vrcanaries Chapter 280 The fighter jet test flight can only be done by me personally, there is really no one ir
Chapter 280 The fighter jet test flight can only be done by me personally, there is really no one ir
It was August 8. After many days of hard work, the Thunder fighter jet had completed its final assembly and would begin its test flight today. Lin Zhenhua checked the time. It was now four in the morning. Two trucks had already been prepared, towing the Thunder fighter jet towards the airport.
When the road was being built before, Lin Zhenhua specifically called Zhao Gang and asked him to repair the road from the arsenal to the airport as soon as possible. It took six days to build the road. In order to facilitate the towing of fighter jets, the road was built very wide, with a width of 12 meters, which can fully accommodate the taxiing of Thunder fighter jets.
"This road is indeed well built. In an emergency, it can also be used as an airplane runway. All roads in our base will be significantly widened to achieve this strategic goal and make up for the shortage of airport runways." Lin Zhenhua explained, pointing to the road ahead.
"College student, your suggestion is very good. Since our arsenal is quite far from the airport, it would be a waste of time to get to the airport from here in case of emergency. If we can take off directly from the arsenal, it would save a lot of trouble. After I go back, I will arrange people to expand the arsenal's base area and build a simple airport road in case of emergency!" Zhao Gang replied quickly.
After getting Zhao Gang's definite answer, Lin Zhenhua felt relieved. Zhao Gang has always been in charge of the road construction in the base. With his promise, he believes that this simple runway will be built soon!
"We have to hurry and get the fighter plane over before daybreak. We'll start the test flight after daybreak to see how the plane performs. Since we don't have a test pilot, I have to do the test flight of this Thunder fighter plane myself. For safety reasons, I've repaired the enemy parachutes we collected earlier so they can be used now!"
Li Yunlong actually did not agree with Lin Zhenhua to test fly personally, but the independent regiment could not find any pilot. The only one with flying experience was Lin Zhenhua, so in the end the task had to fall on Lin Zhenhua.
"College student, your safety comes first. If you find something wrong, parachute immediately. We can build new fighter jets if we lose them, and there will be many opportunities in the future. You have always emphasized that pilots are more important than fighter jets. You can't be careless at this time, otherwise I will not agree to your test flight. At worst, we can ask for help from the headquarters. We can always find a pilot to come and test fly our Thunder fighter jet!" Li Yunlong said with a worried look on his face.
Zhao Gang also echoed, "College student, what Lao Li said is also what I really think. You must put your own safety as the first priority. If you find that there is a problem with the fighter plane, parachute immediately. We have mobilized the reserve battalion nearby and can rescue you as soon as possible!"
Ding Wei was also worried and advised: "College student, this fighter is not as important as you. Don't show off your ability to protect the fighter. Be careful when flying and don't do anything dangerous!"
Even Kong Jie was full of worry and warned: "College student, I know you are not a boaster and you usually keep your word, but flying in the sky is completely different from flying on land. We can't save him even if we want to. This is the first test flight, so you must be careful. The situation has not reached the most critical moment yet. We have enough time to wait for you to perfect the Thunder Fighter. Don't do some dangerous flying actions just to show off your ability!"
During these days, Li Yunlong and his friends have learned a lot about the flying of fighter planes. They chatted with Lin Zhenhua for a day and a night, which alleviated their worries. Otherwise, they would never agree to Lin Zhenhua to go for a test flight.
"Lao Li, Lao Ding, Lao Zhao, Lao Kong, and Lao Xing, today is a moment that has attracted everyone's attention for our independent regiment. Although not many people know about this, it is a great initiative for our independent regiment's arsenal. We have independently produced the first fighter jet. Although its performance is still a little behind that of the Japanese fighter jets, we have solved the problem of creating something from scratch."
"No more sentimental talk. We have to hurry and get the fighter plane over. Once we get to the airport, we have to refuel and load ammunition, and do a series of inspections before takeoff. We can't delay here any longer. We've already wasted ten minutes. We have to get to the airport before 5:30, otherwise it will affect the subsequent test flights!"
Lin Zhenhua entered the cockpit of the Thunder fighter through the ladder and issued instructions using the light of a flashlight. Two trucks pulled the Thunder fighter slowly out of the arsenal and arrived at the airport runway at 28:.
The tanker trucks that had been waiting for a long time hurried over and began to refuel the Thunder fighters. Each tanker truck was loaded with 360 liters of fuel. After one tanker truck was emptied, the refueling was suspended.
In fact, the Raiden fighter uses the same design as the Zero fighter, with a main and auxiliary fuel tanks. However, the capacity of the fuel tanks is far lower than that of the Japanese Zero fighter, and can only carry 500 liters of fuel at most. Its endurance is far lower than that of the Japanese Zero fighter.
For safety reasons, Lin Zhenhua only loaded 500% of the fuel and more than 20 rounds of bullets. As for the 7.92mm machine gun, it could not be installed for the time being because the arsenal had not achieved mass production. It was only equipped with two mm heavy machine guns, and its firepower was not strong.
"College students, the firepower of our fighter planes is much weaker than that of the Japanese. We must quickly find a way to install machine guns. If that doesn't work, we will use the anti-aircraft machine guns first. Although we cannot compare to the Japanese in performance, we must be stronger than them in firepower. Otherwise, there is no way to fight this air battle!" Li Yunlong complained with a constipated look on his face.
Even Zhao Gang had the same idea. As for Ding Wei and Kong Jie, their ideas were similar. The main reason was that they were bullied too badly by the Japanese fighter planes. Even the previous Type 96 fighter planes left everyone helpless. After encountering the Japanese Zero fighter planes, they were even more at a loss, especially when they knew that the Japanese fighter planes were all scrapped and caused such heavy casualties to them. This was indeed a bit unacceptable.
In fact, all of these things were Lin Zhenhua's fault. The Japanese had originally planned to retire these Zero fighters directly, but after hearing some of Lin Zhenhua's previous theories, they actually took these junk out again and used them to train fighter pilots.
The Japanese also made large-scale modifications to their pilot plan, from training only more than 1000 pilots each year to training at least 3 to 5 pilots each year. At the same time, they built several more aviation schools, increased the number of flight cadets admitted, and even squeezed out a large amount of fuel from their extremely scarce fuel reserves for pilot training, and increased the purchase of foreign fuel. These actions began a few months ago.
However, as the blockade of the Japanese intensified, the situation changed again. When the Japanese decided to move south, they found that the number of pilots they had was nearly 1.5 times more than previously estimated. More importantly, these pilots had more than 500 hours of flight time and dozens of hours of front-line combat experience. This greatly boosted the confidence of the Japanese navy, and they made the sneak attack plan even more massive than before.
Lin Zhenhua had no time to care about the butterfly effect he caused, nor did he know that its arrival had greatly increased the strength of the Third Reich and the Japanese. He was conducting the final inspection of the fighter before takeoff.
After Lin Zhenhua's careful inspection, he finally breathed a sigh of relief after finding no problems. To be honest, today's operation was indeed very risky. If things went wrong, the plane would be destroyed and people would die. But if he didn't take on this responsibility, the date of the Thunder fighter's service would become a distant prospect, and the best window of opportunity would be missed.
"Monk, hurry up and bring me the food. The weather is very good today. I plan to take off on time at 6:30. It's already 6:10. I need to eat something quickly. The food I ate before has been almost digested. I need to replenish some food to restore my consumed physical and mental strength!"
The monk had already prepared the food and hurriedly brought it over. Lin Zhenhua took the food from the monk and ate it all in ten minutes. He then spent five minutes going to the toilet.
When Lin Zhenhua came back, it was already bright. With the help of several people, he entered the cockpit of the Thunder fighter. He looked at the time on his pocket watch and saw that there were still two minutes before takeoff. Lin Zhenhua conducted the final check before takeoff again. After confirming that there were no problems, he gestured to everyone and asked them to leave the vicinity of the plane because he was going to start a test flight.
"Lao Li, we have to leave quickly and clear the runway. There is only one minute left before takeoff. We can't affect the fighter's flight test here. Let's go and watch from a distance!"
"Today's test flight is very important, and safety must be maximized. Order all troops to make preparations for war, and arrest any suspicious persons immediately!" Zhao Gang said with a serious face.
No one had any objection to this point. As the order was issued, the battalions under the independent regiment immediately entered combat status and sent out reconnaissance troops to be on guard. Even the four anti-aircraft lookouts were staring at the distant sky, watching the embarrassed Japanese fighter planes approaching.
When the time came to six o'clock, Lin Zhenhua started the Thunder fighter with the help of two workers. The Thunder fighter began to taxi slowly on the runway. Lin Zhenhua drove it strictly according to the operating specifications. When it reached the take-off speed, he slowly lifted the nose of the plane and adjusted the wings. After leaving the runway, the fighter slowly climbed into the sky, and Lin Zhenhua quickly retracted the landing gear.
Under Lin Zhenhua's control, the Thunder fighter took off successfully and began to circle in the sky. As he became more and more proficient in flying the fighter, Lin Zhenhua began to make some routine tactical moves. After flying in the air for two hours, he felt a little tired and looked at the fuel consumption. So far, only half of the fuel had been consumed.
In order to make the landing safer, Lin Zhenhua had to fly in the air for a while, complete all the tests, and perform another difficult maneuver before planning to land.