It is rare to have good weather in Hongdu in winter, and the fog began to disperse at about 10 o'clock in the morning, revealing the sun that had not been seen for a long time.

The F-14 Tomcat fighter yellow-skinned machine was slowly pulled out of the hangar by the tractor.

Navy Commander Shen Jianhong also came over this time, Yang Jie also accompanied him around the Tomcat fighter, and at the same time climbed the ladder into the front and rear cockpits, and he also deliberately drilled into the cockpit to experience it.

"I heard that this fighter you upgraded still has a ship hook?"

Shen Jianhong asked with some excitement.

"Yes, Chief. ”

Yang Jie also asked the ground crew to electrify the plane and demonstrated the process of lowering and retracting the hook.

"Your company has mastered this system?"

Shen Jianhong looked at Yang Jie and asked.

"We have copied several sets that are being tested, and also for the technical preparation of products for the landing of carrier-based aircraft on our domestic aircraft carriers. ”

Yang Jie opened his mouth and said: "Regardless of whether the navy chooses this fighter in the end, the two systems of landing gear and landing hook can also be used." ”

Shen Jianhong smiled: "It turns out that you have already aimed at the carrier-based aircraft!"

"The Tomcat fighter is a very mature carrier-based aircraft, and we have learned a lot when upgrading this fighter, even if we have figured out the design ideas of the carrier-based aircraft of country A, I also hope that the Navy will consider us when bidding in the future. ”

"As long as you Huake Aviation Technology Company comes up with excellent design solutions and does better than other companies, of course the military will purchase your products. ”

Shen Jianhong then asked about the preparations before the first flight of this upgraded Tomcat fighter.

In fact, before this, the Tomcat fighter has done many ground tests and technical tests on the runway for taxiing, and some minor faults have also been found, and the technical team led by Zhang Hong has also made many adjustments to the hardware and software.

In the afternoon, Zhang Hong led the technical team to conduct the final inspection of the aircraft, and they preferred to do more testing and verification work in the ground test stage, because once the plane failed in the air after flying, it would be a tragedy of aircraft destruction and death.

Although Huaxing Group has established a flight control software test platform, a ground static test platform, a wind tunnel test platform and other large-scale test platforms and a variety of high-precision testing equipment and laboratories, Zhang Hong has changed so much to the Tomcat, which is equivalent to redesigning a fighter jet, although it has passed various tests, but it is still necessary to let the test pilot carry out the ultimate flight in order to find out some hidden problems.

The next morning, it was overcast and there was no rain.

Yang Jie accompanied Shen Jianhong, Zhang Kelong, Jarrad and others to the tarmac.

At this time, the F-14 Tomcat fighter was parked next to it, and all preparations were over.

The pilots of the test flight were two special-grade pilots from the test flight institute, and the representatives of the General Staff, the Equipment Logistics Department, the Navy Command, and the Rest Party were all here.

However, Yang Jie is the big boss of Huake Aviation Technology Company, and these military high-level officials are used to such a situation.

"Start the test flight!"

Yang Jie gave an order at this time.

After hearing his words, special pilots Duan Qinghong and Lei Zhibin gave a standard military salute to Yang Jie and the leaders in the distance, put their helmets on their heads, and trotted towards the ladder in front of the fighter plane.

After the two test pilots climbed into the cockpit of the fighter plane, Duan Qinghong and Lei Zhibin, who was sitting in the back seat, began to check the instruments and equipment on the plane.

The ground crew on the ground quickly removed the ladder to the side, and at the same time disposed of all kinds of debris on the ground, and in less than a minute, the area around the fighter plane was emptied.

"Check the status of the plane, ready to take off" When the radio inside the helmet came the voice of the tower commander.

After hearing the instructions, Duan Qinghong took a deep breath, quickly closed the hatch, and then felt that there was only him and the fighter under his ass in the whole world.

"Turn on the electronic system and check the status of the aircraft"

The two test pilots turned on the switches of various systems in the cockpit of the fighter one by one according to the flight steps, and several high-brightness digital displays in the middle began to light up, various system status indicators also lit up, and the weapon control display in the rear row also lit up.

Although it was the first test flight, this time it was also hung with a photoelectric pod and some simulated missiles, because the rest of the country was in a hurry to get the plane, so Huake Aviation Technology Company should try to compress the time of the test flight.

After careful inspection, all the indicators are in normal condition and there is no fault alarm.

Duan Qinghong then pressed the green start button of the engine.

Woo!!

The fan of the engine began to start under the drive of standby power, at the same time, the impeller of all levels of pressurization also began to rotate slowly, as more and more air from the air intake port was brought into the compressor of the engine by the fan in front of it through the internal channel, the impeller speed inside the engine became higher and higher, and the oil pump began to inject oil, at the same time, the electronic ignition device of the fuel injection port was started, and at this time, the tail nozzle of the F-14 fighter engine sprayed a strong air flow.

The upgraded version of the Tomcat fighter is equipped with two sets of 150 kilowatt fuel cell power systems, and there are also independent hydrogen fuel tanks, even if the two engines lose power, the fighter still has power to keep the avionics system working, and the pilot can still control the various rudder surfaces of the fighter, and will not let the fighter enter a state of tailspin, and can get out in time.

The previous Tomcat had no battery and no auxiliary power unit, and external high-pressure air and power were required to start the engine.

However, the technical team led by Zhang Hong not only installed two sets of fuel cells for the Tomcat this time, but also did not install a small turbofan engine in the tail cone of the last section of the fuselage as auxiliary power, like foreign fighter manufacturing companies.

Therefore, this upgraded version of the Tomcat does not need the ground crew to use a distribution vehicle to start.

It is also in this way that those who have watched the "Top Gun" movie may still remember that the F-14 went into a tailspin, which is also due to the defect that the Big Tomcat is not equipped with an auxiliary power unit.

At this point, the Tomcat began to slowly slide into the runway, and then turned the nose to aim at the runway.

"The flight control system is normal, the engine is operating normally, the hydraulic system is operating normally, and the fuel system is normal...... The plane is in good condition and requests to take off. ”

Duan Qinghong issued an application for take-off at this time.

"You can take off, pay attention to monitoring the engine operation status and flight parameters, we are watching you. ”

The tower commander gave the order to take off.