Qinling, deep in the mountains, uninhabited.

Although there is no trace of it, when it was used as a test platform for rocket engines, the road leading to this place was firmly blocked, and it was impossible for anyone to easily reach here;

Now, it has become a testing ground for the antimatter pulsed energy engine, and the blockade of the surrounding area will only be tighter, not looser.

No, as early as a few days ago, hundreds of troops were stationed here, with the original security personnel, blocking all the roads that can reach this place, within a radius of dozens of kilometers, there are drones in the sky on duty 24 hours a day, and there are military dogs and secret sentinels on the ground who are not monitoring all the time.

After all, Professor Liu's actions can attract enough moles every time, and I believe that this time, there must be many people eyeing this place.

For these people, if you are not afraid that they will come, you are afraid that they will not come, and if you don't come, it is really a lot less fun.

This time, however, it was destined to disappoint them.

People who can act as eyeliner for other countries' intelligence agencies are not stupid, in such an inaccessible place, a few unfamiliar faces suddenly appeared, isn't this lice on the bald head, obvious?

Fools can understand that there must be a problem!

January 1, 2015 was another day to remember.

On this day, the sky was clear in the depths of the Qinling Mountains, and the green forest was a fresh and peaceful atmosphere.

Escorted by several military vehicles, a heavy military truck dressed in forest camouflage rounded seven turns and finally drove into this large engine test center.

Received by the base staff, the group got off the transport truck and came to the main control room of the base, which had been waiting for a long time.

"Professor Liu, it's a pleasure to see you. Looking forward to the stars and the moon, we finally have you here!"

Xie Pengyi, who was wearing a white coat, personally welcomed Liu Feng to the main control room, held his right hand tightly, and said with a smile.

"Director Xie, I'm glad to meet you. This time I'm just here to make soy sauce, you are the master here, everything is up to you. ”

Holding Xie Pengyi's hand and shaking, Liu Feng also said with a smile.

"Professor Liu, aren't you scolding me?"

Liu Feng smiled and didn't say anything more.

Although the two only met for the first time, because of work, they had been in contact for a while, and they could be regarded as old acquaintances, so Xie Pengyi did not continue to greet each other, and said directly:

"All the preparations for the base are ready, just waiting for the engine to come to power, Professor Liu, do you have any other instructions?"

"Well, you have worked hard," Liu Feng nodded, and said seriously, "I can't talk about the instructions, but there are a few precautions that need to be explained to you again." ”

"You say, I'll listen. Xie Pengyi's expression was solemn.

"There is a radioactive metal coating on the engine body, and the staff of the base must wear radiation protection equipment when carrying it, and do not be careless. Liu Feng also said solemnly.

It's just an ordinary engine test, and he doesn't want to see this lovely person who silently dedicates himself to the country, just because he didn't give advice in place or was careless, causing irreparable physical consequences.

Xie Pengyi nodded: "We have prepared the chemical protection suit, don't worry, I will tell them carefully later." ”

"Well, personal safety is not a trivial matter, let everyone pay attention to it. Liu Feng also nodded, "In addition, after all, the antimatter engine is the first test run, we have no experience to follow before, once there is any accident, everyone must obey my orders, strictly follow the escape rules to avoid, can not because this thing is expensive, just go forward to rescue privately; ”

It's not that Liu Feng is blindly worried, it's really because this kind of thing is quite common in China.

Far away there are meritorious figures of the older generation like Deng Jiaxian, who, during an aerial bomb test, suffered a broken parachute and an atomic bomb fell from a high altitude; knowing that the consequences were serious, he actually risked his life to rush forward alone, pick up the broken atomic bomb fragments and examine them carefully, and thus suffered fatal nuclear radiation damage.

For example, fighter pilots who are often reported to have parachuted out of control when their fighters were out of control, and they could have escaped without danger, and they would not even cause damage to their surroundings, but in order to "save" fighters for the country, they did not care about their own safety, raced against time, and played with death, so that they lost the last few seconds of their chance to escape.

There are many, many such examples, while Liu Feng admires these heroes, he doesn't want the people around him to stand up as such heroes.

People are the most important thing, the hope of creating everything!

Hearing Liu Feng's two admonitions about the safety of personnel, Xie Pengyi couldn't help but be a little moved.

A grandmaster-level scientist with such a big name doesn't care whether his hard work can succeed, but puts these irrelevant low-level characters in the first place, how can he not be "wise"?

After all, to a certain extent, the value of these people is far less than the value of this engine, and they can't even catch up with a fraction of it, but this one would rather not rescue them when the engine has an accident, and he doesn't want them to risk being injured, which is really ......

He could also feel that Liu Feng's advice was from the heart.

"Of course, this is the worst-case scenario, and we better hope that it doesn't happen. ”

Xie Pengyi's expression was firm: "Don't worry, Professor Liu, there will definitely not be the situation you said, definitely!"

……

When it comes to test drives, more people may be familiar with the fact that before a car leaves the factory, the test driver should explore the performance of the vehicle and give a passing score to inform the public about the perception of the vehicle.

Similarly, the ground test engineer of the aviation or aerospace engine is also the ground calibration test of the first type of engine before it is finalized, and judges and assesses the technical status of the engine by virtue of the subtle sound differences emitted by the engine in different states, the upper and lower limits of various design parameters and the change trend of parameters, so as to determine whether the tested engine can be loaded into the rocket or aircraft for aerial flight test inspection.

It can be said that the engine ground test engineer is the "last pass" before the engine is put into the sky.

In fact, in the current domestic aerospace engine design and research institutes, the engine has refined sub-professional management from design to characteristic management, to overall manufacturing, to test commissioning.

The engine ground test engineer of the flight test center is a comprehensive evaluation of the engine, involving multiple specialties, and therefore, it has created the uniqueness of the aerospace engine ground test engineer.

First of all, the ground test engineer must be able to master the full range of knowledge of a single engine - not only to be able to study the various performance of the engine thoroughly, but also to know the overall structure of the engine well, but also to be able to creatively transform the test bench to adapt to the test needs of the new engine and agile skills, eyes and ears.

Only in this way can you feel the abnormality of the engine at any time in the process of pushing the "throttle".

For example, when the engine starts instantaneously, the ground test engineer should observe nearly 20 important parameters such as temperature, pressure, speed, vibration and other important parameters at the same time, assist in observing more than 80 test parameters such as surge, observe the appearance of the engine in real time, and accurately operate the throttle stick according to the test requirements.

However, the slow state, intermediate state, small afterburner state, and full afterburner state of the engine ground test car are different from the required parameter range of the transient state, so different throttle operations are required.

Therefore, the ground test engineer must know hundreds of design parameters and master the all-round knowledge of a single engine in order to improve the success rate of the test and ensure the safety of the engine.

In addition, if it is an aero engine ground test engineer, it is necessary to be able to have knowledge of multiple types of engines, because aero engines are basically divided into four series: turboshaft engine, turbofan engine, turboprop engine and turbojet engine, and the relevant test personnel of the domestic aero engine design and research institute may only be able to contact the 3~4 type engine produced by the unit, and there is an innate correlation between the models.

But this time, because it is a new engine, the previous aerospace engine has no reference value;

In addition, Liu Feng's side has a very tight time requirement, so there are only a few people who can meet the requirements of the local interview engineer this time, and among these people, Liu Feng, Academician Chen Xuedong, and Xie Pengyi, the director of the base, are also included!

Soon after, the engine was put on the test bench thanks to the cooperation of both parties.

In the control room, which is only a few meters away from the test bench, several ground test engineers are also on standby.

"Professor Liu, why don't you let me come?" staring at Liu Feng, who was also waiting for the battle and had a serious face, Xie Pengyi was still not very relieved, and stood up to dissuade him.

No one can guarantee that there will be no accidents during the test run, especially if this thing is still an antimatter engine!

Needless to say, the power of antimatter, if you are not careful, I am afraid that the entire test bench will be razed to the ground, and a national treasure like Professor Liu can definitely not afford to lose, even if everyone in the base can have an accident, this one can't!

"But is there anyone among you who is more familiar with antimatter engines than me? Even if there is, who else is more familiar with the test procedure than me?" Liu Feng waved his hand, directly stopping Xie Pengyi and Academician Chen Xuedong, who wanted to stand up and continue.

"But ......"

"It's nothing! Director Xie, are you not at ease with your preparations? Academician Chen, or do you not trust the pulse engine you built yourself? What's more, you can all stay on the surface, why can't I? Underestimate me?!"

Seeing that Liu Feng said this, the people around him couldn't continue to persuade him, so he could only grit his teeth and retreat.

"Come on!"

Glancing at Liu Feng with a complicated expression, Chen Xuedong knew that he couldn't convince him anymore, he had his own tasks, and this was not the time for heroes to be short of breath, so when he walked past Liu Feng, he took the initiative to stretch out his fist and touch it on Liu Feng's chest.

It's a silent friendship between two men!

"Don't worry!"

Liu Feng nodded, and the corners of his mouth squeezed out a smile,

"When did you see me fighting an unprepared battle? ”

He glanced at each other deeply, and didn't need more words.

However, Chen Xuedong knew what kind of pressure this young man's thin shoulders were carrying......

Therefore, he pretended to grin lightly and laughed: "Professor Liu, our little life has been delivered to you, you have to take it easy." ”

"Don't worry!

"Haha!"

……

"Come on!"

"Come on!"

……

Finally, after everyone was in place, Liu Feng took a deep breath and ordered in the headset:

"Let's go!1 group, report your situation!"

"1 group received, the target is all right! the target is all right!"

Before the formal test, the ground test engineer must first confirm that the engine can be firmly and accurately installed in place on the test bench, and also check the appearance of the engine, various pipelines, lines, control systems, test systems, etc., which is also the most basic investigation work, and after this step is completed, the next step will enter the most intense formal test link.

Fortunately, on the surface, there were no problems with these things, and the test was able to proceed.

Hearing that group 1 was back to normal, Liu Feng took a deep breath again, but no one could see that his hands were already shaking.

To be honest, this is not the first time he has experienced such an occasion, at least the previous antimatter demonstration pile ignition site was not easier than this.

However, he was still nervous without hesitation.

What this engine really means, I'm afraid no one knows better than him.

New aircraft, new opportunities, new era......

But that's why it's all so important.

After all, the hard work of so many people has been condensed, and the high-level management has also placed high hopes on it, and every cent is the people's fat and people's ointment, so even if there is any problem that may lead to engine failure or delay, it is unacceptable to Liu Feng.

Nodding.

Through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, he could clearly see the test bench "close at hand", and at this moment, the pulsed energy engine with a cold metallic luster was lying firmly on the platform.

The top half is a huge carbon sail like a sail, while the bottom section is a deep and dark tail vent, commonly known as a "chrysanthemum", and countless pipes are like blood vessels with teeth and claws, irregularly filling the fuselage.

As for the entire fuselage, it was firmly embraced by several "arms" stretched out from the test bench, and arm-thick cables extended from the engine to the console where he was located......

Turned around and walked to the small "throttle" controller, adjusted the headset, and in the whole channel, Liu Feng's voice spread firmly and powerfully.

"On the first day of the new year, I am honored to be able to stand here and unveil the prelude to the era of astronautics on behalf of all of you, which means that a new era is coming, and all of you present here will become the conductors of the symphony of the new era!"

"I believe that this is destined to be a historic moment, and in the history books, this day and history will also be written with heavy pen and ink, and history will remember all those who have dedicated to it!"

"And now, are you all ready?"

Speaking of this, Liu Feng's eyes once again looked out of the floor-to-ceiling window and looked at the dark and deep engine.

"All of them! Listen to me!"

"Countdown to ignition,"

“5，4，3，2，1！”

……

"Bang ......"