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

"Dong San, check the fuel gauge again."

"yes!"

Two trailers connected in series have slowly towed the Tengyun space plane to the starting point of the runway. The four astronauts in the cabin are quickly conducting pre-flight inspections.

The "Tengyun" project was initially just the code name for an aerospace aircraft. The space agency has been brewing other new-generation spacecrafts as early as two years ago. According to the original world line, it will be summarized into "five clouds and one vehicle" next year.

"Feiyun", "Kuaiyun", "Xingyun", "Hongyun", "Tengyun" and "Speed ​​Car", the first four include low-Earth orbit information networks including long-endurance drones, airships and satellites.

The latter two are new generation transportation vehicles, "Tengyun"

"It is an aerospace plane; "Speed ​​Car" is a supersonic flying train with a speed of 4,000 kilometers per hour. It will use electromagnetic acceleration and vacuum pipeline technology as a pre-research project for the mass projector.

Now that "Tengyun" has been contracted by the Third Academy and Xinyuan United, it has become a reality. "Speed ​​Car" is still waiting for the prospects of electromagnetic technology to be completely determined, but this year is almost there.

After the Tengyun engineering verification machine was manufactured, the naming process came immediately. After discussion, the first six were named No. 001 "Tengyun", No. 002 "Ruiyun", No. 003 "Liuyun", and No. 004 "Yiyun" , No. 005 "Piaoyun", No. 006 "Broken Cloud";

Among them, "Tengyun" and "Ruiyun" were delivered to the National Space Administration and Xinyuan Company respectively, and aircraft No. 3 to No. 6 will be delivered to the military.

The next aircraft to be manufactured is the No. 003 "Liuyun", which adopts the alternate manufacturing and delivery method between the military and civilians. Among the first three aircraft, the two aircraft of the Aviation Development Commission will be supported first.

Some parts of "Liuyun" have already started production, and the "Ruiyun" base for the first batch of final manufacturing will be optimized by itself, and more key parts will be produced in-house, which will be faster and more reliable.

However, although the Tengyun was delivered to the space agency, it actually performed many test and verification tasks for the first aircraft, and all three parties were closely involved.

For example, the configuration of the four pilots flying No. 001 illustrates this point: the commander and captain are active pilots trained by the military, the co-pilot is an astronaut from the base, and the other two flight engineers are from the space agency and army.

The two captains and flight engineers from the military were both from the military. After the Tengyun project was officially established as an aerospace aircraft last year, the military began to debate the issue of pilots.

This is just like Ami and Lucia establishing the Air and Space Force. It is not just a simple change of name, but also represents the main military branch and development direction in the future.

Once the four military aerospace planes are delivered, the country will inevitably need to discuss the issue of new services. There are currently three main opinions: the establishment of a separate Space Force, the reorganization of the Air Force into the Space Force, and the reorganization of the smaller Navy into the Space Force.

Needless to say, the first two types, and most of the supporters of the last type are fans of "Three Body", and they all agree with the view that "space battles are more similar to naval battles", and although there are no battleships in current space battles, only aerospace planes, But the navy also has aviation!

In terms of its composition alone, the navy has aviation, marines, and battleships. It has all three components: land, sea, and air. It looks like a space force no matter how you look at it.

This view was immediately fiercely refuted by the Air Force. For a while, the three opinions coexisted and could not be settled. Finally, the higher-ups decided to reconcile:

Last year, the naval aviation force and the air force each selected 12 elite pilots to learn how to drive aerospace aircraft at the space agency and Xinyuan Company.

Commander Chang Lihai was a colonel of a naval aviation brigade before. Although he was slightly older, his physical and mental qualities were extremely strong. He managed to surpass the number one in the Air Force during the training and became the best among the 24 trainees. Won the position of commander.

Now he is instructing Wang Yan, the flight engineer who lost his job, to check the oil meter - to be precise, the fuel meter, and whether the fuel pipeline and engine are normal.

The difficulty of designing an aerospace shuttle is not just to combine a space shuttle with an ordinary aircraft. First of all, fuel is the difficulty:

Unlike rockets and space shuttles that go straight up and down, a space shuttle has a gradual climb and attitude conversion process when taking off, which causes its stored fuel to slosh around in the tank.

Ordinary aviation fuel is fine, but the combination of liquid oxygen and methane low-temperature fuel is not good. A sudden change in the position of the low-temperature liquid fuel in the tank will cause the local pressure to instantly exceed the threshold, making the fuel tank unable to withstand the pressure and explode.

This is the reason why the rocket tilted at a large angle during launch and exploded almost 100%. Starships have also exploded because of this. In the end, this problem was solved with the improvement of the base's zero-evaporation storage tank technology. Its revolutionary nature is self-evident.

There is also the design of its 10 engines. Although it is acceptable for a rocket, it is definitely worth doubting the reliability when placed on an airplane. What's more, these 10 engines have been ducted to reduce weight and enhance performance. China Unicom, except for the base, other parties involved are a little worried about failure.

The aerospace plane does not have an ejection escape system, and parachuting is almost impossible, so be sure to check it before taking off.

On the ground, people huddled together waiting for the first flight were also discussing intensely.

After getting the news, the boss who flew over in a hurry looked at the aerospace plane parked alone after the trailer was withdrawn, and asked Zeng Hongwei his own question:

"Where are the auxiliary vehicles on the ground? Why is there only one plane?"

According to his understanding, the preparations for such an aerospace plane to take off must be very complicated. There are many kinds that can be thought of. However, there is only one plane on site for self-inspection.

Zeng Hongwei: “This is thanks to Tengyun’s zero-evaporation storage technology, which directly helps us solve the problems of low-temperature icing and fuel pressure release. As long as the aircraft is properly filled with fuel, it does not need auxiliary vehicles at all!

One of the three APUs (auxiliary power units) on the ground can guarantee the power consumption of the fuselage, which can also save a lot of operating costs. We can include the ground assistance in the 1 million flight cost that was originally agreed upon. It’s definitely not expensive to buy a plane. "

The boss nodded approvingly, this would save the space agency a lot of money.

"Tengyun has indeed done a very good job in this regard, but I still want to be critical. The cargo version's 2.8-ton capacity is still a bit small. If it can reach 6 to 10 tons, future manned-related cargo tasks will also be limited. If you can use it, you can save at least 70% of the cost."

"There is a way."

Serev didn't know when he stood next to him. He didn't show much joy because of the first flight of the aerospace plane, as if it was just a trivial thing.

“If I can replace all those 10 engines with nuclear power, I can ensure that the fuel consumption will be reduced by 40% based on the existing transport capacity, and the free weight can easily achieve a transport capacity of 15 tons.

Is the Aviation Development Commission interested in making an investment? If you agree, I will change 'Ruiyun' to this. "

Big Brother Tactics took a step back and clearly refused:

"That's not necessary. Simply going to space doesn't require such high-end things. We are already very satisfied with Tengyun!"