What would one feel inside when they find out that soone with no experience in their field of expertise has surpassed their years of effort in just half a year?
Li Jianming was experiencing that feeling now. He knew that when the Warhawk-1 design was completed and submitted for validation, and the Aviation Group had solemnly organized a review team to evaluate the design, his first reaction was disbelief.
"Impossible!"
"To finish the design in just half a year, how could designing an aircraft be that easy? And a fifth-generation fighter at that? The performance characteristics of the fifth-generation fighter are still under debate; how can they just claim it’s a fifth-generation fighter?"
"The most prestigious design available now is the fourth generation. Our country won’t see a fifth-generation fighter for a short period, at least not for several years, not even in the design phase!"
These were Li Jianming’s inner thoughts.
Although Li Jianming had been designing the J-31, the internal requirents of the Group for a fifth-generation fighter were too high, even sowhat of a great leap forward compared to the F-35, so he couldn’t complete the design. Every single aspect of the design had to take many factors into account, and each needed careful consideration upon consideration.
With the completion of the WZ-A1 and WZ-A2 engine designs, Li Jianming saw a glimr of hope. If the engine performance could keep up, the designed fighter’s capabilities could also significantly improve. But to make a big gain in one go was impossible. He felt that the J-31’s design needed at least another year or two before it could truly be submitted for design validation.
Even then, the design wouldn’t be perfect but about convincing so people to lower the performance expectations for the fifth-generation fighter. Comparing it to the F-35 was unrealistic, but with the support of high-performance engines, reaching above the fourth and a half generation of fighters was very promising.
This was Li Jianming’s judgnt.
Now, hearing that the Warhawk-1 design had been submitted for validation, he found it sowhat unacceptable.
"Maybe it’s just because of Academician Zhao?"
"Does the Group’s senior managent think they should be cautious rather than the Warhawk-1 design being that good?"
"Exactly!"
"That must be it!"
Li Jianming felt he had discovered the truth.
Indeed, there were many who shared Li Jianming’s views, especially in the Shencheng Aircraft Research Institute and the Wucheng Aircraft Research Institute, both specializing in aircraft design work, were well aware of the difficulty in designing high-end fighters.
This wasn’t solving math problems, but it was about surpassing the existing dostic data and design technology to leapfrog to a higher generation design. Without the interdiate data and relevant experience, completing such a leap in design wasn’t difficult to contemplate; it seed impossible.
Moreover...
Half a year?
"What a joke, right?"
"Unless I see the design with my own eyes, I will never believe such a thing," so declared assertively.
The opinions of so colleagues made Li Jianming feel much more at ease. From his own perspective, he didn’t want to see a fancy fifth-generation fighter design.
That would signal his failure!
Truthfully, Li Jianming still hoped to see sothing. He and Yang Cong felt the sa way, believing that a perfect design was impossible, but he had absolute confidence in Zhao Yi’s developnt capabilities. He thought that if Zhao Yi was involved in the aircraft design, there might be so highlights, and perhaps those highlights attracted the attention of the Group’s senior managent?
That’s why Li Jianming decided to have a look for himself.
When the director ntioned sending people to join the review team, Li Jianming imdiately raised his hand to volunteer, adding sowhat self-deprecatingly, "Let go. If I’m going to lose out on designing a fifth-generation fighter, at least I’ll know exactly why I lost."
Although he said this out loud, how much he truly ant it was debatable.
Elsewhere.
Yang Cong was buried in his office, looking over the design for several hours until the evening, when his stomach growled and he finally paused, though with regret.
He had gone through most of the design docunts.
Several hours were definitely not enough to go through most of it. In the beginning, he was seriously scrutinizing every single detail, even taking up pen and paper to verify calculations. But as he continuously flipped through several pages without finding any mistakes, he simply skimd over each part of the design.
Yang Cong had a general understanding of the Warhawk-1’s external and internal design, from front to back. Feeling his stomach grumbling, he stopped and stretched leisurely, only to realize Liu Jiankun was sitting beside him with food already prepared on a distanced table.
"General Manager Liu, so tily! I’m about to starve here!" Yang Cong said as he stood up, feeling slightly dizzy.
Liu Jiankun quickly helped him, laughing and saying, "I saw you were like possessed, not stopping for a mont. So, how is it?"
"Very unique, lots of innovation, and the reasoning is rigorous. Only so calculations are complex, and I’m not sure whether they’re correct or not," Yang Cong comnted briefly before sitting at the table and promptly taking several bites of his rice, not minding his manners as he added, "And as for what you said, very beautiful!"
"Indeed!" Liu Jiankun exclaid.
Such a technologically advanced design concept was impressive just by looking at its appearance, but the specifics still needed expert opinions.
As he ate, Yang Cong continued, "I haven’t finished reading everything, but I went through the design generally. The most impressive aspect was the many automated control parts in the design."
"Those parts that adjust according to the aircraft’s state, including wings, tail fins, and so on, theoretically seem sound. Actually, there’s no need to doubt in that area; after all, Academician Zhao is a math expert."
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