Chapter 143 - 139 Watch the Ceremony_1

On March 28, the Aerospace Development Committee organized another aerospace exchange conference, which opened in Beijing.

The day before, the Magpie Bridge relay satellite had entered orbit.

New Yuan was responsible for the power section of the satellite, equipping it with a rather impressive 1N "big" thrust Hall Thruster, allowing it to decelerate into orbit with minimal fuel consumption. Moreover, the satellite could adjust its orbit autonomously, which was very convenient.

On the first day of its arrival, it transmitted ultra-high-definition images of the lunar surface. The Aerospace Development Committee selected the most visually appealing image as the promotional and background picture for the conference.

This time, Xinyuan Company did not send any high-profile figures, and the presented PPT was similar to the previous one; NAPE remained confidential.

Therefore, the spotlight was all on the Space Agency, especially the First Academy’s CZ-10 and the Sixth Academy’s YF130.

No matter how you looked at it, the CZ-10 was a massive rocket for low Earth orbit, weighing over 100 tons with a lift-off thrust exceeding 5,000 tons. Despite using some mature technologies, it still had many noteworthy aspects. The First Academy had completed the overall design before the Spring Festival, with the first rocket appearing in July, and the maiden flight planned before August 27.

A few minor issues cropped up during the integrated tests of the Sixth Academy’s turbine pumps and gas generators, but they were not critical, so the prototype was still produced in April. Once the test run was successful, mass production would start immediately.

This efficiency was indeed ten times faster compared to the past without exaggeration.

Doing more with less money was based on a longer timeline, but now it was about doing more with more money, with unprecedentedly ample funding and a very robust scientific research team.

However, at the end of the exchange conference, on April 1, April Fool’s Day, a piece of news came from Qiongzhou Launch Site.

Xinyuan Launch Site would make minor modifications to two launch pads, allowing them to accommodate rockets up to 18 meters in diameter.

Additionally, several launching positions in Qiongzhou had also undergone minor adjustments, mainly in operational aspects.

The New Yuan-2A, which had been promoted well in advance, was getting ready for launch.

Three 6-meter diameter core stages would run parallel to each other, with a maximum length of 18 meters, but a new launch tower was not needed.

Both the Wenchang Launch Center and Xinyuan Launch Center employed vertical transfer, with mobile launching platforms that could accommodate rockets up to 18 meters wide. They just had to be tilted diagonally, barely reaching the limit at 18 meters.

Thus, when the New Yuan-2A was launched, it would have to be angled at 45 degrees, and people had to change their perspective to see its broad side.

Although the CZ-10’s low Earth orbit capacity had reached 120 tons, the payload ratio of New Yuan-2 was very high, with 135 tons recoverable, which was quite remarkable.

However, the lift-off thrust belonged to CZ-10, though this was not something particularly worth boasting about.

But compared to New Yuan-2A and New Yuan No. 3, another item would bring greater shock to the world.

On April 3, the fifth Academy and Xinyuan Company co-manufactured "Sky and Earth" Core Module came out of the factory. As it was mounted on the Ilyushin Il-76 for transportation, experts from the Fifth Academy caught a glimpse of a massive nosecone stretching out from a nearby large hangar, which they had never seen before.

Upon asking what it was, they saw the head of Xinyuan’s Aviation Department respond indifferently,

"Oh that? We built a big plane to transport rockets. It’s so long it needs to stick out a bit during assembly—no choice, 130 meters is indeed a bit lengthy, right?"

Fifth Academy: !

It was also on that same day that the An-1250 was officially registered with the Civil Aviation Administration, with two aircraft assigned the numbers B-4043 and B-4143 respectively.

The prefix B follows international standards where all civil aviation aircraft begin with B, with 4 indicating military aircraft registered with the Air Force.

"0" and "1" represent the first and second An-1250 aircraft, with 43 indicating the registration date of April 3.

If the An-1250 were to be registered as a standard civilian aircraft, the process for registering its size and transport type would be too cumbersome. Therefore, it was directly registered as a military aircraft using certain connections, which made taking off, landing, and management much easier to manage separately.

Also around that time, the specific data and dimensions of the An-1250 began to spread slightly within China’s scientific community.

With a wingspan of 136 meters, a length of 130 meters, and a takeoff weight of 1250 tons, such exaggerated figures were considered rumors by most people.

...

On April 15th, Xinyuan Company announced that from April 16th to April 20th, the surrounding airspace would be off-limits to flights.

Flight schools, stop; commercial flights, stop.

The local police cooperated with the military to ensure the airspace was completely clear.

Meanwhile, in the previous week, Xinyuan had sent out invitations to several units, asking them to come and witness the first flight of their new aircraft model on April 19th.

These included provincial and municipal leaders, big shots from the Aerospace Bureau, superiors, well-known figures from various aerospace institutes, as well as some of the enterprises that had participated in the manufacturing of parts for the An-1250.

During the notification process, the specific performance data of the An-1250 was also distributed, and many of the supporting enterprises only then realized they had been involved in a significant aviation project.

And it was only then that the various superiors and leaders understood that Xinyuan Company, without making a sound, had dropped a blockbuster in the aviation world.

"You’re an aerospace enterprise, for crying out loud—is it really okay for you to cross into another field like this!"

At the same time, the various aircraft design institutes across China suddenly received a notice from their superiors, instructing them to go to Xinyuan Company to observe the new aircraft’s test flight.

The design institutes were initially baffled until they saw the data for the An-1250, which left them stunned.

Chang’an, Yanliang.

Tao Changhong led the design team that had just completed the basic design of the Yun-20, which had its basic model already set. The next step was to use it as a flying test platform to derive a variety of aircraft models.

The Yun-20 had a payload capacity of 66 tons and a maximum takeoff weight of 220 tons, becoming the world’s sixth-largest transporter, following the An-225, C-5, An-124, An-22, and C-17. It satisfactorily met current needs and was quite impressive.

One day, they received an order saying that New Yuan Aerospace Power Company, an aerospace enterprise, had built a transport aircraft to transport space equipment. Many people were invited to its first flight, and the superiors decided to send a few people from each aircraft design institute.

Tao Changhong was very puzzled. He was familiar with Xinyuan Company. Previously, Xinyuan had even rented an Il-76 modification to transport space equipment. Why would it also build one itself? An aerospace enterprise crossing over to build, at most, a small transport aircraft made sense, but why send him to join?

Then, he received the data for Xinyuan’s "small" transport aircraft.

The An-1250, designed by Androff, had a maximum takeoff weight of 1250 tons, a wingspan of 136 meters, a length of 130 meters, and was powered by 8 XW-30 engines, each providing 330 kN of thrust.

His first thought was it must be somebody’s idea of a joke.

Never mind the rest, just consider the 330 kN engines—how could such powerful engines emerge without any prior news, silently appearing out of nowhere? The thrust of the WS-20 engine was only 160 kN!

The XW-30 seemed to be one engine that could replace two!

The most powerful engine he knew Xinyuan had was the 150 kN XW-10, but the difference was too huge, wasn’t it?

After repeated confirmations from the superiors, he realized this was no joke—the An-1250 was a gigantic transporter with a takeoff weight twice that of the An-225!

How on earth was this thing built?

Tao Changhong stared at these parameters for a long time, still unable to comprehend how such an enormous creation had appeared so quietly and suddenly.

While he was puzzled, Yang Wei was equally baffled.

On April 16th, during the An-1250’s taxiing test, Yang Wei, local military district leaders, and representatives from several companies supplying parts for the An-1250 were present.

Sichuan Rubber Group, known locally for its tires, undertook the task of developing the specialized tires for the An-1250 and produced them under the technical guidance of Xinyuan engineers. It was a subsidiary of the Wuliangye Group.

The person who came was responsible for managing this project. To be honest, not many tires were needed. Although the price was high, the total amount was not significant. They came entirely out of respect for the Xinyuan Group.

The manager had been surprised when initially taking on the project, wondering what kind of conditions would require such high-standard tires that also entailed technological challenges. Now, it seemed clear.