You were told to build a tractor, but you're building a rocket? Chapter 490 - 481 Flight1

"Altitude 700, speed 535!"

"Altitude 1100, speed 710!"

"..."

Lei Qing had taken off and turned 90 degrees towards Yinchuan, beginning to steadily climb with the aircraft.

He wasn’t in a hurry to turn on the afterburners, maintaining military thrust to keep accelerating until he reached 5,000 ters and broke the sound barrier before testing the top speed.

In the mystery of supersonic flight, the factor of the engine isn’t as significant as the design of the aircraft itself. A good airfra shape that matches the optimal working range of the engine is the key focus of design, but this often requires compromises with avionics equipnt and weapons bays, needing precise control over the balance.

The 62-ton aircraft surprisingly felt light to handle, and the climbing speed was incredibly fast. Just 3 minutes after takeoff, it had already reached an altitude of five kiloters and had just broken the sound barrier.

As soon as he crossed the sound barrier, the noise level in the cabin dropped a notch. Lei Qing got ready and warned the escorting J20B:

"Swallow, this is Peregrine Falcon, I’m about to accelerate, please maintain a safe distance, please maintain a safe distance!"

"Swallow understands, Peregrine Falcon, godspeed!"

The accompanying J20’s call sign was "Swallow," referring to the swift nature of the White-throated Needletail in the wild, whereas "Peregrine Falcon" can reach speeds of over 400 kiloters per hour during a dive, making it the fastest bird species.

After responding to "Swallow," Lei Qing checked the pressure and temperature of the cockpit and his flight suit, and finally turned on the afterburners.

The observing "Swallow" could see from a distance the suddenly extended blue tail fla of the "Peregrine Falcon," nearly half the length of the aircraft. Both aircraft turned on their afterburners, but the acceleration of the J20B was clearly not as fast as the Xuehu.

Lei Qing only felt a slight tremor in the aircraft, and then the numbers on the altiter and speedoter started to jump crazily.

The top speed of the Xuehu would only erge above the thin atmosphere at 47,000 ters, but the aircraft’s speed had already begun to increase incredibly quickly from that point on.

The radars on the ground tracking both aircraft were not ordinary radars. Although the Xuehu did not have stealth coating for the trial flight, regular radars could not keep up with its speed at Mach 10. Special radars designed for ballistic missiles and rockets were required to detect it, while the J20B was made detectable through a Luneberg Lens (an external device that breaks stealth in order to allow radar detection).

Inside the Desert Base Control Tower, Androff and Dou Ping watched as the Xuehu ascended to 29,000 ters in just 5 minutes, its speed having surpassed 3.6 Mach and broken through the thermal barrier. The J20B could no longer keep up and was left behind!

Lei Qing in the cockpit could clearly feel both the downward and backward acceleration. If he didn’t know what kind of aircraft he was flying, he might even think the speedoter had gone crazy!

35,000 ters, 40,000 ters, 45,000 ters—eight minutes after engaging the afterburners, the speed had already soared to Mach 7!

In a frantic ascent that made both the skies and the ground tremble, at the 16th minute after takeoff, the rate of climb finally began to decrease due to diminishing returns, slowing the acceleration from 50,000 ters. By then, the speed had already exceeded Mach 9.2!

"01! Report your status!"

"All good, all good! I can see the clouds rapidly receding! The edges of the windows are glowing, emitting an orange-red light!"

It wasn’t just the clouds. Due to the high speed, the surrounding sky was also noticeably retreating with the light changes. In just a few minutes, the blue do of the sky had turned to a deep blue, nearly black. The curve of the Earth had beco clearly visible, akin to spaceflight!

Although acceleration had decreased, it had not stopped. The designed altitude limit of 52,000 ters was also broken. When the altitude breached 54,000 ters, the numbers on the speedoter were beyond belief:

[ASL: 54570m][SUF: 3304 m/s]

The ground control tower, upon seeing the speed transmitted back from the satellite, was already dumbfounded. 3304 ters per second, 11.4 tis the speed of sound!

While everyone was still in shock, the altitude increased to 56300 ters, and the speed further rose to 3347m/s, 11.54 tis the speed of sound.

In the 22 minutes since takeoff, after 19 minutes of afterburner usage, Xuehu’s speed finally stabilized at 11.5 tis the speed of sound, wildly flying through the skies at an altitude of 56000 ters.

Now it was traversing 3.35 kiloters every second, flying 12000 kiloters every hour. The New Yuan to Capital route that Lin Ju often flew would only take 7.5 minutes, and an 8000-kiloter transoceanic flight would take just 40 minutes.

Lei Qing, with goosebumps all over his body, glanced at the external sensor paraters: the nose temperature was 1140 degrees Celsius, the average surface temperature of the aircraft was 811 degrees Celsius, and there was still 89% fuel remaining.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that Lei Qing, in his current state, was no different from piloting a space shuttle re-entering the atmosphere. Xuehu’s thermal insulation material was derived from New Yuan, the sa source as the Cloud Ascend project, a fourth-generation improved thermal protection technology!

Dou Ping and the researchers on the ground were already too shocked to speak. Xuehu’s design was even better than imagined; at this altitude and speed, it was impossible for any fighter jet to shoot it down, and even radar locking was extrely difficult.

Multiple military district radar stations along the journey could only detect it by relaying the signals. If they also applied stealth paint, a slight maneuver would make it completely vanish from the radar screens.

The duty officer at Alxa Radar Station saw the light spot on the radar getting closer and directly stepped out of the control room, only to see a silent white teor streaking across the evening sky at high speed.

"..."

It was finished; the hypersonic speed of 12 tis was too fast. Even the collision with the thin atmosphere above 50,000 ters made the body begin to glow, with the oblique shock wave cloud generated by the nose striking the air spreading for at least two to three kiloters, allowing those on the ground to directly see a triangular contour expanding, making Xuehu extrely conspicuous.

"Squad leader, we’ve lost the target!"

A cry of alarm ca from the duty officer inside the control room, who then heard the squad leader outside utter a complex rant:

"It’s said that the new Project 10 is a stealth aircraft... Are they trying to achieve optical stealth or what?"

The unsuspecting duty officer also moved to the window and equally opened his mouth in shock.

Stealth? Stealth my ass!

However... even if it was discovered, it was highly unlikely to be shot down. To hit an aircraft flying at Mach 12, you would need a missile capable of Mach 20, and only ballistic missiles could reach that level. Would they be used for anti-aircraft purposes?

Duty Officer A: "Instead of having our radars search for it, it might be better to just set up a few caras. This thing is going to be way too provocative appearing over enemy skies in the future, right?"

Duty Officer B: "Squad leader, we’re going to be even more arrogant than Arica during the Blackbird era."

Duty Officer A: "Hey, we should be that arrogant, even fly right over Arican territory!"

Lei Qing on the ground was unaware of these comnts, but he had now discovered a serious problem:

He had been slightly distracted and had already flown over 1900 kiloters, passing over Yinchuan!