Day of the Cheetah (Patrick McLanahan Series #2)

by Dale Brown

Overview

America's most advanced fighter plane is hijacked-and the greatest high-flying chase of all time begins...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780425120439
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/15/1990
Series:	Patrick McLanahan Series , #2
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	528
Sales rank:	302,723
Product dimensions:	4.22(w) x 6.70(h) x 1.37(d)

About the Author

Former U.S. Air Force captain Dale Brown is the author of several best-selling military-action-aviation-adventure novels: Flight of the Old Dog (1987), Silver Tower (1988), Day of the Cheetah (1989), Hammerheads (1990), Sky Masters (1991), Night of the Hawk (1992), Chains of Command (1993), Storming Heaven (1994) and Shadows of Steel (1996). Dale's novels are published in 11 languages and distributed to over 70 countries.

Dale was born in Buffalo, New York on November 2, 1956. He graduated from Penn State University and received an Air Force commission in 1978. He was a navigator-bombardier in the B-52G Stratofortress heavy bomber and the FB-111A supersonic medium bomber, and is the recipient of several military decorations and awards including the Air Force Commendation Medal with oak leaf cluster, the Combat Crew Award, and the Marksmanship ribbon. He flew over 2500 hours in various military tactical and training aircraft from 1978 to 1986 and was also a graduate of the U.S. Army Airborne School.

Dale is a volunteer pilot for AirLifeLine, a non-profit national charitable medical transportation organization who fly needy persons free of charge to receive treatment. He also supports a number of organizations to support and promote law enforcement and reading. He is a member of the Airplane Owners and Pilots Association, The Writers Guild, and a Life Member of the Air Force Association and U.S. Naval Institute. He is a multi-engine and instrument-rated private pilot and can often be found in the skies all across the United States, piloting his Piper Aerostar 602P. On the ground, Dale enjoys tennis, scuba diving, and hockey. He lives in Incline Village, Nevada.

Editorial Reviews

Brown's third technothriller is based on a premise successfully developed a decade ago in Clive Thomas's Firefox : the theft of an advanced-design fighter. This time the year is 1996; the fighter is America's X-34 Dreamstar; and its secret is ANTARES: the interfacing of the pilot's nervous system and the aircraft's computer. The plane's hijack by its pilot, a KGB mole, sets the stage for a fast-moving spectrum of diplomatic and military measures to recover or destroy the prize without starting a world war. Ultimately the task falls to the Cheetah--an F-15 with its own updated avionics, but an ``older, less intelligent cousin'' of Dreamstar. Brown's action scenes are vivid; his descriptions of contemporary technology accurate; his projections into the near future of aircraft design convincing; and his characterization of the growing internal conflict in the mole has weight and substance. Among the book's flaws, however, is Brown's decision to depend heavily on characters first presented in Flight of the Old Dog , so that he frequently disrupts the narrative with references to the earlier mission. More seriously for a work of this genre, Brown seems at times almost bored with the fighter technology he is describing. Despite its drawbacks, however, this novel should be a strong contender in the summer's technothriller sweepstakes. $125,000 ad/promo; paperback rights to Berkley; BOMC featured selection; author tour. (July)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Keith James, the hottest pilot at Dreamland, a secret Air Force base in the Nevada desert, is the only man fully qualified to fly Dreamstar , a highly maneuverable fighter flown by computer software linked to the pilot's brain. But in 1996, James, a Soviet mole trained from childhood in his alter ego, steals Dreamstar . The Cheetah , an experimental F-15 fighter, must hunt it down and destroy it. The hero is ace B-52 navigator Pat McLanahan from Brown's first novel, The Flight of the Old Dog, assisted by the Old Dog's crew. Aviation buffs will delight in the breathtaking dogfights and air strikes. One must overlook improbable details, e.g., a computer tracking every synaptic impulse in the nervous system, bomber types leading a fighter research effort. Those willing to fly in Brown's imaginative skies can enjoy an exhilarating high-tech adventure. BOMC featured selection.)-- Elsa Pendleton, Computer Sciences Corp., Ridgecrest, Cal.

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