Rebirth of the 1980s: The Military Industry Empire

In later generations, it took the East thirty to forty years to develop the Zhi-20 helicopter and possess its own advanced ten-ton helicopter. Now, it's only the 1980s, and imitation is almost impossible.

Only with the Black Hawk can we develop attack helicopters. After all, both are in the ten-ton class, which is the most suitable tonnage for helicopters.

The Dolphin helicopter introduced by the East in later generations is too small, only four tons, so it's inconvenient no matter what you do. If you want to use it as an attack helicopter, it can only carry four anti-tank missiles, while the Apache, a ten-ton helicopter, can carry sixteen anti-tank missiles. Taking off fully loaded with ammunition is truly a majestic sight.

Although Dr. Wright's visit to the East was brief, he still discovered many problems.

"So, what suggestions do you have?" Qin Yang didn't know how to respond, so he decided to listen to what the other party had to say.

"An army without attack helicopters overhead is very unsafe. I suggest you purchase a batch from the United States," Dr. Wright said.

Qin Yang seemed to realize something. The Americans had spent too much money and felt it wasn't cost-effective, so they wanted to take an order back from the East before leaving?

The problem is, we don't have money! You should also know that the East's foreign exchange reserves aren't much at all. We simply can't bear to use them to buy weapons and equipment; we need to prioritize economic development.

Besides, even if we want to buy, you have to be willing to sell.

"Dr. Wright, what kind of aircraft do you think we should purchase?"

"Of course, the AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter," Dr. Wright said. "This helicopter has been sold to many countries around the world and is the best choice for you."

The Americans began using helicopters extensively in the Far East War in the 1950s. By the mid-1960s, in response to the Vietnam War, the Americans temporarily developed the AH-1 attack helicopter through Bell Helicopter. This was the world's first anti-tank attack helicopter, mainly used to attack ground tanks and provide fire support to the ground.

Although it was developed temporarily, it has been used by many countries due to its good performance, even into the 21st century, becoming an evergreen aircraft. At the same time, the aircraft's performance has been continuously improved.

When it was first produced, it was only a 4.5-ton maximum takeoff weight helicopter, but in the mid-stage models, the maximum takeoff weight had reached 8.4 tons, and later even reached ten tons. At the same time, the iconic two-blade rotor was changed to four blades.

Overall, the performance of this helicopter is still good, but it depends on who you compare it to. If you compare it to the Apache, it's clearly inferior.

Obviously, the other party wanted to sell weapons, but they weren't planning to sell the most advanced weapons. Since that's the case, Qin Yang wouldn't be polite.

"Actually, this attack helicopter is already outdated. Even the Apache isn't exactly advanced equipment," Qin Yang said.

The Apache isn't advanced? Dr. Wright widened his eyes. "Mr. Qin, what kind of aircraft do you think is the most advanced?"

"The advantage of a helicopter is that it can take off and land vertically. It relies on the rotor on top to provide lift greater than gravity, allowing the aircraft to rise. But at the same time, this rotor also creates a lot of forward resistance for the helicopter, making it impossible to increase its forward speed."

The vertical takeoff and landing of a helicopter is easy to understand, but how does a helicopter fly forward?

Many people think it's the tail rotor, but the tail rotor is on the side. Its existence is only to balance the reaction force of the main rotor.

When the engine drives the main rotor to rotate, the rotor also gives the helicopter a reaction force. If this reaction force isn't overcome, the helicopter's fuselage will rotate in the opposite direction.

Therefore, the helicopter adds a tail rotor, blowing air to the side to counteract this reaction force. At the same time, it can also turn the helicopter by adjusting the magnitude of the torque. When the tail rotor malfunctions, the helicopter will spiral down.

So, how does a helicopter move forward? Of course, it still relies on the large rotor on top. The plane of this large rotor is movable. If you want to fly forward, the plane will tilt forward, so the force provided by the rotor is not only downward but also backward. Under the action of this force, the helicopter will fly forward. So, when the helicopter is flying forward, you can see that the nose seems to be tilting forward, which is the reason.

This large rotor not only provides power to the helicopter but also causes great resistance to the helicopter's flight. Therefore, helicopters don't fly fast because of this rotor.

A normal helicopter can fly at two to three hundred kilometers per hour, which is already very good. The fastest helicopter can only reach four hundred kilometers per hour at most; there's nothing faster than that.

The slow speed of helicopters has many drawbacks. Whether it's providing fire support on the battlefield or rescuing the wounded, the faster, the better.

So, what should we do? Removing the large rotor would prevent the helicopter from taking off and landing vertically, losing this maneuverability. So, this is the contradiction.

"Mr. Qin, you're right. This is the defect of helicopters. In your Eastern terms, it's called… you can't have your cake and eat it too," Dr. Wright said, adapting to local customs and actually learning some idioms.

"No, there's always a way to have both," Qin Yang said. "I have a design here."

"What design?" Dr. Wright's eyes lit up again. He knew Qin Yang's ability; his mind was full of good ideas, not only for things that run on the ground but also for things that fly in the air.

It was good to hear his design.

"It can already rotate like that; otherwise, how would it fly forward or even backward?"

"The rotation angle should exceed ninety degrees."

Dr. Wright didn't answer and seriously considered Qin Yang's words.

What Qin Yang was talking about was, of course, the design of the famous V-22 Osprey. Anyway, he was idle, so he might as well give some pointers here. Bell Helicopter, as a unit mainly engaged in helicopters, has always been trying to solve the problem. The final solution was the tiltrotor aircraft. This aircraft started to be designed in the 1980s and was developed for decades. Even after it was finally put into service, problems continued, and it often crashed.

However, this doesn't mean it's not advanced. Compared to previous aircraft, it's simply a sci-fi model. Even the Hollywood blockbuster "Avatar" has a modified version of this aircraft.

However, since it's still in the internal research and development stage of the company, the outside world doesn't know about the development of this aircraft. It's even more impossible for Qin Yang, this Easterner, to know. Therefore, what he said must be something he envisioned himself.

As soon as his plan came out, Dr. Wright was stunned. Could it be played like this?