As soon as the laughter ended, Chen Gengzheng said: "I heard that a few years ago, you Xifei did similar exploration and experiments, and replaced the original two turbojet-8s with the civilian 'Spey' engines on four Trident passenger aircraft, and the effect was not bad, but because of the problem of engine supply, this plan was finally canceled." Well, if I'm not mistaken, you guys even had an ambitious H8 plan, didn't you?"

H6I is a halfway project, and the H8 project is a thing that only stays on paper, although ordinary people can't touch it, but Chen Geng's energy is not strange to know this, yes, although He Kai was a little surprised, but he was not too shocked, nodded and said: "There is such a thing." ”

"Can you tell me what was the guiding ideology of this project in the first place?"

There is nothing that can't be said about this kind of thing, He Kai thought about it and said: "It was the mid-70s, after solving the production and equipment problems of H6, our idea was to use H6 as a blueprint, and on the basis of H6, by expanding the fuselage and increasing the volume of the cabin, we created a large H6, which is what we call the H8 scheme."

At that time, there were two schemes, one was the No. 1 main scheme with four 'Spey' engines, compared with the H6, the fuselage of the H8 with the No. 1 main scheme was about 30% higher than that of H6, the maximum take-off weight was about 100 tons, and the maximum range could reach 10,500 kilometers;

In addition, there is a spare No. 2 plan, compared with the No. 2 plan, the No. 2 plan is more radical, we plan to use 6 wing cranes of the 'Spey' MK512 engine, and the maximum take-off weight of the whole aircraft will be increased to 155 to 170 tons, the maximum range is about 12,000 kilometers, in addition to the air tanker, it can achieve a combat radius of 6,500 kilometers, which is already a standard intercontinental strategic bomber......"

Chen Geng was dumbfounded when he heard it!

Even if he knew that the H8 plan had always stayed on paper, he didn't expect Xifei to be so "ambitious" of course, so he couldn't help but interrupt He Kai's words and asked, "Plan No. 2...... It's a little too aggressive, isn't it?"

"The plan is a little more radical," He Kai nodded, but happily admitted: "So Plan No. 1 is our main plan." ”

In other words, we still have a bit of a B number in our hearts.

Chen Geng: "......"

Well, you're, you're justified.

He Kai continued: "In order to verify the technology, we modified an H6 for testing...... Well, that's H6I...... With a standard load of 3 tons of ammunition, the range of the H6I has been increased from 5,760 kilometers to 8,060 kilometers of the H6, and if it is carrying a nuclear bomb, the maximum combat radius can even reach about 5,000 kilometers.

In addition, compared with the H6 equipped with turbojet 8, the sea level climb rate of the H6I has also increased from 18.6 m/s to 29.7 m/s in the prototype, and the performance of the whole aircraft has improved significantly after the replacement, which can be said to have basically reached the standard of intercontinental strategic bombers. ”

As for why the H8 program was not launched in the end, He Kai didn't say, and Chen Geng didn't ask, he turned to say: "Lao He, then what do you Xifei want to talk to me about? I don't understand the military aircraft. ”

"This ...... He Kai scratched his head: "Let's put it this way, in fact, we don't expect you to have any good suggestions for us to replace the H6 with a new engine, but you have a good understanding of the development of military equipment in the United States, and we just want to hear what you think about the development of military equipment in the United States, and whether we can learn from it." ”

So that's what happened......

But too!

In addition to wanting to hear from yourself about the Americans' ideas on the development of bombers, what else can they do? Tell yourself about the key development ideas of the new H6? Don't be funny.

Chen Geng pondered for a moment, and did not answer He Kai's question immediately, but asked him rhetorically: "Do you think that in today's future where air defense missile technology is becoming more and more advanced and the missile range is getting farther and farther, is there still a stage for subsonic large bombers such as H6, B52 and even Tu-95, which are slow and leisurely and almost impossible to escape once they are targeted?"

"Mr. Chen, to tell you the truth, we are not very optimistic about the future of strategic bombers, and we also think that only the B-1B and Tu-160 that the Americans and the Soviets are developing supersonic strategic bombers that can penetrate the defense at supersonic speed are the trend of the future development of bombers, at least it should be the Tu-22M2 'Backfire' level, as for our H6, the Americans' B52 and the Soviets' Tu-95......"

He Kai hesitated for a moment, and finally smiled bitterly: "Mr. Chen, to tell you the truth, we really think that this kind of bomber has fallen behind, just talk about the B52, how many were shot down during the Vietnam War? But the question is, if we don't continue to develop our H6, what can we do?"

In the words, there was a deep sense of helplessness.

In the Vietnam War, there has been a big difference in the statistics of the number of B52 bombers shot down by the US military, and Vietnam's own statistics are that a total of 34 B52s were shot down, of which at least 2 MiG-21 fighters were shot down, but the US military has not admitted that the B52 has been shot down by the MiG-21, on the contrary, the US data shows that the tail machine gun of the B-52 has shot down at least 2 MiG-21s, and may even be as many as 5, of course, but the US military officially confirmed that it is 2, and the interesting thing is that the Vietnamese side has the same attitude as the United States on this Israeli issue: it has not admitted that its MiG-21 has been shot down by B52。

The U.S. side's own statistics on the downing of B52 bombers in the Vietnam War are: a total of 31 were lost, of which 18 were shot down by the Vietnamese army, and all of them were over North Vietnam. Another 13 were lost due to operational failures.

But no matter the statistics of the United States or Vietnam, anyway, the B52, a slow subsonic bomber, was shot down at least 31 in the Vietnam War, and except for the MiG-21 in the mouth of the Vietnamese side, the rest of the B52 were all shot down by the Sam-2 and the Chinese version of the Sam-2: Hongqi-2.

When were the SAM-2 and Hongqi-2 surface-to-air missiles? The technology of the Soviet anti-aircraft missile in the 50s, and even the technology of the anti-aircraft missile in the 50s, could inflict such great damage on the B52, in the face of modern and more advanced anti-aircraft missiles, will subsonic bombers like the B52, Tu-95, and H6 still have a way to live?

This problem has become a difficult problem that needs to be solved urgently in front of almost all bomber research and development units in the United States, the Soviet Union, and China.

"You're right, in the face of increasingly advanced anti-aircraft missiles, radars and fighters, it seems that there is no living space for subsonic bombers on the battlefield," Chen Geng nodded, but he immediately changed the topic: "But the Americans seem to have solved this problem." ”