Genius of the Rules-Style System

Liu Jiankun envisions developing top-notch aviation engines to support the self-research and production of fifth-generation fighters, allowing the Air Force to skip the third and a half and fourth-generation fighters and field fifth-generation fighters on a large scale.

This idea is very exciting to say, but in fact, it is just an idea. Even he himself knows that it is unrealistic. For the time being, he can only think about it in his heart. He just expresses his approval of the design of Kunlun Group 2 and supports the design aim. Determine fifth-generation fighter aircraft.

Zhao Yi didn't care when he was aiming for a fixed fighter, he just hoped that the prototype could be manufactured according to the highest specifications.

Fifth-generation fighters are definitely the best choice.

The higher the design level of the fighter aircraft, the higher the requirements for the engine. Fifth-generation fighters are currently the most high-end fighters. Only by targeting fifth-generation fighters can we build higher-end prototypes.

This is also where domestic self-developed aero engines are constrained by the design and manufacturing of fighter aircraft.

Because there was no high-end turbofan engine originally, the Kunlun engine was the first major R\u0026D project. The investment and R\u0026D period were too long, and the engine R\u0026D team was not independent. As a result, when designing and manufacturing prototypes, they had to be based on the design level. To target the fighter aircraft planned to be manufactured, that is, to consider the follow-up research and development later. At present, there is no need to spend extra money for follow-up research and development. The results of prototype debugging can be used to mass-produce fighters.

Targeting fighter aircraft in advance to manufacture prototypes can indeed improve the efficiency from research and development to production, but it is also a constraint on research and development. Some high-end designs have to be "partially castrated" for this purpose.

The constraints encountered by the Kunlun engine are not big, but the Kunlun II group may encounter greater constraints.

If the target fighter does not have such high demand for engines, it will not need such high-end designs. In order to save costs and speed up, some high-end designs that may cause problems will definitely be cut off.

Zhao Yi was a little worried about this situation. Fortunately, the meeting to determine the target of the fighter plane was about to be held, so he didn't have to wait too long.

The main purpose of coming to the aviation group this time is to participate in the group's internal meeting on engine research and development and fighter aircraft design and manufacturing.

There was not much preparation for the meeting, and it went directly to the meeting quickly. But looking at the people attending the meeting, you will know how important it is. The lowest level to participate in the meeting is also the deputy designer of the engine R\u0026D team, which is lower than Zhang Gangchuan. A person of the same level as other aviation group internal personnel also has several deputy designers and deputy general managers.

Half of the participants were not from the aviation group, including representatives from the Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Aeronautical Materials, deputy ministerial leaders from above, and representatives from the Air Force and Navy.

etc.

Soon the meeting started.

Although the meeting directly involved the design and development of the Kunlun II Group, Zhao Yi was mostly in a state of observation, because many topics and reports were related to the current situation of the domestic air force, the development direction of fighter aircraft installation, and the adaptation of various fighter aircraft. tasks and national-defense-air-force related issues.

In short, it's complicated.

As an observer, Zhao Yi listened to many topics and learned about the situation related to the domestic air force and fighter jets. He suddenly felt that what Liu Jiankun said was unreliable.

Is the design targeting fifth-generation aircraft?

It’s difficult!

Currently, the fighter jets in service in China are still mainly second- and half- and third-generation aircraft. The general direction in the future is to upgrade the main fighters to third-and-a-half-generation and fourth-generation fighters, which sounds like they are very close to fifth-generation aircraft.

This is not the case.

The J-10 and J-11 series fighters that have mature technology in China and can be produced independently, but most of the engines used are imported, and their performance is only as good as that of third- and half-generation fighters.

The plan of the aviation group and the Air Force is to install J-10 and J-11 series fighters on a large scale, that is, to replace third-and-a-half-generation fighters on a large scale, plus dozens of imported fighters starting with the word "Su", to allow the air force to The - army has thousands of third-generation and a half fighter aircraft, which can be regarded as completing a stage of upgrading.

Currently, the J-20 fighter jets independently designed and developed in China are confirmed to have performance reaching the fourth-generation fighter level, or even close to the fifth-generation fighter jets. The only one that can form an absolute advantage over the third-and-a-half-generation fighter jets is the J-20 fighter jet that has just been tested, not to mention one that has just entered the test flight stage. How far is the J-20 fighter jet from mass production? Even if the J-20 fighter jet technology is mature, it is unlikely to be mass-produced quickly.

Because, type and cost.

The J-20 is similar to the F-22 of the M country. It is a heavy fighter with complete equipment advantages. The potential of the heavy fighter is limited. The bulkiness is the biggest problem, making it impossible to become a carrier-based aircraft and limiting its future use potential.

Cost is also a huge issue.

The cost of the F-22 of the M country is as high as 200 million to 350 million U.S. dollars. The cost of the J-20 has not been disclosed, but it will certainly not be less than 100 million U.S. dollars, not including the investment in the research and development stage.

In order to 'get rid' of the F-22, which only has deterrence capabilities, Country M developed a low-end version of the F-35, which is currently recognized as the most advanced fighter jet. The cost of the F-35 is still very high, but it can be loaded onto an aircraft carrier and used. The potential is just not on the same level.

The meeting of the aviation group is now discussing the "reduced version" of the J-20. They have long drawn up a plan to develop a "reduced version" of the J-20, which is the J-31.

The J-31 is designed as a medium-sized fighter. Its performance is not much worse than the J-20, and it can be loaded onto an aircraft carrier. It sounds very good, but in fact, the J-20 has just conducted a test flight, and the technology can be said to be relatively good. Immature, the J-31 is not perfect on the drawing board.

J-31 is the fighter model designed and targeted by Kunlun II Group.

The second half of the entire meeting revolved around the J-31. Li Jianming, the design leader of the J-31, made two reports and put forward his own design opinions. But in fact, everyone could hear it. Li Jianming’s opinion of the J-31 The design of 31 is only half completed at most. Many designs are imperfect and problems can be easily found.

For example, the wing problem.

The J-31 design is a composite one-piece wing. Someone said on the spot, "The F-2 has been equipped with a composite one-piece wing, which has many problems, such as poor resistance to shear stress and other impact loads, and damage to The resulting stress concentration and dramatic deterioration in structural strength are extremely poorly tolerated.”

"As a carrier-based aircraft, its flight is much lower than that of a land airport, and the operating environment is even harsher. If it is difficult to make violent maneuvers, should it be like the F-2 and have to take off in a disciplined manner?"

Li Jianming could only reply, "Currently, we are still researching and improving..."

no doubt.

At least as of now, there are still problems with the design of the J-31. Fortunately, the center of the meeting was the engine issue. After a series of discussions, Liu Jiankun finally announced the result.

The design of the Kunlun II group was divided into two parts. One part was given to the Kunlun engine group. Combined with the original design of the Kunlun group, new designs and improvements that might cause problems were cut off, and a new engine design was merged and started. When making prototypes, the target is still the J-10.

This engine is named WZ-A2.

At the same time, the Kunlun engine unit continues its original work, which is to continue debugging the Kunlun engine, striving to complete the adaptation of the Kunlun engine to third-generation and third-and-half-generation fighters, which is to ensure that the Kunlun engine that has been developed for 30 years will bear fruit.

The second Kunlun unit was renamed the "War Eagle" unit, with the goal of developing the highest-end engine. The prototype was manufactured to target the J-31 fighter jet, and the engine code was named WZ-A1.

WZ-A1, WZ-A2, the code names indicate the origin of the design.

…

End of the meeting.

The Kunlun Group II was renamed the 'War Eagle' Group, which was a complete separation from the Kunlun Group. Even the Kunlun Group's latest research and development work relied on the designs of the 'War Eagle' Group.

Of course, when the Kunlun Group II initially did R\u0026D and design, they also relied on the foundation laid by the Kunlun Group's R\u0026D.

It can be said that both sides have helped each other.

Zhao Yi walked out of the conference room and was led by the staff to another small conference room, where he met Gao Mingfu from the Aeronautical Materials Research Institute and Li Jianming, the designer of J-31. He came mainly to communicate with Li Jianming.

Gao Mingfu came over to get acquainted with Zhao Yi. He is a representative of the Aviation Materials Research Institute and is responsible for the manufacturing process of the WZ-A1 engine. The manufacturing of engine prototypes is closely related to aviation materials.

In this regard, the Aeronautical Materials Research Institute is professional, while Zhang Hongtao and Li Rongmao are laymen.

Zhao Yi and Gao Mingfu had met once before, and they only exchanged a few words of familiarity before waiting for Li Jianming, who arrived belatedly.

Li Jianming is indeed very busy.

On the design of the J-31, he needed to communicate with several departments, even the military department. The purpose of designing a fighter aircraft must be to serve and complete the mission. The design of the J-31 needs to take into account future service. The final task question.

For example, some fighter jets are designed and manufactured to deter their southern neighbors. Since their southern neighbors have relatively weak military strength, they do not need to be designed to be too high-end, and there is no point in spending more money.

That's what the J-31 is.

The problem the J-31 encounters is not usage restrictions, but that the required uses are too wide and the technology is too high-end. Under the premise of adapting to a lot of performance, it also needs to... reduce weight?

Li Jianming only felt that it was too difficult.

He felt that other departments probably kept putting forward design requirements for the J-31 without thinking carefully about it, but how could it be possible to achieve them all? Domestic fighter aircraft design, manufacturing experience and technology have definitely found some characteristics, but it must be admitted that there is still a certain gap with international ones. Without the support of many technologies, it is impossible to improve performance by design alone.

Li Jianming walked into the small conference room with a depressed look. He still smiled when he saw Zhao Yi. He held Zhao Yi's hand and said, "Academician Zhao, I never thought that you would design the engine. With your participation, in the future, You don’t have to worry about engine performance anymore.”

"You're welcome!"

The two exchanged a few words of compliment.

In fact, Li Jianming has been saying that Zhao Yi really does not know Li Jianming, probably because the designers of fighter jets do not do much publicity to the outside world. They cannot say that they make contributions in a low-key manner, but they will not be reported by too many media. .

The topic soon turned to the WZ-A1 engine.

The War Eagle team needs to know the J-31's engine parameter requirements in order to know how to modify the design to a certain extent to create a WZ-A1 prototype.

When faced with this problem, Li Jianming complained repeatedly, "It is difficult to finalize the design. Academician Zhao, you have also seen that there are still many unresolved problems in the J-31 design, and even the design requirements have not been determined."

"It is difficult for us to determine the design in a short time, and it is difficult to provide specific parameter requirements for the engine."

Zhao Yi frowned and asked, "We can make a prototype first. After debugging, if there are differences in performance, we can fine-tune the J-31 design or modify the engine performance."

Li Jianmin thought and nodded, "This is also possible, but I still have to discuss the general parameters with other people when I get back, and communicate with other departments..."

He said a lot in succession.

Zhao Yi listened for a long time and asked simply, "Professor Li, how long will it take?"

"...a few months!"

Zhao Yi frowned again, "It can't be shorter." A few months is too long. The prototype cannot be produced at once. It only takes a few months to finalize the parameters. Time is wasted waiting. .

Li Jianming shook his head apologetically.

The two did not reach an agreement.

Perhaps it cannot be said that they have not reached an agreement, the atmosphere is still very polite, the main reason is that the design of J-31 cannot be finalized, and even rough parameters cannot be provided.

After Li Jianming left, Gao Mingfu said comfortingly, "Academician Zhao, in fact, compared to fighter design, a few months is already very fast. The construction of J-31 must be a long-term work."

"Not to mention the J-31, whose design has not been finalized. Even the J-20, which has already been tested, will have to undergo many modifications to the specific design, and maybe even the engine will need to be replaced. The Kunlun team is targeting the J-20. ?”

Zhao Yi shook his head dejectedly, "But a few months is too long. I just want a parameter, and... this kind of thing, if we say a few months, it may be enough to drag on for a year, or even longer."

Gao Mingfu did not refute, he acquiesced in Zhao Yi's statement.

Zhao Yi returned to the hotel depressed, but still couldn't bear to think about it, so he simply walked back quickly and found Liu Jiankun directly.

After Liu Jiankun finished handling the follow-up work of the meeting, he just returned to the office and planned to take a rest. After that, he had to deal with several designers, managers and military representatives. His work was indeed very busy.

At this time, the assistant reported, "Academician Zhao is here."

"right away."

Liu Jiankun stood up and walked out, and met Zhao Yi in the living room next to him. "Academician Zhao, didn't you go back to the hotel?"

"There is a problem with the J-31 design."

Zhao Yi said dejectedly and asked, "I came here to ask, does the design of the engine prototype have to be adjusted according to the parameters given by the target fighter?"

"That's right."

Liu Jiankun nodded and explained, "After the prototype is manufactured and debugged, it can be directly loaded onto the fighter plane for test flight. If there is no target fighter aircraft, the engine will not be used for the time being. An engine that cannot reach the sky is just an experiment, and no one knows Is the performance stable?”

"But the design problems of J-31 have delayed our progress." Zhao Yi frowned, "If they are not sure about the parameter range, don't we have to wait forever?"

"Theoretically, it is like this." Liu Jiankun was silent for a long time and explained, "It is like this. Because within the group, the engine research and development group and the fighter design group are integrated and directly related, and they are not independent. If they are abroad, the engine group It is a separate department and can do research and development at will, but it will also consume a lot of money, because there is no successful precedent for the turbofan engine we independently developed, and it has always been like this."

"Is there any other way?" Zhao Yi asked simply.

Liu Jiankun thought for a while and tried to suggest a method, "Aim at other fighters?"

"This is okay!"

"but……"

Liu Jiankun said, "Currently, the only fifth-generation aircraft design is the J-31. The J-20 is a heavy-duty fighter, and the design has been finalized. The engine may not necessarily be replaced. The Kunlun adaptation group is just giving one for them to experiment with."

"Because there is a high probability that the J-20 will produce dozens or hundreds of aircraft in the future. If we can use independently developed engines, it will definitely reduce costs greatly and improve our own technology."

"For fifth-generation aircraft, what we need most is a high-end carrier-based aircraft. The fuselage must be light and flexible, support supersonic flight, preferably supersonic cruise, have a maximum flight distance of more than 1,800 kilometers, and can carry at least three missiles - bomb……"

Liu Jiankun made a lot of demands in succession.

Zhao Yi nodded his head when he heard this. He somewhat understood why Li Jianming could not finalize the design.

Then, he said, "Otherwise, don't we have to wait for the final design of the J-31? Our War Eagle team is also idle and applies to design a fighter jet suitable for the WZ-A1?"

"As long as the design is approved, can we start producing WZ-A1 prototypes?"

Liu Jiankun was stunned. It took him a long time before he nodded, "...Ah, yes. But, Academician Zhao, you have no experience in designing fighter aircraft, right?"

"What's wrong?"

Zhao Yidao said, "It's just a try. The design alone doesn't cost much anyway, right? What if it works?"

"……Right?"

"Then it's settled, I'm going to apply, are you going to approve it?"

"Ah, okay, no problem!" Liu Jiankun nodded affirmatively. He was stunned for a long time, looking at Zhao Yi's leaving figure, his brain seemed to have stagnated.

Because the final design of the fighter plane has delayed the production of the prototype, why not simply design a fighter plane by yourself?

this……

Does it seem logically correct?