Set sail1992

Chapter 1456 Sometimes it is also nice to go back

Just as Alexander Ivanov was about to open his mouth to refute, Zhang Qihang smiled and said, "Since I came up with this idea, let me answer this question as well."

After a slight pause, Zhang Qihang continued, "Boris, you just said that this plane can only carry more than 1000 kilograms of fuel now. So after the second stage of weight reduction is completed, it can only carry 2500 to 3000 kilograms of fuel at most, so it doesn't make much sense, right?"

"Yes."

Boris Svetlov nodded.

"But we only need more than 1000 kilograms of fuel to allow our drone to fly to kilometers when fully loaded. With one more aerial refueling, the aircraft's range can reach tens of thousands of kilometers when fully loaded. If we refuel multiple times..."

Zhang Qihang didn't need to say anything more as the others suddenly reacted:

Yup!

Our drone uses a piston aircraft engine that is famous for its fuel efficiency. There is no need to add a lot of fuel at a time like fighter jets or even bombers. Just 1000 kilograms or even to kilograms at a time is enough to meet the requirements!

  Why didn’t we think of this feature just now?

Boris Svetlov also reacted suddenly. He was about to speak when he heard Zhang Qihang continue: "Everyone knows that the reason why aerial refueling technology is so difficult is that, first, the current aircraft are jet aircraft, which are too fast and difficult to control during aerial refueling operations; second, aerial refueling operations are very dangerous, so it is necessary to add as much fuel as possible to the receiving aircraft in the shortest possible time.

But if you don't have too high requirements on flight speed and refueling speed, aerial refueling is actually very simple. Americans began aerial refueling in 80, more than 1923 years ago.

  Coincidentally, drones do not have high requirements for flight speed and refueling speed. The cruising speed of this thing is only over 200 kilometers, and the minimum stable flight speed can even be reduced to over 130 kilometers, which is almost the same as a car on the highway. This speed is even slower than when Americans first conducted aerial refueling in 1923. Aerial refueling should not be difficult, right?

Another issue is the refueling speed. The fuel tank capacity of our drone is only over 1000 liters. Even if the refueling speed is reduced to 100 liters per minute, it will take 10 minutes to fill the tank. However, the aerial refueling technology that our country has mastered can fill the receiving aircraft with about 1500 liters of fuel per minute. Now it has become a matter of subtraction..."

At this point, Zhang Qihang asked, "Do you still think it's very difficult to refuel in the air?"

"..."

The huge conference room was silent as everyone was thinking about Zhang Qihang's words.

The more they thought about it, the more they had to agree with Zhang Qihang's words. Yes, if the plane's flying speed was only 130 to 140 kilometers and the refueling speed was only 100 to 200 liters per minute, then this matter would be too simple.

Just like the frequent rhetoric online, saying that Europe and the United States were able to build aircraft carriers as early as the First World War, but we still don’t have our own aircraft carriers. It’s implicitly saying that China is far behind Europe and the United States, at least 100 years behind. But is it really so?

of course not!

  Until World War II, the decks of some light aircraft carriers were still paved with wooden boards. Can you try laying the deck of today's aircraft carriers with wooden boards?

Not to mention that during World War II, carrier-based aircraft usually weighed only three or four tons, or four or five tons.

If China is only allowed to build an aircraft carrier of World War II standard, and the supporting carrier-based aircraft still uses piston engines and the maximum take-off weight is only four or five tons, guess how many ships China can build in a year? It is hard to say, but it is definitely much more than the United States, which produced aircraft carriers like giving birth during World War II.

But is there any point in building such an aircraft carrier?

Absolutely not!

  If such an aircraft carrier were put into use today, what combat effectiveness would it have? Would it make the opponent burst into laughter?

For China, it would be fine not to build an aircraft carrier. If it wants to build one, it must build a medium or large aircraft carrier with a displacement of more than 5 tons - I'm talking about you, Wide Area Silence.

The aerial refueling of drones mentioned by Zhang Qihang just now has become such a "retrograde step". Everyone subconsciously still relies on the technical level of this unmanned tanker to the modern level of large jet tankers, thinking about how to refuel the aircraft as much as possible in the shortest possible time at high subsonic speed. Who would have thought that Zhang Qihang suddenly started to reverse the situation, saying that we don't need a fast flying speed or a fast refueling speed...

Such aerial refueling is of course meaningless for fighter jets, transport planes and even bombers, but it is different for drones whose maximum fuel carrying capacity is just over one ton.

Boris Svetlov also realized that this was indeed the case. He nodded and said, "I was wrong. If the flight speed and the oil delivery speed are so low, then there is really no technical difficulty. However, after all, they are two drones. I'm afraid it will be difficult to dock them during refueling, right?"

Zhang Qihang said with a smile: "Then let the comrades in charge of this project find a solution. We can't ask them to solve all the problems, right? If it doesn't work, let the comrades at the ground control station control it manually."

"Yes, yes, we can let the comrades at the drone ground control station control it manually," Boris Svetlov nodded immediately, and became excited. "If we can really refuel this aircraft in the air, wow...it will really be a strategic-level drone."

Other comrades also started to think: "As long as this project is successful, we can not only sell it domestically, but also abroad, and sell it to the big dog owners in the Middle East!"

“Okay, I think this idea is feasible.”

"Hey, Lao Liu, since we can make it into an aerial refueling aircraft, can we also install a radar on it and make it an unmanned early warning aircraft?"

"That's not feasible, is it? How heavy is our plane? If we want to be an early warning aircraft, how can we possibly carry such a large radar?"

"That's not true. The balance beam early warning radar of the Swedish Erieye AWACS weighs only 900 kilograms including the external fairing, and the carrier aircraft is a Saab 13 regional jet with a maximum take-off weight of just over 340 tons.

After our drone is lightened, the weight lost may be even greater than that of the Erieye radar. In theory, it is no problem to install such a balance beam radar. As for command and control, the unmanned early warning aircraft can only serve as a radar in the air, and the command and control work can be completely carried out by the ground station. "

"That seems to be possible..."