Aviation Group Headquarters.
Liu Jiankun was in his office, receiving a visiting guest, Yang Cong, a designer from the Shencheng Aircraft Research Institute.
Yang Cong is a nationally renowned aircraft designer, known for his work on the famous H-6 bomber. He also designed the J-11B fighter, referencing Soviet fighter jets, and has recently been working hard on design modifications for the J-15 carrier-based aircraft.
The J-15 combines J-11B technology, designed from the outset with consideration for catapult launches, and is intended to be deployed on dostically produced aircraft carriers. In fact, over two years ago, the J-15 completed its maiden flight.
However, the successful flight of the first assembled aircraft doesn’t guarantee success; these flights are still experintal in nature. The design would continue to be adjusted based on the results.
This was what Yang Cong was working on.
As a renowned aircraft designer, constantly striving for design improvents, Yang Cong understood the difficulties of fighter jet design clearly. Compared to heavy bombers, fighter jets need to be highly agile and continually expand their operational capabilities, ideally developing a more comprehensive set of abilities.
For instance, air-to-air, air-to-ground, electronic warfare, and so on.
Only with these capabilities can a fighter jet beco an independent combat unit. This is the purpose of the fighter jet: each one is, in a sense, a separate air combat unit. Due to factors like the combat environnt and battle requirents, other combat departnts cannot provide much support.
High demands translate to complex designs.
Yang Cong’s design for the J-15 carrier-based aircraft referenced a wealth of data from nurous fighter planes, the most from the J-11B, similar to the Soviet fighter. It also included a T-10-K-3 obtained from Ukraine at the turn of the century. Having a deep understanding of various fighter designs, he could gradually make refinents.
Yang Cong’s visit to Liu Jiankun was to seek support from the Aviation Group, to secure additional funding for experints on design changes. He had two specific design aspects that were still uncertain, and they would need to build the fighter jet according to the design and fly it to collect data for confirmation.
Naturally, this process would consu considerable funds, labor, and materials, and carried certain risks.
Therefore, Yang Cong needed Liu Jiankun’s support.
Liu Jiankun was listening to Yang Cong discuss design issues, frequently nodding as if in agreent, yet he felt sowhat undecided. Experints on the design would require an expenditure of over thirty million, which might not seem like a lot, but it was a significant amount for just a minor aspect of the design, warranting careful consideration.
However, Liu Jiankun did not outright refuse; he needed to listen to all the details patiently before making a decision with others.
As they were talking, an assistant suddenly knocked on the door, standing at the doorway and saying, "General Manager Liu, sorry to interrupt."
"What is it?" Liu Jiankun asked impatiently, "Can’t you see I’m discussing matters with Professor Yang?"
The assistant hesitated but ca in and whispered, "We’ve just received a design acceptance application."
"What application?"
"From Academician Zhao."
"Academician Zhao?" Liu Jiankun repeated, then furrowed his brows and asked, "Zhao Yi, the academician?"
"Yes."
The assistant nodded, "Academician Zhao has sent a request for the Warhawk-1 design to be accepted by the group."
"..."
Liu Jiankun’s mouth hung open in shock for quite so ti before he finally managed to ask, "Academician Zhao Yi? Warhawk-1 design? Warhawk-1? You’re certain you heard correctly?"
The assistant looked sowhat helpless, "I’ve confird it multiple tis."
Liu Jiankun took a deep breath and nodded, "Alright then, ask them to send the application report directly to my email, and print out a bound copy to bring over. Professor Yang is here as well..." He said, looking toward Yang Cong.
A look of surprise covered Yang Cong’s face.
Once the assistant left to instruct the sending of the email and printing, Yang Cong couldn’t help but ask, "Academician Zhao’s Warhawk team? I heard they were designing a fighter, but I didn’t expect them to be so quick..."
He paused, then let out a light sigh, his expression turning sowhat amused, "At our institute, Lei Yong, a very talented designer, volunteered to join Academician Zhao’s team."
"Is that so?"
Continuing his assessnt, Yang Cong said, "Lei Yong is indeed quite talented. I’ve noticed him. Give him ten years, and he’d be capable of shouldering major aircraft design projects. Right now, is still a bit impulsive, but that’s normal; he’s young, has always worked on R&D without leading a team, but he is very imaginative."
Liu Jiankun nodded in agreent. In fact, he knew well that Lei Yong was not the kind of talent who received much attention; otherwise, the Shencheng Aircraft Research Institute would never have agreed to his transfer to Zhao Yi’s team. Anyone would keep the real talent and send away those who were not considered essential, at least not those crucial to the institute’s research progress.
He chuckled and said, "It’s unexpected that Academician Zhao has applied for design acceptance. You know that Warhawk group was specially approved. Originally, it was said to be for developing fifth-generation fighters, but we didn’t give them any specific requirents, such as what capabilities the aircraft should have."
"At that ti, I rember telling Academician Zhao that the design should take M Country’s F-35 as a reference; it couldn’t be too far off the mark."
"It wasn’t to make things difficult for Academician Zhao. That’s not it, Professor Yang, you know, our fifth-generation fighter is ant to match those internationally, and at present, the only one preparing to enter service is the F-35."
Yang Cong nodded in understanding, "The Warhawk team has been around for about half a year, right? Maybe even less. For Academician Zhao to have completed the design so soon, I think..."
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