I built an armada.

Three days later, Project Black Bird officially began.

Su Dingping has roughly built the basic framework using add-ons, but the details still require the joint efforts of all the engineers.

The plan initially went smoothly, but when it came to more specific modules, the pace suddenly slowed down.

Su Dingping stood in front of the huge data wall in the chief engineer's office, his brows furrowed into a deep frown as he sighed helplessly.

The only good news is that, with the allocation of resources, the first version of the slightly less powerful airborne AI has been successfully launched.

In certain special circumstances, its role can be far greater than imagined.

After all, it's a program specifically designed for special circumstances.

However, its versatility is relatively poor, and it cannot yet be used as a true airborne AI.

To put it bluntly, it's currently just an artificially disabled system.

It's more like a program that only works under certain special conditions; most of the time it's not very useful.

More data needs to be collected, and that can't be rushed.

A crude version of AI has already begun to appear in the civilian market, thus losing the mobile phone assistants that many people may have heard of in the past.

It can only work on specific words and phrases, its response speed is relatively limited, and its level of intelligence is appalling.

However, this situation is constantly improving.

What's giving Su Dingping the biggest headache right now is the design of the Black Bird.

On the wall in front of him was a fluid dynamics simulation cloud map of the aerodynamic shape of the "Black Bird".

Dozens of colors represent the pressure and turbulence in different areas.

The original design of the near-perfect diamond-shaped wing-body blending was intended to perfectly suit various extreme environments.

But problems arose as soon as we actually got on the machine.

In the simulation, the wing trailing edge stability was extremely poor during supersonic cruise!
Reflected on the simulated cloud map, it appears as a glaring, deep red vortex region.

Energy waste and increased drag are the least of the problems.

Most critically, in actual use, this instability could very likely trigger uncontrollable vibrations!

"The seventh model revision failed."

Su Dingping held a voice recorder in his hand, recording the results of yet another simulation.

His voice carried a hint of weariness, yet it sounded exceptionally clear in the quiet office.

His eyes were bloodshot.

There was a gentle knock on the office door.

"Enter."

Guo Xueyun walked in carrying a thermos, her steps as light as a cat's.

In reality, their relationship shouldn't be that close.

For a while, Guo Xueyun wouldn't even have any communication with Su Dingping outside of work.

However, one day, under the guidance of a "wise man," Guo Xueyun felt that she could not continue like this.

She even felt that the opportunity for the two of them to have such a face-to-face conversation was a blessing from heaven!
Since she has feelings for him, we shouldn't waste this opportunity.

Gradually, in addition to work-related communication, Guo Xueyun would occasionally seize the opportunity to chat with Su Dingping for a few more minutes.

Of course, although Guo Xueyun had the idea of ​​pursuing Su Dingping, she would not let it interfere with her work.

She could clearly distinguish right from wrong when it came to matters of the heart and national affairs.

In addition, the tasks were quite heavy, and Su Dingping was a workaholic, so the two of them didn't actually have much interaction.

If talking about what you had for lunch is considered a private matter, then not all of their interactions are work-related.

When she occasionally came to report on her work, she would bring Su Dingping a cup of hot milk or something.

The main advantage is that this thing doesn't waste time; you can just put hot milk in the microwave for a quick stir, which is convenient when writing reports.

"Mr. Su, milk."

"I also ran the flight control-aerodynamic coupling anomaly data you requested last time and found some patterns."

She placed the cup on the table next to Su Dingping, not too close, maintaining a just-right professional distance.

Guo Xueyun knew she couldn't rush things, even though pursuing a man is easy for a woman.

Su Dingping finally looked away from the wall and took the cup.

The temperature of the hot milk seeps through the cup wall; it's not scalding, just warm enough to comfortably warm your hands.

As the weather gradually turns cooler, even with the heater on in the lab, my hands and feet sometimes feel cold after sitting for a long time.

A glass of hot milk late at night can indeed be very invigorating.

"What pattern?" Su Dingping asked, though his voice still carried a hint of tension until he took a sip of hot milk and finally relaxed for a moment.

Guo Xueyun walked to the control panel and pulled up the data she had brought.

She magnified several key waveforms.

“Look here, I’ve discovered that the tremors I mentioned earlier weren’t actually random.”

"I discovered that its occurrence frequency is very regular, only appearing under specific angles of attack and specific Mach numbers, and..."

She paused, then looked at Su Dingping.

"I think this might be related to fine-tuning of the flight control system?"

"Fine-tuning?" Su Dingping asked subconsciously.

Guo Xueyun nodded.

"Ninety percent of the vibrations occur within 0.3 seconds after the flight control system makes high-frequency fine-tuning."

"As for the remaining 10%... there may be some other key factors at play, but I haven't found the key data yet."

Su Dingping walked over to her with the cup in his hand.

As they drew closer, he could smell a faint, almost imperceptible scent of gardenia emanating from her, like laboratory cleaning solution mixed with a hint of gardenia fragrance.

It might be the smell of shampoo.

Su Dingping was slightly distracted.

"You mean it's not a purely aerodynamic problem, but rather that the flight control system's active intervention has triggered potential flow instabilities?"

Su Dingping stared at the timestamp on the screen, his brain working at lightning speed.

The amount of data collected from the experiment was so vast that even Su Dingping couldn't notice every anomaly in the data.

At this point, it is necessary for members of other project teams to conduct analysis.

Even the most ordinary researcher may discover the most critical anomalies.

Such situations are common in large-scale experiments.

Often, all that's missing is that one thin layer of paper.

Once exposed, it becomes easy to spot the anomaly, whereas before that, it's generally difficult to notice the problem from a broad perspective.

"I think it's coupled oscillation."

Guo Xueyun's voice was firm, but also very cautious.

"I think it has something to do with our onboard AI; our algorithms are too sensitive."

"It's a bit too much of a perfectionist approach; AI always wants to calculate the optimal solution at every moment."

"However, air is not a rigid body; it has inertia. When the algorithm-corrected commands are transmitted to the control surfaces, these changes disturb the airflow, and the changes in the airflow are captured by the sensors, causing the algorithm to correct itself again..."

"Then a vicious cycle is formed. Under normal conditions, the material itself can resist the damage, but under high speed conditions, it will explode directly."

Su Dingping remained silent for a long time, his fingers trembling slightly.

"How about adding an aerodynamic hysteresis compensation function to the high-frequency correction module in the algorithm?"

A flash of understanding crossed Su Dingping's eyes, and he spoke rapidly.

"Then let's try that variant model that we validated last time on the electromagnetic catapult buffer."

"Go and spread the word about this task. You can set the weighting parameters. I need to see the results in six hours!"

Guo Xueyun's eyes lit up, and without a single wasted word, she said, "Understood! I'll go inform them right away." She turned to leave.

"Engineer Guo," Su Dingping called out to her.

Guo Xueyun turned around.

"Milk... thank you."

Su Dingping shook the cup in his hand, a rare, almost imperceptible hint of relaxation appearing on his face.

Guo Xueyun smiled, a very light smile, but like a pebble thrown into still water, creating ripples on her face.

"Please... take care and get some rest, Mr. Su."

"hold on."

Su Dingping glanced at his watch and shook his head helplessly.

"I was too impatient. Let's send out the notice tomorrow. It's already past eleven o'clock. I should get some rest."

"Then, you should get some rest too."

Guo Xueyun was about to leave when she suddenly stopped.

Su Dingping got up to pack his things and saw Guo Xueyun standing there, which puzzled him.

"What's wrong?"

"Um... you can just call me Xiaoyun from now on, that's what my family calls me."

Su Dingping was taken aback for a moment, then a smile appeared on his face.

"Okay, Xiaoyun, you should get some rest too."

Guo Xueyun quickly turned her head away, and in a corner where Su Dingping couldn't see her, her face was already flushed.

This is a blatant implication.

What do you mean my family calls me that? If you call me that, are you family too?
Under what circumstances can two people who are not related by blood become family?
The answer is self-evident.

Guo Xueyun was unwilling to call it tea ceremony, but rather a little trick to get closer to someone, so how could it be called tea ceremony?
Su Dingping stood there, watching Guo Xueyun's retreating figure as she ran away, and took a sip of milk.

It's slightly sweet, so it must have sugar added.

He looked back at the data wall, and the deep red vortex area no longer seemed so hopeless.

The next day at 11:00 AM.

Inside the flight control lab, Guo Xueyun and several team members huddled in front of the screen, running their eighth simulation test.

"...The gain coefficient has reached 0.7, and the program is running."

Mach number increase...

Everyone involuntarily held their breath.

The virtual fighter jet shook slightly, and the turbulence cloud pattern on the trailing edge of the wing began to turn red.

But in the next second, the red color not only did not spread, but quickly dissipated.

"Passed! Success! The vibration amplitude is within a controllable range!"

One of the team members let out an excited whisper.

Guo Xueyun breathed a long sigh of relief, only then realizing that her shoulders and back were sore from being tense for so long.

"Pack up the complete data, label it with the version number, and I'll send it to General Manager Su now."

She stretched her neck and picked up the encrypted storage device.

Chief Engineer's Office.

Guo Xueyun knocked on the door, and a deep "Come in" came from inside.

Su Dingping sat behind his desk, a thick materials science report spread out in front of him, and a compressed biscuit in his hand.

After studying the data all morning, Su Dingping was really hungry.

Even though it was almost time to eat, he still chose to have some biscuits to fill his stomach first.

Of course, if you're full from eating cookies, you might as well skip lunch.

"President Su, the data for the new version."

Guo Xueyun placed the memory device on the table, trying to keep her voice steady, but the joy in her words was still somewhat undeniable.

Su Dingping quickly browsed the key results.

"well-done."

"The application of this model is ingenious. At 2 PM, convene a joint meeting with the aerodynamics and flight control teams, and you will explain this solution."

"Let me tell you?"

Guo Xueyun was slightly taken aback.

This kind of cross-team solution explanation is usually done by the chief engineer or a higher-level system engineer.

"You proposed and verified the solution, so it's most appropriate for you to speak about it."

Su Dingping's tone left no room for argument, and he then added, "By the way, if you have any difficulties preparing the materials, you can ask Engineer Zhou for assistance."

“No problem,” Guo Xueyun quickly replied. “I’ll be ready.”

Su Dingping nodded, lowered his head, and returned his gaze to the report.

Guo Xueyun hesitated for a moment, not leaving immediately, her gaze falling on the compressed biscuits in Su Dingping's hand.

"Mr. Su, did you just grab something quick for lunch again?"

Su Dingping looked up from the report and glanced at her.

"That's about right. If I'm not hungry later, I'll just grab a bite in the office."

"Oh... um."

Ten minutes later, Guo Xueyun placed a meal she had packed from the cafeteria in front of Su Dingping.

If possible, she would certainly like to express her sincerity by doing it herself.

However, the task was quite demanding, and her cooking skills couldn't compare to those of the chefs hired by the cafeteria, nor did she have the time.

In comparison, packing a meal to go is just a convenient thing to do.

Sometimes, when researchers don't have time to eat, they'll ask a colleague to pack a meal for them.

Contrary to popular belief, researchers generally maintain a relatively healthy lifestyle, except during critical phases.

After all, researchers are human too; they need to rest, eat, and also need entertainment and relaxation.

Being constantly on edge can break a person's nerves—except for certain workaholics.

Guo Xueyun casually broke the disposable chopsticks in half and placed them in front of Su Dingping.

"Let's eat first; we can't lead this team effectively without proper nutrition."

Su Dingping opened his mouth, but ultimately did not refuse.

"Thank you then."

He didn't throw away the half-eaten compressed biscuit in his hand, but instead wrapped it up and placed it on the table to the side.

Mental work is also quite physically demanding. If I get hungry in the afternoon, I can use this remaining half biscuit to make do.

Guo Xueyun didn't stand on ceremony; she also packed her own food and sat down next to Su Dingping to eat.

Now Su Dingping had no excuse not to eat, and could only shovel rice into his mouth with Guo Xueyun.

After Su Dingping finished eating, Guo Xueyun naturally cleaned up his trash and took it with her.

"Um...can I call you Dingping in private from now on?"

These words were spoken so naturally that Su Dingping almost didn't realize they were being said to him.

"Okay...is that alright?"

Guo Xueyun remained calm and casually picked up the trash bag from Su Dingping's office as well.

"Okay, Mr. Su, remember to take a lunch break!" (End of Chapter)