Rebirth of the 1980s: The Military Industry Empire

Eastern战机 have short ranges, with a combat radius of only a few hundred kilometers. Therefore, when combat units are deployed to a new base, the first thing they do is memorize the landmarks. They memorize all the landmarks within a few hundred kilometers of the base: where there are mountains, where there are rivers, where there is a water tower. That way, as long as they look down at the ground, they know where they are.

If they leave the base, they really will get lost. However, the East is mainly focused on territorial air defense and will not take the initiative to attack, so it doesn't matter much. They just wander around their own little patch of land.

As for bombers? Bombers have dedicated navigators, two of them, in fact. Everyone navigates together, using methods from World War II, so there won't be any mistakes.

In the late 1970s, when the country opened up, the East saw the power of Western aviation technology. In particular, when they went to inspect the Mirage 2000 fighter jet, they were envious to see that the other side's fighter jet could brake to a stop directly without using a drag parachute. And looking at their navigation equipment, all they had to do was set the route on the computer before departure, enter it into the navigation computer after getting on the plane, and just take off. Everything else was left to the computer, which could even complete bombing missions and then return automatically!

The East was envious and wanted to import it as well, but importing took time and effort. The negotiations between Old Tu and Marconi were a protracted war. Therefore, only the radar and HUD were imported, not the inertial navigation system. Anyway, the J-7 aircraft was small and didn't need it; it was better to leave it for the J-8 to import.

During the Peace Pearl project, in addition to installing radar on the J-8 to solve the problem of medium-range interception, the other thing was to install an inertial navigation system on the J-8. After a comparison, the Litton LN-39 inertial navigation system was chosen, with an accuracy of 0.3 nautical miles per hour. That is, the error was only 0.3 nautical miles per hour, which is about four or five hundred meters. Although it cannot be compared with the accuracy of the global positioning system, it was quite high for fighter jets. With this accuracy, they should be able to find the airport, right?

But what about now? Now the navigation system is not calibrated, which means there will be a large error!

"The inertial navigation system is used to guide us. Without the inertial navigation system, we won't know where we've flown!" George looked at the undulating mountains below and was completely speechless. Now, God knows where they've flown!

"That's simple," Lei Zi said. "We don't need an inertial navigation system to know where we've flown. We can just look down and use the landmarks to determine our location."

As Lei Zi spoke, he looked down, but at that moment, plumes of black smoke billowed up from the ground, covering a large area, making it impossible to see clearly from the sky.

"Huh, what's going on on the ground? Are they all cooking?" Lei Zi frowned. "Instructor, don't worry, we can call the base and have the base radar guide us back."

Looking at landmarks and having the base radar guide them are both common methods. Lei Zi began to call the ground.

Radio also has distance limitations. For example, after the Eastern air force equipped the Flying Leopard fighter-bomber, they could patrol the southern sea area. After flying out a certain distance, there would be no sound in the earphones, which meant they had left the radio call range. If something happened, they could only rely on themselves.

Of course, this situation did not last long, because satellite communication would be available in the future.

Now, they had an accident.

The runway behind them was only for the aircraft factory, used for takeoff when delivering aircraft or for test flights. They definitely circled around the airport and rarely flew more than 500 kilometers away. The radio communication range was only 300 to 400 kilometers. Now, who would have thought that they would accidentally fly too far!

They couldn't see the landmarks, and they couldn't contact by radio. This was a big problem.

"Damn it, I shouldn't have come to the East! I got lost on my first flight," George said speechlessly.

"Instructor, don't worry, we can look at the direction of the sun and return to the base," Lei Zi continued. He was still very calm.

"Okay, you fly. Damn it, I never want to fly a second time!"

The trainer continued to fly, time passed bit by bit, the pointer on the fuel gauge continued to drop, and George's mood became more and more tense.

What's going on, will it work?

"Don't worry, Instructor, as long as we fly over the valley ahead, there will be a plain, and we will be able to see the provincial capital and find our aircraft factory," Lei Zi said confidently.

"Okay, you better fly back, otherwise we'll have to parachute or make an emergency landing."

They flew over the valley, but there was still a valley ahead!

Looking at the scenery outside the cockpit, George just wanted to close his eyes. Damn it, they must be lost! What to do next?

"Hey, there seems to be an airport in the mountains ahead. Should we land first?" Lei Zi suggested. "It seems we're lost and we don't have much fuel left."

George opened his eyes again. Sure enough, there was an airport in the distance. The runway was not big and should be used for taking off and landing fighter jets.

"Okay, land there."

Although Lei Zi was operating this aircraft for the first time, he landed steadily and braked to a stop in the center of the runway, then opened the hatch.

"Next, we need to negotiate with the people here, ask them to help us refuel, and then we can fly back."

George glanced around: dilapidated houses, overgrown weeds at the entrance of the cave. Did anyone live here?

"Hey, is anyone there?"

Lei Zi shouted for a long time, but no one responded.

"This should be one of our former third-line bases," Lei Zi said. "These bases have been abandoned. It looks like we can't find anyone. We can only go out and look for villagers nearby. Or, you stay here to watch the plane, and I go look?"

George frowned. There were mountains all around. Could they find villagers? Could they contact the base?

If he stayed here to watch the plane, how long would it take? If it took ten days or half a month, wouldn't he starve to death?

"We'll go together," George said. "We'll go find villagers together, and bring our first aid kit."

Pilots face various accidents every time they fly. Once they parachute, they may land in many unfortunate places, so they must be fully prepared. Pilots carry guns for self-defense, and there are also first aid kits on the ejection seats, with simple medical supplies and food.

"There should be villagers nearby, so it's not too much trouble, but let's bring it just in case," Lei Zi said.

Facts proved that George's worries were justified, because Lei Zi took him around in the mountains for a whole week before finally finding a small village. The first aid kit was used up, and Lei Zi hunted in the mountains. By the time the two saw the village, they were almost like primitive people.

George burst into tears.

"I never want to come here again. I want to leave immediately. I want to go home!"