Chapter 1211 Figure 160, the only available vehicle

Chapter 1211 Figure 160, the only available vehicle

a few days later.

Haojing, Yanliang Airport.

A slender white plane with wingtips extending almost to the edge of the grass on both sides landed lightly at the end of the runway.

The moment the main engine wheel touched the asphalt ground, there was a crisp "creak" sound and two streams of curling green smoke rose in the air, but were almost immediately torn apart by the wakes from the four engines.

At the same time, three huge parachutes opened from the conical tail, helping the huge aircraft to slow down steadily, and then it taxied along the taxiway with ease into the apron that had been specially cleared.

With the help of ground crew, he shut down the engine, connected the ground power, and opened the doors of the front and rear bomb bays.

A few minutes later, the four crew members filed out along the boarding ladder behind the landing gear, took off their helmets, and formed a line around the nose of the plane.

A group of air force chiefs, led by Qiao Chenqing, had been waiting here for a long time. Seeing this, they quickly stepped forward, saluted and shook hands one by one.

Of course, a leader of his level coming in person certainly wasn't just to chat with a few pilots.

So after asking about the training and life as usual, he turned his attention to the plane a little further away.

This Tu-160 is one of the four aircraft that were exchanged from Ermao that year.

It was also the last "Red 14" to land at the airport when returning home.

After officially receiving the world's largest supersonic strategic bomber a few years ago, Gaofei Group quickly took advantage of the long-standing cooperative relationship with Tupolev and jointly completed the inspection and maintenance of all four aircraft with the latter.

The first three were immediately incorporated into the combat sequence of the 36th Regiment of the 108th Air Division after they were confirmed to have restored their mission capabilities. In an exercise last year, they completed their first weapons delivery mission using the Dong Hai-10 cruise missile, which was still in the testing process.

As for the last Red 14, since it was the newest and in the best condition, although it was also given the tactical number "41175" and operated by pilots sent by the 108th Regiment, it actually remained in the Gaofei Group and the China Flight Test Institute for various technical verification and testing work.

In fact, the original intention of deciding to keep the aircraft was to study engineering and technical issues such as structural design, material usage, and production technology of aircraft with a take-off weight of 300 tons, and it did not involve tactics or weapons testing.

However, plans cannot keep up with changes.

After the hypersonic weapons project was launched, Chang Haonan first planned an air-launched ballistic missile with a double-cone warhead as a technical verification.

Although this verification missile can only be regarded as a small gadget in the ranks of "ballistic missiles", it has a total length of about 8 meters, a diameter of 1 meter, and a launch weight of nearly 6 tons.

For air-based weapons, it is already an unimaginable behemoth.

In order to provide sufficient initial energy, launch conditions of at least 1.5 meters altitude and 1.6 Mach speed are required.

Not to mention all of China.

Even if all the air forces in the world were gathered together, only the Tu-160 model could meet such stringent requirements.

So starting in early 2005, Gaofei Group began to study how to modify the aircraft so that it could meet the requirements of launching hypersonic weapons.

The simplest and most brutal way is naturally to hang the missile directly under the belly of the aircraft.

But on the one hand, the Tu-160 was not designed to carry large-sized external ammunition, so this modification requires penetrating the fuselage skin and additional reinforcement of the belly structure.

It looks simple, but the actual workload is difficult to estimate.

There is even a high probability that he will not be able to catch up with Chang Haonan's progress.

So the final plan was to modify the bomb bay at the front of the belly and stuff the verification bomb inside.

However, this matter is not easy either.

For this purpose, aircraft No. 41175 has been conducting test flights for nearly half a year, totaling no less than 30 times.

图160的两个弹舱尺寸都是11.3m*1.9m*1.9m，单论空间倒是够大，但内部各自固定设置了一座六联装KMU-6-5U旋转武器挂架，并不能直接用来携带计划以外的航空弹药。

The reason why the Dong Hai-10, which was tested previously, can be seamlessly compatible is that its size and basic design are closely related to the Kh55.

But a ballistic missile obviously exceeded the expectations of Tupolev designers at that time.

……

Accompanied by crew members and a group of engineers, Qiao Chenqing walked slowly to the bottom of the fuselage and looked up at the bomb bay door that had been fully opened.

Compared to the usual form, the rotating bracket of the front bomb bay of aircraft No. 41175 has been completely removed.

Only a huge space with a volume of more than 40 cubic meters was left, accompanied by two hatches, like a steel monster with its black bloody mouth open, ready to swallow everything below at any time.

Even though Qiao Chenqing was used to seeing all kinds of equipment, he still felt a little scared for no reason.

However, he quickly adjusted his mood and used the light from the two flashlights beside him to observe the details inside the bomb bay.

Modern precision-guided weapons are not free-fall bombs and require sufficient launch parameters to be acquired before they are dropped.

Because the hypersonic verification missile involves cryogenic liquid propellant and rocket engines, it has an additional and rather complicated self-inspection step.

All of these data transmission processes require a cable connection between the rack and the onboard weapon system.

The aircraft's original rotating pylon was fixed in the bomb bay via a rotating shaft. Various electrical and communication interfaces were also integrated inside the shaft. There was no "hanging point" in the traditional sense that could be used directly.

Although the mount is now gone, Qiao Chenqing has not found a new mounting location.

He lowered his gaze again and turned to look at Jiang Jianjun, the person in charge of the renovation project, who was following behind him:

"Comrade Jianjun, do the current electronic facilities in the Tu-160 bomb bay support the direct mounting of the verification bomb that Academician Chang and his team have developed?"

The latter nodded:

"The missile bay of the Tu-160 can already support the delivery of complex ammunition such as cruise missiles. Our current plan is to install a rack that meets the size requirements at the top of the missile bay after obtaining the detailed mounting plan of the target ammunition from Academician Chang."

As Jiang Jianjun introduced the project, he pointed the beam of his flashlight at the location where the hanging point was expected to be set:

"But this pylon does not have an umbilical cable. It is only responsible for the release action itself. Several additional connecting wires are drawn from the original rotating shaft position for communication between the ammunition and the carrier aircraft, and are disconnected from the carrier before launch... These connecting wires are directly fixed on the inner surface of the bomb bay, without the need to be buried inside the fuselage, which can minimize the modification of the fuselage structure."

Qiao Chenqing quickly understood what the other party meant.

In fact, it is to split the fully functional bracket into mechanical and electrical parts, and the electrical part that is not easy to modify is exposed, just like when launching a carrier rocket at a space launch site.

Anyway, it is not standard equipment, so advanced requirements such as beauty or compactness can be put aside for the time being.

"Will these exposed cables... not cause adverse interference to missile launches?"

He was still a little uneasy.

The hypersonic weapons program is one of the "trump card" projects that the top decision-makers personally oversee, and it must be ensured to be foolproof as much as possible.

As the chief designer of the latest improved version of the H-6, Jiang Jianjun had naturally considered this issue long ago:

"Most of the cable's length will be fixed by buckles, and only the very end, about 20 centimeters, can swing freely. Before launch, it will be opened by a pneumatic switch to keep it as far away from the projectile as possible... Besides, the projectile is a 6-ton giant, and the impact of a few cables on it can be completely ignored..."

At this point, he paused for a moment, then changed the subject:

"In fact, what could have a fatal impact on the delivery process is the bomb bay itself... The dozens of test flights we have conducted so far are basically to verify the flow field characteristics of the bomb bay and the bomb bay door..."

Just as he said this, two technicians climbed down from the cockpit of the plane.

He also held several metal boxes of different colors in his hands.

"Look, these are the data we collected during this test flight."

It was not until this time that Qiao Chenqing discovered that on the edge of the bomb bay, which he had not noticed before, there was a circle of nearly a hundred sensor probes densely packed together.

"The bomb bay itself?"

He frowned slightly.

Qiao Chenqing thought he had seen quite a few bomb bays of bombers.

But they all seem to be pretty much the same.

"If I remember correctly... the Tu-160 seems to be able to launch weapons at supersonic speeds, right?"