Chapter 163: Glide Bomb

It also contained a series of wind tunnel tests and live-fire test data, showing that when a Tungsten Alloy Armor-Piercing Shell is dropped from an altitude of 7,000 meters, its speed upon impact with the ground can reach 900-1000 meters/second, with a penetrating power far exceeding any conventional bomb.

"This is an ideal weapon for dealing with tanks and armored vehicles," Li Mingyuan thought, "especially the Star-Spangled Country's M26 Patton and M46 Tank; their top armor is the thinnest, making it the ideal strike point for the Tungsten Alloy Armor-Piercing Shell."

Subsequently, Li Mingyuan designed a 50-kilogram aerial Tungsten Alloy Armor-Piercing Shell, containing a 30-kilogram tungsten alloy penetrator, with a streamlined shell and stabilizing fins on the exterior.

This design, under the payload limitations of a Drone, could still provide sufficient penetrating power to deal a fatal blow to heavy armored targets.

"A single Drone carrying two Tungsten Alloy Armor-Piercing Shells can destroy two main battle tanks in one sortie," Li Mingyuan calculated, "This will greatly change the balance of power on the land battlefield."

Looking at the final technology, Li Mingyuan discovered a particularly exciting chapter: the conceptual design of the Glide Guided Bomb.

"This is a truly revolutionary weapon," Li Mingyuan muttered to himself, his eyes flashing with excitement, "It will elevate aerial strikes to a whole new level."

It described in detail a bomb equipped with simple airfoils and control mechanisms that, after being dropped, does not fall directly but instead glides, greatly extending its flight distance while achieving precise strikes on targets through Radio Remote Control or a simple homing system.

"The basic principle is to convert a bomb into a small, wingless glider," Li Mingyuan read the technical description.

【By installing fixed or movable airfoils, the bomb gains a certain amount of lift, allowing it to glide 10-15 kilometers after being dropped from high altitude. At the same time, by using radio to control simple control surfaces, the glide direction can be adjusted to achieve precise guidance toward the target.】

The system proposed three different guidance schemes:

【First is simple Radio Remote Control, where an operator on the ground or in an aircraft guides the bomb through visual or Radar tracking.】

【Second is Semi-Active Radar Homing, where the bomb tracks radar signal reflections emitted from the ground or an aircraft.】

【Third is Passive Infrared Homing, where the bomb automatically searches for and locks onto ground heat-source targets.】

"The first scheme is the simplest and most reliable, and also the most suitable for our current technical conditions," Li Mingyuan wrote in his notes, "It only requires a reliable radio control system and simple mechanical servos."

He began to draw a design for an improved Glide Guided Bomb, including a streamlined body, cruciform tail fins, a Simple Radio Receiver, and mechanical servos.

This design was simpler than the prototype in the report and better suited to current manufacturing conditions, yet it still retained the Hexin functions.

"A 100-kilogram Glide Guided Bomb, dropped from an altitude of 5,000 meters, can glide about 12 kilometers, with accuracy controllable within a 50-meter range."

"This means the Drone can drop bombs from outside the range of enemy anti-aircraft fire, greatly increasing its survival rate."

More importantly, this guidance capability will significantly increase the hit rate of the bombs.

Traditional free-fall bombs often require dozens to be dropped to hit a precise target, whereas a Glide Guided Bomb can increase the hit rate to over 70%, greatly saving resources and improving combat efficiency.

"This will be an ideal weapon for dealing with high-value targets such as enemy command posts, Radar Stations, and bridges," Li Mingyuan summarized in his notes, "The value of one precise strike far exceeds that of multiple imprecise bombings."

For an entire night, Li Mingyuan was immersed in this ocean of cutting-edge weapon technology.

These were already conventional weapons in his era, but in this age, they were truly "future weapons."

At daybreak, Li Mingyuan finally completed the preliminary design for the Drone and its supporting weapon systems.

This was an unprecedented combat system: high-speed Drones carrying precision-guided bombs, capable of breaking through enemy air defense networks to carry out precise strikes on key targets.

"Now, it is time to turn this concept into reality," Li Mingyuan rubbed his sore eyes and organized all the blueprints and documents.

When Li Mingyuan walked into the conference room with the complete Drone design proposal, Minister Zhao and General Zhou had already been waiting for a long time.

"Mingyuan, you look like you haven't slept all night," Minister Zhao said with concern.

"It's worth it," Li Mingyuan gave a tired but satisfied smile and placed a thick stack of blueprints on the conference table.

"This is the complete design proposal for the Unmanned Target Drone and the Attack Drone, including the airframe, Power System, control system, and weapon system."

Li Mingyuan spread the thick stack of blueprints out on the conference table one by one; the dense lines, data, and annotations on the blueprints almost covered the entire tabletop.

He stood before the table, his eyes flashing with irrepressible excitement; despite not having slept all night, his mental state was surprisingly good.

"This is the complete design proposal for the Unmanned Target Drone and the Attack Drone, including the airframe, Power System, control system, and weapon system."

General Zhou and Minister Zhao exchanged a glance and sat up straight at the same time. The two leaned over the table and began to carefully examine the blueprints.

"First is the airframe structure," Li Mingyuan said, pointing to a general design drawing in the middle.

"I adopted a swept-forward wing design; this configuration has excellent stability at high speeds while simplifying the manufacturing process. The fuselage is 5 meters long, with a wingspan of 6 meters and a maximum takeoff weight of 500 kilograms, 100 kilograms of which is the payload."

General Zhou frowned, "500 kilograms? So light? What kind of weapons can it carry?"

Li Mingyuan smiled slightly, "General, this is precisely the advantage of the Drone. Since no pilot is needed, we have eliminated the cockpit, life support system, bulletproof armor, ejection device, and even the traditional landing gear, greatly reducing the weight."

"What does reducing weight mean?" Li Mingyuan continued, answering his own question, "It means faster speed and better maneuverability. The design maximum speed is 950 kilometers per hour, with a cruising speed of 800 kilometers per hour."

"950 kilometers?" General Zhou suddenly looked up, his voice involuntarily rising an octave, "Are you saying, faster than the Star-Spangled Country's F-80?"

"Not only faster than the F-80, but even faster than their latest F-84 'Thunderjet'," Li Mingyuan answered confidently.

"Only the F-86 'Sabre' they are currently developing can theoretically reach a top speed of 970 kilometers, but in an actual battlefield environment, our Drone can fully compete with it."

General Zhou opened his mouth, but no sound came out; he was clearly stunned by this figure.

Li Mingyuan continued to demonstrate the Power System, "This is a simplified Jet Engine; it sacrifices some fuel efficiency and service life, but the thrust-to-weight ratio reaches 5:1, exceeding any active-duty fighter jet of the Star-Spangled Country."

"5:1?" Minister Zhao finally couldn't help but speak up, "What is the concept of this?"

"Simply put, it means that for every kilogram of engine weight, it can produce 5 kilograms of thrust, while the thrust-to-weight ratio of the Star-Spangled Country's F-80 engine is only about 3.2:1."

Minister Zhao and General Zhou fell into silence again, just staring at the blueprints as if looking at an incredible work of art.