Chapter 346: Qin Miao has arrived, so the Air Force leaders have come too!

The fuselage is slender, giving a special sense of beauty.

Just like a woman, a slim figure is most pleasing; a bulky tank…… cough, cough, whatever I agreed to, even with tears I must finish it.

However, when placed on a fighter jet, a slender fuselage merely reduces drag; insufficient engine power, and yet wanting high speed, one must reduce drag by minimizing the aircraft's cross‑sectional area.

Increasing internal fuel, etc., also requires lengthening the fuselage; thus the J‑8 emerged under these design ideas. As an interceptor, it is qualified, because it can climb to ten‑thousand‑meter altitude as quickly as possible and exceed Mach 2, but if used for dogfighting……

The slender fuselage is destined unable to withstand large overloads.

The wings are traditional delta wings, inherited from the J‑7, also equipped with wing blades; the landing gear is mounted on the wings, so the flaw is that the strongest load‑bearing part inside the wing is wasted, resulting in weak payload capacity.

At the rear, a tall single vertical tail, twin‑engine layout, overall unremarkable, but in that era the J‑8's conservative layout actually matched reality; those lofty specifications ultimately came to nothing.

Wait!

"You had the engine's inlet cover removed?"

"Yes, we conducted wind‑tunnel tests, Comrade Qin Miao, you're right; this modification reduces engine thrust loss and aids cooling…… back then we were indeed very conservative." Old Gu sighed.

Because the old aircraft had it, our newly developed aircraft must also have it, even though current new aircraft no longer do so; we haven't contacted it, so we dare not rashly improve—this way we will never progress.

Fortunately, with Qin Miao's guidance and strong support from the Air Force, they could……

Just then, thud thud thud…… someone came running over.

"Report!"

"What's the matter?"

"The Air Force also wants to take part in the maiden flight!"

"What?"

Everyone was stunned; after filing several reports, the Air Force had ignored us, but now the Air Force actually wants to come over?

Everyone's gaze turned to Qin Miao.

The sole reason is…… Qin Miao has arrived, so the Air Force is coming too; the Air Force is giving face to Qin Miao!

The maiden flight remains today, but the time can be shifted from morning to afternoon, after all the aircraft still needs various tests.

At noon, a Y‑7 landed on the runway of Factory 112.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to inspect Factory 112!"

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to observe the maiden flight of our J‑8II fighter!"

Factory Director Tang and Old Gu stood beneath the aircraft, welcoming the group that disembarked above; but their glances…… kept scanning around, and when they saw Qin Miao behind the crowd, they finally relaxed.

"San Shui, why are you standing so far back?"

"San Shui, if you're coming, why didn't you give us advance notice?"

Indeed, they came for Qin Miao's face; Old Gu and Factory Director Tang glanced at the crowd, "Why are you squeezing? What's the point of pushing forward? You're just adding trouble for the leaders."

Everyone quickly cleared a path; Old Lin strode up to Qin Miao: "San Shui, what do you think of the J‑8?"

"Before third‑generation fighters enter service, the J‑8 can still play a role, especially as an interceptor, defending the north is vital."

Everyone's hearts eased; Comrade Qin Miao is speaking well of our J‑8!

"Well, let's see what the J‑8 has actually been changed into."

Everyone came to the apron and looked at the aircraft that had been inspected repeatedly.

"Not bad, this really looks like a modern aircraft; that big nose must be able to house a large‑size airborne radar! By the way, is the radar development task assigned to Ha Gong Da?"

"Cough—, it's not entirely handed over to us; engineers from Institute 607 also participated, they're excellent, in just a few months they mastered many specialized technologies and passed our exams; now they work together with Ha Gong Da's faculty and students, leaders can rest assured—before this aircraft completes all flight‑test items, the radar will surely be ready."

With a big nose, lacking radar is pointless.

In later generations, simply upgrading the 204 radar to a 208 radar, single‑pulse, no Doppler function, so they went to seek American cooperation and got badly taken advantage of.

Now…… of course we won't repeat the same mistake! We can build it ourselves!

"Well, we trust Ha Gong Da! But advanced electronic technology isn't just radar."

"Airborne radar is the most important, but it's not the only system; for example, the 1553B data bus—today's aircraft, one sensor per wire, all converging into the cockpit, that tangle of wires is thicker than an arm!"

"Data bus technology has been developed here, giving all electronic equipment a unified data format; thus only one wire is needed to transmit all data, and cockpit wiring will be greatly reduced."

"Americans, after years of research, finally standardized the 1553B data bus and used it for many years."

"Well, Ha Gong Da's wafer plant has started up; we'll first copy Western wafers, later we'll develop our own."

"In 1973 the 1553B data bus officially appeared and was installed on the F‑16 fighter, featuring multi‑plexing and a 1 Mbps transfer rate, which was quite advanced at the time; although initially used on aircraft, later it was adopted in aerospace, navigation, etc."

"We in the East don't need to re‑establish standards; we can just use the existing ones, but later we must still have our own."

"Transfer speed must be higher, and the medium must be switched to optical fiber……"

"Since the leaders have arrived, let's prepare for the maiden flight; please proceed, leaders." Factory Director Tang was very excited.

The test pilot picked up his helmet and also walked over.

"Report, the J‑8 has completed all preparations; request maiden flight, test pilot, Huang Bingxin!"

Hearing that name, Qin Miao also felt a surge of excitement—seeing a hero!

"Test pilots are a special group; each test flight is dancing on a blade's edge, sparring with the god of death! The Russians say, a good airplane is built by crashing!"

"Our country also has first‑class test pilots; the person before us is one of them!"

He was born in 1948, entered the Air Force Flight Academy in 1966, transferred to the Air Force Test Pilot Regiment in 1972, and finally became regiment commander.

J-8, Flying Leopard… many high-risk subjects were flown by him! Test pilot hero, meritorious pilot… in the end, he became the dean of the Eastern Test Pilot Academy!