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Chapter 180: Genuine Independant Research and

Development

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The car stopped.

Tang Rui and Professor Li entered a huge underground space.

Upon entering, a massive aircraft greeted their eyes.

I’m not using the adjective incorrectly; it’s truly massive.

“This is the second validation prototype, with a length of 38.42 meters, a height of 12.25 meters, a wingspan of 27.15 meters, a fuselage diameter of 7.2 meters, a maximum takeoff weight of 122 tons, and a return landing weight of 92 tons.”

Professor Li casually stated the parameters of this aircraft.

As the chief designer, he knew every performance parameter of this aircraft like the back of his hand.

“What kind of fuel does it use?” Tang Rui asked, looking at the rocket engines at the rear of the aircraft.

“Liquid oxygen kerosene.”

“Can I see the detailed specifications of the engine?”

“Of course.”

After saying this, Professor Li had someone bring a computer over.

Tang Rui looked at the data on the computer and had Red Lotus simulate it.

Indeed, it was quite advanced.

It was a level higher than the engine technology he had obtained from the Russians, and many things had made significant breakthroughs.

After Tang Rui finished looking at it, Red Lotus’s simulation on the other side was also complete, and the conclusions were similar to the data above.

However, this data was not sufficient to support multiple repeat orbits and long-duration flights of suborbital spacecraft.

But that wasn’t a big problem.

According to the plan above, they already had an idea, and the next step was to do research and experiments bit by bit.

“Professor Li, how do you plan to solve the maneuverability issue of the spacecraft?” After putting down the computer, Tang Rui continued to ask.

“We are researching this issue as well. Initially, we planned to adjust the lift structure and design a layout that balances flexibility.

However, you also know that the altitudes at which suborbital spacecraft fly do not really support aerodynamic layouts.

On the contrary, the hypersonic lifting body structure is more suitable for suborbital flight, but a problem arises—while it’s good and flexible, it’s also challenging to control.”

At this point, Professor Li seemed somewhat helpless.

Suborbital spacecraft are like rafts floating on the water near the atmosphere, making it challenging to maintain flexibility in such conditions.

“Professor Li, have you ever tried using rocket thrusters to adjust the direction?”

“You mean thrust vectoring nozzles?”

“No, I mean installing several rocket thrusters on the spacecraft’s body. When used, they modify the spacecraft’s direction using the reaction force.”

Tang Rui’s idea was based on the maneuvering actions of his suborbital fighter in outer space.

Once in outer space, aerodynamic layouts no longer applied.

Suborbital fighters needed propulsion devices to maneuver in outer space, and the suborbital fighter he designed used ion propulsion.

But ion propulsion engines couldn’t be used on suborbital spacecraft because they provided too little thrust.

After listening, Professor Li pondered for a while and then shook his head.

“The idea is correct, but the spacecraft’s overall structure cannot withstand it, not to mention the astronauts. Unless there are breakthroughs in materials, and the astronauts’ spacesuits can withstand overloads of up to 10 g, this idea cannot be realized.”

After thinking for a moment, Professor Li shook his head.

“That’s unfortunate. I happen to have both of those,” Tang Rui said with a smile after hearing this.

“Really?” Professor Li was quite excited.

“Yes, 1 can handle the materials and g-suits, but 1 can’t help with the redesign of the spacecraft structure.”

Tang Rui nodded, but he would only provide materials and not get involved in the research.

Professor Li had done a good job with this aspect, and unless he was bored, he wouldn’t get involved.

Moreover, if he wanted to do research, it would be about space, but that could wait. First, he needed to finish what he had on hand.

“In that case, if you help solve everything, what do we do?” You could tell that Professor Li was very happy.

With this weight off his mind, Professor Li happily took Tang Rui around to show him some new things.

One of them was an ultra-supercritical wing manufacturing device, which Tang Rui found very impressive and useful.

Seeing his interest, Professor Li ordered one for him.

Tang Rui quickly declined.

He had already understood the design concept of this device and would have Red Lotus build one for him when he returned. There was no need to order one specifically.

After visiting for a while, Tang Rui bid farewell and left.

Professor Li was also quite busy, and his team was even busier, so after the visit, he didn’t continue to disturb them.

Back at the rocket test site, there was a downhill slope with water below it. Tang Rui’s solid rocket engine was set up on the test stand for testing.

A few minutes later, the fuel inside the rocket burned out, the flame at the rocket nozzle disappeared, leaving only a slightly reddish nozzle.

With the high-temperature-resistant materials Tang Rui had, he could have prevented the nozzle from turning red, but that was pointless.

This was a missile’s engine.

Missiles could explode when launched.

The material performance was sufficient; there was no need to make it too good, as that would be a waste of money.

“Tang, all the test data is here; please confirm.” The data from the test stand had been saved on a portable hard drive, and the data on the computer had been deleted.

Tang Rui took the portable hard drive and connected it to the computer. He just gave it a quick look, confirmed that there were no input errors, and then turned off the computer.

The specific data analysis and organization would be handled by Red Lotus, so he didn’t need to worry.

For the next half a day, Tang Rui stayed at the test stand, collecting more data with each ignition test.

Red Lotus had already organized the data.

Based on the actual test comparisons, the actual parameters of this solid rocket engine were slightly different from the theoretical design, with a thrust difference of 0.03 kg.

For a solid rocket engine, this difference could be completely ignored because, in most cases, missiles destroyed their targets before running out of fuel.

So, this small difference didn’t matter at all.

In the afternoon, Tang Rui happily returned to his company.

The reason for his happiness was mainly that he had designed this engine entirely by himself.

Red Lotus only served as a computational tool to assist in design and didn’t participate in any modifications.

This meant something.

All the knowledge he had learned had not been in vain.

As long as he wanted to conduct research, he could still accomplish it.

This feeling was quite different.

“Red Lotus, produce ten missiles using the engine 1 designed.”

After returning to the lab, Tang Rui asked Red Lotus to produce ten missiles using the engine he had designed. Once they were ready, he would find a place to test-launch them.

“Of course, Master. Production has already begun, and it is expected to be completed by early tomorrow morning.”

Buzz…

Just when Tang Rui was about to say something, his phone rang.

It was a call from Lin Chao.

“Brother Lin, what’s up?” Tang Rui asked directly.

If it weren’t for an urgent matter, Lin Chao wouldn’t have called him. If it wasn’t very urgent, he would have waited until mealtime to talk to him.

“Tang, I just received a call from the police. They said the SkyNet drones you sold to them have a no-fly zone set at the border.”

“Yes, that’s right. 1 programmed the SkyNet drones with a feature that automatically returns them when they reach the national border. Once they reach the border, they no longer obey ground control.”

Tang Rui thought for a moment and nodded. He had set up this program originally to prevent the exposure of the image algorithms. The image algorithm in the SkyNet drones was not the same as the version he had sold to Huawei. While it wasn’t the complete version, its image processing capabilities were already quite good. If this algorithm fell into the wrong hands abroad, it would be a security risk. So, when designing the drones, he included this hidden program.

Normally, this program would not be activated because, after all, the police using the drones for patrol would not fly them across the national border.

“Actually… 1 know what’s going on now. I’ll explain the situation to the police,” Lin Chao said and was about to hang up.

“Wait a minute, Brother Lin, why are you asking about this matter?”