Siheyuan: I eat melons while doing scientific research

Chapter 1420 This thing can fly? (4k)

As for Gao Zhendong, he was unaware of the equipment that came out of his mouth and was now flourishing everywhere, since he was not in charge of equipment under the National Defense Industry Committee.

However, there were indeed several comrades in charge of equipment in front of him.

"In your opinion, what's the best way for bombers to penetrate the defenses right now?"

Gao Zhendong was facing comrades from the National Defense Industry Committee and the Air Force Equipment Bureau, while the comrades from the Air Force Equipment Bureau were looking at him with great anxiety.

In addition, there are colleagues from the manufacturers, specifically those closely associated with bombers, such as the heavy aircraft factory.

It hadn't been long since he last met with the chief engineer, and now they were meeting again.

"Boss, I've thought about that thing. It's really difficult and expensive," Gao Zhendong said honestly.

"Never mind that, just tell me if you have a solution in mind," Chief Engineer Wei said with a smile.

Expensive? Sometimes, the price of something isn't that important. Expensive? Then produce less. But the most important thing is feasibility, and on top of that, having something usable.

"Yes, yes, yes, whether it's expensive or not isn't your concern, that's our concern. The price is our problem, not a technical one, Comrade Zhendong, we understand that." The comrade from the Air Force Equipment Bureau laughed.

Gao Zhendong's reaction reassured them that Comrade Zhendong must have a plan in mind, and a very clear one at that, otherwise he wouldn't have commented that it was difficult and expensive.

Seeing their reaction, Gao Zhendong stopped struggling. "You said it yourself, it's none of my business."

He nodded: "I do have an idea, and the solution is in the same direction as the current optimization of air superiority fighters, but it's a bit more extreme."

"Air superiority fighters..." Among the comrades from all sides, the factory workers were the most confused, because they knew nothing about air superiority fighters. According to regulations, different pieces of equipment should also be kept secret from each other.

However, the other two groups were still impressed. After all, even though the fighter jet was not finished, the current result was so appealing that it was hard not to remember it.

"You mean... stealth? Radar stealth???" the chief engineer asked with some uncertainty.

The comrades from the Air Force Equipment Bureau were somewhat surprised. They were aware of the need to reduce radar cross-section, but they were not bold enough to think that they could rely solely on stealth as a foolproof method.

The people who were truly taken aback, and who were completely unprepared, were the colleagues at the factory.

What is that? Radar invisibility? What kind of cutting-edge technology is this?

Am I dreaming? They pinched their thighs, ouch, that hurts!
Only then did they realize the extent to which some branches of our aviation technology had developed.

What Gao Zhendong said next made them realize that all of this was not just a fantasy.

Gao Zhendong smiled and nodded: "Yes, invisibility, the ultimate invisibility! With just this one trick, I reckon it can last for 2 or 30 years."

Although in Gao Zhendong's previous life, the B-2 Ghost was actually effective until the first decade of the 21st century, Gao Zhendong felt that this was in the context of the Cold War. During the Cold War, the extent to which all parties invested in military technology was truly astounding.

So if people know this thing exists, even if they don't know the specific secrets, the actual time they can use it is only about twenty or thirty years.

After all, the B-2 was invincible from the 1990s to the first decade of the 21st century, largely because the Great Polar Bear dug a hole and buried itself solidly, while we had not yet been able to develop it.

It's like a bug that's hindering the development processes of countries around the world.

Gao Zhendong has never forgotten the principle of "preparing for the worst while being lenient with the enemy."

"2 or 30 years? That's enough!" For the Venezuelan government and the military, that's a terrifyingly long time. They even consider themselves lucky if they can be considered advanced for at least 10 years.

After all, the 60s was a period of rapid advancement in weapons development for almost every country. The benefits of S2 reserves and various developing technologies were concentrated in the 50s and 60s, with equipment changing every day. The speed of upgrading and replacement was unimaginable to people in the 21st century.

Furthermore, if we calculate based on the most urgent needs, it's actually sufficient as long as the system is advanced for a few years after it's developed.

"But given the situation with the Tu-16 copy, no matter how much the radar cross-section is reduced, it can't be reduced to that extent, right?" The chief engineer of Venezuela asked with some doubt.

Gao Zhendong nodded: "That's for sure. To achieve this effect, we have to develop a new bomber. We have to completely rebuild it. Almost nothing from the existing bombers can be used on the new aircraft. If we had to say, the only thing that can be temporarily replaced is the engine."

If we really had to do it, copying the B-2 or B-21 would have been a tiny bit of a chance, but the Tu-16 and the flying wing configuration are so different that they are completely different things.

The comrades were all taken aback. No wonder Gao Zhendong said it was difficult; it really was very difficult.

To build a new bomber from scratch!
However, seeing Gao Zhendong's face, the comrades regained some confidence. Since he said that, he must have some basic ideas, plans, and techniques in mind.

What kind of airplane do you want to build?

When it came to the most important thing, Gao Zhendong stood up and went to grab the chalk.

Today's meeting was completely unexpected, so he hadn't prepared any materials and could only rely on his memory to draw by hand.

The comrades watched as an extremely strangely shaped airplane gradually took shape under Gao Zhendong's hands. The airplane was so strange that it didn't look like an airplane at all.

Especially from the side, if looking at it from the front is just a bit strange, and looking from above, while hard to accept, you can still find a little bit of the shape of an aircraft, then from the side, this thing looks like a club. I'm not insulting it, it really looks like a spindle, not just the commonly used term "spindle-shaped fuselage." At least with a spindle-shaped fuselage, you can see a vertical tail fin on the side, but this thing doesn't have that at all. From the side, it's just a bare spindle with two pointed ends.

Hey, why are the head and tail of this thing so pointed?
Perhaps it's not finished yet; that's all we can guess.

But they soon realized they were wrong. When Gao Zhendong finished drawing the three views, he threw the chalk away.

"Yes, that's roughly it. However, specific parameters such as the sweep angle need to be determined through research, calculation, and experimentation."

What he drew can be roughly regarded as the shape of a B-21.

It wasn't that he was being overly ambitious, aiming directly for the newest stealth bomber he knew from his previous life. Rather, in terms of actual size, the B-21 was more suitable than the B-2. From an aerodynamic and stealth perspective, there was no fundamental difference between the two, which meant that in these two aspects, they were the same.

After all, the B-2 is too big, while the B-21 is much smaller. This thing is in the same class as the Tu-16, with an empty weight of 30 tons and a full load weight of 80 tons. There are many things that can be copied, such as the size, the approximate thrust range of the engine, and the selection of stealth parameters.

Is that all? The comrades looked at each other in bewilderment, while the comrades from the factory seemed to remember something and were racking their brains for clues.

"Can this thing fly?" The comrade from the Air Force Equipment Bureau asked the question that most of his colleagues wanted to ask.

Gao Zhendong patted the chalk dust off his hands and laughed, "Yes, of course it can. The basic design has already been tested for us. It can fly. Of course, whether it can fly well is another matter, but taking to the skies is no problem. And they haven't yet moved towards ultimate stealth. But this design is the most suitable for developing stealth bombers!"

His words reminded the comrades at the factory, and one of them clapped his hands: "I remember now, flying wing! Flying wing! There are rumors from Hans and Citi that they are working on this kind of aircraft, but we haven't seen it being put into service."

It's good enough to hear the news. These days it's the Cold War, and many things aren't driven by economic interests. It's rare to see something so grandiose on a PowerPoint presentation.

Of course, when we get to the sixth generation of fighter jets, we will directly produce prototypes from multiple locations in the north and south to fight each other, while the "Little White Bear," "Young Master Ou," and "American" can only use PowerPoint presentations to fight each other. That would be a different situation altogether.

In fact, before the 60s, Hans' Ho-229 and Citizen's YB-35 and YB-49 were relatively mature flying wing configurations that could at least take off. However, further development was not yet possible because of materials, and more importantly, flight control technology could not keep up.

These are the kind of things that can fly under normal circumstances, but will crash if there's an unexpected change.

After listening to what the comrades from Chongqing Aircraft Factory said, the committee and the Air Force Equipment Department realized that this thing could actually fly.

"No way? This thing doesn't look reliable at all. It can't even turn." The crew member in the air looked puzzled. There's no tail fin, how can it turn?

One of the crews at Chongfei said, "Flying wings can control turns using ailerons on the trailing edge of the wing, or they can turn using propeller reversal or engine thrust difference, but the problem is that all of these have their drawbacks."

Engine thrust control steering is a heading control technique used in abnormal situations, such as when the rudder and other aerodynamic control surfaces of an aircraft fail. More than one crew has used this technique to control the heading of the aircraft. Some have succeeded and some have failed, but those that succeed are basically slated to win the "Polaris Award", which is the highest award in the international civil aviation industry.

Therefore, it's clear how difficult it is to control the engine solely through thrust, especially considering that passenger aircraft have a larger engine spacing, providing greater control torque. Most flying wings, however, have much smaller engine spacing, resulting in limited control torque.

The YB-35 had an even more innovative idea: they considered using variable-pitch propellers, directly tilting the propellers to blow air forward to achieve control.

As for the result, we can tell just by looking at the fact that the "Y" in YB-35 wasn't removed.

As for using elevons or rudder surfaces to control the heading, it is possible but limited, because elevons or rudder surfaces will change the lift configuration of the aircraft, bringing other problems. It is a method that ordinary aircraft would not think of relying on under normal circumstances.

Speaking of this, Gao Zhendong recalled that this control method was indeed related to bombers, and specifically to our bombers, though it hadn't happened yet. About ten years later, a Tu-16 copy's vertical stabilizer was almost completely knocked off by a Z-6 fighter jet during a joint training exercise. The crew managed to fly the aircraft back using only the elevators. During the approach, fearing a collision with other aircraft on the runway, they even pulled up again after the initial approach and made an emergency landing at a different airport. The entire crew, completely unharmed, received a collective first-class merit award in peacetime; its significance is self-evident.

Thinking about this made Gao Zhendong feel even better. He figured there shouldn't be any accidents on this production line, since it was uncertain whether the Z-6 fighter jet would even be usable by then.

Gao Zhendong nodded and said, "The comrade who went back to flight is right. This aircraft turns by a combination of these technologies. However, I have another method that can greatly enhance the aircraft's maneuverability. The main thing is that this method has little impact on the aircraft's power and lift configuration."

The colleagues at Chongqing Aircraft Factory were delighted to hear Gao Zhendong's words. The biggest problem with adjusting the power and elevator control surfaces is that it always affects the aircraft. When the flight control system is not yet perfect, it can cause some unexpected troubles, leading to a vicious cycle that eventually makes it impossible to recover.

If there is a method that does not significantly affect the aircraft's power and lift configuration, then combining the former two methods might actually make it possible to control the aircraft.

"What's the plan?" The comrades from the Air Force Equipment Bureau were even more anxious than they were! Sure enough, Comrade Zhendong never went into battle unprepared.

Gao Zhendong drew a small strip on the trailing edge of both sides of the wing: "It's here. We've made the wing here so that it can be split up and down. If you want to turn in one direction, you just separate the control surface on that side to increase drag, and the plane will turn around."

Don't underestimate this slight difference in drag. While it may not be the most agile, it's certainly sufficient. In reality, the angle that an aircraft's rudder can turn is extremely limited, and the range isn't very large either. Compared to this, this method is acceptable.

The comrades at Chongqing Aircraft Factory gaped in astonishment. This method was simple, but it worked!
"This...this method is so simple! How come I didn't think of it!"

"Split at the wingtips, symmetrically positioned vertically, avoids additional pitch and torsional moments—brilliant!"

"While the response and handling efficiency is certainly insufficient for fighter jets, it is more or less adequate for bombers."

"That's right. By combining thrust differential and elevator control, you can basically control a slow-moving aircraft!" Everyone knows that this configuration isn't fast.

The comrades were all amazed, and once again witnessed Gao Zhendong's ability to solve difficult problems with simple methods.

No wonder! You have to admit it!
Just as the people at the Heavy Aircraft Plant were completely absorbed in the wonders of the technology, the comrades from the Aircraft Equipment Bureau suddenly remembered a problem.

(End of this chapter)