Rebirth 09: Synthetic Male God

Chapter 932: Piercing through the night sky, the first flight around the world (Wishing all college entrance examination students a successful start)

Images of the hangar appeared on the screen at the command center.

The protagonists of today, three Xingtian fighter planes, were also revealed.

Although some employees who were not involved in the project and only in the command had received the news a long time ago, they still found it outrageous when they saw with their own eyes the three Xingtian fighter jets emitting a dangerous aura.

For something like an aerospace fighter, they actually made three prototypes at once.
The key point is that these are not three exactly the same spare aircraft, but rather there are slight differences in technical details.

Unit 1: It is quite standard and can also be called a prototype.

Unit 2: It has a special stealth technology different from the "Four Symbols Mode" called "Liu Yao".

Unit 3: It has a special electromagnetic catapult take-off method and needs to be used with special equipment.

However, only aircraft No. 1 will be taking part in today's test flight. The other two aircraft are scheduled to be launched later. They are standing here today just as a backup plan in case of emergency.

Zhou Rui looked at Academician Ma Weiming who was not far away from him. This Master of Electromagnetism was very curious about everything in the intelligent command center and kept looking around.

"Academician Ma, it's a pity that the No. 3 aircraft you are participating in cannot be tested today. You have to wait for a while."

Ma Weiming turned around and said, "It's okay, just come one by one. I'm not in a hurry to leave."

In the past half month, he has been completely settled in the Wanhu base. People from the navy came twice, but they did not invite him back. Moreover, they have become more and more interested in the aerospace field.

Although they have worked together before, this is the first time that Ma Weiming has participated in such a "big scene".

Looking at the youngest academician of the Republic beside him, he smiled and said, "Academician Zhou, are you nervous?"

Zhou Rui shook his head: "No. It's just a test flight of the drone. Besides, the cost is not high. The most important thing is that I have experienced it many times."

Master Electromagnetic gave a thumbs up and said, "It will work. Didn't they say that nothing you knocked on had any problems? Hahaha."

This is a strange story that Ma Weiming heard a few days ago. The entire aviation/aerospace system knows that Master Zhou has a knack for metaphysical tapping. He himself can’t say whether he believes it or not, but he just thinks it’s quite interesting.

Zhou Rui smiled and looked at the three planes again.

In fact, he is most interested in Unit 2, which is equipped with an electromagnetic shielding field made of "Liu Yao material".

After a period of verification, the huge advantages of "Liu Yao Materials" in the aviation field have been little by little unearthed, two of which are the most terrifying.

First, the stealth skin is eliminated, which frees up space and weight, and allows for external ammunition.

Secondly, when designing, one can completely ignore the requirements of stealth shape and only consider the requirements of aerodynamic shape, which allows the aerodynamic shape to be maximized.

These two points alone can be said to be revolutionary changes in stealth fighter jets.

Unfortunately, when the "Liu Yao materials" appeared, the aerodynamic shape of "Xing Tian" had already been determined, and in order not to affect the overall progress, no modifications were made.

In short, not only aerospace fighters, but all domestic fighters, whether in the sky or on the ground, manned or unmanned, will get better and better.

There is already a generation gap, but we have to make it a generation gap, a generation gap.
Technological breakthroughs emerge one after another, which is really a happy trouble.

The view returns to outside the hangar.

Towed by the tractor, today's protagonist, aircraft No. 10.8, slowly drove out. This 1.7-meter-long, -meter-high, uniquely shaped, extremely flat aircraft arrived in the center of the runway.

At the front of the tail is a "compression ignition/scramjet dual-mode engine" (twin-engine), and at the belly of the tail is a small rocket engine (single-engine).

Compared with all the planes Zhou Rui had seen, "Xingtian" was the smallest one, weighing only 6.8 tons when fully loaded, less than a quarter of the Weilong.

But as a drone, as a "consumable", and as a fighter jet, it has all the necessary functions.

Zhou Rui stood in the command center, looking at the "Xingtian No. 1" which was the same iron-gray model as the J-20, and felt a little confused for a moment.

There have been so many test flights before, but this time it feels different.

Oh yeah, because no driver answered.

The Xingtian fighter jet uses mechanical intelligent internal networking technology and is composed of up to 2090 intelligent nodes throughout the body.

The more self-networking, self-organizing, and self-coordinating nodes there are, the stronger the intelligence is, which is the characteristic of mechanical intelligence.

Mechanical intelligence is not good at drawing pictures, generating videos, or trading stocks, but when it comes to controlling hardware, it is a black technology that is ahead of its time.

The Xingtian fighter is also the largest and most complex internal networking device to date, except for intelligent mechanical life forms such as the small shower head.

Zhou Rui vaguely remembered that when he first received the revelation of "mechanical intelligence", the picture revealed by the system included an unmanned wingman accompanying the "J-20".

After many years, this scene was finally reproduced, although in a completely different mode.

In hundreds of thousands of simulations, the intelligent core of the Xingtian fighter has achieved excellent results. Its biggest features are fast response, fast calculation, and fast judgment. As long as external information is successfully received, it can react in microseconds, far exceeding human pilots.

This is extremely valuable for hypersonic fighter jets.

If there is a weakness, it is that they do not have the human ability of "association" and "prediction" and are rather rigid.

Well, how well it will fly depends on today's performance.

While he was thinking, Unit 1 had already arrived at the designated location and conducted a series of static tests.

Including "deformed wing detection", "tail jet control detection", "electronic system detection" and so on.

Since there was no one present, there was no communication during the entire process, only commands were issued one by one by the command center.

Dull, monotonous, boring
Zhou Rui even thought about whether he could add a "virtual interaction" in the future to simulate someone answering the question. It wouldn't help the Xingtian fighter, but it would be more friendly to the command center and control tower.

Ten minutes later, a strong voice rang out from the command center.

"Static detection completed, applying to activate Four Elephants stealth mode."

Zhou Rui said in a deep voice: "Permission granted, activate the Four Symbols Mode."

After the order was given, a faint ripple flashed around the No. 1 plane on the runway, and the iron gray color instantly turned into a mirror color.

Although it is the same technology, compared with the angular and tough style of the J-20, the Xingtian fighter has a flat and streamlined waverider shape. In the Four Symbols mode, it is more dreamy, as if it is made of mercury all over.

The Electromagnetic Master couldn't help but murmured: "It's really beautiful. People who work on airplanes are so handsome."

"The Four-Elephant Mode started smoothly, telemetry data is all normal, and the countdown to take off is 3 minutes."

At almost the same time, the figure of "Xingtian Unit 1" also appeared on the mimicry platform in the command center.

It is not difficult to see that the entire command mode is applied based on the rocket launch template, which is also related to the special circumstances of the aerospace aircraft.

"Two minutes countdown, engine pre-start."

The "compression ignition/scramjet dual-mode engine" behind it started, and the blue-red tail flame slightly destroyed the "mercury-like" dreamlike feeling.

"Countdown 1 minute, fuel system normal."

"Countdown 50 seconds, space-based tracking and control network services are normal."

"Countdown 30 seconds, the intelligent core responds normally"

看着屏幕上的数字，周瑞最后接棒，朗声道：“倒计时.5、4、3、2、1！起飞！”

The next moment, on the runway, the "compression ignition/scramjet engine" on the front of the tail of the Xingtian No. 1 aircraft spewed out a fierce tail flame.

This power monster uses the same technology as hypersonic missiles. Combined with its lightweight model, it has extremely fast acceleration. If it were a manned fighter, it would probably cause black vision on the ground.

But for Xing Tian who was alone, it was still stable.

Ten seconds later, in front of everyone's eyes, the unmanned aerial fighter jet left the ground for the first time and headed for the sky. "It's flying! Takeoff successful!"

In Factory No. 5, a large number of engineers crowded together and watched the test flight process through the screen.

Shan Chunyuan said in a deep voice: "Don't panic! This is an aerospace fighter, and the test flight has just begun!"

Just taking off from the ground can barely be considered as crossing the starting line.

He stared at the screen, and the takeoff process just now made him realize a small problem.

In order to adapt to the critical orbit and enter the atmosphere, Xingtian's wings are of a miniaturized design. Even with extremely fast acceleration, the take-off distance is not short. This also exposes a hidden danger: long distance + high speed will make the requirements for the runway very high.

Flatness, hardness, length. These things are not easy to maintain at general airports, and there are many unknown factors.

It seems that the "torture rack" developed by myself and Academician Ma may really become the standard in the future.
A loud "boom" sounded throughout the industrial zone of Taicang City.

Many people looked up in confusion, but found nothing. The target had disappeared into the horizon at an extremely fast speed.

Feedback came in from the command center.

"Speed ​​exceeds Mach 3! Altitude meters!"

The starting point of the Xingtian unmanned fighter has already exceeded the upper limit of 99% of the fighter jets in the world.

And it hasn't even started to use its scramjet engine yet.

"Speed ​​exceeds Mach 5! Altitude meters!"

"Compression ignition mode switched, scramjet mode started successfully!"

"Speed ​​exceeds Mach 7! Altitude meters!"

"Speed ​​reaches Mach 9! Altitude meters!"

In just a few minutes, this little guy, which is more powerful than a missile, approached the Karman line, which is the boundary between space and atmosphere.

In the command room, Ma Weiming listened to a series of broadcasts and opened his mouth.

It’s too fast. This climbing capability is completely at the level of a hypersonic missile!
That’s right, Academician Zhou originally designed the "Xingtian" based on the idea of ​​missiles/rocket.

It seems okay to call it a small missile with wings that can be precisely controlled.

Ma Weiming touched his chin. Little missile. Little troublemaker?
It sounds weirdly cute.
While he was thinking, the altitude of the Xingtian fighter plane had reached nearly 10 meters and the speed was close to Mach , which was the limit it could reach before leaving the atmosphere.

"Approaching the Karman Line, the attitude is stable."

Zhou Rui said in a deep voice: "The countdown for the transformation wing starts. 5, 4, 3."

Tens of thousands of meters above the sky, the sky above is no longer blue sky, but a deep darkness.

The oxygen here is thin, and even the scramjet engine cannot provide enough power, and the air density cannot provide any lift.

A strange flying object as fast as mercury cut through the atmosphere at a terrifying speed, but it seemed to have reached its speed limit.

To reach this height, some inertia was even utilized.

Suddenly, the "intelligent core" received the command and began to control its own body.

The wings of the Xingtian fighter began to fold up along the belly.

If it were in a thick atmosphere and doing this at its speed, it would probably disintegrate directly, but at this moment near the Karman line, it is just right.

The originally streamlined fighter plane, after its wings were retracted, became more and more like a waverider missile. The slender fuselage lost its only airflow lift and began to fall.
But soon, its terrifying speed and the change in atmospheric density caused by the change in altitude caused it to bounce back.
One by one, but the speed is still very fast.

It's like skipping stones on the boundary of the atmosphere.
------

Midway Island, Pacific Center
It was still dark here at this time. On this small island, the total number of humans did not exceed 1000, most of them were American bacteria, and a small number were ecological researchers.

The night sky on the lonely island in the Pacific Ocean is also particularly bright. A sky full of stars is the norm here and it is also one of the few beautiful sights.

Two American soldiers lay on the beach, hugging each other passionately.

Suddenly, the burly man below said, "Tony! Look! What is that?!"

The soldier named Tony smiled and said, "You want to trick me again, you annoying little devil."

The sturdy man pushed it away and looked up at the sky.

I saw a cone-shaped trajectory passing by rapidly in the night.
A meteor? No! The trail was curved, and it didn't seem to be decreasing in altitude.

Man-made aircraft?

"I have to notify my superiors immediately! That thing is flying towards the west coast!"

In fact, he thought too much
Xingtian's destination is not the United States, let alone the West Coast.
Xingtian’s destination was actually Taicang.

It's just returning from another direction.
------

In the command center, Zhou Rui observed the remote sensing data and the mimicry model.
The test of Qian Xuesen's trajectory was very successful. This was also due to the fact that the company had accumulated a lot of experience in this direction.

In this way, fuel can be saved greatly and the trajectory is unpredictable.
Of course, if we take the Four Elephants stealth technology into consideration, it doesn’t matter whether the trajectory is difficult to grasp or not. So what if we can see it visually?
However, this kind of skipping stones cannot be played for too long. Firstly, fuel must be conserved. Secondly, it must be visually visible in the atmosphere (visually visible and interceptable are two different things), which is a bit ostentatious.

"Preparing to enter orbit, rocket engine pre-start, 5, 4, 3, 2"

Almost halfway around the world, the atmosphere reaches its critical point.

The Xingtian No. 1 machine, which was drifting 180,000 meters on water, started a new test project after receiving instructions from the space-based tracking and control network.

After another "skipping stone", the front part of the fuselage rose up.

The rocket engine on the belly of the tail aircraft started instantly.

Air resistance is almost zero, but the rocket engine is still powerful.

Explodes towards the distant deep space again!

If it looked like a "missile" just now, now it looks like a "rocket".

With its small body, it left a long tail of flame. The so-called boundary between space and the earth was easily left behind, as if it was not worth mentioning.

Mach 13
Mach 15
Mach 18
Finally, it broke through the first cosmic speed.

It has come to its true territory, its exclusive territory.

Low Earth Orbit.

　Because the speed of "manned aircraft" is too low, you may think that Mach 18 or the first cosmic speed sounds particularly outrageous.

　　But in fact, the level of unmanned aerial vehicles is not fast.

　　For example, Dongfeng Express has a per capita starting point at this level, and is faster in the middle.

　　The same is true for rockets, which can even far exceed the first cosmic speed (around Mach 23).

　　A lot depends on the altitude. As long as you are out of the atmosphere (or close to a thin area) and have a rocket engine, your speed will skyrocket.

　　Don't put "hypersonic space drones" and "manned aircraft" in the same category. From a technical perspective, it is actually closer to missile technology.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)