The rejuvenation of a great nation: from educated youth to national treasure scientist

We are usually familiar with Eagle's large drones, such as Predator, RQ-2 Pioneer, RQ-3 Dark Star, etc., each one is very popular.

In fact, Giant Bear’s development of large military drones is also quite remarkable.

Xiong started developing drones in the late 50s.

The Tu-60 Falcon UAV was launched in the 123s. It is a long-range reconnaissance UAV developed by the Tupolev Design Bureau based on the Type 121 strategic cruise missile.

Tu-123 has a huge body that can accommodate a variety of camera equipment and electronic reconnaissance systems.

It can reach speeds of up to Mach 2.

Later, they also launched the Tu-141 reconnaissance drone, which is the medium-range unmanned reconnaissance aircraft they currently have.

It carries a variety of detection equipment, such as cameras, thermal imagers, optical imagers and imaging radars.

Some people may have doubts: Bears seem to be quite backward in the field of electronic technology, right?
How can they build long-range military drones that require extremely high control systems?

In fact, Xiong’s electronic technology was not bad at the beginning.

Bear's electronic technology initially followed the same vacuum tube route as Eagle's.

However, Eagle later began to take the transistor route.

Transistors are obviously more advanced than vacuum tubes, and more circuits can be stacked on a small substrate.

So, by the mid-to-late 60s, the Eagle had already surpassed the Bear in the field of electronic technology.

Xiong continues to immerse himself in the field of electron tubes.

When manufacturing large drones, it is actually entirely possible to use vacuum tube circuit diagrams to construct the control system.

It just takes up a larger volume, but it can still play a pretty good role.

This is what is called the powerful brick flying.

Things made by the giant bear look crude, but they are basically quite durable.

In addition to having a powerful enough control system, large military drones must also have strong resistance to electromagnetic interference.

Because it flies near someone else's territory and is far away from the operator, it can easily be interfered with by strong magnetic signals or even hijacked, and eventually lose contact with the operator.

For example, in 2016 in her previous life, Boss used jamming technology to first interfere with a Predator drone of the Eagle Army and then shoot it down.

Therefore, if you want to develop an excellent drone, its anti-interference ability must be strong enough.

The third problem is the problem of the drone’s power system.

Large military drones are generally used for reconnaissance and other purposes. They are relatively slow, and most drones have a maximum flight speed of no more than 800 kilometers per hour. At such a speed, it would be very dangerous when facing air defense missiles.

The above are the main problems faced by large military drones.

Wang Haoran naturally had ready-made homework in his mind to copy.

The reason why he decided to research advanced drones was to solve the foot basin problem.

Then, the drone he wants to make must have three points:

"First, the flight altitude must be high enough!"

The higher you fly, the more likely it is that the other party will be far behind you.

Many of today's missiles cannot reach very high altitudes.

“Second, we need to develop a powerful avionics system.”

This avionics system includes: advanced radar, excellent flight control center and anti-interference capabilities.

The anti-interference ability must be fully considered.

Of course, it also needs a series of reconnaissance equipment and strike capabilities.

Then, a model of drone from his previous life appeared in Wang Haoran’s mind.

It is: No Detective 7!

The maximum flight altitude of the WZ-7 can reach 2.3 meters, which is enough to avoid most fighter jets and air defense missiles.

The original WZ-7 used the WP-7 engine.

This engine is an old model, which was developed in 1963 and has been used on the J- before.

However, the turbojet 7 used in the original version of the Wuzhen 7 did not have afterburner mode.

This saves fuel consumption.

But even so, the fuel consumption of turbojet engines is still relatively high.

Later, the engine of the WZ-7 was replaced with a turbofan engine.

Turbofan engines with high bypass ratios consume less fuel and can allow aircraft to stay in the air longer.

The original Detective 7 did not have a stealth effect.

However, this shortcoming was later made up.

After all, Longguo's stealth coating was later greatly developed.

In the 1980s, the concept of stealth fighter was still quite advanced and ahead of its time.

Currently, only Giant Eagle is developing stealth fighter jets, and it has achieved some results.

The bears are naturally following suit, but there has been no breakthrough for the time being.

Under the leadership of Wang Haoran, Longguo's third-generation fighter jets have now developed to a relatively high level.

The avionics system is unique in the world, and the missiles it carries are also quite complete, forming a complete Thunderbolt series.

Wang Haoran felt that it was time to make up for the shortcoming of invisibility.

After all, Eagle's first true stealth fighter, the F117, entered service in 1983.

They started designing and developing this fighter jet in 1975.

The prototype was completed in 1977, conducted its first flight test in 1981, and entered formal service in 1983.

When this thing came out, it caused a sensation and amazed the whole world.

The F117 uses a complex shape design, radar-absorbing paint and special coatings to reduce the radar cross-sectional area.

In its previous life, the F117 had made great achievements in the operation against date palms and destroyed a large number of high-value targets.

However, because one of the F117s was shot down during the operation against the Southern Union, Eagle believed that it had defects and was not perfect, and later, it was gradually shelved.

But to be honest, the F117 is really a very powerful fighter.

Longguo is actually also conducting research on stealth fighter jets.

However, there has not been any significant progress so far.

The companies responsible for the research and development are Shenfei and Chengdu Aircraft Corporation.

The two companies are also competing secretly.

As a time traveler, Wang Haoran naturally knew that Chengfei's proposal was later adopted and the J-20 was produced.

However, Shenfei’s stealth fighter plan was rejected.

However, Shen Fei was not discouraged, but continued to work hard to improve.

Later, Shen Fei's plan was also supported by the troops.

That is the J-35 fighter.

This is also Longguo’s second stealth fighter.

Wang Haoran did not interfere too much in the research of stealth fighter jets.

This is because if you take the initiative to intervene in the scientific research project, you will be criticized.

He also didn't want to do everything himself.

We have to give people a chance to perform.

He intervened in the development of the third-generation aircraft because the country urgently needed them, but they were too difficult to produce.

For the development of the country's air force, he had to do everything he could.

Wang Haoran's current idea is: I can start a project on stealth drones. After all, I don't need to compete with others, right?
Well! If that doesn't work, then why not cooperate with Xi'an Aircraft Industry Group?
Overall, his cooperation with Xi'an Aircraft Industry Corporation was quite pleasant.

The two sides still maintain a very good cooperative relationship.

In addition, Wang Haoran also has good cooperation with Northwestern Polytechnical University.

Pangu Technology also has several laboratories in Northwestern Polytechnical University.

Pangu Technology provides a considerable amount of scientific research funding to Northwestern Polytechnical University every year.

This has also led to the good development trend of Northwestern Polytechnical University in recent years.

Wang Haoran decided to first make a better engine for the Wuzhen 7 that he was designing.

In fact, Longguo's aircraft engine sector is developing quite well today.

A series of turbofan engines have been developed.

Of course, Wang Haoran is also the founder of the Longguo turbofan engine.

Wang Haoran was thinking: Turbofan engines are already very mature. So, should I have higher aspirations?
For example, make a variable cycle engine.

The so-called variable cycle engine, in simple terms, is actually a new type of aircraft engine that adjusts the thermodynamic cycle characteristics and power output by changing the geometric shape, size or position of engine components.

This variable cycle design allows the aircraft to operate at its best under different flight conditions, which can improve the overall performance of the aircraft and enable it to be extremely fuel-efficient in the most economical mode.

By changing the shape of the adjusting components, the aircraft's output power can be rapidly increased, thereby dramatically increasing its flight speed.

In a word: With a variable cycle engine, the fighter can fly at a minimum speed of three to four hundred kilometers per hour.

The fastest speed can reach more than twice the speed of sound.

In this case, the application range of fighter jets will be quite broad.

The concept of this variable cycle engine actually appeared quite early.

It can be traced back to the 1960s.

GE, the company that built the Eagle, once took the lead in developing an F120 variable cycle engine, but in the end it could only serve as a backup engine for the F22.

This also shows that the variable cycle engine may seem quite simple at first glance.

In fact, it is really not that simple at all.

After all, it is quite difficult to change the shape of parts of a fighter engine while it is working.

Then the design seems to have a huge negative impact on aircraft engines.

To put it simply: the craftsmanship still cannot reach perfection.

This is also the main reason why, despite decades of research on variable cycle aircraft engines in the past, no mature product was put into use until the 20s.

For example, the F136 variable cycle engine was jointly developed by GE and Rolls-Royce.

This engine was originally planned to be used on the F35 fighter.

However, it was ultimately not selected.

The main reason is that the stability is not enough and the safety factor cannot be guaranteed.

Wang Haoran knew that the development of a variable cycle engine was extremely difficult.

However, he still decided to make one and use it on a drone first.

As long as it can be used well on drones and undergoes continuous improvement, it may be able to be used on main fighter jets one day in the future.

Wang Haoran now has two variable cycle engines in his mind.

One is the Eagle F136.

The other is Longguo’s 25-ton variable cycle engine.

In the previous life, Longguo’s variable cycle engine was designed for the 6th generation aircraft.

However, the sixth-generation aircraft that was tested did not ultimately use a traditional turbo-breathing engine.

Wang Haoran decided to combine the two.

Although Wang Haoran already had a perfect design plan from his previous life in his mind, it was still quite difficult to develop a finished product.

Throughout the early Spring Festival of 1986, Wang Haoran was in the laboratory thinking about some technical difficulties of the variable cycle engine.

The technical difficulties of variable cycle engines are mainly as follows:

First, its control system is quite complex.

Variable cycle engines require the position, size and shape of key components to be changed while in operation, which requires highly complex control systems to precisely control these changes.

This requires the development of high-precision sensors and actuators.

This also requires complex algorithms to process large amounts of data and make adjustments in real time.

Secondly, the second technical difficulty is that this type of engine needs to work under extreme conditions, which places extremely high demands on materials and manufacturing processes.

The design and manufacture of variable cycle engines require interdisciplinary knowledge and skills, and their manufacturing difficulty and cost are relatively high.

Third, because the variable cycle engine needs to optimize its performance under different flight conditions, only in this way can it achieve optimal performance under different flight conditions.

This optimization process sounds simple, but it is actually very complicated and requires a lot of calculations and experimental verification.

Finally, the maintenance and repair of variable cycle engines require technical thresholds and professional knowledge, which is difficult for ordinary maintenance personnel to do. This is also the main reason that limits its widespread application.

Wang Haoran led his team to verify bit by bit, carried out a large number of complex calculations, and continuously improved the process technology.

He even spent a lot of time in the laboratory during the Spring Festival.

Finally, after more than three months, he finally built a very good variable cycle engine prototype in mid-April 3.

Because it is used in drones, this first variable cycle engine does not use a setting that changes the position, size and shape of key components in real time.

He drew on some experience from continuously variable transmissions in automobiles.

He gave the engine seven gears.

Only when the speed exceeds a certain limit will the engine change the position of key components and make corresponding adjustments.

The engine power output can be changed by adjusting the fuel supply, the size of the duct, the pressure of the pressurized combustion chamber, etc.

This basically allows the aircraft to adjust its speed between 300 km/h and 3500 km/h.

Because this engine is used in drones, most of the time, its speed only needs to be controlled at 300 kilometers per hour.

If an enemy aircraft comes to harass or offend you, you can evade it by raising the flight limit, or even interfere with its avionics system, making it suffer in silence.

After Wang Haoran built the variable cycle engine, he handed it over to other team members for performance testing.

He himself began to improve the design of the entire body of the WZ-7.

In order to achieve the best stealth effect, the fuselage needs to be redesigned.

For example, if you want to achieve a good enough stealth effect, you have to use smooth curves and inclined planes.

In addition, a double tail design with wing-body fusion and inward and outward tilting can be adopted.

This makes it difficult for enemy radar to detect.

Of course, the most important thing is to develop the best and most efficient radar wave absorbing material for coating.

These absorbing materials have special electromagnetic properties that can absorb radar waves that hit the aircraft and convert them into other energy.

This can minimize the strength of the signal reflected back to the opponent's radar.

Stealth fighters need to be equipped with electromagnetic jamming equipment.

In this way, false target signals, noise signals and other interference signals can be emitted to cover up the real target signals and confuse the opponent's radar detection results.

Stealth fighters can also reduce the aircraft's characteristics in various spectral ranges by using dark paint, low-reflective materials and other technologies.

For example, visible light, infrared, ultraviolet, etc., which can also make stealth fighters difficult to be detected even with the naked eye.

These also need to be fully considered.

In terms of stealth absorbing coatings, it is actually a very complicated matter. (End of this chapter)