Siheyuan: I eat melons while doing scientific research

Chapter 1170: Repeated troubles? (I’m on a business trip today. There are three chapters. I’ll post one first.)
Perhaps this meeting reminded the Air Force something. Not long after this meeting, Gao Zhendong received an invitation from the Missile Research Institute. Their air-to-air missiles were about to be finalized!

Although the pulse PD radar used in fighter jets has not yet been finalized, it is actually mainly being improved and modified. Its current research results can already support the finalization of semi-active radar-guided air-to-air missiles.

Radar is radar, missile is missile, there is nothing wrong with keeping them separate. According to Comrade Gao Zhendong's suggestion, in this way, the situation where a problem with one equipment will cause the failure of another equipment will not occur.

Speaking of Gao Zhendong, when he was seen at the venue, the chief model designer of the Institute of Research and Development had an indescribable look on his face, of course, mainly happiness.

"Deputy Chief Engineer Gao, you've really put us through a lot." He complained, but his words were full of joy.

Although Gao Zhendong did not have much involvement in the details of this missile, just like the Thunder-3, Gao Zhendong was still the deputy chief designer of this semi-active radar air-to-air missile named Thunder-2.

As for the original Thunder-5 that imitated the K-2, the Air Force had already disliked it and directly scrapped it. They had tried it and it was as good as nothing. It was just a psychological comfort.

Before the new Thunderbolt-2 was finalized, in terms of radar bombs, the K-5s that the Russians had provided at the time were just used by the comrades in the Guidance Research Institute to familiarize themselves with them. The government was not even willing to let the comrades in the Air Force practice with them, mainly because it was feared that the broken thing would affect the feel and confidence of the Air Force fighter pilots and create some unnecessary stereotypes about semi-active radar bombs.

Hearing the chief designer's words, Gao Zhendong laughed. He knew that since the Institute of Missile Research and Development started to develop semi-active air-to-air radar missiles, it had gone through a lot of trouble and had to make repeated revisions.

"Don't say that I'm tormenting you. Just tell me whether you are willing to endure this torment." Gao Zhendong said.

The chief model designer also laughed with him, and laughed happily.

"Of course I'd love to. Besides, I'm mainly just talking, and the ones who will be troubled are Mr. Lu and his gang who are in charge of the subsystems. I don't mind anyway. If you're willing, you can come a few more times during the meeting today." The chief designer of the model looked at Engineer Lu and other subsystem managers who were in charge of subsystems such as navigation and engines.

"It's okay. If Commissioner Gao has any new things, just bring them to us. We are not afraid of any trouble." Engineer Lu and his friends are very familiar with Gao Zhendong and are good at making jokes with him.

Gao Zhendong nodded: "Really? That's fine."

It’s a deal! You said it yourself.

Several comrades, including the chief designer of the model, looked at each other and said, no way, is this really true?
Then I became excited again. It was settled. My job for at least the next one or two years was secured!
As for the task itself, of course there is one, but what Gao Zhendong said shows one thing: not only is the job stable, but the technology behind the job is also stable!

At least the direction, principle, and route are clear. As for the details, that is the responsibility of the Institute of Research and Development. What? Even this needs to be followed up by Commissioner Gao? That would be a disgrace to our Institute of Research and Development.

With this joyful mood, the comrades from the Institute of Research and Development began today's report.

The people are still the same, from the Air Force, the Defense Work Committee, and some finalization and acceptance experts from other units but closely related to missiles.

"…This missile is 3.8 meters long, about 0.2 meters in diameter, and weighs 190 kilograms…"

Well, this size and weight sounds great, the comrades commented.

"190 kilograms, that means the Z-7 can carry four missiles, as well as two infrared combat missiles, and there will be about one ton of mounts left for auxiliary fuel tanks." The comrade from the Air Equipment Bureau nodded with satisfaction. This mount is really great!
"That means there are at least two auxiliary fuel tanks, 4+2+2, and 8 hanging points. How can the Z-7 have so many hanging points?" asked a comrade.

He had seen the Zhan-7 before. It had one heavy load on the belly and four heavy loads on the wings, but there were only five hardpoints at most. It wasn't that it couldn't carry the load, but there weren't enough hardpoints to hang it.

The comrade from the Air Equipment Bureau laughed and said, "You don't know this. Our comrades from the military industry have developed a composite pylon. For the Zhan-7, the composite pylon on the fuselage can carry two missiles. The inner wing pylon can carry auxiliary fuel tanks, and the outer pylon can carry one Lei Dian-1 plus one Lei Dian-2. That's perfect. 1 fuel, 3 targets, 2 close range. Very good!"

At this point, the comrades from the Air Equipment Bureau couldn't help but glance at Gao Zhendong. Hey, Comrade Zhendong's advance planning was really good.

Gao Zhendong was a little surprised when he heard this. Comrades, you are quite quick. You have already figured out the composite hanger?

This amount of payload, even though the total weight is only two tons, is already an extremely impressive amount for the Z-19, which was developed from the old Attack-5 modified from the MiG-7.

But if you think about it carefully, the Lao Gong-5 is actually at the same level in weight as the later Fa Cai-1, so this mount seems reasonable.

And it is even more reasonable that the Z-7 gave up high altitude and high speed for these reasons.

The comrades in the Air Force were so happy that they couldn't stop smiling. This thing was great.

However, the next words from the comrade from the Institute of Guidance and Research made him drop his jaw: "... the maximum combat altitude is 20000 meters, the speed is Mach 4, and the maximum effective range is 45 kilometers..."

"How many?" Upon hearing this, the comrades in the Air Force could no longer hold back.

"45 kilometers, but at this range, you can't hit high-mobility targets." The chief designer in charge of the report laughed. Who cares if you can hit high-mobility targets? At this distance, even if you hit a weather balloon, I'll still say you're awesome.

The key point is that this matter is completely unimaginable for the Air Force.

A comrade from the Air Equipment Bureau said, "If I remember correctly, the missile was originally planned to have a range of 20 to 30 kilometers. How come it has increased so much? Even if we take 30 kilometers, it has increased by 50%. Isn't that too much?"

I know that you researchers like to set up ambushes on parameters to avoid a disaster, but aren't you setting too many ambushes? The pits you've dug are even enough to burn books and bury scholars alive!
Speaking of this, the model chief designer was very excited: "Originally we planned to do it for 20 to 30 kilometers, but our deputy chief designer Comrade Gao Zhendong troubled us twice in the middle, and we got this result."

"What's all the trouble?" the chief engineer of the Defense Work Committee asked with a smile.

Because of the Jiaozhi incident, the leader of the Defense Work Committee did not come, and today the Chief Engineer represented the Defense Work Committee to attend the meeting.

"Generally speaking, the radar has been improved so that the aircraft can see farther, which is the prerequisite for a longer range..."

If you can't see it, no matter how great the range is, you can't make full use of it.

"The second time, he worked on the propellant again. He improved the propellant formula and increased the power range of the missile." The power range is the basis of the range of a medium-range missile.

The comrades all laughed. So this is the way to do it. Great job! Do as much as you can! This thought came to the minds of all the comrades.

"Comrades, you don't know. According to the original technical conditions, this missile should have appeared at least half a year in advance. But Deputy Chief Designer Gao brought out all the good dishes, and they are in stock, so we really couldn't help it." The chief designer of the model made a joke.

The chief engineer of the Defense Work Committee smiled and nodded, and said meaningfully: "Well, you still have a lot to do..."

Hmm? You said so too? Deputy Chief Engineer Gao just mentioned this vaguely. Do you know something about it?
The comrades in the Institute of Guidance and Research are itching...

In fact, the chief engineer didn’t know what Gao Zhendong was thinking, but he knew at least one thing—the propellant could be replaced!
The new propellant called HTPB that Gao Zhendong came up with some time ago is not only low in cost, but also has obvious advantages over existing propellants in terms of specific impulse.

Although HTPB is not an energetic material, it can bring excellent mechanical properties. In this way, under the same mechanical requirements, the proportion of energetic materials in the propellant can be significantly increased.

It’s just that this thing is still in the process of mass production and synthesis trial, and has not been made public yet.

With a little joy of getting a head start, the comrade from the Institute of Missile Research continued to report: "... But as I said just now, at a range of 45 kilometers, the missile's hit rate can still be guaranteed to be above 80%, but for highly maneuverable targets, the hit rate will drop sharply..."

The comrades nodded one after another. This was normal. Most of those present were responsible for missile-related work and knew that the rear half of the missile flew entirely by inertia, had no power, and had limited maneuverability.

It was the comrade from the Air Force who seemed to have remembered something but didn’t know how to express it.

At this time, Gao Zhendong interrupted.

"I suggest you add an indicator and calculate or measure it. Don't worry, you won't have to worry about it. You don't need to modify the missile." Speaking of "worry", Gao Zhendong couldn't help laughing.

Hearing his words, the comrades burst into laughter. The comrades from the Missile Research Institute also put their minds at ease. As long as the missile is not modified, it would be too uncomfortable to do it over and over again.

"What indicators?" The comrades in the Air Force were very interested. They felt that what Gao Zhendong said might be what they were thinking about but couldn't express clearly.

"No escape zone."

"No escape zone?" As comrades who were working on medium-range air-to-air missiles for the first time, they had never thought of this concept, but this sentence is easy to understand. This is the advantage of Chinese.

"Is it the range that even highly maneuverable targets cannot escape?" asked a comrade from the Guidance Research Institute.

The comrades from the Air Equipment Bureau slapped their thighs and said, "Yes! Yes! This is it! We want this!"

Comrade Zhendong had a clear idea and knew what indicators our troops wanted to know. Our Air Force had this indicator, which was very useful for the formulation of air combat tactics.

Comrades also nodded, saying that this indicator was well set and was of great significance to the research and use of medium-range air-to-air missiles.

It is one thing to make something well, but it is another to use it well.

(End of this chapter)