Not AN-225

Zhang Lan frowned at the moment, and in the hands of the Alice Group, except for the AN-225 Dream, a super huge aircraft in size and carrying capacity, Zhang Lan really couldn't think of what they were going to rent for themselves: In other words, the second-class transport plane, in addition to the existing Il-76 in China, could even temporarily use the cargo Boeing-747 of the civil aviation department

So what are you going to use?

Doesn't your Alice Group have a tiltrotor that uses fuel cells as power, we plan to rent that, and if you say it, Major General Liu will not be so embarrassed, the above means to ask if you can provide us with 10 tiltrotors with fuel cell power systems, well, I won't hide it from you, we plan to use this to make carrier-based air tankers on aircraft carriers

said that he would not hide it, but in fact, Major General Liu knew in his heart that he could not hide this matter

You guys...... Zhang Lan was speechless, these guys knew that it was impossible for Alice Group to sell them planes equipped with fuel cell power systems, so they tactfully thought of renting this trick, but the problem was ......

But that plane, we are just a technical verification machine, and we don't plan to introduce it to the market, Zhang Lan explained with a smile, even if the aircraft carrier uses a tiltrotor machine, the maximum load capacity is only about 15 tons, is that necessary?

It is not interesting to say this in front of the media, but it is not interesting to say it in front of me, and Major General Liu sneered at Zhang Lan's words, feeling that Zhang Lanya had underestimated his own IQ and was very indignant; an aircraft carrier can carry four air tankers, and it can carry 60 tons of fuel oil to the sky at one time, and 60 tons of fuel can meet the operational requirements of 20 J-15 fighters at the same time if it is saved...... The level of your Alice Group is not known to others, and you are not known to me

That being said, don't look at what Major General Liu said impassionedly, but in fact, Major General Liu's heart has been beating a small drum at this moment: Zhang Lan is really not sure whether he can agree with him

Think about it, if you are really sure, it would be good to say buy it directly, and definitely not to say rent, obviously the people above also know that if you say that you will buy Alice Group, you will never agree, although the hope of renting is not big, but it is always greater than the hope of buying directly

Zhang Lan was silent

Speaking from the heart, if the tiltrotor with a maximum load capacity of 10 tons that was previously provided for the military to modify the aircraft carrier early warning aircraft was converted into a fuel cell power system as the power to further strengthen the fuselage, and then use the original fuel tank on the plane to load some fuel, and then convert the engine room into an oil tank to carry 15 tons of fuel at a time, there is no problem, but Zhang Lan is very hesitant, is it really good to do this

It is true that with such an air tanker, after the Republic Navy officially forms its combat effectiveness, it can carry out combat missions more than 1,000 kilometers away from the place, and there is no need to worry about the local attack on itself, but this thing is also a thing that breaks the current military balance in the Pacific region, and Alice Group has not put aircraft equipped with fuel cell power systems to the market before, and it itself has this consideration, and now it is equipped with the military...... What a chain reaction will it cause after that

After thinking about it for a long time, Zhang Lan didn't come up with an accurate answer, and subconsciously shook his head

Seeing Zhang Lan shaking his head, Major General Liu's heart couldn't help but start sinking: It's going to be bad

The cooperation between the military and the Alice Group has always been quite pleasant, Major General Liu did not expect to be rejected by Zhang Lan this time, this reality made Major General Liu a little unacceptable, and subconsciously said, Mr. Zhang Lan, if you have any requirements, you can bring you to believe that this time we are here with great sincerity

This time it's not a matter of money or not, money is a trivial matter, Zhang Lan waved his hand to signal Major General Liu to stop, and said to Major General Liu, Since you are eyeing our fuel cell power system, then I also believe that you are here for the fact that this aircraft consumes very little energy during the flight...,

Major General Liu couldn't help but nodded, Zhang Lan was right, what the military said was for the fuel cell power system of the Alice Group, to be precise, for the nuclear fusion fuel cell power system on Alice's City in the Sky, although the Alice Group has never revealed the technical details, but the country still figured out the consumption of the Alice Group's nuclear fusion fuel cell power system through some details: Taking the City in the Sky that Alice is now using, for example, the nuclear fuel required for every 10,000 kilometers of flight is only 0.5 kilograms

The flight distance of 10,000 kilometers is only 0.5 kilograms of fuel, which is a completely negligible weight for a heavy aircraft with a maximum load capacity of tens of tons

A behemoth like the Sky City is naturally unthinkable for both the military and higher-ups, but some people have put forward the idea of how to shrink the fusion fuel cell power system and install it on their tiltrotor and then use it as a carrier-based air tanker for aircraft carriers

As soon as this idea was proposed, everyone immediately felt as if they had been tempted by the devil, and they were immersed in this great temptation and could not extricate themselves

So Major General Liu, who had made a lot of contributions to the military before, appeared in front of Zhang Lan sadly again

We are well aware of the huge advantages of this power system, but I don't know if you have thought about it, why we have never launched it to the market so far, Zhang Lan asked rhetorically, in fact, it is not that there is no withdrawal, in fact, Alice Group has launched, but all the aircraft on the market that use fuel cells as power belong to Alice Group's own family, and others have no way to say it even if they want to put their beaks, moreover, Alice Group is very well camouflaged for these aircraft that use fuel cells as power, and it is not possible to distinguish whether this aircraft is conventionally powered or uses a nuclear fission fuel cell power system from the appearance

However, without waiting for Major General Liu to answer, Zhang Lan himself made an answer, and what I can tell you is that after the analysis of our international situation analysis experts, it is believed that such an aircraft is an aircraft that can break the balance of various things, and it is harmful to all countries to put it on the market...... You haven't analyzed that if you are equipped with such an air tanker, will there be individual countries jumping over the wall?

In this individual country where the dog may jump off the wall in a hurry, Zhang Lan and Major General Liu both know who it is

Major General Liu couldn't help but be stunned for a moment

In other words, since the start of the calculation, the military experts have calculated how much the combat capability of the aircraft carrier formation will be improved and how beneficial it will be after equipping such an air tanker, but they have not paid much attention to the peripheral reactions that may be triggered after preparing such a thing

But now that Zhang Lan said this, Major General Liu reacted from the abnormal excitement before: If that's really the case, it seems to be ...... It seems like...... It's really not a good fit

By the way, Zhang Lan frowned, and suddenly asked Major General Liu, if I remember correctly, the J-15 can be used to refuel friendly planes in the air, right?

To put it simply, one of the two J-15 fighters consumed too much fuel because it carried out too much air maneuvering during the combat or consumed too much fuel to evade enemy missiles, and the remaining fuel could no longer allow the J-15 fighter to fly back to the aircraft carrier. 15 fighters in part so that both sides were able to fly back to the aircraft carrier

This is a way of refueling in the air, but this way of refueling in the air has a big drawback, that is, because both aircraft are fighters, the fighter itself does not carry much fuel, and the amount of fuel that can refuel each other is very limited, just better than nothing...,

However, this ability to refuel friendly aircraft in the air is particularly important in another situation, such as when the battle situation is fierce, your own fighter must be refueled in the air because it consumes too much fuel, and the number of your own air tankers is limited. Or a sufficient number of air tankers were shot down by the place, several have been unable to refuel all fighters at the same time, in this case, you can carry out relay refueling, that is, the air tanker to aircraft A for air refueling, and aircraft A through its own deep air refueling device for aircraft B to carry out air refueling, although aircraft B is not directly connected to the air tanker hose, but can be refueled through the air transfer station of aircraft A

This function is a very necessary function in modern warfare, for example, our country's active air tanker is modified with H-6 bombers, and can only refuel 2 fighters in the air at the same time, but with this air relay refueling ability, it is completely possible to refuel four fighters in the air at the same time, if the pilot's piloting skills are superb enough, the air safety situation can also be guaranteed, and even 6 fighters can be refueled at the same time

What an anti-natural function this is, if the J-15 fighter has this ability, it can be greatly improved, but the J-15 fighter's comprehensive combat effectiveness, but the problem is that Zhang Lan can't remember whether the J-15 has this ability: or there was a design when it was designed

The details of Zhang Lanfei's J-15 are not very clear, but Major General Liu is very clear, and he immediately said without hesitation that there is no such function...... But if it's really needed, it's not that it's not finalized yet, can it be added?

Yes, the republic now has its own in-flight refueling technology, whether an aircraft has this kind of air relay refueling method, it is not that it cannot be designed, the main thing is to see if it is needed, and the pilot's piloting skills are not passable...... However, it is a common phenomenon in the world that the ability of aircraft carrier pilots is generally higher than that of land-based air force pilots...... If necessary, it can be designed

Since that's the case...... I have an idea if you want to hear it

You said that Major General Liu's ears suddenly pricked up, and Zhang Lan's personal idea was not good for use that time

I think now we can be sure of one thing: you can use a conventionally powered tiltrotor as a carrier-based air tanker, and the 10-ton fuel carrying capacity can basically meet the requirements of medium-intensity operations, as long as you don't go out of the Pacific Ocean, even if you conduct high-intensity operations, you can even get the support of land-based large air tankers......

Wait, without waiting for Zhang Lan to finish speaking, Major General Liu suddenly interrupted Zhang Lan's words, how can we have a land-based large air tanker

Logically speaking, it seems that carrier-based air tanker technology is simpler to realize, but the fact is just the opposite, many countries in the world have mastered the manufacturing and use technology of large-scale roadbed air tankers, but medium-sized carrier-based air tanker technology has not been mastered by any country so far, even if the powerful United States has not mastered it, although the United States has always said that there is no need for carrier-based tankers on aircraft carriers, and there are air tankers in military bases all over the world, and air tankers can take off from the base to refuel the aircraft of the United States military fighters in any place in the world, but this always sounds like a sour taste of grapes

The situation in the Republic is generally more miserable, because our land-based air tankers are not even large, they can only be regarded as small and medium-sized: the amount of fuel carried by the air tankers converted from the H-6 bomber is really a pitiful, not to mention that the H-6 tanker can only refuel two aircraft in the air at the same time

Originally, General Liu thought that the design of the entire aircraft carrier carrier-based air tanker had already set a precedent for aircraft carriers in the world, but he did not expect that Zhang Lan, this kid, would be more radical, not only to equip the aircraft carrier with air tankers, but even to build a large roadbed air tanker...... If our country had its own large transport aircraft with its own intellectual property rights, it would have been changed to a large land-based air tanker long ago, and it would have to wait until today...,

If you don't have any opinions, we can provide you with a batch of AN-124 large strategic transport planes, and we can provide you with technical support for converting AN-124 strategic transport planes into air tankers

Now Zhang Lan feels more and more that he bought the Antonov Design Bureau was the right decision, look at it, now the Antonov Design Bureau has almost re-become a giant in the world's aircraft manufacturing industry after the technical support of the Alice Group, before Boeing and Airbus joined forces to divide 90% of the world's air transport industry, and the remaining aircraft manufacturing companies can only squeeze the remaining 10% there. is struggling to survive, but since there is the aircraft manufacturing group of the Alice Group, the original pattern of Boeing and Airbus divided into two worlds with the Antonov Design Bureau, has become Boeing, Airbus, Alice Group and Antonov Design Bureau to divide the world, especially in the Republic of China, a country with rapidly growing aircraft demand, there is almost nothing to do with Boeing and Airbus

Boeing and Airbus, the world's largest aircraft market, were squeezed out of the world's largest aircraft market by the Alice Group and the Antonov Design Bureau, and David was naturally annoyed, but it was no longer possible to turn the situation around, and even if Boeing expressed its willingness to transfer the manufacturing technology of 100-ton large aircraft to the republic, it could not be recognized by the republic...... The previous McDonnell Douglas 90 Boeing played a hard game against the Republic, and in the nearly 20 years since then, he has been talking about it from time to time, and it really hurts the hearts of the high-level people: slap in the face, slap in the face, you don't have enough to hit once, and you have to beat endlessly for three days and two ends

When I thought of Boeing and Airbus, which had made a lot of money because of the huge demand of the civil aviation market of the Republic, now they saw themselves eating meat on the side, they could only look at Zhang Lan with red eyes on the side, and they felt in a good mood

AN-124, but Major General Liu fainted when he boarded, and the plane was too big, if it was an aircraft like the IL-76, it would be about the same

Indeed, compared with several active air tankers in the world, there has never been such a large size as the AN-124 Marble Glue...... The people of the United States also did not convert their C-5 Galaxy strategic transport plane into an air tanker, and it was undoubtedly too wasteful for such a big guy to be converted into an air tanker

Zhang Lan scratched her head embarrassedly, and also felt that the AN-124 seemed to be indeed too big, since Major General Liu thought that the AN-124 was too big, but the Il-76 was more suitable, so well, is the Il-76 so big, our Alice Group has one, but the engine is a rotary paddle fan, what do you think?

You said that Major General Liu's eyes lit up, that's good

The plane that Zhang Lan recommended to Major General Liu was a large transport plane, but unlike Lao Maozi's Il-76 and Uncle Sam's C-171, two large transport planes with turbofan engines, this was an aircraft with four counter-rotor fan engines

Although it uses a counter-propeller fan engine, because of the characteristics of the counter-propeller fan engine, the aircraft does not fly slowly, and after optimizing the aerodynamic shape of the aircraft and redesigning the counter-propeller fan, it can achieve cruising at Mach 0.85...... This speed is already about the same as Lao Maozi's Il-76 and Uncle Sam's C-171 (to be continued, if you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendations, monthly passes, your support is my biggest motivation)