Traveling Back to the 1960s: The Entire Internet Teaches Me How to Build Missiles

Zhou Yunxiao's expression brightened with joy, and he really wanted to say, "Heaven is helping me!"

He glanced at his watch, gritted his teeth, and said:

"Enemy planes have been flying straight in from the western border, covering 2,000 kilometers and taking about four hours to reach the Badain Jaran Desert. It took us two hours to get from our starting point to Xinxi Temple. If we were to drive from our base at No. 10 to Xinxi Temple, it would take at least three hours in the dark. That's too slow!"

Muttering to himself, Zhou Yunxiao suddenly grabbed Captain Shi's arm and asked, "Airplanes! Can your Third Division's planes fly in this weather? Do you dare to fly?"

Captain Shi swallowed hard, clenched his fist, and said, "It can fly! But... there's no runway or airport at the headquarters, so we can only use helicopters. There's an old Mi-4 helicopter on the helipad; we should be able to give it a try!"

Zhou Yunxiao nodded, "Then let's use a helicopter and have the pilot go to the headquarters to help transport some items to Xinxi Temple."

Captain Shi immediately instructed the communications officer to contact Tian Fulin at Aobao Mountain, and at the same time notified the target drone air station.

A series of telegrams were sent out and quickly received replies, keeping the communications officer extremely busy. In the end, Zhou Yunxiao and Xu Haifeng rolled up their sleeves and helped decipher the telegrams with their codebooks, which improved efficiency a little.

Flying helicopters in this kind of thunderstorm weather is most vulnerable to turbulence and sudden gusts of wind. No pilot at the air station is confident that they can fly from Base 17 to Base 10.

Fortunately, someone volunteered to fly the Mi-4 helicopter for a while.

This man is Fang Xiaotian, who recently scared off a U-2 reconnaissance plane while piloting a J-5 fighter jet. He was recently transferred from the Jincheng Air Force Brigade to the test range as the resident military representative.

He was bored out of his mind when he finally got a job to do, so he immediately changed into his flight suit and boarded the helicopter.

With a representative from another party involved, Zhou Yunxiao felt more confident about handling the matter.

Then he sent a telegram to the authorities, instructing Jiang Weimin to pack up all the lightning-inducing rockets he had been working on, along with other miscellaneous parts, and to load them into the cabin later.

After all these tasks were completed, the communications officer was so tired that his wrists were sore and numb, and Zhou Yunxiao also stopped to catch his breath.

Captain Shi quickly handed him a military-grade rinsing mug filled with water and offered him some.

After finishing their water, he asked Xu Haifeng eagerly, "How did the communication go? What's the next step?"

Zhou Yunxiao said, "The Hongqi-1 missile can be launched tentatively, but we can only rely on the three missiles from Xinxi Temple. The thunderstorms over Aobao Mountain are too intense; we definitely won't find a launch opportunity."

Upon hearing the news, Captain Shi scratched his face, unsure whether to feel fortunate or regretful.

Xu Haifeng asked, "And then?"

Zhou Yunxiao glanced at his watch again. "It'll take Representative Fang at least an hour to get to the headquarters and then here. Let's get the mine-triggering rocket site ready first. Today's success or failure depends on these last two hours!"

Xu Haifeng chimed in, "We'll leave everything to you. Let's do our best and leave the rest to fate."

Without delay, Captain Shi immediately gathered the remaining soldiers except the communications officer, and together they rushed out of the dilapidated temple to follow Zhou Yunxiao to dig fortifications.

Just then, a thunderstorm ended, and large, leaden clouds rolled across the horizon, with thunder still rumbling.

Zhou Yunxiao looked around. To the north was an endless expanse of red willow trees, to the west were a few dilapidated mud houses, and to the south, not far away, was a babbling river.

To the east was a deserted village, with some walls leaking air, some door frames collapsed, and some roofs riddled with holes.

Captain Shi asked, "Comrade Zhou, which side do you choose?"

Zhou Yunxiao pointed south, "To the riverbank!"

A group of people ran to the riverbank, not caring what Zhou Yunxiao was up to, treating him as their backbone, or as their lifeline for launching the Red Flag 1 missile, and hitting it wherever they were told.

"Clear away all the rocks nearby. Within a 100-meter radius of where I'm standing, there should be no debris!"

"Captain Shi, take some men to dig a deep pit in the middle of the river. We'll bury something there later!"

"Comrade Xu, could you drive over there to meet Representative Fang's plane? It's very windy and dusty right now, he might not be able to see the ground clearly, so make sure it doesn't overshoot..."

Zhou Yunxiao arranged all matters in an orderly manner.

Once everything was ready, he sat down to rest, anxiously watching the hands of the "Soviet Submariner" watch on his wrist.

Judging by the distance, the U-2 reconnaissance plane has probably left the Tarim Basin and will next reach the Hexi Corridor and Qilian Mountains before entering the Badain Jaran Desert.

Large, dark clouds drifted across the leaden sky, and an even larger thunderstorm seemed to be brewing.

While lamenting his bad luck, Zhou Yunxiao also felt a bit fortunate.

Fortunately, most of the cumulonimbus clouds in this autumn dry thunderstorm were blown towards Aobao Mountain with the wind; otherwise, if it had been Xinxi Temple instead... then Aobao Mountain would have been the main battlefield today.

The problem is that even if the lightning-inducing rockets he handcrafted were transported to Aobao Mountain, Engineer Li and Technician Shen wouldn't know how to use them.

You can't exactly send telegrams to teach in person, can you?

By the time you drive all the way from Xinxi Temple, the daylilies will be completely cold.

Perhaps it was divine intervention that gave Zhou Yunxiao this opportunity to turn the tide.

After an unknown amount of time, Zhou Yunxiao's ears twitched, and he vaguely heard the sound of a helicopter rotor. Then, he heard various excited shouts coming from the dilapidated temple.

Five minutes later, Xu Haifeng drove the GAZ-69 at breakneck speed down the slope and stopped on the riverbank.

Captain Shi led a squadron of soldiers, hurriedly unloading various equipment. One large wooden crate was unloaded with extra care, and the words "Flammable and Explosive" were painted on it.

Representative Fang took off his pilot's hat, walked over and shook hands with Zhou Yunxiao, and then Jiang Weimin, who was accompanying him, gave him a big bear hug.

"I've missed you so much, it's been so long!"

Zhou Yunxiao smiled and said, "Stop being so sentimental, let's get the position set up quickly, the U-2 reconnaissance plane will be here soon!"

Without further ado, everyone hurriedly moved things around and assembled them on the battlefield according to his instructions.

These ten homemade rockets were handcrafted by Zhou Yunxiao in his spare time, with the help of many cyber workers as well.

After netizens ran a simulation using digital twin and 3D modeling technologies to confirm the feasibility of the drawings, Zhou Yunxiao went to collect materials.

The body of the lightning-inducing rocket uses a seamless No. 45 steel pipe. After reducing weight and adjusting the aerodynamic shape, it is filled with the same nitrocellulose/nitroglycerin solid propellant as the Katyusha rocket, plus several thick wires and dry cell batteries to form the detonation circuit.

At this moment, these rockets are fixed on the launch pad, with a simple, spinning shuttle-like winder connected to their tails.

The most crucial aspect of lightning strikes is establishing a conductive channel between the clouds and the ground. Therefore, the conductive metal wire must be both strong and lightweight; otherwise, a metal wire hundreds of meters long could pull the rocket down.

Following Dean Qian's advice, Zhou Yunxiao chose piano wire as the lightning rod material.

As for the winding device used to wind the piano wire, it was made from bearings removed from the engines of some scrapped Jeeps, which were then shaped in the workshop to resemble a spinning shuttle.

This is to ensure that the hundreds of meters of piano silk can be smoothly pulled out by the rocket in just a few seconds without getting tangled, and it is also one of the most important components.

But as long as there are reasonable design drawings, these difficulties are nothing to worry about; Zhou Yunxiao only needs to follow the drawings.

Finally, there's the grounding rod for the lightning-inducing rocket.

Lightning needs an outlet to fall from the sky, so wherever the piano strings are connected, a large amount of charge will strike that place.

The grounding rod is the final outlet.

Zhou Yunxiao found Captain Shi and had him carry the thick, long iron pole and plant it in the pit that had just been dug in the river.

Next, the others pulled out the piano strings from the tails of the ten rockets and wrapped them around the grounding rod.

In this way, a complete lightning-attracting system consisting of a homemade rocket, launch pad, metal wire, and grounding rod is considered complete!