Chapter 161: Drone Design

Li Mingyuan stood up and walked to the world map hanging on the wall: "Look here, sir."

He pointed to the border where Dongbei borders the polar bear, "The polar bear has always wanted an ice-free port; an outlet to the sea is vital to them. Now that Sun Country and Taiji Tiger are at war and Star-Spangled Country has intervened, the entire situation is an excellent opportunity for the polar bear."

"You mean... they hope we will intervene in the conflict?" Minister Zhao seemed to understand something.

"That's right," Li Mingyuan nodded, "If Star-Spangled Country intervenes deeply and suppresses Sun Country, the polar bear will incite us to send troops to support them. But they themselves will maintain a stance of 'technical support' and not directly participate in the war. Once we are at war with Star-Spangled Country, no matter the outcome, the polar bear will be the biggest winner."

Minister Zhao's expression became grave: "If we achieve Victory, it would indeed weaken the power of Star-Spangled Country, which is favorable to the polar bear; if we fail or both sides suffer, the polar bear can sit back and reap the benefits, or even take the opportunity to make demands..."

"That is the logic," Li Mingyuan said firmly, "But even knowing this, we have no choice but to intervene. The logic of 'if the lips are gone, the teeth are cold'—once Sun Country is completely controlled by Star-Spangled Country, the next one will be us."

Minister Zhao sighed deeply, stood up, and paced: "Your analysis makes a lot of sense, but this also means we will face Star-Spangled Country head-on—the most powerful military force in the world."

"So we must race against time," Li Mingyuan's eyes were firm, "Develop air defense forces and aerial strike capabilities as soon as possible. Jet fighters are difficult to form combat effectiveness in the short term, but Drones can."

Minister Zhao stopped and stared at Li Mingyuan: "Do you really think Drones can play an important role on the battlefield?"

"Absolutely," Li Mingyuan answered without hesitation, "It will change the face of war."

Minister Zhao pondered for a moment and finally nodded: "Your judgment has never been wrong. I will report your analysis to my superiors and fully support the Drone project. Whatever resources you need, just ask."

"Thank you, Minister," Li Mingyuan stood up, ready to leave, "I will go and start the design right away."

……

Returning to his office, Li Mingyuan immediately threw himself into the design work of the Drone.

As a transmigrator, he knew well the importance of Drones in modern warfare, but in this era, related technologies were still in their infancy.

He had to start from the most basic aerodynamics to design a Drone that both met current technical conditions and could exert maximum effect.

First is the basic configuration of the aircraft.

Li Mingyuan chose the simplest design—a medium-sized Drone between a target drone and an attack aircraft.

It has a wingspan of about 6 meters, a fuselage length of 5 meters, a maximum takeoff weight of 500 kilograms, and can carry 100 kilograms of bombs.

"The key is simplification," Li Mingyuan muttered to himself, drawing quickly on the blueprint, "Save where you can, but never skimp on the Power System."

Since there is no need to consider the survival space and devices for a pilot, the entire fuselage design can be extremely simplified.

No cockpit, no life support system, no ejection device, and even the traditional landing gear can be simplified into a simple skid-type device.

These simplifications not only reduced manufacturing difficulty and cost but also greatly reduced the weight of the fuselage, improving speed and maneuverability.

The Power System is the key.

Li Mingyuan designed a simplified version of a Jet Engine for the Drone, sacrificing some fuel efficiency and service life, but greatly increasing the thrust-to-weight ratio.

This type of engine is suitable for short-term high-intensity use; although the flight time is limited, it is enough to complete a combat mission.

"The thrust-to-weight ratio reached 5:1," Li Mingyuan wrote this staggering number on the calculation paper, "Surpassing any active-duty fighter of Star-Spangled Country."

The control system is the most challenging part.

In this era when electronic technology is not yet advanced, achieving remote precision control is not easy.

Li Mingyuan designed a radio-based remote control system, combined with a gyroscope and a simple automatic stabilization device, which can achieve basic autonomous flight within a certain range.

"Maximum control distance 100 kilometers," Li Mingyuan wrote down this relatively conservative number, "Enough to carry out frontline strike missions."

Of course, this can only design simple routes, which means returning immediately after launching and dropping bombs; it is basically only capable of fixed-point projection.

Next is the aerodynamic design.

Li Mingyuan chose a forward-swept wing design; this configuration has good stability at high speeds and also simplifies fuselage manufacturing.

The wings use an ultra-thin profile; although it sacrifices some low-speed performance, it significantly improves high-speed cruise efficiency.

"Maximum speed 950 km/h, cruising speed 800 km/h," Li Mingyuan nodded with satisfaction, "Enough to shake off the pursuit of any model of fighter currently in service with Star-Spangled Country."

According to the historical data he knew, at this time, the enemy's main fighters were the F-80 "Meteor" and F-84 "Thunderbolt", with maximum speeds of 880 km/h and 830 km/h respectively.

By the middle and late stages of the war, they introduced the F-86 "Sabre", increasing the speed to about 970 km/h.

But even for the F-86, in actual combat, due to factors such as altitude and air temperature, the actual speed usually does not exceed 900 km/h.

"Our Drone's speed is slightly slower than the F-86's theoretical maximum, but in actual combat, it can be completely matched or even surpassed," Li Mingyuan analyzed, "More importantly, the Drone is not limited by the G-force of human pilots and can perform more extreme maneuvers."

He paid special attention to the stealth design of the fuselage.

Although the Radar technology at that time was still relatively primitive, Li Mingyuan still adopted some design elements to reduce Radar reflection, such as smooth outer surfaces and inclined fuselage sides, to minimize the frontal reflection of Radar waves.

The fuselage paint was chosen to be dark gray, making it difficult to be spotted by the naked eye at high altitudes.

"Maximum range 400 kilometers, combat radius 150 kilometers," Li Mingyuan calculated the fuel capacity and engine efficiency, "Enough to cover most of the frontline battlefield."

After the design drawing was basically completed, Li Mingyuan began to consider the weapon system. This is another Hexin part of the entire Drone project—how to achieve the maximum strike effect with limited payload?

Traditional aerial bombs are bulky and not very accurate, which is obviously not suitable for a light platform like a Drone.

Li Mingyuan needed an air-to-ground weapon that was both compact and powerful.

"There should be relevant information in the System Space," Li Mingyuan whispered to himself, opening a series of technical documents he had brought back from the polar bear earlier.

These documents were originally about aircraft engines, but they also contained some information on weapon systems.

Li Mingyuan flipped through them carefully, hoping to find information about precision bombs.