Rebirth 2009: Synthetic God

The screen of the command center showed the image of the hangar.

The protagonists of today, three Xingtian fighters, were also revealed.

Although some employees who were not involved in the project but only in the command had received the news long ago, they still felt it was outrageous when they saw three Xingtian fighters exuding dangerous atmosphere with their own eyes.

For something like an aerospace fighter, three prototypes were made directly at once.

The key point is that these are not three completely identical spare aircraft, but the technical details are slightly different.

Unit 1: It is quite standard and the most standard form. It can also be called a prototype.

Unit 2: It has a special stealth technology different from the "Four Symbols Mode", called "Six Yao".

Unit 3: It has a special electromagnetic catapult take-off method and needs to be used with special equipment.

However, only Unit 1 will be used for today's test flight. The other two are planned to be later. They are here today just as a backup plan in case of emergency.

Zhou Rui looked at Academician Ma Weiming who was not far away from him. This electromagnetic master was very curious about everything in the intelligent command center and kept looking around.

"Academician Ma, it's a pity that the No. 3 aircraft you participated in today cannot be tested for flight. You have to wait for a while."

Ma Weiming turned around and said, "It doesn't matter. Come one by one. I'm not in a hurry to leave."

In the past half month, he has been completely settled in the Wanhu base. The navy has sent people twice, but they didn't invite him back. And his interest in the aerospace field has become stronger and stronger.

Although they have worked together before, this kind of "big scene" is the first time for Ma Weiming to participate.

Looking at the youngest academician of the Republic beside him, he smiled and said, "Academician Zhou, are you nervous?"

Zhou Rui shook his head and said, "Not really. It's just a test flight of the drone, and the cost is not high. The most important thing is that I have experienced it many times."

Electromagnetic Master gave a thumbs up: "It will succeed. Didn't they all say that there has been no problem with the things you knocked, hahaha."

This is the strange news that Ma Weiming heard two days ago. The entire aviation/aerospace system knows that Master Zhou has a metaphysical knocking skill. He himself can't say whether he believes it or not, but he thinks it's very interesting.

Zhou Rui smiled and looked at the three planes again.

In fact, he was most interested in the No. 2 aircraft, which was equipped with the electromagnetic shielding force field of "Liu Yao Material".

After a period of verification, the huge advantages of "Liu Yao Material" in the aviation field were gradually excavated, and two of them were the most terrifying.

First, the stealth skin was omitted, freeing up space and weight, and ammunition could be hung externally.

Second, the design can completely ignore the requirements of the stealth shape, and only consider the requirements of the aerodynamic shape, which can make the aerodynamic shape the ultimate.

These two points alone can be said to be a revolutionary change in stealth fighters.

Unfortunately, when the "Liu Yao Material" appeared, the aerodynamic shape of "Xingtian" had been determined, and in order not to affect the overall progress, it was not modified.

In short, not only the aerospace fighter, but all domestic fighters, whether in the sky or on the ground, manned or unmanned, will get better and better.

There is already a generation gap, and it has to be a generation gap, generation gap.

Technological breakthroughs are endless, which is really a happy distress.

The sight returns to the outside of the hangar.

Under the towing of the tractor, today's protagonist, the No. 1 aircraft, slowly drove out. This 10.8-meter-long, 1.7-meter-high, special-shaped, extremely flat aircraft came to the center of the runway.

The front of the tail is a "compression ignition/scramjet dual-mode engine" (twin engines), and the belly of the tail is a small rocket engine (single engine).

Compared with all the aircraft Zhou Rui has seen, "Xingtian" is the smallest one, with a full load of only 6.8 tons, less than a quarter of the Weilong.

But as a drone, as a "consumable", and as a fighter, it has all the necessary organs.

Zhou Rui stood in the command center, looking at the iron-gray "Xingtian No. 1" of the same model as the J-20, and was a little confused for a while.

There were so many test flights before. Why does it feel different from this time?

Oh, by the way, because there was no driver to respond.

The Xingtian fighter uses mechanical intelligent internal networking technology, which consists of up to 2090 intelligent nodes throughout the body.

The more self-networking, self-organizing, and self-coordinating nodes, the stronger the intelligence, which is the characteristic of mechanical intelligence.

Mechanical intelligence is not good at drawing, generating videos, or stock trading, but in terms of hardware control, it is a black technology that transcends the times.

The Xingtian fighter is also the largest and most complex internal networking device so far, except for intelligent mechanical life such as Xiaohuasha.

Zhou Rui vaguely remembers that when he just received the revelation of "mechanical intelligence", the system revealed a picture with an unmanned wingman accompanying the "J-20".

After many years, this scene was finally reproduced, although it was a completely different mode.

In hundreds of thousands of simulations, the intelligent core of the Xingtian fighter has achieved excellent results. Its biggest feature is fast reaction, fast calculation, and fast judgment. As long as the external information is successfully received, it can react in microseconds, far exceeding human pilots.

This is very precious for hypersonic fighters.

If there is a weakness, it is that it does not have the human "association" and "prediction" ability, and is more rigid.

Well. How it really flies depends on today's performance.

While thinking, the No. 1 machine has arrived at the designated location and conducted a series of static tests.

Including "deformed wing detection", "tail jet control detection", "electronic system detection" and so on.

Since there was no one, there was no communication during the whole process, just instructions issued by the command center.

Dull, monotonous, boring

Zhou Rui even thought about whether he could add a "virtual interaction" in the future to simulate the appearance of someone responding. This would not help the Xingtian fighter planes, but would be more friendly to the command center and control tower.

Ten minutes later, an energetic voice sounded in the command center

"Static detection is over, apply to activate the four-image stealth mode."

Zhou Rui said in a deep voice: "Agreed, activate the four-image mode."

After the order was given, a faint ripple flashed around the No. 1 aircraft on the runway, and the iron gray turned into a mirror color in an instant.

Although the technology is the same, compared with the angular and tough style of the J-20, the Xingtian fighter is more dreamy in the four-image mode due to its flat, streamlined waverider-like shape, as if its entire body is made of mercury.

Lord Electromagnetic couldn't help but murmured: "It's so beautiful. Those who make airplanes are so handsome."

"The four-image mode started smoothly, the telemetry data are all normal, and the countdown is 3 minutes for takeoff."

At about the same time, the figure of "Xingtian Unit No. 1" also appeared on the mimic platform in the command center.

It is not difficult to see that the entire command model uses the rocket launch template, which is also related to the special situation of the aerospace aircraft.

"Two minutes countdown, engine pre-start."

The "compression ignition/scramjet dual-mode engine" behind it started, and the blue-red tail spray flame slightly destroyed the "mercury-like" dreamy feeling.

"Countdown is 1 minute, the fuel system is normal."

"Countdown is 50 seconds, the space-based measurement and control network service is normal."

"Countdown is 30 seconds, the smart core responds normally"

Looking at the numbers on the screen, Zhou Rui finally took over and said loudly: "Countdown. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! Take off!"

The next moment, on the runway, the "compression ignition/scramjet engine" on the front of the tail of the Xingtian No. 1 aircraft sprayed out violent tail flames.

This power monster uses the same technology as hypersonic missiles, and combined with the lightweight model, it accelerates extremely fast. If it is a manned fighter plane, it may cause black vision on the ground.

But for Xingtian, who has no one, it is still safe and sound.

Ten seconds later, in front of everyone's eyes, the aerial unmanned fighter jet left the ground for the first time and headed towards the sky.

"Flying! Takeoff successful!"

In Factory Building No. 5, a large number of engineers crowded together and watched the test flight process on the screen.

Shan Chunyuan said in a deep voice: "Don't panic! This is an aerial fighter plane, and the test flight has just begun!"

Just taking off from the ground barely crossed the starting line.

He stared at the screen, and the process of taking off just now made him aware of a small problem.

In order to adapt to the critical orbit and cut into the atmosphere, Xingtian's wings are of miniaturized design. Even if the acceleration is extremely fast, the take-off distance is not short. This also exposes a hidden danger: long distance + fast speed, the requirements for the runway will change. Very high.

Flatness, hardness, length. These things are not easy to maintain at ordinary airports, and there are many unknown factors.

It seems that the "torture rack" developed by myself and Academician Ma may really become the standard equipment in the future.

A loud bang of "Boom!" resounded throughout the Taicang Industrial Zone.

Many people looked up blankly, but found nothing. The target had disappeared into the sky at an extremely fast speed.

In the command center, feedback came one after another.

"The speed exceeds Mach 3! The height is 20,000 meters!"

The starting point of Xingtian's unmanned fighter jets has already exceeded the upper limit of 99% of the world's fighter jets.

And it hasn't even used its own scramjet engine yet.

"The speed exceeds Mach 5! The height is 50,000 meters!"

"The compression ignition mode is switched and the scram ram mode is started successfully!"

"The speed exceeds Mach 7! The height is 60,000 meters!"

"The speed reaches Mach 9! The height is 80,000 meters!"

Within a few minutes, this little guy, who was more powerful than a missile, approached the Kármán line, which is the dividing line between space and the atmosphere.

In the command room, Ma Weiming listened to a series of broadcasts and opened his mouth.

It’s too fast. This climbing ability is completely at the level of a hypersonic missile!

That's right, Academician Zhou was originally designing "Xingtian" based on the missile/rocket idea.

It doesn't seem to be a problem to call it a small missile with wings that can be precisely controlled.

Ma Weiming touched his chin. Little mischief?

It sounds quite cute.

While thinking about it, the Xingtian fighter's altitude was already close to 90,000 meters and its speed was close to Mach 10. This was the limit it could reach before leaving the atmosphere.

"Close to the Karman line, stable attitude."

Zhou Rui said in a deep voice: "Countdown to the start of the deformation wing. 5, 4, 3,..."

Tens of thousands of meters above the ground, the sky above our heads was no longer blue, but almost deep black.

The oxygen here is so thin that even a "scramjet engine" cannot provide enough power, and the air density cannot provide much lift.

A strange mercury-like flying object cut through the atmosphere at a terrifying speed, but it seemed to have reached the speed limit.

To reach this height, I even used some inertia.

Suddenly, the "intelligent core" that received the instructions began to control his body.

The two wings of the Xingtian fighter plane began to fold in the belly.

If it were to do this in a thick atmosphere at its speed, it would probably disintegrate directly, but near the Kármán line at this time, it was just right.

The originally streamlined fighter, after the wings were retracted, became more and more like a waverider missile. The slender fuselage lost the only airflow lift and began to fall.

But soon, its terrifying speed and the change in atmospheric density brought by the altitude change made it bounce up again.

Again, but the speed was still very fast.

It was like playing with stones on the dividing line of the atmosphere.

——————

The center of the Pacific Ocean, Midway Island

It was not yet dawn here. The total number of humans on the small island did not exceed 1,000. Most of them were American bacteria, and a small number were ecological researchers.

The lonely island in the Pacific Ocean would also be particularly bright at night. The sky full of stars was the norm here, and it was also one of the few beautiful views.

Two American soldiers lay on the beach, hugging each other passionately.

Suddenly, the strong man below said: "Tony! Look! What is that?!"

The soldier named Tony smiled slightly: "You want to trick me again, you annoying little goblin."

The strong man pushed him away and looked up at the sky.

In the night, a cone-shaped trajectory was passing by rapidly..

Meteor? No! The tail was curved, and the altitude did not seem to drop.

Man-made aircraft?

"I have to inform my superiors immediately! That thing is flying towards the west coast!"

In fact, he thought too much

Xingtian's destination is not the United States, let alone the west coast.

Xingtian's destination is actually Taicang.

It's just that he returned from another direction.

——————

In the command center, Zhou Rui observed the remote sensing data and mimicry model.

Qian Xuesen's trajectory test was very successful. This is also due to the fact that the company has accumulated a lot of experience in this direction.

In this way, fuel can be saved a lot, and the trajectory is elusive.

Of course, if the Four-Elephant stealth technology is taken into account, it is not important whether the trajectory is elusive or not. What if it is seen visually?

However, this kind of water skipping cannot be played for too long. First, fuel must be conserved, and second, it is visually visible in the atmosphere (visually visible and interceptable are two different things), which is a bit ostentatious.

"Prepare to enter orbit, rocket engine pre-start, 5, 4, 3, 2"

Almost half the Earth away, the critical point of the atmosphere.

After receiving the command from the space-based tracking and control network, the Xingtian No. 1 machine, which had drifted 180,000 meters, started a new test project.

After "skipping" again, when the front of the fuselage rose.

The rocket engine on the belly of the tail started instantly.

The air resistance was almost zero, but the power of the rocket engine was still strong.

Exploding towards the distant deep space again!

If it was like a "missile" just now, it now looks like a "rocket".

The small body pulled out a long tail flame. The so-called dividing line between space and the earth was easily left behind, as if it was not worth mentioning.

13 Mach

15 Mach

18 Mach

Finally, it broke through the first cosmic speed.

It came to its true domain, its exclusive domain.

Low Earth orbit.

Since the speed of "manned aircraft" is too low, you may think that Mach 18 or the first cosmic speed sounds particularly outrageous.

But in fact, unmanned aircraft at this level are not fast.

For example, Dongfeng Express, the per capita starting line is at this level, and the middle section is faster.

The same is true for rockets, which even far exceed the first cosmic speed (23 Mach).

It depends largely on the altitude. As long as it is out of the atmosphere (or close to the rarefied area) and has a rocket engine, the speed will go crazy.

Don't put "hypersonic space drones" and "manned aircraft" in the same category. In terms of technology, it is actually closer to missile technology.