Black technology: a super empire spanning two worlds

Chapter 390 [Production and Manufacturing of the J-36 Fighter Jet]

The production line for the Shenlong J-36 fighter jet adopts an advanced intelligent pulsed production line mode. The entire production process is divided into multiple stages, including the forward fuselage, mid-fuselage, aft fuselage, wings, and final assembly. Each stage has a dedicated workshop, equipment, and personnel.

The various workshops are connected by an efficient intelligent logistics system, ensuring that parts and semi-finished products can be transferred quickly and accurately.

"The progress is proceeding in an orderly manner according to plan," Chen Zaiqing replied as he walked beside Xiao Yu. "One of them has already been manufactured and will be delivered to the military in a couple of days."

According to the plan, AVIC Linfei Company will deliver one aircraft at a time as it is produced.

Xiao Yu nodded and went to a high platform in the workshop to overlook the entire production line, where seven aircraft were being produced in an orderly manner.

Each aircraft is at a different level of completion and at different paces.

One of them has been completed, some only have the forward fuselage finished, and some have already started final assembly. According to the original plan, the J-36 fighter jet will be delivered to the military seven times a year, for a total of 35 times over five years.

Unlike traditional fixed-station production models, the J-36 employs an intelligent pulsed production line, which resembles a flowing steel stage. The fuselage sections move at a speed of 5 centimeters per minute on magnetic levitation rails, with real-time displays of assembly parameters and 3D models.

At the workstation in the middle of the machine body, an engineer wearing smart glasses with laser rangefinding function is drilling holes in the alloy frame with a 0.8 mm diameter drill bit.

This is one of the key processes in the manufacturing of the J-36. Each hole must maintain an accuracy of 0.02 mm, and the angular deviation must not exceed ±3 degrees. A dual-machine drilling and riveting machine is working synchronously on the other side, and its nail head flatness error is controlled within 0.02 mm. The efficiency is also 3 times higher than that of the traditional process.

In the composite materials workshop, more than a dozen five-axis gantry milling machines are processing the machine body skin.

These components, made of carbon fiber and epoxy resin composite, achieved a surface roughness of 0.1 mm through compression molding technology.

Technicians lay 20 layers of prepreg at a specific angle and then put them into a 180°C autoclave for curing. The entire process requires precise control of the pressure and temperature curves to ensure that the material strength meets the required standards.

Although automated machinery handles 85% of the work on the J-36 fighter jet production line, the manufacturing of this aircraft still relies heavily on the "fingertip art" of human craftsmen. In the wing assembly area, a senior technician is kneeling to perform blind hole riveting. Due to the confined space, he must judge the depth of the rivets by touch.

This manual operation requires installing 49 rivets within an area of ​​17.5 square centimeters, with each rivet having a tensile strength of over 10 tons.

To improve efficiency, the team developed a smart riveting gun with pressure feedback. When the riveting force deviates from the standard value by 3%, the device will automatically issue an alarm.

In the electronic device integration area, engineers are building the "nerve center".

The J-36 fighter jet's avionics system includes core equipment such as the most advanced fifth-generation active phased array radar and electro-optical distributed aperture system currently available at Tokyo University, with a wiring length of 210 kilometers.

Technicians adopted a modular design, pre-integrating the wiring harness into replaceable boxes, reducing the replacement time for a single device from 4 hours to 20 minutes.

It is worth noting that, in order to cope with the complex electromagnetic environment, all cables have undergone special shielding treatment, and their anti-interference capability is 70% higher than that of the J-20 fighter jet.

Looking at the J-36 fighter jet production line workshop, Xiao Yu couldn't help but smile and said, "Without the talent assistance from the two major aircraft manufacturing bureaus, the production and manufacturing phase of the J-36 fighter jet would not have gone so smoothly."

Chen Zaiqing nodded and said succinctly, "Indeed."

This is where Southeast University's institutional advantage lies. It avoids working in isolation, coordinating efforts across the board. The state knows that AVIC Linfei lacks talent, especially senior technicians, so it transfers personnel from other units to provide assistance and also trains AVIC Linfei's employees. This significantly improves overall production progress and efficiency. This ability to coordinate and manage resources is clearly a characteristic that Western countries like the US and Germany lack.

A short while later, Xiao Yu arrived at the production area for the mid-fuselage section of one of the J-36 fighter jets.

This is one of the core components of a fighter jet, and its production process is more complex.

In the mid-fuselage area, you can see several large assembly stations, each with a mid-fuselage frame being assembled.

The engineers were busy at their workstations, using various tools and equipment to install components such as the main beam, ribs, and bulkheads of the fuselage one by one.

Precision control is crucial in this process because the structural precision of the fuselage directly affects the overall performance and flight safety of the aircraft.

To ensure accuracy, the production line is equipped with high-precision measuring equipment and positioning systems to monitor and adjust the installation position of each component in real time.

Meanwhile, a large number of airborne equipment are installed inside the fuselage, and the installation and commissioning of this equipment requires a high level of professional knowledge and skills.

During equipment installation, engineers strictly followed process requirements to ensure correct connections between devices and conducted rigorous testing and inspection to guarantee the normal operation of the equipment.

After touring for a while, Xiao Yu went to the wing production area, which is one of the important components of the J-36 fighter jet, and its production process is also very complicated.

It involves a large amount of composite material processing and precision assembly. In the wing production area, you can see several large composite material molding machines, which are used to manufacture the wing skin and internal structure.

The processing of composite materials requires strict control of parameters such as temperature, pressure, and time to ensure the performance and quality of the materials.

During the wing assembly process, engineers precisely bond and rivet the skin to the internal structure to form a complete wing structure.

In addition, numerous flight control systems and weapon mounting systems are installed inside the wings. The installation and commissioning of these systems require a high level of expertise and skill. Engineers conduct multiple tests and inspections during the installation process to ensure the systems function properly.

After the production of components such as the forward fuselage, mid-fuselage, aft fuselage, and wings, the J-36 fighter jet entered the final assembly stage.

Xiao Yu then visited the final assembly workshop, where J-36 fuselages were being assembled. Engineers were busy at their workstations, installing each component onto the fuselage to form a complete aircraft structure.

Precision control and quality control are crucial in this process.

The production line is equipped with high-precision measuring equipment and positioning systems to monitor and adjust the installation position of each component in real time, ensuring that the overall structural accuracy of the aircraft meets design requirements.

Meanwhile, a large amount of system integration and debugging work is required during the final assembly process, including debugging of the flight control system, installation and debugging of the engine, integration and testing of the weapon system, etc.

This work requires the close collaboration of multiple professional teams, and involves rigorous testing and inspection to ensure that the aircraft's performance indicators meet design requirements.

……

(End of this chapter)