The colors inside and outside of the WC-130J Weatherbird are what stand out when flying into the eye of a hurricane. The radar first displays the bright green of the outer storm bands. Proceeding on course, the mustard yellow areas of more severe wind and heavy rain come up on the screen.

In the end, the exercise became a complicated math problem. It had fixed quantitiesÑ2,300 miles, twelve required aerial refuelings, more than nine hours of flight time, and three KC-130J Super Hercules tankers. The solution had to equal four MV-22B Osprey aircraft crews flying nonstop across the US and landing safely with 3,000 pounds of fuel reserves. The big variable was the weather.