I ask you to build tractors, but you build rockets?

YC City.

As a city in the northwest region, just as the citizens of Beijing and Chengdu have long turned a blind eye to various fighter jets, people here have long seen various hypersonic aircraft.

Most locals can even recognize UFOs that are often spread by the outside world as terminal maneuvers of ballistic missiles or anti-missile tests.

So when the white highlights of the "Snow Phoebe" flew across the sky, passers-by on the street only glanced at it and then looked away.

"Merely" Mach 10 aircraft are not uncommon here, and their brightness is not as bright as those previous hypersonic aircraft that frequently reached Mach 20 speeds.

Only after the "snow swan" disappeared from their sight, the sound, which was belated compared to the light, finally reached the ground.

This is different from the warheads that shuttled around the edge of the atmosphere in the past. The sonic boom from a distance of 50,000 meters is much stronger, and pedestrians on the ground feel that the surrounding air is exploding.

The windows of residential buildings also shook horribly due to the blasting air, and some closed windows even shattered after a crisp sound.

The nearby garrison thought that some fighter plane was flying at supersonic speed at low altitude in violation of regulations, but the culprit had already flown dozens of kilometers away.

But above the sky, Lei Qing only looked at the city for a few seconds before he came back to the sky above the vast land.

"Peregrine, Peregrine! You've flown!

Please slow down and return home immediately. Please slow down and return home immediately! "

The desert base's radar had long since lost its target, relying entirely on radars and satellites in other control areas to mark the route. Naturally, it noticed the snow swan running all the way without looking back.

Flying over the line is a small problem, but based on the current course and speed of the Snow Phoebe, it will enter Shandong in 5 minutes, enter the sky over Nanchao in 8 minutes, and enter the island country's air defense identification zone in 10 minutes.

Even if it slows down and takes a big turn to come back, it will still have to pass through Central Plains provinces like Shanxi and Henan, and its impact will be extremely wide.

Dou Ping could already imagine how many words of reports and reviews he would have to write to pass.

Of course Lei Qing in the sky also knows this, but the snow swan flies too fast, and conventional rudder surface and aerodynamic deceleration can easily cause the body to break due to excessive stress, so the throttle must be slowly lowered to slow down.

According to common sense, he had just entered the state and immediately decided to pull back the throttle. However, he did not expect that after making the move, the throttle display did not change, and two "beep" warnings sounded in the headset.

The holographic display on the helmet popped up a prompt box:

[The electric auxiliary heating system is not working and the oil system is not responding]

[O1A0 valve is not responding, trying to re-establish the connection]

Below the two small yellow translucent characters is a cross-sectional view of the fighter aircraft, with the fault location highlighted.

It is the location where the fuel tank is connected to the wing root of the right wing and a small part of the heating module.

The electric auxiliary heating system does not matter for the time being. This is a measure to deal with icing during subsonic flight. The surface of the aircraft body is now so hot that it can melt bronze.

But the oil system is in trouble. The biggest problem should be the fuel supply valve, which causes fuel to be continuously fed into the engine at maximum power, and the engine room temporarily loses control of the power system.

But before Lei Qing had time to think about the reason, the flight computer's AI had completed several rounds of accident investigations, and found that the pressure in the right wing fuel tank was slightly higher. Although it was normal, it was still higher than the left. .

Through this small change, the AI ​​immediately started correlation analysis and placed the summary report on Lei Qing's helmet display:

[The right wing root is slightly deformed, and the control system here is faulty.

It is recommended to increase the altitude or reduce the speed to lower the average surface temperature of the aircraft to below 780 degrees Celsius.

To protect the machine body, the throttle valve will be temporarily in a protective state and cannot be adjusted. ]

There is also a flashing antenna symbol below this message, indicating that the relevant information has been sent back to the ground simultaneously, and there is no need for Lei Qing to notify him again.

Lei Qing: "..."

Dou Ping: "..."

Androv: "Who is the supplier of this part of the system? Where are the inspection reports during the assembly of the airframe?"

The skin on the surface of the machine body is the most advanced technology in the base. Androv never thinks there will be any problems, it can only be in other aspects.

Dou Ping: "Commander An, I'm afraid we still have to solve the problem of the aircraft first and see what the situation is."

"The problem is already obvious! The AI's judgment has a 99.98% probability of being correct."

A somewhat impatient Androv directly took out his tablet to read the body data, calculated for a while, and then frowned:

"Let the aircraft climb at the minimum elevation angle. With the current speed, it can reach more than 60,000 meters. After a while, the speed and temperature will naturally drop.

When control is restored, immediately lower the throttle and land at a nearby military airport. You can't take the risk of flying back. "

Dou Ping originally wanted to ask a few questions, but Androv had already yelled:

"Quickly notify the National Military Region, it will be approaching the capital in one minute!"

At this time, everyone realized how fast the snow swan was at this time, and immediately rushed to report the notification. At the same time, Lei Qing also received the solution from the ground and began to prepare to climb.

The tail rudder of the delta wing deflected through a slight angle, but this was already the limit within the safe range.

Lei Qing quickly controlled the computer to calculate the climb curve, and then saw the numbers marked on the map for the route.

At the current climb rate, the aircraft will reach the highest point of 65,000 meters in 410 seconds, the speed will drop to Mach 6.8, and the skin temperature will drop to about 740 degrees, restoring control capabilities.

And at that time he will be... over Kyushu Island!

Moreover, it cannot maneuver at will. After exceeding Mach 8, the snow swan needs to maintain a specific angle of attack to disperse the pressure and high temperature when flying.

It's not that it can't maneuver, but the amplitude is very small, and generally it won't deviate too much from the original course.

This was considered to be no problem at the time of design. After all, everyone knew that this was an aircraft that would "never be shot down." A small restriction was reasonable.

But no one expected that such a situation would happen. A serious international incident could occur in just a few minutes. Lei Qing had thought of countless emergency situations, but he had never considered this one.

The desert base also quickly discovered this problem, but they never had such a plan.

After all, as a secret base located in the hinterland, it is difficult to be disturbed by external factors except for the peek of satellites. How could one have expected the current situation.

But the good news is that the level of the base is high enough. When the "Snow Falcon" is likely to fly across other countries in a few minutes, Dou Ping rushed to the office decisively and picked up the red telephone.

More than a minute later, when the Jingu Rocket Manufacturing Base shipped out the latest container containing various parts of a Long March-6A rocket, people outside saw a small white dot flying rapidly in the distant sky.

As astronauts, they could tell at a glance that this must be an aircraft that was passing through the atmosphere at high speed, and some people suddenly became suspicious.

I haven't heard of any space shuttle or spacecraft launch missions in recent days, and looking at the direction... it doesn't look like a spacecraft landing on the sea, right?