds O’Brien to be a quick learner, capable and determined, with several years experience flying off Navy aircraft carriers.

In spite of the male opposition Lieutenant O’Brien becomes qualified to fly “spook” missions. Her unexpected discovery of a terrorist base on her second Taurora mission enrages the Wahhabi al Furan, who scheme to kill all four test pilots. Will O’Brien avoid another terrorist attack sent to stop the spy planes?

Although Tango Trajectory is a novel, the plane, Taurora, is based on an actual Mach 7 plane first revealed to the American public by an article in the Wall Street Journal in 1992, according to Cox.

Cox, a former Navy test pilot, holds two official transcontinental speed records, Los Angeles-New York and New York-Los Angeles, and was one of the first contenders in the Mercury astronaut program.

The novel is available on Amazon.com

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