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 and stared in the direction of the runway again and 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 Excellency, 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 of the cooperation project 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 dinner reception, a group of Persians followed He Ming downstairs happily.
“The first four or five…”
Several other people in the room stood up one after another.
“In terms of flight performance, the F14 feels lighter than I imagined.”
"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 and adjusts the position on its own as I operate the throttle lever.”
After a moment's pause, he continued to explain:
“What I'm saying is that even excluding the engine upgrades we've made, this aircraft is easier to maneuver than it looks.”
The aircraft assigned to China by Persia for imaginary enemy missions are still being dismantled in the 70# factory. Therefore, Fu Guoxiang and Zhao Mengtian are currently the only pilots in the entire Air Force who have flown F14.
After the colonel officer finished speaking, he led the rest of the people and saluted the two of them:
“The reason why I am calling you here in such a hurry is because the organization hopes to understand as soon as possible how you feel about all aspects of your test flight of the F14 fighter jet.”
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.
This delegation came with the first batch of F14s. They have been in the factory for two months and are really exhausted.
It was different from the usual test flight process. Today they had a special task to complete.
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.
While Fu Guoxiang was describing, a lieutenant beside Wang Kang was also tapping the keyboard quickly, apparently recording what he said.
The two pilots looked at each other, and finally the former with higher rank spoke:
Wang Kang quickly captured the key point of his words:
“Comrade Fu Guoxiang and Comrade Zhao Mengtian, first of all, I would like to congratulate you on your triumphant return.”
Although the upgraded F14IC is different from the F14A and F14D, the basic flight characteristics will not change much.
"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 It will be a very difficult opponent.”
Slightly further away, an Air Force colonel has been waiting for some time.
Wang Kang, the brigade commander of the Dingxin Base Aviation Brigade, is also Zhao Mengtian's superior, but this is 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 administrative building without even having time to change into flight jackets.
“In other words, you don't think this mobility is sustainable.”
“That's right.”
Fu Guoxiang nodded:
"Although the small sweep angle can provide a good instantaneous turning ability, 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. "As far as the two third-generation aircraft I have flown have been concerned, as long as the J-11 is not caught off guard during the first encounter, it should not be difficult to rely on its advantages in energy and large off-axis angle of weapons. To win, for the same reason, the J-11 can accumulate enough energy advantages in the process of firing and avoiding medium-range missiles after being equipped with a 1493 self-use radar with similar performance to this aircraft. "
"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 advantage of speed to fight and retreat quickly. Of course, the J-8C The 8C does not have the absolute speed advantage of exceeding Mach 2.8 or even Mach 3 like the MiG 31 or MiG 25, so it still needs to be dealt with carefully.”
"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 will be given simply because Fu Guoxiang has not flown other variable-sweep wing aircraft.
The wingspan retracting speed of 7° per second is actually far ahead among similar aircraft.
He recalled it again to make sure that he had not missed anything, and then concluded:
“In general, I think the F14 is limited by its basic design, and its potential is not as good as those real third-generation fighters that came later. However, considering the actual situation of our country's 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 N001 on the Su-27SK. 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, a separate pilot is no longer actually needed 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 complex, and many require full human-in-the-loop control, the second pilot is very important.”
“So I suggest that we carefully consider the equipment quantity of the two-seat J-11, that is, the Su-27, unless we 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 1998, the F14 could still be regarded as the main model in the US Navy's carrier-based aircraft force.
Hence, 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 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 pick up the issue, but changed the topic somewhat abruptly;
“We have exchanged F14s for our own use, and the first of them should be rolling off the production line soon. By then, Brigadier Wang, your troops will be more like the genuine US military.”
Zhao Mengtian, who was following the two of them, had been stroking his chin and thinking for a long time. 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 that he "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.
(End of this chapter)
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