Genius of the Rules-Style System

Chapter 927: Chapter 473: Qiu Chengwen Wants to Poach Fan Lei_2

This is a somewhat embarrassing issue.

The Warhawk Special Research Group was formed simply because Zhao Yi had made a request, and the Aviation Group approved the team’s establishment to specifically develop the Warhawk-1 fighter jet. However, the specific type of fighter jet was only vaguely defined as a ’fifth-generation aircraft.’ There had been no discussion about specific design requirements or features that the designed aircraft needed to have.

The main reason was...

Most people within the Aviation Group were not optimistic about Zhao Yi’s team being able to quickly design and finish the Warhawk-1 fighter jet. Even if it could eventually be completed, it would take at least a few years. They thought it would not be too late to discuss the design once there was some progress. However, the Warhawk-1 was quickly designed and passed acceptance checks without any issues found. Making even the simplest modification to the original design seemed like a desecration of it.

As a few aircraft designers commented, "This is a cross-era perfect scheme!"

Now that the Warhawk-1’s design was finalized, the next step was to enter the prototype manufacturing stage. It was necessary to discuss the model number issue, mainly because within the Aviation Group and even within the domestic Air Force’s hierarchy, there was no designation as ’Warhawk.’ Considering Warhawk-1’s design, it certainly belongs to the conventional category of fighter jets, specifically within the J-series fighter jet sequence.

The meeting discussed this issue for a long time and ultimately decided that the Warhawk-1 would be externally named the J-40.

Whole numbers in the J-series fighter jet sequence generally represent ’epoch-making’ products with high expectations, such as J-10, J-20, and even the J-30 that is still in design.

The J-10 is expected to become the future mainstay fighter jet. The J-20 is considered the domestic fighter closest to the fifth-generation aircraft and has already completed its first flight test, receiving widespread domestic and international media coverage.

The J-30 is a smaller version of the J-20. Its initial goal was to achieve most of the J-20’s capabilities but with a reduced weight to that of a medium fighter jet, potentially becoming a future carrier-based aircraft.

Assigning the J-40 designation to the Warhawk-1 also indicates the Aviation Group’s high hopes for it, and the number ’40’ is considered a ’leapfrogging’ designation since the highest number in the current series, the J-31, is only in the design stage.

While the Aviation Group confirmed the J-40 designation, it also decided to retain the ’Warhawk series’ designation internally. Thus, it would be called J-40 externally, while internally it would continue to be referred to as Warhawk-1.

If any other Warhawk series aircraft emerge in the future, externally they could use the J-40 designation with additional letters, while internally they would be called Warhawk-2, Warhawk-3, etc.

At the same time, the meeting also decided on secrecy matters. Until the Warhawk-1’s design and manufacturing were complete and the first prototype had flown, whether it was the design of the aircraft’s exterior or any other related content, all of it was classified as top secret, with no permission granted for disclosure in the media or public opinion online.

The focus now shifted to prototype manufacturing.

The leadership of the Aviation Group felt the pressure because both the Air Force and senior officials knew about the Warhawk-1 and had high expectations for it. They had to prioritize the manufacturing and production of the Warhawk-1 and its subsequent manufacturing refinement as their most important task.

Regardless of whether it could be mass-produced later on, it was necessary to expedite the initial manufacturing preparation, and the production of the WZ-A1 engine prototype had to proceed quickly as well.

Normally, the WZ-A1 engine would enter the prototype testing phase before beginning production for the next-generation fighter jet, especially for a high-end fighter like the Warhawk-1. Without an engine, the design would be a joke. Now, it was a completely different situation.

While the WZ-A1 engine prototype was in production, other aspects of the Warhawk-1 also had to start the verification process. The aim was to finalize the manufacturing scheme and make other preparations so that as soon as formal production was feasible, it could proceed quickly. freēwēbnovel.com

The two processes couldn’t be said to be completely synchronous, but they couldn’t fall too far behind either.

When the WZ-A1 engine officially entered the prototype production stage, Zhao Yi’s workload increased. He had to make minor adjustments to the design based on feedback from manufacturing and decide on some of the manufacturing approaches and material selections.

Many of these tasks were not the responsibility of designers, but Zhao Yi had to be even more meticulous.

Design and manufacturing are interrelated, but what is designed may not always be manufacturable. Turning theory into practice is bound to introduce some discrepancies. For instance, some internal blade components of the engine are extremely complex, with several ducts within a few centimeters. Theoretically, the best approach would be one mold casting, but this requires very high manufacturing technology. If the technology cannot keep up, then these parts have to be manufactured by component assembly.

This is an area where domestic manufacturing is lacking.

In reality, only a handful of Western countries possess the technology for one-step formation of turbofan engine blades and turbine assemblies. They can even achieve mass production of high-end engine components. Other countries, including military power Country E, cannot master one-step formation technology, let alone mass produce them.

With manufacturing technology lagging, the product produced can deviate from the theoretical design.

What Zhao Yi needed to do was revise the design to reduce as much as possible the deviation between the product and the design’s performance, based on existing manufacturing technology.

This task was not complicated; issues were often quickly resolved when brought to him. The main challenge was the intricacy of the process, as there were frequent issues in manufacturing that demanded individual resolution. Sometimes, it was even necessary to go to the factory to get a firsthand understanding to find the best solution.