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Article: Flying the 'Big Bad Dog': Cape Town is a great place to push the envelope.(fighter plane ride in Cape Town, South Africa)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Newsweek
- Article date:
- February 18, 2002
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Byline: Tom Masland in Cape Town
The control tower at Cape Town International Airport knows the black Electric Lightning fighter jet as Bravo Bravo Delta. That's an inside joke--its pilots call the British Mach 2 interceptor the Big Bad Dog. Designed at the height of the cold war--to race up high, get off a couple of missiles at incoming bombers, then go home before the fuel ran out--the Electric Lightning is essentially a rocket with wings. Now this fighter does milder duty as a kind of supersonic joyride for the superrich.
The ride begins at an outfit called Thunder City, housed in two hangars at Cape Town airport. These serve as a base for the Dog and ...