Chapter 1230 That Dazzling Flash

Chapter 1230 That Dazzling Flash

Inside the command center at the tower, everyone watched Tu-160 fly away.

In fact, after the plane took off, neither the missile technicians nor the aircraft designers could do anything.

All we can do is wait quietly for the pilot to give the next situation report.

Everyone was a little anxious, but no one would interfere with the pilot's actions at this critical juncture unless it was necessary.

Except for the sounds of some electronic equipment, the huge octagonal room was as quiet as death.

Finally, it was Wang Zhanxue who broke the silence first:

"The Spring Festival Gala is about to begin."

A somewhat irrelevant sentence made the air that was about to solidify flow again.

Some people even laughed a few times.

Chang Haonan looked at the time displayed on the upper right corner of the big screen.

19:47 minutes.

It’s almost time to start.

"Then tonight, let's consider it as a New Year's gift to the people of the whole country."

Chang Haonan also wanted to liven up the atmosphere and said in a half-joking tone...

……

At the same time, in the cockpit of aircraft 41175, the four crew members also saw the thousands of lights of the Gaojing city below from mid-air.

Of course, the plane is still in the process of climbing, so they definitely don't have time to chat.

As they flew higher and higher, the night sky they saw began to turn a deep blue again.

That was the sunset that could no longer be seen on the horizon.

But soon, after the first two digits on the altimeter slowly jumped to "13", the sky outside the cockpit was dyed dark purple again -

At this altitude, only the shortest wavelength purple light can be scattered by the sparse air molecules in the upper atmosphere.

"We have reached navigation point B6, turn to direction 305 and continue flying."

The voice of the navigator Xuan Yimin came from the in-flight communicator.

The Tu-160 actually has a receiving antenna for a satellite navigation system installed on it, but the complexity of ground bombing is far from comparable to the "from A to B" transportation mission, so except for a very small number of models that are only considered to perform specific missions, basically 1-2 additional crew members will be set up.

Xuan Yimin's job is to control the onboard self-defense kit and perform part-time bombing and navigation tasks.

"receive."

Captain Deng Yuangang turned his gaze from the distant skyline to the present moment, and at the same time pulled the joystick to control the aircraft to make a large bank turn of more than 200 degrees.

Unlike most large aircraft that use disc-type joysticks, the Tu-160's cockpit layout is similar to that of a fighter jet.

Of course, correspondingly, although its take-off weight is close to 300 tons, its flight quality is far superior to its general counterparts.

Another ten minutes later.

The No. 41175 aircraft finally climbed to the launch altitude scheduled for this test.

"Report to the tower, aircraft 15 has reached an altitude of 16000 meters."

Deng Yuangang confirmed the altimeter reading and then slowly leveled the plane.

"receive."

The tower's response was concise and powerful.

The flight plan had been issued several days in advance, and the four crew members knew it almost by heart.

As long as everything is going well, there is not much need for external direction.

"Get ready to speed up."

Deng Yuangang and the co-pilot next to him each pushed the two throttles to the end and adjusted the four engines to afterburner mode.

As they moved their hands, the titanium alloy sections in the middle of the wings began to automatically retract, locking the sweep angle at the maximum 65-degree position.

The four people in the cabin could even clearly feel that the acceleration was changing.

"No. 3, check the bomb bay."

As an aircraft that entered service in the 80s and has not undergone major upgrades, the Tu-160's cockpit still retains a strong "Soviet watch shop" style and does not have a large multi-function display.

All weapon systems require Xu Huasheng to complete them through the buttons, knobs and lever switches in front of him.

"The temperature and noise in the bomb bay are normal, the ventilation is good, and the gas environment is normal."

Xu Huasheng quickly completed the bomb bay safety inspection according to the operation he had trained countless times.

In fact, due to the heat generated by the friction between the fuselage and the air during high-speed flight, the internal bomb bay is often faced with a temperature that is too high rather than too low.

This problem is even more serious for verification bombs that use cryogenic liquid fuel.

It doesn't matter if some propellant is leaked, after all, this is all calculated during the design.

But if the hydrogen concentration in the bomb bay is too high, the problem will obviously be bigger.

To this end, during the modification process of aircraft No. 41175, a ventilation system was specially added to the front bomb bay.

"Arrived at navigation point E3, start preparing weapons."

Xuan Yimin's calm voice sounded again.

"GC-X, power on self-test."

Xu Huasheng said as he flipped a lever switch next to the weapon selection panel.

A string of orange-red Cyrillic letters appeared on the panel.

hen3вecthar (unknown model)

Because there was not enough time to completely upgrade the weapon control system, only some modifications were made to the identification logic. Therefore, the four Chinese Tu-160s will directly identify the Dong Hai 10 cruise missile as Kh55, while all other mounts will be displayed as unknown.

However, the bombing operation can be performed normally.

A few seconds later, the green light representing the unknown forward weapons bay 1 came on.

"GC-X, self-test passed, start setting target parameters."

“Goal setting complete.”

"Release the ignition safety."

"..."

Xu Huasheng suppressed his inner excitement and completed the preparations before the launch one by one.

In the intercom, apart from his increasingly rapid voice, the only sounds were the heavy breathing of the other three people.

The wings of the white swan cut through the night sky of Guanzhong.

When the plane entered the eastern part of Longyuan, its speed had reached the planned speed of 1.65 Mach.

"Switch to autopilot."

After saying this, Deng Yuangang finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The pilot's work is finished. Next, before dropping the bomb, the plane only needs to fly levelly according to the routine.

"Reach navigation point F2 and open the bomb bay."

The weapons operator also has the function of navigation, so after entering the bombing route, this task was transferred to Xu Huasheng alone.

In a place that the four pilots could not see, two huge rectangular ammunition bay doors slowly opened downwards, revealing the huge missile hidden inside.

On the weapon control panel, the instrument needle representing the noise from the bomb bay began to shake violently in an instant.

But fortunately, it never reached the red area on the far right.

This shows that Gaofei Group’s temporary transformation of the bomb bay was very effective.

"Launch preparation complete, seeker powered on..."

When the task reaches this step, it means that it has entered the irreversible final stage.

Xu Huasheng held the joystick in his right hand, with his thumb on the launch button at the top, and his eyes fixed on the CRT monitor in front of him that showed the navigation trajectory.

The launch mission itself is not complicated and only requires pressing a button within a fairly large range.

The missile will automatically adjust its trajectory according to the actual launch situation, and there is no need to drop bombs in a very precise posture and position like CCRP does when dropping uncontrolled bombs.

Time passed by minute by minute.

On the track chart, the light spot symbolizing the aircraft gradually completely overlaps with the navigation point marked as F3.

At the moment before pressing the button, an idea suddenly popped up in Xu Huasheng's mind -

Is this perhaps the largest air-launched weapon ever launched by humans?

But immediately I thought of the AN8 "Big Ivan", which is also 3 meters long but nearly 602 meters in diameter.

He quickly put these crazy thoughts aside.

"Weapons fire!"

Xu Huasheng clenched his right hand and pressed the bomb release button hard.

Inside the magazine, the four support rods under the weapon rack are rotated downward 90 degrees, pushing the entire launcher together with the missile to the edge of the magazine, and then unlocking it.

The 8-meter-long ballistic missile then broke free and fell down with a whistling sound.

The airflow rolled up by the bomb bay formed a complex vortex flow field invisible to the naked eye about 1 meter below the belly of the aircraft.

The missile's falling posture suddenly sank and it swung slightly vertically.

But in the end, we passed it smoothly at an elevation angle of about 15°.

In the cockpit, Xu Huasheng had already returned to a state of high alert.

This is a habit he developed when he was flying the H-6 in the past.

When a large projectile falls, the center of gravity of the entire machine will inevitably change.

Need to take over autonomous driving at any time.

But the plane only vibrated slightly and still maintained level flight.

Feeling a little relieved, he turned his gaze back to the porthole.

one second...

Two seconds...

Because the liquid engine makes too much noise when igniting, in order to ensure the safety of the carrier aircraft itself, Chang Haonan specially set a very long ignition delay.

So much so that several pilots, who were counting every second, even had doubts about the launch failure at some point.

Fortunately.

About 4 seconds later, a dazzling blue flash appeared below the front of the aircraft, drawing a perfect ascending arc.

In the blink of an eye, it had surpassed the altitude of the plane again.

The tail flame of the hydrogen-oxygen rocket engine quickly disappeared.

But almost immediately afterwards, a large cloud of contrails, colored by the moonlight and shaped like jellyfish, appeared in the air and rushed away at an almost unbelievable speed...

Even as strategic bomber pilots, it was the first time for them to see such a spectacular scene.

I almost forgot to breathe.

"Happy New Year, comrades..."

Deng Yuangang watched the missile fly towards the target, muttering to himself.