Chapter 599 Panda or Tomcat

The entire test flight process lasted about half an hour.

Under the control of Fu Guoxiang, the No. 1401 aircraft reached a minimum sweep angle of 20° and the rear wheel touched the ground lightly, bringing a perfect end to this mission.

Since U.S.-made aircraft are rarely equipped with speed parachutes (unless they plan to be deployed within the Arctic Circle for a long time), the taxiing distance of the aircraft after landing is slightly longer than that of the Chinese aircraft.

There was a burst of applause and cheers in the command hall.

"Very good, very good."

The Persian general picked up the telescope again and stared in the direction of the runway. He repeated his words of praise twice in a row. He was obviously very satisfied with the performance of the F14IC during this test flight.

"Your Majesty General, we have to go down. The data recorded by the flight computer needs to be archived as soon as possible. Of course, when the aircraft is officially delivered later, all the test data will be copied to you."

He Ming directly handed the telescope in his hand to the assistant next to him and said to the leader of the Persian delegation not far away:

"In addition, I also arranged a dinner to celebrate the breakthrough progress in the cooperation projects between our two countries."

After being promoted from deputy chief engineer to deputy general manager of the group, he also had to learn to deal with some administrative and communication matters. Although he is still far from being proficient in this, compared to his dull state in the past, It is already much stronger.

The first flight was successfully completed, and after hearing that there was a reception dinner, a group of Persians followed He Ming downstairs happily.

This delegation came with the first batch of F14s. They had been in the factory for two months and were really exhausted.

Shiite religious law is not very stringent in terms of doctrinal norms. Banquets and the like do not matter at all. Even fermented or distilled food and beverages are not a big problem as long as they are not drunk in public.

At the same time, the two pilots who had just climbed down from Plane 1401 had just squeezed out of the crowd that gathered to celebrate and signed their flight records.

It was different from the usual test flight process. Today they had a special task to complete.

A little further away, an Air Force colonel had been waiting for some time.

Wang Kang, the commander of the aviation brigade of Dingxin Base, was also Zhao Mengtian's superior, but this was the first time he met Fu Guoxiang.

After completing the necessary physical examination after landing, the two of them followed each other into a Mitsubishi SUV and arrived at a conference room in the administration building without even having time to change into flight jackets.

Several other people in the room stood up.

"Comrade Fu Guoxiang and Comrade Zhao Mengtian, first of all, I would like to congratulate you on your triumphant return."

After the colonel officer finished speaking, he led the others and saluted the two of them:

"The reason I'm calling you here in such a hurry is because the organization hopes to understand all aspects of your feelings after test-flying the F14 fighter jet as soon as possible."

The aircraft allocated by Persia to China for imaginary enemy missions are still being dismantled in the 70# factory. Therefore, Fu Guoxiang and Zhao Mengtian are the only pilots in the entire Air Force who have flown F14.

Although the upgraded F14IC is different from the F14A and F14D, the basic flight characteristics will not change much.

The two pilots looked at each other, and finally the former with higher rank spoke:

"In terms of flight performance, the F14 feels lighter than I imagined."

After a moment's pause, he continued to explain:

"I mean, even excluding the engines that we upgraded, this aircraft is easier to handle than it looks."

"Variable swept wings can indeed allow the aircraft to have several completely different performance characteristics, and they can be switched according to different environments. In particular, the wing sweep angle of the F14 during flight does not require additional operations on my part, but is closely related to the flight. The control computer is linked to trim the position on its own as I manipulate the throttle lever.”

"In short, although this is the first test flight, I have not yet touched the limits of this aircraft, but its geometric maneuverability must be very powerful. In the early stages of combat within visual range, within about the first four to five flight movements He will be a very difficult opponent.”

While Fu Guoxiang was describing, a lieutenant beside Wang Kang was also tapping the keyboard quickly, apparently recording what he said.

"The first four or five..."

Wang Kang quickly captured the key point of his words:

"In other words, you don't think this mobility is sustainable."

"Yes."

Fu Guoxiang nodded:

"Although the small sweep angle can provide good instantaneous turning capabilities, the resistance is also very obvious. In addition, the weight of the aircraft is still too large, and the thrust of the engine is not enough. After a few twists and turns, there will be a problem of insufficient energy. , thus falling into passivity.”

"As for the two third-generation aircraft I have flown, as long as the J-11 is not caught off guard during the first encounter, it should not be difficult to win later by relying on its advantages in energy and large off-axis angle of weapons. In the same way, After the J-11 is equipped with the 1493 private radar with similar performance to this aircraft, it can also accumulate sufficient energy advantages in the process of firing and avoiding medium-range missiles."

"However, if it is a second-generation aircraft, even the best among the second-generation aircraft like the J-8C, it still needs some targeted skills to win, or simply use the speed advantage to fight and retreat quickly. Of course, the J-8C The 31C does not have the absolute speed advantage of exceeding Mach 25 or even Mach 2.8 like the MiG 3 or MiG , so it still needs to be handled with caution."

"Oh, yes, although the F14's wing sweep angle does not require manual adjustment by the pilot, the process of wing change is relatively long, only about 6-7° per second, and during this process, the aircraft will be in an extremely difficult to control position. If we can seize this window, we can take advantage of it."

In fact, the last comment is given entirely because Fu Guoxiang has not flown other variable-sweep wing aircraft.

The wingspan retraction speed of 7° per second is actually far ahead among similar aircraft.

He recalled it again to make sure he didn't miss anything, and then concluded:

"In general, I think the F14 is limited by its basic design, and its potential should not be as good as those real third-generation fighters that came later. However, considering the reality of our Air Force, we still need to be very vigilant in facing it."

What Fu Guoxiang said is already very complete, and there is not much that Zhao Mengtian needs to add:

"The performance of the 1493 radar is very good. I tried turning it on in the air and found that the warm-up speed and refresh frequency are very fast, which is much better than the N27 on the Su-001SK. During the test flight, the radar even captured a 240 kilometers away The medium-sized air target should be a passenger plane that happened to fly by."

"In addition, I believe that with the improvement of radar and fire control computer performance, there is actually no need for a separate pilot to operate the radar and guide missile firing during beyond-visual-range air combat."

"However, if it is a ground attack mission, then considering that the guidance methods of air-to-surface weapons are generally more complicated, and many of them require full human control in the loop, the second pilot is very important."

"So I suggest that you carefully consider the equipment quantity of the two-seat J-11, that is, the Su-27, unless you plan to develop a multi-purpose fighter with ground attack capabilities based on it."

"..."

The conversation between several people continued until the evening of that day.

At this time in 98, the F14 could still be regarded as the main model in the US Navy's carrier-based aircraft force.

Therefore, Wang Kang's questions were also very detailed.

And, as the topic continued to unfold, it later involved not only the performance of this F14, but also some pilot training and problems in the formation process of the Blue Army unit.

"Seriously, Comrade Guoxiang, are you interested in being transferred to work in our Blue Army aviation brigade?"

Before leaving, Wang Kang patted Fu Guoxiang on the shoulder and joked.

Of course he knew that the other party would not agree, but he just said it casually.

Sure enough, Fu Guoxiang did not answer the question, but changed the topic somewhat abruptly;

"We exchanged the F14s for our own use. The first of them should be rolling off the production line soon. By then, Brigadier Wang, your troops will look more like the genuine US military."

Zhao Mengtian, who was following the two of them, had been stroking his chin and thinking for a while. At this time, he suddenly raised his head and said:

"Speaking of which, the F14 fighter jet of the US military is called Tomcat, so now the F14 that has been improved by our country...can it be called Panda?"

……

The news that F14IC completed its first flight naturally quickly reached Chang Haonan's ears.

But for him, this incident can only be regarded as an episode in his busy work.

If he had to say that it had something to do with him, it might be that the new engine, Turbofan 9A, was an improved model he had "accidentally" made.

I feel ashamed that I have only made some small contributions.

Originally, he thought that after the component-level testing work at hand was completed, he would take time to take a look at Field 112 to see what the "alive" F14 looked like.

But before he could actually make the trip, at the end of May, exciting news came.

Eurocopter's NH90 prototype finally encountered a problem.