Chapter 491 - 482 Sudden Malfunction_1

Yinchuan City.

As a city in the northwest region, just as the citizens of Shangjing and Rong City had long become indifferent to various fighters, the locals here had seen all kinds of hypersonic aircraft.

The UFOs that were often spoken of in the outside world, most locals could even identify whether they were the terminal maneuvers of ballistic missiles or anti-missile tests.

So when the white spot of "Xuehu" swooshed by in the sky, pedestrians on the street just gave it a glance before looking away.

A mere Mach 10 aircraft was not unusual here, and its brightness was not as intense as those hypersonic aircraft that previously zoomed by at 20 times the speed of sound.

Only after "Xuehu" had disappeared from their field of view, did the sound, which was late compared to the light, finally reach the ground.

This was unlike the warheads that used to shuttle at the edge of the atmosphere; the sonic boom from a close distance of 50,000 meters was much more intense, and people on the ground felt like the air around them was exploding.

The windows of residential houses also trembled terribly due to the air shock of the explosion. Some closed windows couldn’t withstand the pressure and shattered after a crisp sound.

The nearby military base had thought it was a fighter jet flying at low altitude in violation of regulations, but the actual culprit had already flown dozens of kilometers away.

And above the firmament, Lei Qing only took a few seconds to look at the city before he was back above the vast expanse of land.

"Peregrine Falcon, Peregrine Falcon! You have passed the point!

Please reduce speed and return to base immediately, please reduce speed and return to base immediately!"

The Desert Base radar had lost the target long ago, relying on radars and satellites from other defense zones to mark the flight path, and naturally noted the Xuehu, which didn’t turn back and kept sprinting all the way.

Overflying the line was a minor issue, but given Xuehu’s current heading and speed, in another 5 minutes it would enter Shandong territory, in 8 minutes it would be over Southern Dynasty airspace, and 10 minutes later it would enter the air defense identification zone of Island Country.

Even if it slowed down now and took a big detour to return, it would have to pass over provinces like Shanxi and Henan in Central Plain, affecting a wide area.

Dou Ping could already imagine how many words he would have to write in reports and self-critiques to settle this matter.

Lei Qing in the sky certainly knew this, but Xuehu was flying too fast, conventional control surfaces and aerodynamic braking could easily cause excessive stress and break the aircraft; it had to reduce speed by slowly throttling down.

Under normal circumstances, he would have immediately decided to pull back on the throttle, but unexpectedly, after making the move, the throttle reading did not change at all, and a double "thunk thunk" warning sounded in his headset.

The holographic display on his helmet popped up a prompt:

[Electric Auxiliary Heating System not working, fuel system unresponsive]

[O1A0 valve unresponsive, attempting to re-establish connection]

Beneath the two semi-transparent yellow lines was a cross-sectional view of the fighter jet, highlighting the location of the malfunction.

The malfunction was at the position connecting to the fuel tank on the right wing root as well as a small part of the heating module.

The Electric Auxiliary Heating System was not urgent for now, it was used for de-icing during subsonic flight; the aircraft’s surface was now hot enough to melt bronze.

The fuel system, however, was problematic. The biggest issue was likely the fuel supply valve, which caused the fuel to be continuously pumped into the engine at maximum power, temporarily losing control over the power system.

However, Lei Qing didn’t have time to ponder the cause, as the flight computer’s AI had already completed several rounds of accident investigation, and then noticed that the pressure in the right-wing fuel tank was slightly high—although within normal limits, it was still higher than the left side.

With this minor change, the AI immediately began a correlate analysis, placing the summarized report on Lei Qing’s helmet display:

[Minor deformation has occurred at the right-wing root. Control system malfunction at this location.

It is recommended to increase altitude or reduce speed, cooling the average surface temperature of the aircraft to below 780 degrees Celsius.]

"To protect the airframe, the throttle valve will temporarily be in a protective state and cannot be adjusted."

The message was followed by a blinking antenna icon, indicating that the relevant information had already been synchronized and sent back to the ground, so there was no need for Lei Qing to report again.

Lei Qing: "..."

Dou Ping: "..."

Androff: "Who is the supplier for this part of the system? Where is the inspection report from when the aircraft was assembled?"

The aircraft’s exterior skin was the base’s most advanced technology, and Androff certainly didn’t believe there to be any issues there; the problem had to lie elsewhere.

Dou Ping: "Chief Designer An, I’m afraid we still need to address the aircraft’s issues first, to see exactly what’s going on."

"The problem is already quite clear! There’s a 99.98% probability the AI’s judgment is correct."

The somewhat impatient Androff immediately took out his tablet to look up the aircraft’s data and mumbled some calculations before frowning:

"Have the aircraft climb at the lowest angle possible. Using its current speed, it can surge to above 60,000 meters, where the speed and temperature will naturally drop."

"Once control is regained, immediately reduce the throttle and find a nearby military airport to land. We can’t risk flying back."

Dou Ping wanted to ask a few more questions, but Androff had already started shouting:

"Quick, notify all military districts; it’s going to approach the Capital in a minute!"

At this point, everyone finally realized just how fast Xuehu was currently traveling. They scrambled to report and notify the relevant parties, and at the same time, Lei Qing received the solution from the ground and began to prepare for the climb.

The delta wing’s tail rudder deflected by a tiny angle, but that was already the limit within the safety range.

Lei Qing quickly operated the computer to calculate the climbing curve, then saw the figures marked on the map for the flight path.

At the current rate of climb, the aircraft would reach a maximum altitude of 65,000 meters in 410 seconds, slowing down to 6.8 Mach, and the skin temperature would drop to around 740 degrees, restoring controllability.

By that time, he would be... over Kyushu Island!

Moreover, he couldn’t maneuver freely. When flying Xuehu past 8 Mach, specific angles of attack had to be maintained to disperse stress and heat.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t maneuver, but the extent was very limited, and he would generally not deviate too much from the original flight path.

This was considered to be no issue during the design phase, as everyone believed that this was an "unshootable" aircraft, so a small limitation seemed reasonable.

But nobody had anticipated a situation like this where, in just a few minutes, a serious international incident could occur. Lei Qing had thought of countless emergency scenarios, but he had never considered this one.

Desert Base also realized the problem quickly, but they had no such contingencies in place.

After all, as a secret base located in the inland heartland, other than satellite scrutiny, it was hard to be affected by external factors. No one expected the current situation.

However, the good news was that the base ranked high enough to make a decisive decision. In a few minutes, with the possibility of "Xuehu" flying over another country unchallenged, Dou Ping rushed to the office and picked up the red phone.

Just over a minute later, as Jingu Rocket Manufacturing Base moved the new containers loaded with parts of the CZ-6A rocket, the people outside saw a small white dot streaking across the distant sky.

As aerospace professionals, they could tell at a glance that it must be an aircraft traversing the atmosphere at high speed, which instantly raised doubts.

In the past few days, there had been no announcements of spaceplane or spacecraft launches, and the direction... didn’t seem to be consistent with a sea landing spacecraft, did it?