Super Copy of Great Power Technology

In the following week, the employees recruited in the past few days started to work, and Ruida Aerospace Company quickly became full. However, the company recruited too many fresh graduates, and the average age of the employees was less than 30 years old, which was not a good thing for a high-tech company. In fact, strictly speaking, many students have not graduated from college yet, and are only senior students. They joined the company in the name of internship. It is really difficult to lead such a group of green hands to engage in an industry like aerospace that requires a lot of high-end technology and experience. In order to let these young people get into the state as soon as possible and master the basic skills needed to produce launch vehicles. In the second week of reporting, Qiao Ruida hired more than a dozen buses to send them to the Ruida Aerospace Production Base in YQ District for a month-long pre-job training.

During the training period, Qiao Ruida, Candice, and other dimensional puppets will serve as lecturers and take turns to teach them, mainly explaining the various equipment, operation methods, rocket structure, recovery principles, methane engine structure and other knowledge needed in the production process of launch vehicles. These courses that combine theory with practice are something that these employees would never have been exposed to when they were studying in school before. Many people with doctoral degrees have benefited a lot after listening to these courses, not to mention those undergraduates.

After a month of pre-job training, Qiao Ruida took these new employees directly to the rocket production workshop, and Candice and other dimensional puppets taught them how to use the existing equipment to produce a launch vehicle that can fly into space and be launched. In fact, these new employees still have poor hands-on skills, and there are not many people who can skillfully operate machine tools. Fortunately, the equipment purchased by Ruida Aerospace are all processing machines with a very high degree of automation. Some of them are copied by Qiao Ruida, which have certain intelligent properties and greatly simplify the operation. As long as Candice and other senior engineers have written the processing program in advance, and let these new employees be responsible for clamping, pressing the start button, and monitoring the automatic processing process, there will be no problem.

After two busy months, Ruida Aerospace finally produced the first liquid oxygen-methane cryogenic engine. Tianque (TQ-12) is an 80-ton liquid oxygen-methane engine, the world's first large-thrust pump-swing liquid oxygen-methane engine, and its thrust level is among the top three in the world and the first in Asia among products with the same technology.

"Boss Qiao, why haven't you arrived yet? Our engine ignition test is about to begin, and you, the boss, are the only one missing!" Cao Yifei yelled into the phone. The noise in the processing workshop was too loud, and if he didn't speak like this, the person on the other end of the phone couldn't hear him clearly.

"I just got off the plane and am taking a bus to Yanqing. I will be there in half an hour." Qiao Ruida held the phone farther away. The noise of the turning machine in the receiver was really harsh.

"Okay, we'll wait for you for another half an hour. Fortunately, this is just an engine test, not a rocket launch, otherwise we will miss the launch window." Cao Yifei was talking on the phone while he had already walked out of the machining workshop. The conversation environment suddenly became much better, and he no longer had to shout at the top of his voice.

Qiao Ruida hung up the phone, put away his phone, and said to the taxi driver: "Master, please drive faster. I'm in a hurry."

"Isn't it the former Yanqing Iron and Steel Plant? I'm familiar with that place. My father used to work there. Don't worry, we'll reach our destination within 20 minutes. By the way, I remember that factory has been abandoned for several years. What are you going there for?" Taxi drivers in Beijing are all very talkative and curious. Qiao Ruida just started talking to the driver when he asked this question.

"Our company just acquired that piece of factory not long ago. I just came back from a business trip and rushed to the factory to work." Qiao Ruida did not reveal the identity of his company's boss to avoid causing trouble.

"Oh, that place is so remote, but someone wants it. The price shouldn't be too high, right?"

The two chatted casually, and the taxi soon arrived at the factory gate. After scanning the code to pay the fee, Qiao Ruida walked into the factory gate carrying a small suitcase. The security guard at the gate saw the big boss coming and greeted him enthusiastically, "Boss Qiao, you are here, please go to the engine test bench. Boss Cao and Engineer Kan are there, testing the engine."

"Okay, I got it, thanks for the reminder. Captain Song, take this cigarette and share it with the brothers." Qiao Ruida took out a pack of Meng Province specialty cigarettes from his backpack and gave it to the security captain.

"Hey, Cordyceps 1248, a famous cigarette in Meng Province, yuan a box. The last time I smoked it was when I was a soldier in Meng Province. I didn't expect that more than ten years later, I can still smoke this cigarette. Thank you, Mr. Qiao. The distance from the factory gate to the engine test bench is not short. Xiao Ding, drive the patrol car and take Mr. Qiao there."

Qiao Ruida actually doesn't smoke. He bought this cigarette as a specialty of Meng Province and planned to give it to someone. Unexpectedly, Captain Song, who is a connoisseur of goods, actually called out the brand and price of this cigarette.

The engine test bench is located at the innermost part of the factory, at least 500 meters away from the gate. There is a small river flowing there, which can directly draw water to cool the engine tail. If you walk this distance, it will take at least six or seven minutes. Now there are electric patrol cars to travel, Qiao Ruida is happy to have free time, just get in the car and whiz away.

The so-called engine test bench is a platform built of reinforced concrete, about 20 meters high, with some sensors and power supply, gas supply and data transmission pipelines installed on it, and a space engine installation position reserved. Its main purpose is to test the performance, thrust, and stability of space engines.

The patrol car turned around a tall factory building and saw the engine test bench from a distance. It was gray and basically kept the original color of cement. For safety reasons, there were large open spaces within a hundred meters around it without any buildings. At this time, a two-meter-high aerospace engine had been installed on the test bench, shining silver and attracting people's attention. Around the test bench, dozens of staff members in white work clothes gathered and were doing the final inspection before the test run.

The patrol car stopped near the engine test bench. Qiao Ruida got out of the car with a suitcase, waved away the young security guard, and then walked towards Cao Yifei who was holding a blueprint and discussing something with Candice.

"Lao Cao, this is the first Tianque engine you have produced. It looks pretty good." Qiao Ruida raised his head and looked at the aerospace engine installed on the top of the test bench and gave a very pertinent evaluation.

"Hey, it's Mr. Qiao, you finally got here. Of course, this is the world's first liquid oxygen-methane space engine that has been put into practice. As long as today's test run is successful, it will be enough for us to brag about for half a lifetime." The reason why Cao Yifei said this is because the private aerospace companies in the United States, SpaceX and Blue Origin, have also announced their liquid oxygen-methane engine research and development plans, and even produced some concept drawings, but they have not yet been produced in kind. From this aspect, the Tianque engine is indeed the world's first liquid oxygen-methane space engine. With the drawings and technical data provided by Qiao Ruida as a reference, the development of the Tianque engine has basically taken no detours. From the procurement of raw materials, to the production and processing of spare parts, and then to assembly, it only took two months. Such a fast development speed, if revealed, will definitely be a major event that will shock the entire international aerospace community. Next, it depends on how the Tianque engine's test run goes this time. If it can be successfully ignited and tested once, the title of the first liquid oxygen-methane space engine will be secured.

At this time, a young man wearing a white work suit and frameless glasses came down the spiral staircase and walked up to Candice and reported, "Engineer Candice, the third inspection of the Magpie engine is complete, and the data is all normal. Do you want to start the test program now?"

Qiao Ruida had an impression of this young engineer. He was one of the doctoral students he personally recruited from Beihang University. His name was Wu Ziqiang. He had a good grasp of theoretical level and knowledge system, and had certain hands-on ability. He was a rare high-end aerospace talent.

Candice is the first scientific research dimensional puppet summoned by Qiao Ruida, and is also the chief engineer of Ruida Aerospace. However, as a disguised Frenchman, his original name was too long and many people could not remember it. So everyone called him Engineer Candice, which was later further simplified to Engineer Candice or Chief Candice. Candice is not a real Frenchman, and he does not have those hypocritical bad habits. He accepted these simplified names and soon became friends with the employees below. Candice took the test report from Wu Ziqiang, checked several key data, and found that there were no questions. Then he nodded and said: "Let's start the engine test process. Notify everyone to evacuate first. Remember, no one is allowed to stand within 100 meters of the test bench to avoid accidents."

"Okay, Engineer Kan, I'll start the engine test process and play the evacuation prompt sound." Wu Ziqiang agreed, and then took his two men and hurriedly left the test bench and rushed to the control room a hundred meters away.

"The space engine test program has started. The countdown is fifteen minutes. All personnel are requested to evacuate the test bench and keep a distance of more than 100 meters. I repeat, all personnel are requested to evacuate the test bench and keep a distance of more than 100 meters." The harsh warning sound and evacuation reminder were repeated over and over again. I believe that as long as you are not deaf, you can hear it.

"Mr. Qiao, Mr. Kan, the engine test will start soon, let's go." Cao Yifei called Qiao Ruida and Candice, and led the way to the control room a hundred meters away.

"Okay, let's go together." Qiao Ruida followed a group of young engineers and left the test bench. Everyone had the same youthful face and similar temperament. Walking together, there was no sense of disobedience. If Qiao Ruida was not wearing casual clothes, which was very different from the white work clothes of the surrounding engineers, it would be difficult to find him out of the crowd.

The so-called control room is a semi-underground building similar to a bunker, and it is also the closest building to the test bench. Its above-ground part is a circular structure with a diameter of only two or three meters and a height of more than half a meter, with observation windows and ventilation windows all around. The underground building part is a different world, covering an area of ​​at least hundreds of square meters. The interior is brightly lit, with several rows of desks and chairs neatly arranged, and computers and microphones installed on the desks. In front of the control room, a large LCD screen of more than 200 inches is installed, which displays real-time monitoring images of the test bench and Tianque engine, as well as a large number of sensor parameters. At this time, the seats are almost full of people, all working attentively. Qiao Ruida couldn't disturb them, so he had to pull Cao Yifei to sit at a table without a computer in the corner of the control room, waiting for the engine test to begin.

"Ten minutes of preparation, the engine test is about to begin. For everyone's safety, all staff are requested to evacuate the test bench and keep a distance of more than 100 meters. I repeat, all staff are requested to evacuate the test bench and keep a distance of more than 100 meters."

"Five minutes of preparation. The methane and liquid oxygen supply valves are opened, and the pre-pressurization pump starts working."

"One minute to prepare and perform the final sensor data verification."

"Power supply voltage is normal, methane pressure is normal, temperature is normal, liquid oxygen pressure is normal, temperature is normal, thrust sensor reading is normal..."

“30秒准备，20秒，15秒，10、9、8、7、6、5、4、3、2、1、点火！”

As the countdown ended, the "ignition" command was given, and at the tail of the Tianque space engine on the monitoring screen, a few wisps of white gas first emerged, followed by a few sparks, and then an orange-yellow flame suddenly broke out, blowing diagonally downward for dozens of meters, and finally fell into a cooling tank filled with water, making a loud bang and stirring up white water vapor all over the sky.

“推力传感器读数10吨、15吨、30吨、50吨、60吨、67吨，达到设计推力，达到设计推力！”

As the thrust of the Tianque engine continued to increase, the flames it emitted became thicker and thicker, and the color became purer. On the large monitoring screen, you could see several beautiful Mach rings appearing on the tail flame of the engine. Correspondingly, the noise from the engine was also increasing and becoming sharper. The entire ground was shaking violently, and even if you were sitting in the control room a hundred meters away, you could clearly feel it.

"The engine was turned on for 15 seconds, and all parameters were normal, with thrust stabilizing at 67 tons. The engine was turned on for 30 seconds and worked normally. The engine worked for 40 seconds, and the shutdown procedure was initiated, gradually closing the valves to reduce the supply of methane and liquid oxygen. The thrust continued to decrease, and the shutdown was successful."

This is the first prototype of the Tianque engine, and it is also the first ignition test. Of course, the test will not last too long. After the engine has worked for only 40 seconds, the shutdown process is initiated. (End of this chapter)