Using early resin-based carbon fiber composites to make wings, the F18 is a plastic bug that achieves great weight reduction, but there are many other ways to achieve weight reduction for aircraft.

Also from the material aspect, in addition to composite materials instead of aluminum-magnesium alloy, aluminum-lithium alloy can also be used to achieve the same effect.

Studies on aluminum-lithium alloys have shown that using aluminum-lithium alloys and aluminum-magnesium alloys to manufacture the same metal parts can reduce the weight of aluminum-lithium alloys by about 10 to 15 percent.

This weight reduction effect will not be weaker than that of composite materials, and even because the aluminum-lithium alloy can completely replace almost all aluminum-magnesium alloys, the comprehensive weight reduction effect of the whole machine will be more obvious.

After all, composite materials cannot be used on a large scale in the manufacture of aircraft, and many parts of the fuselage still need to be made of traditional aluminum alloy metal.

That is to say, if there is a new J made of aluminum-lithium alloy, the weight reduction will be even more, 1 ton or even 1.5 tons are possible.

This is the plan that Yang Hui is going to use to replace F18 composite materials to reduce weight, and it is definitely promising. Because as early as 84 years, Southwest Science and Industry invested a lot of money in the development of aluminum-lithium alloy.

Now the research and development results have come out preliminarily, the manufacture of the second generation of aluminum-lithium alloy has been put into use, and then invest more, with a few years, it is not impossible to come up with the third generation of aluminum-lithium alloy announced by the international aluminum giant at the 83 Pakistan Air Show.

Taking this plan to achieve weight reduction is far more reliable than taking the route of resin-based carbon fiber materials that have almost no research in China, which can be regarded as adapting measures to local conditions.

Speaking of which. Many people began to ask? Since the aluminum-lithium alloy is so awesome, it can compete with the composite effect. Even in the application of a wider range, then why in the previous face, the major aviation industry giants are still tirelessly exploring the replacement of aluminum-lithium alloy with composite materials?

This brings us to the fact that composites are developing too fast. From T300 to T800 and T1000, these aviation-grade composite materials have developed rapidly, and their performance is stronger than generation after generation in addition to weight.

In contrast, aluminum-lithium alloys, which have similar weight-reducing effects, are somewhat backward in terms of development speed.

In this way, there is the optimal solution chosen by the aviation manufacturing giants: in the use of aluminum-lithium alloys that cannot be used to manufacture metal parts that cannot be made of composite materials: fuselage partitions, trusses, and advanced composite materials are used to manufacture those components that are relatively light-stressed: vertical tail, flat tail.

Generally speaking, in the next 50 years, it will be an era of common development and market occupation of aluminum-lithium alloys and composite materials.

Now we are only talking about weight reduction, and other things such as manufacturing cost, strength, stiffness, repairability......

It's all something else. At least for now, one thing is certain: the performance gap between the two technologies has not widened much in the 90s, and both can be better than traditional aluminum-magnesium alloys.

Based on these considerations, Yang Hui did not hesitate to put forward a plan for replacing the weight reduction of F18 composite materials.

"We don't have qualified aviation-grade carbon fiber composite materials, and it is expected that it will be difficult to come up with carbon fiber materials that can be used on a large scale within ten years, so we choose to use aluminum-lithium alloy instead of traditional aluminum-magnesium alloy, so as to achieve weight reduction for the new J."

Hearing such an answer, Northrop also pondered for a long time, and knew that it was feasible for Yang Hui's weight loss plan without much thought. There are also studies on the use of aluminum-lithium alloys in fighter jets in the United States, and the results are also very good.

Thinking of this, I was relieved: "This is a good choice, using aluminum-lithium alloy to replace aluminum-magnesium alloy." Even if you can only make the first or second generation of aluminum-lithium alloys, the overall weight reduction brought by the complete replacement of aluminum-magnesium alloys should not be less than the weight reduction of the composite materials used on the F18. A ton is definitely still available. ”

The fact that Northrop can affirm this proves that the feasibility of such a plan will not be a problem. After all, people know the F18 fighter best.

To put it mildly, the current McDonnell Douglas can only be regarded as the stepmother of F18. The real biological mother is still Northrop, and she is absolutely transparent about her children's genes.

Yang Hui heard that Northrop only thought that Southwest Science and Industry could only come up with the first or second generation of aluminum-lithium alloy, and he wanted to refute it at first, but he was relieved after thinking about it for a while.

Since you think that my technology can only reach here, then it's good here, good things still can't be exposed, and the two countries will have to say happy breakup in less than a year, and it's better to prevent some if you can prevent it.

"Yes, that's what I plan, according to my country's current technical reserves, the supply of second-generation aluminum-lithium alloy should be able to do."

Seeing that Yang Hui has confirmed the news so surely, it seems that the current Southwest Science and Industry seems to really have the ability to develop F18, and this speed seems to be really fast!

Four years ago, the southwest science and industry could only dig out all kinds of hollowing out ideas on the basis of the MiG-21, and now they can develop and improve the third-generation fighter, which is ......

Now it is almost the nineties, the Soviet Union, Britain, and France have all developed three aircraft and put them into use, and even Sweden, Yugoslavia, Japan, India, and even Taiwan have third-generation aircraft projects.

Thinking of the ATF project in the United States, this heart is even more down-to-earth, and when the new Jj manufacturing of Southwest Science and Industry comes out, F23 will definitely enter service, which is another advantage of the generation difference!

After comforting himself like this, Northrop was also in a relaxed and happy mood, waiting for this project to win and make a lot of money.

"Good! In this way, Southwest Science and Industry does have the basis for developing a new generation of Bumblebee, and I believe that the new Bumblebee we developed will not be weaker than the Bumblebee 2000 (F18E/F's early technical solution) that McDonnell Douglas has been talking about every day recently. ”

Hearing this, Yang Hui was noncommittal, what is F18E/F Yang Hui naturally knows, whether the new J can be stronger than it Yang Hui does not know, but Yang Hui can be sure that the new J must be a fighter that is more suitable for the army of the Republic to fight in the new century than the Flying Leopard.

"Oh! McDonnell Douglas has an improvement on the F18? This is noteworthy news, and it is not known whether it can be used as a reference. ”

Although Yang Hui knows what this Hornet 2000 is, he still has to perform at the critical moment.

And the answer to Yang Hui was naturally not surprising: "There is nothing surprising, McDonnell Douglas plans to make a big improvement to the Hornet, and the fuselage will also be expanded, but more will be upgraded in avionics, which you must not be able to compare, but it will not be too much of a problem to reach the avionics level of the F18A/B." ”

Large-scale upgrades to avionics? McDonnell Douglas thought very well, but Yang Hui remembered that the last US imperialist navy had reduced military spending in the post-Cold War era, and the F18E/F still continued to use the avionics system of the old Wasp.

The only thing that has changed, it seems, is that the radar is replaced with a phased array, but it's not a big deal, sooner or later it will be turned into a rabbit cabbage.

"Oh, by the way, after talking about it for so long, the empty weight, fuel load, and maximum take-off weight you plan to set for the new J are all ......" (to be continued.) )