Chapter 291

The people from Institute 601 all lowered their heads.

"Ah." Gu Lao sighed again: "Actually, when we designed the J-8 back then, there were two options: nose inlet and side inlet. At that time, we conducted many studies, which proved that the side inlet had more advantages, but… for the sake of caution, we still decided to go with the nose inlet layout."

Institute 601 has always sought stability; the simple enlarged version of the J-7, the J-8, succeeded, while the technologically advanced J-9 was shelved, so they regarded this as a classic.

When the third-generation fighter competition took place, they launched the J-13, which resembled the F-16 but had lower technical standards than the F-16, while at that time, Lao Song of Institute 611 proposed the J-10 plan, with new technology accounting for over sixty percent!

When Institute 611 won the bid, everyone waited to see a joke, after all, if the proportion of new technology exceeded thirty percent, failure was likely.

But Lao Song knew that to catch up with world-advanced levels, one must dare to innovate!

The J-10 succeeded, and we thus caught up with world-advanced levels. Afterwards, Lao Song led a team to start development of a fourth-generation fighter; at that time, Institute 601 also proposed a three-wing-surface layout plan, which was actually a major redesign of the J-8 three-wing-surface test aircraft, still focusing on stability, yet they lost again.

After two failures, seeing the institute about to go under, they finally changed their mindset, self-funded, and developed the FC-31, completely breaking free from the successful experience of the J-8 back then.

What experience? Just stability!

Initially, many thought the nose inlet had less drag, but wind tunnel tests showed that the side inlet actually had less air resistance!

Even with this result, they remained conservative and still produced a J-8 with a nose inlet.

"Looking back now, our conservatism back then has caused us considerable trouble; changing to side inlet would involve a workload…… that is far from ordinary…"

"Yeah, building an aircraft isn't like folding a paper plane; changing the nose raises questions: how to solve the overall center-of-gravity issue? How to solve the fuselage structural frame stress issue? Does the vibration test need to be redone? This is definitely a case of pulling one hair and moving the whole body!"

"It's just changing the nose, what's a big deal! Do you have the drawings?"

"The Third Machinery Department has a backup……"

"Someone, go to the Third Machinery Department and bring over the nose section of the J-8 design drawings!" Lao Lin waved his hand.

Half an hour later.

On the big table in the meeting room, the detailed design drawing of the J-8 nose was spread out, and Qin Miao began to explain it.

"Come, this is the MiG-23 nose survey drawing; we can see that all the stress-bearing beams of this nose don't match, but if we rotate this nose drawing by fifteen degrees and then modify the positions of beam numbers 18, 21, and 27—i. e., move them three centimeters—we can successfully dock them!"

"Look again at these side inlets; just open them behind the cockpit, make a smooth transition backward, and they can connect with the rear fuselage inlet duct, thus freeing up the entire nose space!"

"As for the weight balance issue, if we remove the nose's original inlet cone, inlet duct, and related components, we save about 350 kilograms; our nose radar just needs to be designed to that weight!"

"The engine at the tail needs to increase its electrical output, after all, our nose radar will consume more power……"

Qin Miao's lengthy explanation left everyone present staring in amazement.

After all, it's not about how difficult it is, but about not wanting to change, because change might cause problems, and if problems arise, someone has to take responsibility!

Now, after Qin Miao said that, it seems there really aren't any problems!

"Since we're going to change it, we might as well change more: the tail engine's inlet fairing is purely redundant and can be removed entirely; below the vertical tail, we can tuck it upward a bit, which would also avoid the drag chute being burned……"

Wait!

The way these people are looking at me…… feels off!

Oh no!

These are all later modification plans; I've seen them in Lao Gu's memoirs, but now……

"Comrade Qin Miao, you…… know our J-8 so well?"

"Yeah, you even know about the problem of burning the drag chute?"

"What's hard about that? I just need to glance at it to know this design has a problem!"

"Comrade Qin Miao, are you sure the tail's inlet fairing isn't needed?" Lao Gu asked.

Look at Western fighters: their engine tail nozzles are exposed; look at Eastern early fighters, you only see a big hole at the tail, because they added an inlet fairing on the outside.

On the surface, this makes the tail conform to aerodynamics, but in reality, it's superfluous.

In the 1990s, when the J-8 began seeking the old Russians to upgrade avionics, the old Russians removed that tail inlet fairing, took it for a test flight, and immediately found the aircraft's maximum speed increased by less than 0.1 Mach! Although small, this shows the tail thing is redundant—throw it away!

Moreover, it is precisely because of this thing's existence that the rear fuselage overheats; both the J-7 and J-8 have this flaw!

"Just try it and you'll know," Qin Miao smiled.

Present, many had complex expressions: you're a Ha Gong Da freshman…… cough, cough, even if you're now a sophomore, can a sophomore know all this? Even if you're talented, you haven't systematically studied aircraft design knowledge!

"Try? If something goes wrong and the plane crashes……" someone spoke cautiously.

"If something happens, our Air Force will take responsibility!" Lao Lin waved his hand: "Following Comrade Qin Miao's suggestion, we'll modify a J-8 daytime variant! Our Air Force can't wait! Relying on your Institute 601's snail‑like pace……"

Everyone then turned their gaze to the Section Leader of the Third Machinery Department present.

The section leader nodded: "Yeah, the J-8's development took too long; it's time to speed up. Now that Comrade Qin Miao has proposed an improvement plan, and the Air Force also agrees, when you go back, go ahead and boldly implement it! Remember: scientific, rigorous, earnest, bold."

Can these words be used together?

Lao Gu took a deep breath: "Good!"

"If you follow my instructions, there will definitely be no problem; such a major modification, if you at Institute 601 were to carry it out, would at least need a few tens of millions of yuan in R&D funding from above? Our Ha Gong Da won't quibble over that with you, after all we're not short of that money……"

Qin Miao suddenly realized he was at a loss—so many technical improvements, and he wouldn't get a single penny!

The visitors from Institute 601 present had complex expressions—some felt ashamed, some angry, and some even clenched their fists……