Great warships

Chapter 740 British Aircraft Carrier
Rolls-Royce, UK.

"Eastern people actually want to develop a [-]-megawatt gas turbine!" Engineer McLeary said angrily: "We, Great Britain, are the first country to develop gas turbines. We must not lose to the East in this field!"

"That's right, on vertical take-off and landing fighter jets, we let the Easterners get ahead, and on this kind of gas turbine, we must not lag behind!" Stanley said.

Rolls-Royce is an old aero-engine giant. Generally speaking, it doesn’t have much relationship with the shipbuilding Mingzhou Group. However, they had a contest on vertical take-off and landing fighter jets. Although the result has not yet come out, everyone We all know that they lost.

Dongfang’s vertical take-off and landing fighter is progressing smoothly. In the last exhibition, the demonstration of vertical take-off and landing function has been realized. This year’s International Defense Exhibition has not yet been held, but it can be guessed that their vertical take-off and landing fighter will definitely fly performance.

What about Rollo?
Although the UK does not have a stealth fighter project, the British and the Americans jointly developed the JSF fighter. In this project, the highly skilled Rolls-Royce company helped design the vertical take-off and landing system, and helped one of them design a pneumatic fan solution. Facts have proved that this route simply does not work.

Now, on GT, are they going to continue to lag behind?
"Of course not, we need to start research and development immediately!" At this moment, a middle-aged man with an indifferent expression came in, it was Conrad, a senior executive of Rolls-Royce: "Everyone, I just received a task to develop four Ten-megawatt gas turbine!"

Everyone immediately became excited: "Do you want to develop it now?"

"Yes, research and develop now! The defense department has officially decided to develop a new class of aircraft carrier to replace our old Invincible class aircraft carrier." Conrad said: "The displacement of this type of aircraft carrier cannot be smaller than that of the East. It is planned to use the gas turbine developed by us!"

A new class of aircraft carrier?Everyone is excited.Those invincibles are too dilapidated, and they can't show the strength of their Great Britain at all. During the 82 years of war, they deeply realized this, but there is no money!
Only a powerful country can have an aircraft carrier. Look at Europe now, how many aircraft carriers are there, and how big is the displacement?
"Mr. Conrad, the aircraft carrier of the Orientals has a displacement of more than [-] tons. If we want to build an aircraft carrier of this level, do we really need to use gas turbines to drive it?" Stanley asked.

So far, the largest warship driven by gas turbines is a cruiser of more than 1 tons. No matter how big it is, it is either a boiler or nuclear power. No gas turbine has ever been used.

"That's right, there are currently several alternatives, but even if the displacement exceeds [-] tons, we can still use gas turbines to drive it. If two are not enough, at most four will be used." Conrad said: "The matter of the aircraft carrier We don't care, we just take care of the gas turbines."

"If we start from scratch, the research and development time will be too long. It is better for us to use the existing aero engine to improve." McLee said: "Using our Trent 800 aero engine to improve is the most suitable, just like It’s the same as the S*M1 engine we modified with Spey.”

In terms of aero engines, the British are still very good. In the 60s, the Spey engine was definitely the most eye-catching. The civilian model of this engine is used on a large number of passenger aircraft, and the military model is used on different fighter jets. At the same time , The modified version of the gas turbine developed was also used on warships. The British Navy was the first to realize the full gas turbine, relying on this gas turbine.

Time has passed, and the gas turbines modified by Spey are outdated. They need more advanced gas turbines, and it is most appropriate to improve them on aero engines.

At the beginning, Rolls-Royce pioneered the three-rotor RB211 series engine, which achieved great commercial success. They provided 40.00% of the world's airliner engines. Later, on the basis of this engine, they improved the Trent 700 engine.

However, the fan diameter of this engine is too small to meet the power requirements of the latest Boeing 777. Therefore, Rolls-Royce made persistent efforts and developed a new engine with a 2.8-meter-diameter fan, which is the Trent 800.

Although it cannot compare with the strongest GE90 in terms of thrust, this engine has a great advantage: it is the lightest of several engines used on the Boeing 777. It is 90 pounds lighter than the GE8000, 4090 pounds lighter than the PW5400, and lighter than the PW4098. The PW6500 is 20 pounds lighter, and simple calculations can save airlines $[-] per aircraft per year.

Therefore, after this engine appeared, it immediately became the most popular Boeing 777 engine among customers.

As the engine with the largest thrust under Rolls-Royce, it was of course him who changed it to a gas turbine for ships.

"That's right, we are improving on this gas turbine! We will surely make faster progress than the Easterners. The Easterners developed it from scratch, so it is not that easy." Stanley nodded.

Conrad shook his head: "No, the Orientals didn't necessarily develop it from scratch."

"Didn't start from scratch? Do they have any aero engines that can be changed? They don't have such a powerful thrust at hand." When McLee said this, he suddenly thought of something: "Could it be D-18T?"

For a long time, the D-18T engine has firmly occupied the throne of Damao's largest thrust aeroengine. It can be seen that the largest transport aircraft in the world uses this engine.

"Damn it, Motor Sich can't do this. They can't export this strategic engine to the East. We have to sanction them!" Stanley almost shouted.

His worry is understandable. In the past few years, the development of the East has been too fast, and now it is about to surpass the United Kingdom. How could they be reconciled.

"Sanctions? How to sanction? We have no evidence. The Orientals said they did their own research, and they will not publish the research results to us." Conrad said: "However, in retaliation, Airbus has made a decision. Disqualify Motor Sich from bidding on the A400 transport aircraft engine."

In fact, this kind of decision is of no use, because Madasic has known for a long time that their engine is just for fun, and it is impossible to win the bid at all. How could the Europeans give such a big cake to Madasic? Odd Company?It's not that Europe doesn't have first-class aero engines.

This method is only to satisfy their own psychology. Their most important thing at present is to develop high-power gas turbines. After all, no matter which bidding team wins, their Rolls-Royce Company is the only engine supplier.

The British want to build an aircraft carrier, which of course is a big piece of cake, attracting countless teams to bid.

The British Royal Navy wept with joy.

Back then, every government came to power, and they all had a high interest in committing suicide to their own troops. Under the butcher knife they wielded, the size of the navy became smaller and smaller. The British invincible-class aircraft carrier, in the mouths of many people , were all fooled by the Americans, thinking that small and medium-sized aircraft carriers are the future. In fact, more reasons were poor. At that time, the Navy racked their brains and used the rhetoric of an anti-submarine ship to complete the construction of the Invincible class. They dare not say It is an aircraft carrier, otherwise, their navy will completely lose its fixed-wing aviation power.

After 82, everyone was woken up. In the sense of honor of the empire, no one objected to building an aircraft carrier. Finally, a consensus was reached: they needed a more powerful aircraft carrier.

However, the need is one thing, and whether it can meet the need is another. It has been 98, and they are still arguing about what kind of aircraft carrier to build. Stimulating, the aircraft carrier on the berth of the Mingzhou Group has gradually shown its outline, and they have not yet made up their minds.

Portsmouth.

"Everyone, we can't be entangled anymore. We must choose three of the nine plans as soon as possible." In the conference room, Sir Benjamin sat on the rostrum, looked at the flagpoles lined up in the military port outside, and then turned to the people below. Said: "Now, many companies have formed a bidding team, waiting for our bidding, we have to come up with a charter first."

Since the 80s, when they decided to build a new aircraft carrier, they proposed various proposals. There were nine proposals in total, seven of which were newly designed and built, and two of which were refitted from existing ships.

Those two plans can be ruled out, and now the country must be completely rebuilt, so you have to choose from seven new plans.

These schemes are mainly divided into three categories, namely STOVL (short take-off vertical landing) scheme, STOBAR (short takeoff and arrest landing) scheme and CATOBAR (traditional aircraft carrier catapult takeoff and arrest landing) type. The first type is the British It was already in use, so they were most familiar with this model, and they proposed four plans, the third proposed two plans, and only the second one proposed a plan, thus making up seven.

They need to select three of these seven programs and then invite bids.

"Our plan cannot be decided by ourselves, it still depends on the support of the country." Charles said: "The aircraft carrier we want is naturally the bigger the better. The more advanced the performance, the better, and the more carrier-based aircraft it carries, the better. "

"We also have to look at the choice of carrier-based aircraft." Hook said.

"According to the photos taken by our satellite, it can be determined that in the dock of the Mingzhou Group in the East, the construction of an aircraft carrier has started. At present, the manufacture of the first two sections has been completed. We can estimate that this aircraft carrier It will not be smaller than the Varyag they are currently using, and its displacement may be more than 6.5 tons. Our own aircraft carrier cannot have a displacement lower than this, so we set the target at [-] tons." Sir Benjamin said: "Now that the displacement is available, the key is the choice of carrier-based aircraft. Once the carrier-based aircraft is determined, we can even determine the only solution."

"The future is already the era of stealth aircraft, and our aircraft carrier must be equipped with stealth aircraft." Charles said.

They have very few carrier-based aircraft to choose from.

Now they are using the Sea Harrier, which is a carrier-based aircraft developed and produced by themselves, but it is also the only one. What else do they have now?A Tornado with variable-sweep wings?Or a jointly developed Eurofighter?These fighters are not stealthy.

If it is a stealth machine, then there is only the American JSF.

"No, our aircraft carrier is imminent. The U.S. stealth aircraft has not yet completed the bidding, and it will take at least five years to mature. We can't wait!" Hook shook his head: "Let's use our own Typhoon."

"Can Typhoon be used as a carrier-based aircraft?" Benjamin was taken aback.

"The French Rafale fighter jets can be used as carrier-based aircraft, so why not our Typhoon?" Hook said: "BAE is doing research on refitting the Typhoon carrier-based aircraft. We can invite them to do a simple job for us. Compared with the stealth aircraft of the United States, our Typhoon will definitely be able to catch up with the progress of the aircraft carrier."

The crowd nodded.

Typhoon fighter jets have been brewing since the 70s. In 94, the first one left the factory. Now it is getting closer and closer to being finalized. If it is converted into a carrier-based aircraft, it can also catch up with the progress of the aircraft carrier. Moreover, Typhoon is the Europeans themselves. Yes, this also saves a large amount of money from flowing to the United States.

BAE's aircraft engineers arrived in no time.

"Everyone, it's a great honor to introduce our Typhoon carrier-based aircraft to you." A rendering was displayed on the projector, which is exactly the graphic of a typhoon taking off and landing from an aircraft carrier. The aircraft carrier directly used the effect of an American aircraft carrier because there were no samples. picture.

"It is not complicated to convert the Typhoon fighter into a carrier-based aircraft. Compared with other models, we don't need to fold the wings, because we can reduce the area occupied by the deck by placing two aircraft facing each other, which can save a lot of money." space, we just need to simply modify the landing gear and increase the strength..." the engineer continued to introduce.

"Wait, what's that thing above the cockpit?" Someone saw something strange and asked.

"Well, if the typhoon wants to board the ship, it has to increase the angle of attack when landing. In order to allow the pilot to have a better line of sight, we added a periscope to the cockpit cover."

what?
Everyone was shocked.

When a typhoon boards a ship, it is necessary to add a periscope?
"No, we can't do this. We have laughed at the old Maozi for decades. Their MiG-21 trainer planes use periscopes. When it's our turn, we actually have to add periscopes? And, it's still a carrier-based aircraft landing!"

You know, there is a big difference between what you see in the periscope and what you see directly!Forget about the trainer aircraft, the landing of the carrier-based aircraft is inherently dangerous, and now you have to watch the periscope land, the risk is not ordinary.

Although the United Kingdom did not block the aircraft carrier that landed, the relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States is good, and their pilots go to the United States to train on the aircraft carrier every year to have a good time.

They know the danger of landing, and they still need to use periscopes?That's absolutely nonsense.

"No, ours is not an optical periscope, but an electronic periscope. Specifically, a camera is installed on the top of the partition frame of the cockpit, and then the image can be displayed on the monitor in the cockpit." The engineer explained.

"That's not okay, it's also very dangerous to do that! If the plane can't land with a normal attitude, then we refuse!"

The dream of typhoons on the ship was shattered in this way. For BAE, this is nothing. Anyway, the air force needs a lot of typhoons, and it needs to be specially improved on the ship, and the demand is not high. It may not be cost-effective. The navy does not see it Forget it.

There will be many problems when a duck-style fighter is on board, so in later generations, except for the Rafale fighter, no duck-style fighter can go on board, including the J-20.

For Typhoon, it is even more difficult to board the ship, because it uses telecoupling, and its canards are below the front of the cockpit!

Such a design makes it possible to minimize the canard size and maximize the control torque, but at the same time, it will also block the pilot's front and lower vision on both sides.

Normal take-off and landing is fine, but the take-off and landing of carrier-based aircraft is different, especially for landing. These two canards are very obstructive, and there is a high probability that they will block the light of the Fresnel light box when the aircraft is approaching.

Therefore, if you want to board the ship, you have to change it. The way to change it is to add a periscope. Unfortunately, the military doesn't buy it.

Of course, it still has many problems. For fighters with air intake in the belly, the strengthening of the front landing gear is also a big problem. However, because the Typhoon fighter has a strong short take-off and landing capability, if it takes off with a ski jump, it does not need to be ejected. device is no problem.

The key is landing. In order to improve the performance, when the British fooled Ah San later, they also came up with a vector version. It is easier to board the ship with this version, but Ah San still has no choice. If you can't ask for this thing, Ah San shouldn't be taken advantage of.

If the typhoon is not suitable, you can only buy it out!
"We can't purchase the French Rafale, that would be an insult to us." Benjamin said: "The only thing left is the American F-18 and the stealth aircraft under development."

The F-14 in the United States is also gradually retiring, and the F-18 has become the main force. Even this aircraft has undergone major changes. When it comes to the E/F version, partial stealth repairs have been carried out.

"If we use the F-18, it means that we have to use catapults and arresting wires. We don't have these technologies. We need to purchase them from the United States like the French." Charles said.

"So, you're saying, we wait for the vertical landing version in the JSF?" Hooker asked.

The truth is formed in the discussion, now, they have no time to wait, they have to make a choice.

"In this case, our carrier-based aircraft can be assumed to be F-18 and JSF, and our aircraft carrier can also use three options. We will conduct the next bidding and see if the bidding team can provide us with the most suitable option. said Benjamin.

There are three types of JSF, whether it is a vertical take-off and landing aircraft or an ordinary carrier-based aircraft, they can choose. Anyway, it is outsourced, and there is no point in continuing the discussion at the meeting. We still need to wait for the opinions of the bidding team. After all, the bidding team is also very professional. of.

"Sir, I have an idea." At this moment, someone spoke.

"Say."

"Us, can we invite Mingzhou Group to bid?"

As soon as these words came out, the faces of the people present all changed.

"Can our European warships be designed by Orientals?"

"Geiger, is there something wrong with your brain?" Everyone cursed.

"Geiger, tell me what you think. If you are just trying to annoy everyone, then congratulations. You did it. I think you will be torn to pieces before you leave this conference room."

"Everyone, do you know which one has the most experience in designing aircraft carriers in the world?" Geiger knew that his words would cause an uproar, but his proposal was also for the Royal Navy, and he had a clear conscience.

"That goes without saying, of course it is the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dock Company. This company has built dozens of aircraft carriers for the U.S. Navy. If you add other ships, there will be seven or eight hundred." Charles said.

"So, have they ever built a 6.5-ton aircraft carrier?"

Everyone stopped talking.

Since the end of World War II, the displacement of the U.S. Navy's aircraft carriers has been increasing. The Kitty Hawk class had a displacement of [-] tons, and the current Nimitz class has expanded to [-] tons.

A [-]-ton aircraft carrier?The Americans really didn't make it.

"There are very few aircraft carriers of this level in the world. Originally, the old men were very experienced, but now, almost all of those experienced people are in the east." Geiger said: "Mingzhou Group has built several aircraft carriers. Luo’s [-]-ton light aircraft carrier has a [-]-ton aircraft carrier for the football country, and a [-]-ton aircraft carrier that their own navy is building. They even sold aircraft carrier blueprints to Tuji. Their designs are also unique. One style can be said to lead the trend of the entire era, so we can see their best design proposals when we call them over to bid, anyway, we will not adopt their proposals in the end.”

Geiger's meaning is also very clear: Huyou Mingzhou Group came over and came up with the best plan to bid, so that the Royal Navy would have one more choice, and it would be good to increase some knowledge.

"Your idea is very interesting, but how can we invite them? It will make them proud." Charles said.

"We don't need to invite them in person, as long as we mention a few more words when we make a public statement, they will definitely come." Geiger said.

The UK wants to build two [-]-ton aircraft carriers, which is a lot of fat. The Mingzhou Group is expanding and will definitely join in the fun.

Benjamin nodded: "Okay, next, I will hold a press conference."

"In order to better maintain world peace, we in the UK have decided to build two aircraft carriers with a displacement of 6.5 tons. Therefore, we have decided to invite bids from all over the world. Any company that has the ability to build aircraft carriers can come to bid. Those who have built aircraft carriers Companies or groups are more welcome, and I will invest at least 20 billion pounds for these two aircraft carriers!" At the press conference, Benjamin talked eloquently, and his bidding advertisement spread all over the world.

(End of this chapter)