Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 1564: Great Power Works Miracles (First update, please subscribe)
Nanyang Aerospace Industries Ltd.

As the largest aviation manufacturing company in Asia, there are always various aircraft parked at its airport, including the famous C707 and C717 passenger planes, F2 fighter jets, and even H1 bombers.

All aircraft, military and civilian, gather here. These newly manufactured aircraft will be tested here and then fly to all parts of the world.

After all, many of the aircraft's buyers are foreign businessmen.

Because of this, there are always pilots from all over the world gathering here, including some foreign pilots.

Lieutenant Colonel Thompson from Canada is one of the foreign pilots, but unlike the others, he has been here for the past two years, participating in the development of a new interceptor as a representative of the Canadian Air Force.

Today, not only Lieutenant Colonel Thompson came to the airport, but also Colonel Thomas from the UK. They are all participants in this international cooperation project.

This heavy twin-engine fighter is not an Air Force project, but a high-altitude, high-speed interceptor jointly developed by enterprises and multinational air forces. According to its tactical use concept, it relies on its excellent high-altitude and high-speed performance to intercept Soviet bombers.

Although the project was initially a research project funded by the Defense Development Agency, it became a formal project two years ago after receiving funding from the United Kingdom and Canada.

Relying on previous technical accumulation, the project not only progressed smoothly, but also carried out the first test flight as early as three months ago.

In their sight, a silver twin-engine heavy fighter plane was majestically parked on the runway.

In the sunlight, the fuselage of this seemingly huge fighter jet has a dazzling metallic luster.

"Can you believe it? This is a fighter plane made of steel."

Colonel Thomas said with some emotion.

"Because the strength of aviation aluminum alloy drops sharply at high temperatures, high-temperature resistant materials must be used to achieve the designed speed. Either stainless steel or titanium alloy. The usage of stainless steel is 70%, and the weight of titanium alloy is 15%. Well, the purpose of using stainless steel is to reduce the overall cost, and stainless steel is also easier to process."

Lieutenant Colonel Thompson said on the side.

"In order to overcome the thermal barrier, engineers chose stainless steel. The reason for choosing it is simple: cost and maintainability. Although titanium alloy is not bad in heat resistance and has low density and high strength, it is extremely difficult to process, resulting in high costs, especially welding, which is extremely troublesome. In comparison, the processing of stainless steel is very simple."

In fact, it is not as simple as imagined. After all, this stainless steel is a special aviation stainless steel developed by Donghai Steel for the aviation industry.

While the two officers were chatting, the chief designer Yu Hongji said.

"Its processing is not simple at all, and it can even be said to be very difficult. After all, the weight of stainless steel is there. If you want to use it on an airplane, you have to do your best to overcome this problem."

Lieutenant Colonel Thompson nodded quickly.

"I know, you're talking about the stainless steel honeycomb skin."

Although stainless steel has excellent processing performance, strength, heat resistance and low cost, its density of 7.9t/m is really unpleasant to aviation engineers who adhere to the principle of "struggle for every gram of weight", especially these engineers also adhere to the design style of efficiency first. So, stainless steel honeycomb skin appeared.

The stainless steel honeycomb skin is composed of a stainless steel skin and an aluminum alloy honeycomb sandwich. Both sides of the skin are stainless steel sheets with a thickness of only 0.381 mm, and the middle is a honeycomb structure.

This is also the biggest feature of this aircraft. It is not simply made of stainless steel, but uses the stainless steel honeycomb skin invented by Americans but abandoned because it is too expensive.

"Yes, it is this honeycomb skin. It took Donghai Steel two full years to reduce its cost."

Then Yu Hongji continued.

“From the perspective of material performance alone, this seems to be a perfect compromise design: the honeycomb structure successfully reduces the impact of the terrible density of stainless steel and reduces the overall density of the material to the level of titanium alloy and aluminum alloy.

At the same time, the outer stainless steel skin retains the original excellent strength and high temperature resistance of stainless steel.

But its processing and manufacturing is extremely difficult. The ultra-thin stainless steel skin and complex honeycomb structure make the processing of this material extremely difficult. This is also the fundamental reason why it has been delayed until now. "

Not only has it been delayed until now, but the manufacturing cost has also increased greatly. The price of stainless steel honeycomb skin is equivalent to half of that of titanium alloy. Even so, it took two years of repeated experiments to reduce the price. Its initial cost was not even much lower than that of titanium alloy.

"Fortunately, Donghai Steel finally solved this problem, otherwise..."

Colonel Thomas looked at the plane and said:

"We may not see him appear."

Yu Hongji shook his head and said:
"Not necessarily, but we will try another method at that time. For example, we can use ordinary stainless steel skin directly, which will make maintenance easier. Of course, the cost will also be much lower."

In fact, the new skin structure reduces weight but greatly increases cost. Therefore, for a long time, how to reduce the cost of stainless steel honeycomb skin has become the key to all problems.

"If that's the case, wouldn't he just be a piece of iron in the air?"

"Yeah, in that case, he definitely can't fly at three times the speed of sound."

While they were chatting here, the test pilot had already boarded the plane. After completing the preliminary inspection, the test pilot reported.

"Tower, requesting takeoff."

"Got it, you can take off." With the command coming from the headset, the twin-engine heavy fighter began to accelerate on the runway. The pilot held the joystick tightly, feeling the fuselage trembling slightly as the speed increased. The roar of the engine resounded through the sky, as if announcing that it was about to break free from the constraints of the earth and soar into the sky.

The plane was getting faster and faster, and the scenery on both sides of the runway quickly blurred. The nose of the plane lifted slightly, and the front wheels left the ground, and the rear wheels left the ground soon after. At that moment, the whole plane seemed to leap up lightly and rushed into the sky.

After taking off into the sky, the plane first climbed under the control of the test pilot. Soon, relying on its powerful engine, the plane climbed to an altitude of 10,000 meters.

At an altitude of more than 18000m, following the command from the control tower, the test pilot turned on the engine afterburner.

Instantly, two balls of blue-yellow flames spurted out from the tail of the plane, leaving two dazzling trails in the air. The plane rushed forward as if it had been injected with powerful power.

The plane's altitude was constantly climbing, from 18000 meters to 20000 meters.

“22000m.”

The radar operator's voice continued to be heard on the radio.

The altitude of the plane is also constantly increasing.

When the plane flies over an altitude of 25000 meters, its speed is also constantly increasing.

The ground radar kept reporting the speed of the aircraft: "1.5 Mach... 2 Mach... 2.5 Mach..."

The speed of the aircraft is increasing rapidly, and each number represents the increasing heat and kinetic energy generated by the friction between the aircraft and the air.

The pilot seemed to feel the temperature of the plane increasing, and his heartbeat quickened as the plane accelerated. He stared at the sky ahead, which was his target and his battlefield.

"Mach 2.8!"

The ground radar reported the speed of the aircraft again. This speed was more than twice the speed of sound, which was almost unattainable for humans. But in front of this twin-engine heavy fighter, it was just the beginning. The aircraft continued to accelerate, carrying the pilot and its mission to a higher and farther sky.

At this time, the engineers and air force officers on the ground were all sweating. After all, the increasing speed of the aircraft meant that the temperature of the fuselage was also increasing.

"At such a fast speed, the temperature will definitely go up. It won't have any impact, right?"

Thomas asked nervously.

Facing the concerns of others, Yu Hongji said confidently:

"Don't worry, the all-stainless steel skin can withstand aerodynamic heating of 304°C. During the experiment, the stainless steel skin can even withstand aerodynamic heating above Mach 4, at which speed the titanium alloy has begun to soften."

As the chief designer of this aircraft, Yu Hongji has enough confidence in the aircraft he designed. After all, they have conducted many tests before.

"30000 meters!"

At this moment, the radar operator's somewhat excited voice came from the radio's external speaker.

30000 meters!
This is exactly the ultimate purpose of their right and wrong this time.

Not only did it reach an altitude of 30000m, but its speed soon climbed to Mach 3!

"Mach 3.0! Mach 3.1! ... Mach 3.2! We have reached Mach 3.2!"

"Haha, it's our double three fighters. Double three fighters."

Amid the excited shouts of the people, Lieutenant Colonel Thompson looked up at the sky. Although he could not see the plane, he seemed to have seen it flying in Canada's vast northern airspace.

The reason why Canada joined this international cooperation project was to obtain an interceptor with a fast enough speed, but now the performance of this aircraft has completely exceeded his imagination.

"Can it be faster?"

This thought came to Lieutenant Colonel Thompson's mind, but he didn't say it out loud.

At this time, Colonel Thomas, who was standing aside, said:
"It can definitely go faster. I dare say it can definitely fly faster, because at the beginning, it was designed to be heavier, but now it is several tons lighter. The thrust of the engine remains the same, so it can definitely fly faster and higher."

As he said this, Colonel Thomas looked up at the sky and talked to himself.

"I dare say he is flying so high and so fast, there is no way any missile can shoot him down."

"Yes, there is absolutely no way any missile can shoot it down. After all, it flies so fast and so high."

For a moment, when these two air force officers from different countries looked at the sky, there was only one thought in their minds - it was him, it was him, it was him.

This is the plane they need, no, this is the plane their country needs.

With this aircraft they could not only protect their skies, but also their people from the threat of nuclear war.

(End of this chapter)