The military-industrial scientific research system of the academic master

In the command center located at the tower, everyone watched as Tu 160 gradually faded away.

In fact, after the plane took off, neither the missile technicians nor the aircraft designers could do anything more.

We can only wait quietly for the next situation report from the pilot.

There was some anxiety hidden in everyone's heart, but no one could interfere with the pilot's actions at this juncture unless necessary.

Except for the noise from the operation of some electronic equipment, the huge octagonal room was as quiet as death.

In the end, it was Wang Zhanxue who broke the silence first:

"The Spring Festival Gala will begin soon."

A somewhat irrelevant sentence made the air that was about to freeze flow again.

There were even a few chuckles.

Chang Haonan looked at the time displayed on the upper right side of the big screen.

19:47 minutes.

It's really about to start.

"Then tonight, think of it as us sending a New Year's gift to the people across the country."

Chang Haonan also intended to liven up the atmosphere at the scene and said in a half-joking tone...

…

At the same time, in the cockpit of aircraft No. 41175, the four crew members also saw thousands of lights in the Haojing city area below from mid-air.

Of course, the plane was still climbing, so they definitely didn't have time to chat.

As the flight altitude continued to increase, the night sky they saw reappeared with a touch of blue.

It was the setting sun that was no longer visible on the horizon.

But soon, after the first two digits on the altimeter slowly jumped to "13", the sky outside the cockpit was dyed dark purple again——

At this height, only the shortest wavelength of violet light can be scattered by the sparse air molecules in the upper layers.

"We have reached navigation point B6, turn to direction 305 and continue flying."

The voice of pilot operator Xuan Yimin came from the aircraft's communicator.

The receiving antenna of the satellite navigation system has actually been installed on Figure 160, but the complexity of ground bombing is far from comparable to the transportation mission of "from A to B", so except for a very few models that are only considered to perform specific specialized tasks, basically all Provide 1-2 additional crew members.

Xuan Yimin's position is mainly responsible for controlling airborne self-defense kits and part-time bombing and piloting missions.

"receive."

Captain Deng Yuangang turned his eyes away from the distant skyline and at the same time pulled the joystick to control the aircraft to make a steep turn of more than 200°.

Unlike most large aircraft that use disc joysticks, the cockpit layout of the Tu-160 is similar to that of a fighter jet.

Of course, correspondingly, although its take-off weight is close to 300 tons, its flight quality is far superior to that of its peers.

Another ten minutes later.

Unit 41175 finally climbed to the launch altitude scheduled for this test.

"Report to the tower, aircraft No. 15 has reached an altitude of 16,000 meters."

Deng Yuangang confirmed the altimeter reading, and then slowly leveled the plane.

"receive."

The tower's response was succinct and powerful.

The flight plan had been issued a few days ago, and the four crew members almost knew it by heart.

As long as everything goes well, it doesn't require much external direction.

"Get ready to speed up."

Deng Yuangang and the co-pilot next to him each pushed the two throttle valves to the end and adjusted the four engines to afterburning state.

Following the movements of their hands, the titanium alloy sleeves located in the middle of the wings on both sides began to shrink automatically, locking the sweep angle at the maximum 65-degree gear.

The four people in the cabin could even clearly feel the acceleration changing.

"No. 3, check the bomb bay."

As an aircraft that was in service in the 1980s and has not undergone major upgrades, the Tu160's cockpit still retains a strong "Soviet watch shop" style and does not have a large multi-function display.

All weapon systems need to be completed by Xu Huasheng through the buttons, knobs and lever switches in front of him.

"The temperature and noise of the bomb bay are normal, the ventilation is good, and the gas environment is normal."

Xu Huasheng quickly completed the bomb bay safety inspection according to the operation he had trained countless times——

In fact, due to the heat generated by the friction between the fuselage and the air during high-speed flight, the temperature in the internal bomb bay is often too high rather than too low.

This problem is even more serious for demonstration bombs using cryogenic liquid fuel.

It doesn't matter if some propellant escapes, after all, these are all calculated during the design.

But if the hydrogen concentration in the bomb bay is too high, the problem will obviously be bigger.

For this reason, during the modification process of aircraft No. 41175, a ventilation system was specially added to the front bomb bay.

"Arrive at the E3 navigation point and start preparing weapons."

Xuan Yimin's calm voice sounded again.

"GC-X, power-on self-test."

Xu Huasheng said and flipped a lever switch next to the weapon selection panel.

A string of orange-red Cyrillic letters appeared on the panel.

Неизвестная (unknown model)

Because they did not have time to fully upgrade the weapon control system and only made some modifications to the identification logic, the four Chinese Tu-160s will directly identify the Donghai 10 cruise missile as Kh55, while all other mounts will be displayed as unknown.

But the bombing operation can be performed normally.

A few seconds later, the unknown green light representing forward weapons bay No. 1 came on.

"GC-X, self-test passed, start setting target parameters."

"Goal setting complete."

"Disable ignition safety."

"..."

Xu Huasheng suppressed his inner excitement and completed the preparations before the launch one by one.

In the internal communicator, apart from his increasingly faster voice, there were only the heavy breathing of the other three people.

The white swan's wings cut through the night sky in Guanzhong.

When the plane entered the eastern part of Longyuan, the speed had reached the planned Mach 1.65.

"Switch to autopilot."

After saying this, Deng Yuangang finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The pilot's work has come to an end. Before dropping the bomb, the plane only needs to fly levelly and step by step.

"Arrive at the F2 navigation point and open the bomb bay."

The weapons operator also has the function of piloting, so after entering the bombing route, this task is completed by Xu Huasheng alone.

In a place where the four pilots could not see, two huge rectangular magazine doors slowly opened downwards, revealing the huge bomb bodies hidden inside.

On the weapons control panel, the instrument pointer representing the noise from the bomb bay instantly began to shake violently.

But fortunately, it never reached the red area on the far right.

This shows that the Haofei Group's temporary modification of the bomb bay is very effective.

"Preparations for launch are complete, the seeker is powered on..."

When the task reaches this step, it means that it has entered the final and irreversible stage.

Xu Huasheng held the joystick with his right hand, placed his thumb on the launch button at the top, and stared at the CRT display in front of him that showed the flight trajectory.

The launch mission itself is not complicated and requires just pressing a button over a fairly large range.

The missile will automatically adjust its trajectory according to the actual launch situation. It does not need to drop the bomb at a very precise attitude and position like CCRP does when it drops uncontrolled bombs.

Time passed by minute by minute.

On the track map, the light point symbolizing the aircraft gradually coincides with the navigation point marked F3.

The moment before pressing the button, an idea suddenly popped into Xu Huasheng's mind -

This may be the largest air-launched weapon ever thrown by mankind?

But immediately I thought of the AN602 "Big Ivan", which is also 8 meters long but nearly 3 meters in diameter.

He quickly put these random thoughts aside.

"Weapons fired!"

Xu Huasheng squeezed his right hand hard and pressed the bomb release button.

In the magazine, the four support rods under the weapon rack rotate downward 90°, push the entire guide frame together with the missile to the edge of the magazine, and then unlock it.

The 8-meter-long ballistic missile then came loose and roared down on its own.

The airflow rolled up by the bomb bay formed a complex vortex flow field invisible to the naked eye about 1 meter below the belly of the aircraft.

The missile's falling posture suddenly sank and swung slightly vertically.

But in the end, it passed smoothly at an elevation angle of about 15°.

In the cockpit, Xu Huasheng had already entered a state of high alert again.

This is a habit he developed when he flew H-6 in the past.

When a large projectile falls, the center of gravity of the entire machine will inevitably change.

Need to take over autonomous driving at any time.

But the plane only vibrated slightly and still maintained level flight.

Feeling a little more at ease, he looked out the porthole again.

One second...

Two seconds...

Because the liquid engine makes too much noise when igniting, Chang Haonan specially set a long ignition delay in order to ensure the safety of the carrier aircraft itself.

So many pilots, whose seconds seemed like years, even had doubts about launch failure at a certain moment.

Good thing.

About 4 seconds later, a dazzling blue flash appeared under the front and bottom of the nose of the aircraft, drawing a perfect upward arc.

In the blink of an eye, it had already exceeded the altitude of the plane again.

The tail flame of the hydrogen-oxygen rocket engine quickly disappeared.

But almost immediately afterwards, a large jellyfish-like trail cloud, illuminated by the moonlight and colored in colors, appeared in mid-air, and soared towards the distance at an almost incredible acceleration...

Even as strategic bomber pilots, this was the first time for several of them to see such a spectacular scene with their own eyes.

I almost forgot to breathe.

"Happy New Year, comrades..."

Deng Yuangang watched the missile fly towards the target and murmured.