Chapter 264 Why is it so small?
Chapter 264 Why is it so small?
Xijing, Xi’an Aircraft Industry.
In the huge assembly workshop of the Y-20 project department, nearly a hundred people are working overtime around a fat girl.
And this is actually just the assembly link. In the major parts manufacturing workshops, there are more than ten times more engineers working overtime to participate in this “competition”.
Dong Jun’s goal is to complete the entire fuselage manufacturing process including the preliminary design inspection, model wind tunnel testing and actual manufacturing of the Y-20S within two months, that is, before April 18.
Now that almost 25 days have passed, the manufacturing progress of the fuselage has almost completed one-third.
Looking at the Y-20S, which has already taken shape, Dong Jun can’t help but feel a little proud of his team’s efficiency.
In fact, if he wanted to build it as quickly as possible, he could just ignore everything after getting the blueprints and modify a Y-20 that was already almost built.
This would save at least 20 days.
But the pride and confidence in his bones made him disdain to win the competition by any opportunistic means.
Although he admitted that Kang Chi was indeed powerful, the difficulty of building a brand new engine was completely different from that of building an aircraft with a relatively mature production line, even if it required significant improvements.
If he still had to take shortcuts, he would look down on himself.
Moreover, basic professional ethics also drove him to strictly check and verify the design plan according to the normal aircraft manufacturing process, and to manufacture a proportional model for wind tunnel testing. After confirming that there were no problems, he began to work on the actual manufacturing from start to finish.
“Looking at the current progress, we may not be able to build it in 60 days. I don’t know what’s going on with Kang Chi…”
”Who knows him!”
Every time this topic is mentioned, Chi Jinliang’s expression is a little indignant.
Originally, they thought that Kang Chi would devote himself to the development of engines like them after returning, but what happened?
First, it was reported that Datang Heavy Industry Technology invested in Harbin Aircraft Industry Group and Changhe, and began to carry out drastic reforms and upgrades on the management and production lines of these two companies.
Then he went to Gangcheng, Pingjiang, Dongyang, Modu and other subsidiary companies of the group with great fanfare. The noise was so loud that even they could hear it.
Finally, he still wanted to accept media interviews?
All these actions made Dong Jun and others feel that Kang Chi either chose to give up directly with self-knowledge, or underestimated them and did not take them seriously at all…
In either case, it was enough to make them unhappy.
“Forget about him, we just need to do our part.”
”Well… I heard that this matter is not only taken seriously by President Cai, but also by Chief Shen and even the Council of Elders. So if he can’t produce the engine, he will be embarrassed…”
”Does the Council of Elders know about it?”
”Who made him brag so much…”
”…”
While the two were chatting, Pei Hengsheng’s secretary suddenly ran over in a hurry and informed them of something.
”March 26? Aoying Base?! He built the engine?!”
Dong Jun and Chi Jinliang were stunned when they received the notice…——March 26, Aoying Flight Test Base
Although it was noon, the weather was not very good today. Although the dust was not so heavy that the plane could not take off, the yellow sand in the air still made the sky look a little dark yellow, and the cold wind made people’s faces hurt.
Even so, from time to time, some people could not help but run out of the hangar and look up at the sky in the distance. Obviously, they were already impatient for what was about to appear.
”Didn’t they say they would be here in five minutes? Why haven’t they come yet?”
”It’s only been two minutes.”
”Only two minutes? Why do I feel like ten minutes is not that long…”
Seeing Dong Jun and Chi Jinliang, who were both nervous and expectant, whispering to each other and looking out from time to time, Cai Yaobin couldn’t help but feel a little funny.
He could fully understand their feelings. On the one hand, if Kang Chi really came up so quickly, they would lose the game, and they would have to shout that sentence in front of everyone later.Shameful words…
But compared to this shame, as an aviation worker, they are more looking forward to the emergence of domestically produced high-thrust engines than anyone else.
Anyway, it’s quite contradictory.
In fact, Cai Yaobin’s complicated mood at this time is not much different, but he is a leader after all. No matter how anxious he is, he still has to have the proper demeanor, right? What’s more, standing next to him are Chief Shen and Chief Lu who came to visit this test run.
It would be a bad influence to be rash in front of the military leaders and the Ministry of Science and Technology leaders.
Just as everyone was anxiously waiting, the roar of the engine finally came faintly from the sky. After hearing the sound, even Chief Shen and Chief Lu couldn’t help but change their expressions slightly.
”Here it comes!”
Li Xiangnan, who used to be a test pilot of Yinhe, also pointed to the sky with some excitement.
The two leaders walked a few steps outside, followed Li Xiangnan’s hand, and saw a small black dot. As the engine sound became louder and louder, under the dark yellow sky, a Y-20 became larger and larger, and slowly landed on the runway, until it slowly slid into the hangar under the guidance of the ground crew.
This is Kang Chi’s second time to come to the Aoying Flight Test Base. The last time he came was to test the Silver Crane, and he didn’t know much about the test flight, so he came alone.
But this time it was an engine test, so Kang Chi directly brought the technical team of Datang Heavy Industry.
The core figures of this team are 108 people, each with a postdoctoral degree. It is the family foundation that Kang Chi has accumulated with his ability to spend money in recent years. Although not everyone has the level of Yan Hui, it will not be too different. As long as the technology and tasks are divided, they can basically help Kang Chi complete it very efficiently.
If it weren’t for them, even if Kang Chi had drawings and technology, many things would not be built so quickly.
However, there were only 36 people who came to the Aoxiang base this time. They were all elite talents in the fields of mechanical equipment engineering and participated in the production and manufacturing of the WS-30. Kang Chi even gave them the detailed test plan.
When departing from Dongyang, when the pilot heard that there were 36 scientific research leaders on his plane, he was really nervous and even couldn’t help asking whether to call a few more planes to transport them in batches…
It’s better to be safe than sorry. If they are wiped out, they will be nailed to the pillar of shame for thousands of years! However, Kang Chi knew the Y-20 very well. Although its performance was slightly inferior to that of the C17, its stability was absolutely no problem, so he felt that it was completely unnecessary… After the crew opened the front cabin door, Kang Chi saw the two old men in the lead and couldn’t help showing a surprised expression.
The appearance of the military leader, Chief Shen, was understandable, but the fact that Chief Lu also came surprised Kang Chi.
Speaking of which, the two had not seen each other for a while.
Kang Chi smiled and waved at them, then led Yan Hui and the others off the plane, and began to greet everyone one by one, and briefly introduced Yan Hui and the others.
After this introduction, everyone realized that so many amazing scientific research talents had gathered under Kang Chi’s banner without them realizing it. Even without Kang Chi, they could be considered the top R&D team in China.
However, there are teams like this in China, but there is no team that can produce results as intensively as Kang Chi, and each of them is a heavyweight.
Not to mention China, there is no team in the world that can be found…
So everyone was just a little surprised, and then quickly focused their attention on the ground staff who were opening the fat girl’s butt.
As the staff carefully untied the fixed ropes, a rectangular container slowly slid out of the cabin through the pulleys on the floor and was steadily caught by a huge trailer.
Everyone immediately followed the trailer to the test workshop, and then after the staff disassembled the container, they finally saw what the engine looked like.
Why does it look so small? This was Dong Jun’s first feeling after seeing the engine.
The diameter of this engine is only about four meters, even smaller than the diameter of the turbofan 20 4.4 meters that Fatty is currently carrying. The diameter of the blades at the air inlet is about 2 meters, and the shape is obviously different from that of traditional aircraft engines.
It is like a half-opened umbrella, with the top facing inwards and embedded in the engine.
What is this design? Dong Jun was immediately filled with doubts.
In theory, if an engine with a large bypass ratio wants to obtain a largerThrust, making the engine’s outer duct larger and increasing the intake volume is the most direct and effective method.
And judging from the size of Kangchi’s engine, it doesn’t look like it can reach 50 tons of thrust…
Is there something magical about this design of blades? Dong Jun simulated this shape of blades in his mind, what is so special about it, but after racking his brains, he still felt that it would not only fail to increase the intake volume, but also lose a lot of intake volume.
And it’s not just this that makes him strange. Generally speaking, engine test runs are tests of the core engine, but Kangchi’s engine has even the outer shell installed.
And the outer shell of this engine is also very special.
In order to reduce wind resistance, the outer shell of a general engine will be made smoother and flatter, but the outer shell of this engine is like wearing a striped skirt, as if strips of material are welded on…
Is the craftsmanship level not enough?
That shouldn’t be the case. The process of the shell is much simpler than that of the core engine. It doesn’t make sense to build an engine when you can’t even build a shell…
Except for the people from Datang Heavy Industry, everyone who sees this engine for the first time is as puzzled as Dong Jun.
”Mr. Kang, can your engine… really reach a thrust of 50 tons?” Finally someone couldn’t help asking, “Its size looks smaller than the WS-20, right?”
Kang Chi looked at Cai Yaobin, who asked the question first, and nodded: “The current diameter of the entire engine is 4.4 meters, which is 0.2 meters smaller than the WS-20, but it can definitely burst out a thrust of more than 50 tons.”
”More than 50 tons?”
”The ultimate thrust.”
”Oh…”
The so-called ultimate thrust is the limit when the maximum throttle limit is released and the engine life is not considered at all.
This is the same as CPU overclocking. Although the maximum main frequency of the CPU may be only 4GHZ, it may be possible to overclock to 5-6GHZ by directly increasing the voltage. In this extreme overclocking state, although the performance is higher, the stability drops sharply and the CPU may burn out at any time.
Even if it is not burned out, its service life will be greatly reduced.
In the ground bench test of GE90-115B, the maximum thrust of 56.9 tons obtained was the extreme thrust, but in fact, from the model parameters of its 115B, it can be seen that its maximum thrust under normal circumstances is actually 11500IBF, which is 52.16 KGF, which is often referred to as 52 tons of thrust.
Although Kang Chi’s expression was full of confidence, the people on the scene were still somewhat unconvinced. When Yan Hui and others began to install the engine on the test bench and prepare for the test, Cai Yaobin asked Kang Chi again about why the engine design was so strange.
In order to leave a suspense for the test, Kang Chi just smiled and said that they would know after the test, which made them feel itchy.
The reason why Kang Chi came to the Aoying Flight Test Base to test the engine was mainly to use the wind tunnel here. Only with a wind tunnel can the performance of the engine at different speeds be tested more realistically.
If you just find an open space, the speed of air replenishment in front of the engine may be far behind the speed of the engine’s intake, and the measured data will often be much lower.
Engine that needs supersonic flight is even more so.
Therefore, in the modern aviation industry, wind tunnels are basically the front-end technology for aircraft design and manufacturing. It is difficult to build a good aircraft without a wind tunnel. There has always been a saying in the industry that one generation of wind tunnels means one generation of aircraft.
Before testing the world’s first aircraft, the Wright brothers also conducted wind tunnel simulation tests. Its power source was a two-cylinder gas engine. With the development of aircraft, axial flow wind tunnels that can simulate a maximum speed of 1.2 Mach appeared.
Later, in order to meet the needs of higher-speed aircraft, a compression wind tunnel that uses a compressor to pressurize air into a gas tank appeared. This type of wind tunnel can simulate a maximum airflow of Mach 5. If a container is added downstream of the wind tunnel to inhale air, it can even simulate an airflow of Mach 10.
The wind tunnel at the Soaring Flight Test Base is this type of wind tunnel that blows up and inhales down. It is more than enough for this test.
However, if Kangchi develops a rotating detonation ramjet engine in the future, this place may not be able to meet the needs.
You have to go to Huairou to find the JF22 shock wave wind tunnel, which can blow winds up to Mach 30 and is also the strongest wind tunnel on the surface.
SolidReally far ahead! With the cooperation of the staff of the Soaring Wind Tunnel and Kang Chi’s team, the engine was quickly installed on the test platform, and various test instruments and pipelines were installed on it.
Different from the previous test engine directly fixed on the test bench, this time according to Kang Chi’s requirements, they prepared a special test bench in advance. This bench is like a gantry, hanging the engine upside down, and it is closer to the state of the engine installed on the wing.
Soon after, Yan Hui, who was wearing light blue work clothes, handed a document to Kang Chi and said: “Mr. Kang, the preparatory work for the WS-30 engine test has been completed, and the test can start at any time.”
Kang Chi took the document, signed his name on it, and returned it to him, and then said to everyone on the scene: “The official test will be about to begin, please move to the control room.”
(End of this chapter)