The Day of the Cheetah - Hardcover

Brown, Dale

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1556111215 ISBN 13: 9781556111211

Publisher: Dutton Adult, 1989

Synopsis

A Navy program employing artificial intelligence in the cockpit of its latest fighter is compromised by a KGB mole, and Major Pat McLanahan must recover the technology

About this title

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.

From Publishers Weekly:

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.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dutton Adult
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 1556111215
• ISBN 13: 9781556111211
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 504