Of course, the issue of the so-called consulting fee is something else, and in the education that Comrade Wang received since he was a child, there was no such thing as a so-called consulting fee, and if he really wanted to go to South Africa to negotiate how much it would cost, he would certainly not be able to come up with a reason, so he simply handed over the matter to Wang Zhengguo and then discussed it.

In fact, now he is more concerned about what the situation of South Africa's new J-J is: "Since you plan to develop a new fighter with canard aerodynamics, let's talk about what the index requirements are, which is the premise for me to give a suitable recommendation." ”

Obviously, Comrade Wang overestimated the capabilities of the South African side, or that South Africa's idea and demand for developing a new fighter had only been put forward for a short time, and there was not much information that could be provided at this time.

"Since we are already working on the improvement of the Mirage 3, the high-altitude/high-speed interception combat missions in the next ten to twenty years will be completed by the improved Mirage 3. Therefore, the new aircraft will only need to pay attention to low- and medium-altitude subsonic maneuverability, requiring low wing load, high thrust-to-weight ratio of the whole aircraft, line-by-line flight control, advanced avionics and glass cockpit. ”

This requirement is actually very vague, almost all the medium and light military fighters launched in the 80s are this kind of index, and almost none of these requirements can be regarded as unique to South Africa, and even Wang Zhengguo can see the problems in this.

I couldn't help but interject: "Listening to indicators like yours, what you want is probably the same combat positioning as the F-16 fighter, and the difference between the two is only aerodynamic design, right?"

In addition to the F-16 fighter jet, the requirements are taken a step back, and the Lion fighter currently under development in Israel can also meet the needs of South Africa.

South Africa's requirements are highly summed up in just one sentence, and if you think about it, it seems that this is the case, and according to South Africa's current requirements, it would be great if you could get an F-16 or a Lion fighter.

"That's right, we want a multi-role fighter that has all the multi-role capabilities except the ability to intercept, and in this way, it should be able to correspond to the thrust curve of the Spey engine. ”

Seeing that Wang Zhengguo could clearly say what South Africa wanted, these inspectors were relieved, and then looked at the chief engineer Wang on the other side, the other party seemed to be thinking about something, and did not dare to disturb, so they could only wait quietly.

"I roughly predicted that if the Spey engine is used as the power system, the fuselage manufacturing process is more traditional, and the empty weight should be controlled between 7.5 and 8 tons; in terms of range, you should not ask too much, and the Spey fuel consumption data is quite good, so the internal fuel can be slightly reduced; the multi-role fighter requires a strong payload capacity and maximum take-off weight, and the take-off weight can be set at 18 tons. ”

A set of decent data on medium and light multi-purpose fighters has no outstanding highlights, but fortunately, this data is relatively easy to achieve, and if it is designed by Comrade Lao Wang in accordance with such requirements, it will be able to make its first flight in three years at most.

The empty weight of about 7.5 to 8 tons does not need too much internal oil, and it may be completely sufficient for about 2.5 tons, plus a certain amount of anti-air combat weapons, it is completely possible to achieve a very good thrust-to-weight ratio of the whole aircraft, coupled with the excellent low-altitude capability of the canard aerodynamic design, as long as the avionics and radar do not lag behind, it can be regarded as a standard third-generation aircraft level.

In fact, the above scheme relies on Spey's good fuel consumption data, so that it can carry less internal fuel under the same range requirements, which saves the weight of internal oil and the weight of the fuel tank structure, and can also be used to make up for the dead weight of the engine.

As for the need for long-distance transfers, then it is a big deal to learn from the French and design several super-large volume auxiliary fuel tanks, if three will not work, then five! There is no range problem that cannot be solved by auxiliary fuel tanks.

The blind pursuit of high thrust-to-weight ratio and large thrust of the engine, so that the fighter can obtain excellent air combat capability, is the continuous pursuit of the entire aircraft design industry, but in some cases, according to specific needs and special circumstances, some less important places are discarded, in exchange for the whole aircraft thrust-to-weight ratio data is actually not too bad.

After years of experience in aircraft design, this is the uniqueness of a mature aircraft chief designer, and it is already very good to be able to produce such data results when the engine performance is backward, but the South Africans seem to be not satisfied.

"We have roughly calculated this data, and the Lion fighter under development in Israel is about this level, but since we are now using a power with the size and weight of a high-thrust turbofan engine, we still hope to get a larger combat platform for subsequent upgrades. ”

Spey is the second generation of high-thrust turbofan engine, and there is almost no difference between the size and the third-generation high-thrust turbofan, and the third-generation military turbofan in the eighties has been successfully developed.

If the third generation of high-thrust turbofan is really replaced in the later stage, a new problem will come, with the current compact empty weight, internal oil data, even if the power is upgraded, I am afraid there will not be too much space for new equipment installation, and it will be difficult to improve performance.

Sure enough, it is a small country with great ambitions, and after hearing this kind of request, even Comrade Lao Wang is a little entangled, and now South Africa's request is obviously to design a medium-sized fighter with a third-generation high-thrust turbofan, but in the early stage, it can only use Spey's goods, and it must also ensure air combat and multi-purpose.

I have to say that this is a very challenging task, and if such contradictory and bizarre requirements can be met, then he, the chief designer of the fighter, will really be considered a complete meritorious.

There is a big gap between the required goals and the existing basic conditions, but fortunately, it is not as perverted as the requirements of the Jianjiu Double 28 back then.

"If you ask to design an aircraft that is about the same size and size as the F-16, then at the current power level, the thrust-to-weight ratio of the whole aircraft will not even reach the Mirage 2000 level, but if you only require the air combat capability and the Mirage 2000 to be equal, maybe I can try to challenge it. ”

Challenging the air combat capability of the Mirage 2000, this is not impossible to do, after all, as far as the aircraft that is based on the second-generation aircraft is magically modified, it is born backward in aerodynamics, if this time South Africa's new fighter is aerodynamically optimized in air combat, the performance of the radar has reached the mainstream level, and there are good air-to-air missiles, everything is easy to say.

As for optimizing the aerodynamics of multi-role fighters to air superiority, whether this will lead to a decline in multi-purpose capabilities, there is no need to worry, such as the Typhoon, F-15, F-14, which are positioned for air superiority and interception from the beginning, to say that their multi-purpose capabilities do not seem to be too weak, but after the body is larger, the multi-purpose capability can be enhanced.