Chapter 791 The Flexible Fat Man
That afternoon, prototype No. 1121 conducted another long-distance rolling test.
The final first flight was scheduled for the next day.
The test pilot was still an old acquaintance of Chang Haonan.
Fu Guoxiang.
Before boarding the plane, Chang Haonan went to the flight briefing room to chat with the other party.
Then I discovered that the latter had been promoted to Air Force Colonel.
Considering his age, he is definitely making rapid progress.
Seemingly noticing Chang Haonan’s eyes staring at the military rank of training uniforms on the hanger next to him, Fu Guoxiang arranged his flying equipment and said:
“It’s my turn to be promoted this time. Thanks to my participation in enough test flights in recent years, I have flown almost half of the new prototypes and verification aircraft in the military.”
Chang Haonan has never joined the military in his two lifetimes, so this is an area he has never understood, so he said curiously:
“I know that flight time is very important to pilots, but you also have the number of aircraft models. "Of course,"
Fu Guoxiang nodded and began to fill in the flight plan form as he answered:
"Test pilot, can you?" Those selected are actually experienced veterans. There may not be much difference between 4,000 hours and 3,000 hours, but flying one more aircraft type and one less aircraft type are often completely different. ”
"For example, I have flown the J-8C, J-8IIACT, J-11A, J-11AM in the past four years alone, not to mention earlier times, as well as the F14, which has only been flown by less than five people in the entire army. I have experienced domestic, Soviet-made and American-made aircraft. Even in the profession of test pilots, there are very few people with this kind of experience..."
When talking about this matter, Fu Guoxiang's The tone was full of pride and excitement.
In fact, in terms of model alone, there are quite a few Chinese test pilots who have flown aircraft from three countries.
It’s just the third type, which in most cases is the legal model.
In the 1980s, when relations with the West were good, many pilots participated in the training provided by the French Air Force and considered purchasing French aircraft.
Therefore, many people have flown Alpha Jet, Mirage 2000 and Mirage F1.
But F14, that is a rare thing.
In other words, very few Chinese pilots have ever been exposed to variable-sweep wing aircraft.
......
At ten o'clock in the morning, Fu Guoxiang got into the cabin of prototype No. 1121 and began the final inspection before takeoff.
Next to it, a specially modified J-11AS fighter jet was also being prepared to launch under the waiting of a group of ground crew.
According to the plan, this aircraft will undertake accompanying flight and optical observation missions.
“This is a shotgun exchange for a cannon...”
In the command center, Chang Haonan put his hands into the sleeves of his cotton coat and looked at the busy people and vehicles on the tarmac in the distance. said.
He Ming naturally knew that this sentence referred to the plane used as a companion flight.
"There is no way, after all, the performance of the test aircraft models is getting better and better, and the old models often cannot keep up with the requirements."
He Ming replied:
"Like the previous J-8C's first flight At that time, the flying companion was a J-6. It was slow and had poor visibility. The key was that its range was too short. Now this heavy-duty aircraft is in the air for two or three hours at a time during test flights. It is impossible to keep up with the old model. Sometimes we have to change aircraft in the middle.”
“So we just don’t stop doing it. We schedule an extra aircraft behind the 03 batch of J-11AS and keep it in the factory. In addition to flying as a companion, we also It can be used to help brother units test some new equipment and so on. After all, the aircraft is big enough and it is easy to modify.”
With a large number of orders from the Chinese Air Force, plus two big jobs from the Persian Air Force, Factory 112 is now. Totally worthy of being rich and powerful.
Moreover, this is also considered a long-term investment.
Although He Ming said that he was "helping" test new equipment.
But if you put it into practice, it will definitely not be in vain.
Especially in the past year or two, perhaps inspired by the continuous success of several self-funded projects from the J-7F, many factories have begun to figure out how to use their own initiative without military orders. Develop some products for the international market.
And these things are obviously impossible to test on air force platforms.
Then, Factory 112 can make a fortune from it.
Moreover, the harvest is guaranteed despite droughts and floods——
This is just like during the gold rush, gold diggers may not make money, but those who make money from gold diggers will definitely get rich.
"So...has anyone approached you for testing?"
Chang Haonan asked curiously.
The question elicited a moment of silence.
"Okay... not yet."
He Ming sighed first.
But he quickly cheered up again:
“However, I think there will definitely be more in the future.”
While the two were chatting, the No. 1121 aircraft driven by Fu Guoxiang had already moved along the taxiway to the take-off preparation position.
"Prototype No. 1121 has been inspected and can take off..."
"..."
Day after day, there is almost no difference in the dialogue between the pilot and the tower. It's so bland that it even feels a little boring.
But for the staff here, they would rather stay bored like this for their entire careers.
After all, if the test flight work is exciting, it is generally not a good thing...
Standing from the angle of the tower, Chang Haonan can see that equidistant horizontal lines are drawn on the side of the runway, which should be In order to visually see the take-off or landing distance of the aircraft. A row of people standing in front of the window almost invariably stared at the rear wheel of No. 1121.
Just after crossing the sixth line, the plane lifted off the ground lightly.
“Okay!”
He Ming held a telescope in one hand and waved his fist in the air with the other hand.
“This line is 50 meters?”
Chang Haonan probably had a guess.
The structural weight of the new airframe is inherently low, and coupled with the replacement of the original N001 radar, which was earth-shattering in size, the empty weight of the J-11B that actually rolled off the production line is as much as 800kg lighter than the old model.
Even if it is the size of a twin-engine heavy fighter, this is not a negligible number.
Therefore, the take-off distance will definitely be improved compared to the J-11WS verification aircraft that just changed its engine.
“That’s right.”
He Ming nodded.
At this time, aircraft No. 1121, which was off the ground, had already begun a nearly vertical climb.
Of course, even the old Su 27SK can complete the vertical climb itself.
but.
The plane's process from nearly horizontal to vertically upward was extremely rapid.
It even gave Chang Haonan the feeling of watching the first flight of the J-10.
You must know that the latter is an aircraft with a canard layout and is inherently equipped with a nose-up moment.
If the J-11 with conventional structure wants to raise its head, it essentially needs to act like a seesaw, allowing negative lift to push the horizontal tail downwards.
Considering the issue of total lift, this efficiency is generally designed to be conservative.
The larger the aircraft, the more obvious this situation will be.
This is why heavy fighter jets like the F15, Su-27, and F14 still feel a bit bulky despite their stronger thrust-to-weight ratio.
Because mobility and agility are two levels of performance.
After using the new body, agility, the original biggest shortcoming, has obviously been strengthened to a certain extent.
Even Fu Guoxiang in the cockpit was shocked by the exaggerated speed of raising his head just now.
"It's interesting..."
He stared at the altimeter in front of him until the number above showed 02500, and then leveled the plane.
About 20 seconds later, the J-11AS responsible for accompanying the flight also climbed to the same position.
"Prepare to perform test flight subjects."
Fu Guoxiang reported on the radio.
According to the test flight plan, more than a dozen conventional projects will be carried out first, mainly testing the basic flight capabilities of the aircraft.
However, thanks to the J-11’s ultra-long range, there is no need to return immediately after this process.
You can continue with other subjects instead.
Of course, after all, this is the first flight after a major structural change, so it is impossible to directly fly to a particularly high intensity.
But there is one item that Fu Guoxiang is very interested in.
......
Half an hour later, Fu Guoxiang, who had completed a circular flight, set up the plane again and returned to the sky above Beiling Airport.
He leveled the plane completely, then pushed the throttle slightly, gradually accumulating the speed to a high subsonic speed of 950km/h.
On the oldest model of the Su-27SK, due to structural strength issues, the flight performance in the entire transonic range will be limited to a low level by the flight control.
The J-11AM modified the flight control to accurately limit the speed range to two 50km ranges.
However, since the hardware has not changed much, there are still flaws.
However, the second-stage upgraded airframe used by the J-11B/Su-27SM plans to completely eliminate this hidden danger from the hardware.
After confirming that the speed reached the test standard, Fu Guoxiang jerked the lever to the right -
The familiar feeling of spinning around came.
The aircraft began to roll.
As a test pilot, Fu Guoxiang can still remain absolutely awake even in this environment.
“7.6 seconds.”
After three consecutive rolls, Fu Guoxiang looked at the timer.
7.6 seconds, three laps, 1080°.
A roll rate of almost 140°/s.
Obviously.
Upgrade, effective!
(End of this chapter)