Chapter 1178 Air-Launched Ballistic Missile

Three days after the meeting at the Institute of Mechanics ended, official documents on launching research on hypersonic aircraft were sent to several related units.

The entire project is organized by the Aviation Power Corporation of China, with the Aviation Industry Corporation of China and the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation responsible for its implementation, and nearly ten other companies and institutions including the Institute of Mechanics providing assistance.

The situation is basically the same as expected beforehand.

But since no specific model has been determined yet, there is no such thing as a chief designer at the moment.

Chang Haonan can only temporarily take charge of the work in the name of "Director of the National Key Laboratory of High-Speed ​​Fluid Dynamics."

Of course, this laboratory actually exists only on paper and does not add any additional staff or assets.

All members are selected from various participating units.

It's just to facilitate external communication and internal contacts that we came up with such a somewhat unfocused name.

Therefore, Chang Haonan had to arrange the first working meeting of the entire team to be held at the Aviation Power Group.

Although only a few days had passed, when I saw Jiang Zonglin again, he looked much more haggard than before.

But he is in good spirits, which may be due to the non-stop overload of work in the past few days.

"Researcher Jiang, although work is important, you also need to take a rest..."

While waiting for other participants to arrive, Chang Haonan took the initiative to talk to Jiang Zongli and catch up with him.

After all, for him, the latter is an old acquaintance who he hasn't seen for ten years.

Jiang Zongli was stunned by this sudden move, and then realized that his bad complexion was probably due to being too tired in the past few days.

So he quickly rubbed both sides of his forehead to make himself look a little more cheerful:

"Hey..."

"Academician Chang, you are also a researcher, you should know that we don't have time to rest during critical periods... Last time, I finally got some inspiration. If I lose my ideas because of a few days of rest, the loss will be great..."

At this point, perhaps to prove that he still had plenty of energy, he made a joke:

"Speaking of which, I see that you are very familiar with and concerned about the work of our Institute of Mechanics. I wonder if it would be convenient for you to provide guidance on the specific work of wind tunnel development in the future?"

Hearing this, Chang Haonan had to use a lot of effort to hold back his laughter.

How could I not understand my old unit from my previous life?

However, he still waved his hand:

"Everyone has different responsibilities. Although I can help a little on the theoretical level, your experience and ability are more in place when it comes to wind tunnel engineering..."

The strength of the Institute of Mechanics is undoubtedly strong enough. Even without sufficient resources in the previous life and the support of the Chapman-Jouguet combustion theory, they still completed the JF12 reproduction wind tunnel and the JF16 ultra-high-speed expansion wind tunnel in less than eight years.

Now that we have more reliable theories and financial support, and have combined the originally planned two-step research and development process into one, it is obviously not as simple as just doubling the efficiency.

More importantly, for hypersonic aircraft research, wind tunnel is only one of the basic conditions.

Compared to this, there are still areas where Chang Haonan needs to display his abilities even more...

While the two were exchanging pleasantries, participants from several other units also arrived at the venue one after another.

Although this is the first time that China has launched a formal hypersonic research project, related preliminary research has been carried out intermittently for nearly two or three decades.

Therefore, the representatives present today are at least acquaintances of each other.

Some have even collaborated a long time ago.

The person who needs the most introduction is Chang Haonan himself...

Therefore, the warm-up session before the meeting officially started was quite brief.

We quickly got to the point.

Before the project was launched, the superior unit had already held meetings or reports with several major participants, so everyone was aware of the basic situation.

Therefore, Chang Haonan first introduced the current status of various technical systems.

And the focus is precisely the work of the Institute of Mechanics.

Soon after, Jiang Zonglin also expressed his views on behalf of the Institute of Mechanics:

“Everyone, the research and development efficiency of the ultra-high-speed wind tunnel will greatly affect the progress of the entire project. Fortunately, we have now obtained the support from our superiors and of course from all our brother units. We will do our best to realize the ignition and start-up of the JF14 type reproducible high-speed and high-total-temperature expansion wind tunnel within two years, providing a solid guarantee for subsequent work…”

JF14 is the name that Chang Haonan suggested for the new generation of wind tunnel that day.

In the original timeline, the reproduction wind tunnel was eventually named JF12.

The expansion wind tunnel driven by forward detonation is JF16.

These two names actually refer to the year in which they were officially put into use.

The same is true for the later JF22.

But now, the new wind tunnel is scheduled to be put into operation around 2007.

Since we already have JF8 and JF10, it is impossible to go back and call it JF7.

So simply, (12+16)/2=14... Of course, Chang Haonan said to the public that he hopes to reproduce the role that the JF4 wind tunnel played in promoting my country's hypersonic research...

After Jiang Zongli finished his statement, the others saw that Chang Haonan had no intention of summarizing immediately, so they began to express their opinions as usual.

"Within two years..."

Huang Ruisong, who was sitting in the middle of the conference table, spoke first:

"Then Academician Chang, should we consider doing some technical exploration based on existing conditions during this period?"

Seeing that no one objected to his statement, he continued:

"We have been conducting R&D on ramjet engines since the early 80s. Although several of our models have not been mass-produced, we have accumulated a lot of valuable research and test data, especially in the design of integral ramjet missiles."

"If conditions permit, we can first develop a test missile with a speed of around Mach 4, between ordinary supersonic speed and hypersonic speed, and conduct some ground tests..."

However, just as he was speaking, another representative from CASIC, Zhang Fuzhong, who also came from CASIC but belonged to a different research institute, expressed his objection:

"Comrade Ruisong, I understand that you feel sorry for the cancellation of three types of hypersonic missiles, but what we want to do is serious hypersonic research after all..."

"I think you know the difference between subramjets and scramjets better than I do. If we really follow your suggestion and start from Mach 4, I believe we can produce results in a relatively short period of time. But wouldn't that be selling dog meat under the guise of selling mutton?"

Huang Ruisong was the deputy chief designer of a series of supersonic anti-ship missiles including C101. He proposed starting with subsonic ramjet. Although he did have the idea of ​​making up for the regrets of the past, it was definitely not entirely out of selfish motives.

Being directly refuted like this, it is inevitable that I feel a little embarrassed:

"Comrade Fu Zhong, although the subsonic ramjet cannot be compared with the scramjet, there are still some things worth learning from in terms of structural optimization and control rate design... Moreover, there is no actual hypersonic wind tunnel available, and there is no condition for further research. We can't just keep working on theory for the next two years, right?"

In fact, Chang Haonan had originally planned to take advantage of today's meeting to deploy the subsequent first phase of tasks.

I just didn’t expect that the comrades were so enthusiastic and started this link ahead of time.

"Cough-cough-"

In order to prevent the two people from getting angry, he quickly coughed twice to calm the entire venue down.

"What Researcher Huang said makes sense. During the period of wind tunnel development, we cannot remain indifferent... We should conduct some test projects if conditions permit."

Hearing this, Huang Ruisong, who had a tense expression just now, couldn't help but show joy on his face.

He even took a special look in the direction of Zhang Fuzhong.

However, before he could be happy, Chang Haonan continued:

"But according to my idea, instead of using a ramjet engine... I'd use a rocket engine and conduct a flight test directly!"

???

This time, it's not just the two people who were involved in the dispute.

Even the other representatives had a slightly puzzled look on their faces.

With rocket engines.

Do flight testing.

Isn't this equivalent to firing a ballistic missile?

The Second Artillery Corps is already equipped with more than ten models. What else is there to test?

"I did say ballistic missiles... but not in the usual sense..."

Chang Haonan of course saw everyone's confusion and immediately explained:

"Before the new generation of hypersonic wind tunnels are put into use, the risk and investment of hastily conducting scramjet engine tests are too great, so we can only consider using rocket engines with more mature technology... But compared to conventional models, this new test missile will use liquid fuel with higher specific impulse, a double-cone layout, and is expected to reach a speed of about Mach 6-7 at the end."

This was completely unexpected news, causing the scene to fall into silence for several minutes.

Although it sounds a bit outrageous at first, if you think about it carefully, this idea seems very reasonable.

Although the potential of the double-cone layout is not great, the corresponding risks are also relatively low.

The only question is… what to test?

It is only about Mach 2 faster than traditional short-range ballistic missiles.

Almost the same as the intermediate guide.

"Is it modified based on the Dongfeng 21... or a similar model?"

Facing Chang Haonan, Zhang Fuzhong still couldn't question him directly, so he just asked tentatively:

"Of course not..."

Chang Haonan waved his hand:

"In order to enhance the flexibility of launch and give it a certain initial velocity, this model will be mounted on an aircraft and launched from medium and high altitudes."

"In addition, the missile will also use inertial-radar-satellite composite guidance to tactically test the effectiveness of future hypersonic weapons and technically verify their hit accuracy..."