Chapter 887 The Wind Returns to the Blue Sky

Just as Chang Haonan attended the J-11B delivery ceremony.

125th Air Force Base, Villaroche, France.

Istres Flight Test Center.

A completely black fighter plane slowly emerged from the huge temperature-controlled hangar and headed steadily towards the taxiway.

The aircraft has no visible tactical number and lacks the positioning markings commonly seen on prototypes.

Apart from the French Air Force's circular emblem, the French flag and the Dassault logo, only the three characters "C01" on the side of the vertical tail can indicate the identity of this aircraft.

Rafale C is the No. 01 prototype of the mass-produced Rafale.

In fact, this aircraft completed its first flight ten years ago and had already completed all its test tasks.

As long as the Rafale is officially put into service, it can retire gloriously and enter the memorial hall together with the earlier Rafale A01.

But at this critical moment, the twists and turns of the M88 engine project still pulled this ten-year-old comrade out of the hangar.

The aircraft was equipped with the modified M88-2 engine and tested again.

And today is the moment for it to return to the blue sky.

……

In the flight control center not far away, Serge Dassault was flipping through the test log in front of him, while glancing out the window at the C01 prototype gliding steadily past.

"To this day, I find it hard to believe that we actually found the Chinese to solve the problem."

He said in a rather unbelievable tone:

"From the results of the high-altitude simulation test and the ground installation test, some of the performance of these two M88-2 engines is even better than the previous solution proposed by General Electric..."

Although Dassault is the head of the company, he is also an engineer by training, so he would not doubt the rigor of this test log.

I just feel that this plot is somewhat magical:

"Vestal, I remember you said before that it only took eight months from the time you officially started cooperating with the Chinese side to the time they came up with this plan?"

Having said that, he raised his head and looked at Ian Vista who was sitting on a chair not far away.

The latter is a senior engineer of Snecma Group and has participated in the entire process of cooperation projects with China, from negotiation to research and development.

"Technically, it's 7 months and 23 days."

Vesta shrugged and replied:

"The engineer surnamed Liu told me that the focus of the M88-2 version is to solve the design problems that may affect flight safety and make the Rafale C have available engines for mass production as soon as possible. Therefore, there is no large-scale modification of the overall structure, and the R&D and testing processes are moving very fast."

"They are pretty nice people..."

Dassault continued to flip through the test log, but stopped halfway through:

"You just said that there were no major changes to the design...but I noticed that the maximum thrust has also increased by 100kg compared to before?"

Vesta nodded:

"In order to solve specific flight conditions, which are mainly surge problems at low speeds and under drastic speed changes, it is necessary to optimize the compressor operating curve. Thrust growth is a by-product of this process, not the initial goal."

"And there is no model whose thrust increase target is set in units of 100kg..."

Hearing this, Charles Edelsteiner, who had been standing by and not speaking, interrupted:

"In fact, compared to the maximum thrust on paper, the most obvious improvement of the M88-2 is in the flight envelope, which almost completely eliminates the additional restrictions on the aircraft pitch angle imposed at the flight control level to avoid surge."

"It seems that... the test results so far are very optimistic..."

Dassault closed the log on the table in front of him, put one hand in his pocket, and looked at the C01 prototype that had stopped at the end of the runway and was about to start the afterburner taxiing and take off:

"Hopefully the flight test will go well too."

"Otherwise, if the backup plan is activated, it will be troublesome..."

At the edge of the apron, there is another aircraft with white paint and an appearance very similar to C01.

It is the Rafale A01 prototype that completed its maiden flight earlier.

It is also the final backup of the entire project——

After the cooperation between Snecma and Huaxia was reached, General Electric, realizing that it had made a mistake, immediately lobbied Congress and once again approved the export of the F404GE400 engine to France.

Therefore, prototype No. A01 was also towed out of the exhibition hall and re-prepared as a backup just in case.

If viewed separately, most people probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the two planes.

But if they are parked side by side, it is easy to see that the C-type, designed around the M88 engine, is a whole circle smaller than the earliest A-type.

Therefore, if the F404 engine is replaced, it will even be necessary to resurrect the abandoned Type A machine.

This is a huge workload.

Moreover, as a basic model, the maximum thrust of F404GE400 is only 7.2 tons, but the empty weight of Type A is greater than that of Type C.

As a result, the agility and maneuverability advantages that the Rafale hoped to highlight when it was designed will completely disappear.

Therefore, the success or failure of M88 basically determines the success or failure of the entire project.

While the three were talking to each other, the C01 prototype on the runway also stabilized its thrust.

Next, release the brake.

The 15.2 tons of thrust pushed the nose of the aircraft slightly upward, accelerating lightly on the runway.

Serge Dassault at the window clenched his fists almost subconsciously.

Fortunately, it was calm.

The plane reached takeoff speed almost in the blink of an eye, and the front and rear landing gear left the ground one after another. The entire plane gently deflected with the canard and rushed into the sky at a huge angle.

After the test flight work was interrupted for nearly a year due to a "heart attack".

at last.

Another Rafale prototype has returned to the skies.

As a limited improvement that has only been partially designed, there is no need to test the M88-2 step by step from scratch.

Apart from some necessary basic items, you only need to make up for the content that you failed in the past.

Therefore, several difficult tests were arranged on the first day of test flight.

Such as thrust transient and left boundary operating envelope tests.

These are also the two long-standing problems that have plagued the M88 engine.

Sometimes, even though the task has been completed successfully on the high-altitude platform, abnormalities may still occur during the test flight.

Although there has never been a major accident resulting in the destruction of the aircraft and loss of life, countless engine parts have been damaged as a result.

Even the test pilots figured out a method to shut down the faulty engine and then restart it in the air.

It is comparable to the F14A.

However, during today's test session, I didn't have the opportunity to use this "unique skill".

At the minimum flight speed at various flight altitudes, the engine steady-state and transitional performance are normal.

Finally, Serge Dassault, who was sweating a little, breathed a sigh of relief.

His thoughts also returned from the sky to the ground.

"Vesta."

Dassault turned around and looked at Ian Vista, who had stood up at some point:

"I remember you just said that the focus of M88-2 is to solve safety issues."

"I mean, there should be more advanced improved models later?"

"Yes."

The latter put one hand in his pocket, half leaned on the edge of the table next to him, and nodded:

"Huaxia showed us a complete three-step plan."

"M88-3 will completely eliminate the hidden dangers at the core engine level and restore the actual performance to the paper level of M88-1."

"M88-4 will redesign some components while maintaining the overall structure unchanged, trying to maximize the potential of this core machine structure. As for the specific extent of this, the Chinese did not specify."

After receiving this explanation, Dassault did not answer immediately, but instead lowered his head and stared at the gaps between the tiles on the ground, thinking.

"Can't we complete the latter two processes ourselves?"

A few minutes later, he spoke again, confirming with Vesta.

"At least up to M88-3, it's difficult."

Vesta told the truth without hiding anything:

"As for the third step... that depends on how much our design capabilities can be improved in the next few years..."

"Look at it this way."

Dassault paced back and forth in front of the window.

"It seems that we need to use some bargaining chips to tie down the Chinese..."