Chapter 784: Tear it down! Tear it down!

Gao Zhendong didn't care whether he got paid or not. He was happy that this thing started to play its due role, which was a good thing. The Citigroup man was trustworthy in these details of air combat, at least in the days before the great man's birthday in 2024.

"Okay, then I'll be waiting for it, hahaha." Gao Zhendong laughed. He felt very happy to get the certificate.

The two men chatted and laughed, and comrades from the Defense Work Committee would join in the fun from time to time. The chief engineer was also there, but he did not join in the fun among the young people.

Director Liu, who is in charge of the modification of the Be-6 and Z-5 in a certain factory's research institute, is undoubtedly the protagonist today. The Z-5 has not been modified yet, but the Be-6 has been completed first.

Director Liu was preparing for a report with his colleagues. A young man beside him asked him quietly, "Director Liu, who is that young man? He is so young, could he be an expert?"

The young man looked about the same age as me, so there was no way he could be an expert. If he wasn't, he would have been sitting there with the people from the acceptance team, chatting animatedly.

Director Liu looked at the sign in front of Gao Zhendong and felt that it was somewhat familiar, but he didn't have much impression of it.

"That should be the case. Even though he is young, it is not easy for anyone to sit there."

Life experience of the elderly - many problems depend on where you sit, everything else is secondary.

The young man stuck out his tongue and continued to prepare for his report.

The meeting started quickly, and Director Liu introduced the modification contents of the Be-6.

First, the 23mm cannon in the nose was moved to the bottom of the nose, and two convex bubble observation windows were added on both sides of the observation/navigation cabin under the original cannon, leaving space in the nose and increasing the depression angle and firing range of the 23mm cannon.

Secondly, the observation/navigation window on the nose was moved down appropriately to increase the space in the nose, which provides the necessary conditions for the installation of a large radar in the future.

Third, standard electrical/data interfaces were added to the four wing pylons for mounting missiles, but the load-bearing capacity has not changed much. After all, the original few pylons can barely be considered heavy-load pylons, and the average load-bearing capacity of each pylon is one ton.

These are the three main improvements.

For the first two changes, what everyone needs to look at is the sturdiness. This thing flies very slowly, just over 400 kilometers per hour. This slight change has no substantial effect on the aerodynamic characteristics of the aircraft. Flying slowly also has its advantages.

Director Liu and his team distributed the static test results of the modified parts, which fully met the requirements.

The participants first started a discussion around these two changes. After all, the third item could not reveal any clues just by looking at the data.

In general, everyone felt that these changes were very practical and took full account of the needs of the Be-6 as a patrol aircraft. The main discussion was whether the test requirements they chose met actual needs, that is, whether the preset conditions could meet the requirements.

However, some comrades expressed concerns that the downward movement of the aircraft gun and the increase in the depression angle might result in the loss of some air-to-air firing angles.

Gao Zhendong looked at this thing and thought carefully.

The chief engineer of the Defense Work Committee presided over the meeting. Seeing that Gao Zhendong was thinking, he did not rush to call him. Instead, he waited until everyone had finished speaking before asking Gao Zhendong: "Comrade Zhendong, what do you think?"

Gao Zhendong put down the pen in his hand and nodded: "Overall, I think these two modification directions are correct. Judging from the test data, the modification results also meet the initial requirements."

He was not so radical as to want to cancel the nose cannon right away. This was a patrol aircraft, not a main combat aircraft, and the requirements between the two were very different.

Unlike main combat aircraft that can kill people, patrol aircraft must have multiple levels of firepower configuration. The multiple levels refer to the firepower level. When patrolling, there are many possibilities, and one's own capabilities must be as complete as possible.

For example, when a fire warning is needed during patrol, or when facing a low-threat target, this cannon is very useful. You can't just drop a big bomb for warning, right? That would be overflow.

Gao Zhendong's opening move surprised the chief engineer of the Defense Work Committee. He remembered that Gao Zhendong had never been very fond of various aircraft guns on bombers, unless they were functional, such as anti-armor firepower with armor-piercing shells.

"The gun is moved down to increase the firing range, and at the same time, the nose space is increased to leave room for the installation of the radar. This is a good idea, so I have no objection to the improvement of the nose." Gao Zhendong explained carefully. "As for the possible loss of some air firing angles, my opinion is that it may be lost, but it doesn't matter. This is a patrol aircraft, and this gun is not used to deal with aerial targets or for self-defense. It is used to complete functional tasks during patrols, such as warning, driving away, and attacking maritime targets. As for aerial targets or self-defense, this thing has very limited capabilities, so it is better to leave this task to other things."

As for what to hand over, he didn't say yet.

"But I do have some ideas for further improvements to this aircraft."

Comrades from the Defense Work Committee and the Air Equipment Bureau immediately showed interest.

"First of all, consider installing a soft fuel tank fixture and an oil transfer interface in the internal cabin. If necessary, the internal cabin can be used to carry some fuel to further increase its range." This kind of thing is used a lot on our helicopters. There is space inside the Be-6, and it can be used.

This is just a little trick, but it also opened the eyes of Director Liu and others. They had never thought that it could be used in this way. Although it may not be realistic, it is a way anyway and it is a direction that can be considered when necessary. As the saying goes, you can not use it, but you can't live without it.

"The second thing is to remove the self-defense cannons on the back and tail to save weight and space for the installation of other equipment or to further increase the load capacity."

Here it comes, he finally attacked the aircraft guns, the comrades from the Defense Committee and the Air Equipment Bureau thought.

"Chief Engineer Gao, this will greatly weaken the aircraft's self-defense firepower. With a cannon right next to the nose of the aircraft, and mainly firing from a downward angle, it will probably be difficult for it to defend itself."

Gao Zhendong smiled: "Even with these guns, we still can't defend ourselves. What's the use of this seaplane's maneuverability even if it has more guns? The guns radiating from the nose are useful for patrol missions, but one is enough. These two twin 23mm guns, the one on the back can only hit the top, and the one on the tail can only hit the back hemisphere, but the threat to enemy aircraft is basically zero."

"The back of the plane can defend against attacks from above, and the tail of the plane can defend against tailbites, so why are they useless?" Some comrades did not quite understand.

"Comrade, this is the design of S2. At that time, everyone relied on machine guns and machine cannons to fight, which could indeed achieve this effect and improve safety to a certain extent. But now, the biggest threat is not machine guns. Although it is still necessary to bite the tail, the distance of biting the tail is beyond the reach of the tail gun. The enemy aircraft does not need to enter the range of the rear hemisphere or upper hemisphere aircraft guns to complete the attack." Gao Zhendong explained.

"Missiles? Missiles are omnipotent?" A comrade frowned.

Gao Zhendong shook his head. "It's not that missiles are omnipotent. At this stage, fighter jets must retain machine guns for combat. Although the performance of missiles is not perfect, the probability of killing maneuverable targets such as seaplanes is extremely high. The enemy does not need to risk entering our range to complete the attack, and the effect will not be bad."

"I know that we have had many successful air-to-air missile strikes against the enemy recently and have shot down several enemy planes. But isn't it arbitrary to cancel a weapon that has been proven to be effective just because of this? What is the basis for your evaluation of the current effectiveness of air-to-air missile strikes?" Regarding this matter, the comrades in charge of the modification and some other experts who did not know Gao Zhendong were still very cautious. They couldn't make such a big change based on a few words from you.

"Basis?" Gao Zhendong thought for a moment and said, "Just because I'm the provider of the core technology for the air-to-air missiles that shot down those enemy planes, I'm the deputy chief designer of our newer generation of infrared air-to-air missiles, and I'm also guiding related units in the research of radar air-to-air missiles. Is this okay?"

When it is time to show his prowess, Gao Zhendong is not polite. Revolution is not like treating people to a meal. If you are polite, will you still get things done?

It is a fact that the Air Equipment Bureau and the Defense Work Committee were not concerned at all, as they were eyewitnesses to these events.

But the other comrades were dumbfounded when they heard this. They felt so disrespectful that such a big shot had come.

Although what Gao Zhendong said was exaggerated and his words were even more exaggerated, there were three types of missiles, one of which had achieved results in combat - "core technology", one was even newer than the one with results in combat - "deputy chief designer", and one was something they had never even heard of - "guidance", considering his age, it was impossible.

But the chief engineer of the Defense Work Committee and comrades from the Air Equipment Bureau are all sitting here, and they have no objection, which shows that this is not false.

"If this is the case, how do we solve the self-defense problem of patrol aircraft?" This is the core issue. Unlike decades later, the probability of accidental discharge of a gun is very high at this time. It is still inappropriate to have patrol aircraft without any self-defense weapons like in the future.

Gao Zhendong said: "As I said just now, let other things do it. We mount the most advanced infrared air-to-air missiles on patrol aircraft. This type of missile does not require intervention from the carrier aircraft after launch, and has a range of about 10 kilometers, which is very suitable for self-defense."

I know more about infrared air-to-air bullets.

"And I'm not dismantling the machine guns just for the sake of dismantling them. After these machine guns are removed, the locations there will be useful in the future, which is far more important than keeping these two meaningless aircraft guns," Gao Zhendong added.

(End of this chapter)