Chapter 675 Air Police 200, and the Ring Project
Just when Chang Haonan was thinking about how to draw out the firepower and gradually eat away at the fundamentals of the Dream Group.
Qin Province, Nanzheng.
As the huge door of the assembly shop slowly rose, a huge four-engine propeller aircraft slowly drove out of the factory, pulled by a Jiefang truck.
The front half of the aircraft is not much different from a normal Y-8F transport aircraft, except that the original glass navigator cabin at the nose has been sealed by an opaque skin, and there is an extra "little white hat" at the front. There are more than a dozen densely packed spike-like radomes below.
But on the rear half of the fuselage starting from the wing section, there is a T-shaped formation that is almost one-third of the fuselage long.
Further back, the entire tail of the aircraft was raised as a result, and two inverted V-shaped tail fins were added below the tail.
Although the aircraft body itself still has the rounded appearance of the past, with the addition of an antenna on the back, the entire aircraft actually has a bit of a murderous air.
Needless to say, this is the first Air Police 200 early warning aircraft to be completed and rolled off the production line.
In fact, Chang Haonan completed the basic design of the Air Police 200, especially the coupling design between the T-shaped antenna and the vertical tail, about a year and a half ago.
Like the long-range rocket launcher designed by Jinling University of Science and Technology and the JJ-9 designed by Guihang Industry, it was part of the internal testing of TORCH Multiphysics.
However, the technical foundation of Nanzheng 182 Factory is indeed limited.
Their design department was just an on-site design office a few years ago and has only recently been expanded.
Including Liang Shaoxiu, one of the dual chief engineers of the Air Police 200 project, although he has completed the improvement of the Yun-8 new platform with Chang Haonan and others, he basically only has such a complete project experience.
In addition, this project has existed as a "backup" for a long time, and neither funds nor other resources are sufficient.
Therefore, it was delayed until the end of February 1999 before it was officially shipped from the factory.
In fact, it is not entirely accurate to say that it was "dragged" until it leaves the factory now.
After all, the change from the J-7II to the J-7M, which almost did not involve the aerodynamic part, took almost 4 years.
After all, the transformation of the second transport aircraft into an early warning aircraft is a huge visible and tangible improvement, and there will be huge changes in aerodynamics, structure, power supply and other aspects.
Even if the most critical antenna tail coupling problem is a ready-made solution, it will take less than two years to complete the other parts and build the aircraft, and the efficiency is pretty good.
It's just that in recent years, the aviation industry's understanding of "efficiency" has been distorted under the leadership of a certain person...
Therefore, including Factory 182 itself, everyone feels that this efficiency is a bit unsatisfactory.
Fortunately, starting from the beginning of this year, the allocation for Air Police 200 suddenly increased a lot, and superiors began to ask more and more about the status of this project.
And today is actually not the day that the completion ceremony was originally scheduled to be held.
Therefore, when the plane was towed out, there was no red carpet, flower stand and other equipment prepared at the door of the factory.
Even the traditional Chinese big red flower was temporarily obtained from nowhere. Because it was too small, it could not be tied to the entire nose section of the aircraft as usual, so I had to adjust the rope and hang it on the white radar on the nose of the aircraft. Under the hood.
In short, everything seems to be a matter of urgency and authority.
However, the atmosphere inside Factory 182 was not at all cold due to the simplicity of the ceremony——
A big leader has arrived.
Even the two chief engineers, Liang Shaoxiu and Wang Xiaomo, only found out about this matter the day before.
That's why there was no time to arrange the ceremony.
Even the former flew over from Jinling temporarily.
Fortunately, the notice from superiors was also very clear. The chief was only here to personally inspect the development of the domestic early warning aircraft. The whole process was to be quick and simple, and try not to affect the normal work arrangements of the project team.
……
The two followed the tractor and came out of the workshop together with the early warning aircraft.
At this time, there was already a group of people waiting outside.
The person in the middle is wearing a green military coat without a rank and a pair of black-rimmed glasses.
Following him were Ding Gaoheng, who was wearing complete winter clothes, and a leader of an aviation industry group.
After seeing the plane stop, a group of people slowly walked forward.
With this posture, not to mention Liang Shaoxiu, even the well-informed Wang Xiaomo felt a little numb.
Of course, it cannot be ruled out that I was not wearing a hat in this cold February weather and was freezing.
The two of them took a deep breath almost at the same time and came to the front of a group of big shots.
Liang Shaoxiu didn't even notice that he was a bit obedient.
"Report to the chief! The first technical verification aircraft of Air Police 200 has been completed and shipped from the factory. Please give instructions!"
China has never seriously produced an early warning aircraft in the past, so unlike Project 10 or Project 11, it can start directly from a prototype.
We have to build a technical verification machine first.
It proves that this radar + aircraft combination can fly and can detect targets normally after flying.
The Air Police No. 1 back then was stuck at this step.
Although it can fly, it is almost invisible to radar after flying.
Of course, each of these large aircraft is extremely valuable.
If the technical verification process goes smoothly, it may be possible to convert it into a prototype on-site, or even finally put it into mass production status for service.
The leader in front of them stretched out his hand and pressed down, indicating that they could not be so nervous and be more natural.
He did not start asking questions immediately, but led a group of people, including Wang Xiaomo and Liang Shaoxiu, around the plane for most of the circle.
He walked until he was directly under the huge T-shaped antenna before he stopped, raised his head and stared upward for a while.
"Comrade Xiaomo, is this radar antenna completely produced by our country?"
The T-shaped antenna early warning aircraft is the first of its kind in the world, but the commander did not ask about the shape of the antenna.
Obviously, the other party came here not just to watch the fun, but came prepared.
I must have done some homework in advance.
After all, he was almost going to be a professor, and he had no background in science or engineering.
"Yes, we produce it entirely ourselves."
Wang Xiaomo nodded:
"However, our current technology for processing high-silicon aluminum alloys using machines is not sufficient, so we use manual finishing methods, which has relatively low production efficiency."
Naturally, the big leader would not express his position casually. After hearing this answer, he just said yes, and it was not clear whether he was satisfied or not.
After a slight pause, the other party spoke again:
"I heard that this kind of phased array radar relies on semiconductor radiation units to control phase and amplitude changes. Do we need to import such components?"
Wang Xiaomo was a little surprised that the other party would ask such a detailed question, but he still quickly answered truthfully:
"On this aircraft, we use bipolar silicon T/R components, which can be completely made in China. Although the production capacity is relatively low, compared to the production speed of the array, it is not a problem."
"However, if you want to further improve radar performance, you need to use gallium arsenide components. At present, we can only rely on imports of this material, and the use and quality of imports are still limited."
"What about the Ring Project?"
The chief turned his head and asked almost immediately:
"What kind of technology does the Patriot radar on the Ring Project use?"
As soon as this question came out, both Wang Xiaomo and Liang Shaoxiu, who had not had a turn to speak, immediately understood.
As Chang Haonan speculated many years ago, there should be some problems with the ring project.
Now, superiors are considering the survival of that project.
"According to the information provided by David, the earliest Falcon system also used bipolar silicon, but in the ring project, they upgraded it to a hybrid component of bipolar silicon and gallium arsenide."
"About this, the chief minister does not need to worry too much. The antenna of the active phased array radar is a relatively independent part. Although it is currently using bipolar silicon, in the future, domestic production of gallium arsenide will be achieved, or stable import channels will be found. , we have also reserved sufficient cooling power to upgrade some components to gallium arsenide."
"Furthermore, because the area of this T-shaped array is larger, within the commonly used range of 120 degrees left and right, the performance alone will not lag too far behind, but the detection capabilities of 60 degrees front and rear are relatively weak."
Naturally, Wang Xiaomo could not conceal the actual situation of the project, but he could eliminate the chief's concerns in a targeted manner.
Sure enough, the other party turned his back and fell silent while looking at the antenna in front of him.
After a while, he started walking again:
"Let's go and take a look inside the plane first."
