"Mr. Lin, this is the A-1 attack plane of the US Naval Aviation that our unit captured from Vietnam that year, but the engine has long been dismantled, and the electronic equipment has been almost dismantled, in fact, it is an empty shell...... pointing to the A-1 attack plane in front of him that is covered with dust and everything has been dismantled, Wang Bolin, deputy director of the Republic Aviation Museum, is a little embarrassed.

"It's okay, we're just going to learn from it." Lin Hongfei smiled and waved his hand.

After a month-long test of the four aircraft in the northwest and northern regions, and a demonstration of their ground attack and combat capabilities, the army was very satisfied with the actual flight performance and patrol capability of the Chujiao-6 armed modification: If the high-power supercharged star-shaped air-cooled piston engine produced by the Guqi Provincial Industrial Manufacturing Co., Ltd. is used, it only takes hundreds of thousands of RMB to modify a Chujiao-6, but what it brings is a multiplied increase in the control of the border areas. The "armed version" of the beginner-6 is much better than going to patrol with two feet directly.

To this end, the army has given the second group of AVIC an order to refit 10 Chujiao-6, and the purpose is naturally only one: to further strengthen the ability to control the border areas.

But the army was not satisfied with this, and it was okay to use the modified Chujiao-6 in the vast north-western and northern border areas, where there was plenty of space to build an earthen runway, but what about the southwest? There are not so many places for the military to build runways, so the army has put forward a new requirement: AVIC Group 2 provides a low-speed propeller-powered aircraft with a cost of no more than 10 million RMB, with a cruising time of no less than 10 hours, a cruising speed of no less than 450 kilometers per hour, and a bomb load of no less than 20 tons!

Well. There is also one of the most excessive requirements, the practical ceiling shall not be less than 8000 meters, well, this practical ceiling, which means that when necessary, our plane can bypass next to Mount Everest...... In other words, there are few mountains around this republic with a height of more than 8,000 meters.

This requirement is a bit excessive, 10 million RMB, that is, less than 1.3 million US dollars of aircraft, you still have so many requirements?

Not to mention the use of propellers for power, propeller power is also divided into star-type air-cooled piston engines, V-shaped liquid-cooled piston engines and turboprop engines. At this price, even the army was embarrassed to propose to equip it with turboprop engines.

There is no choice. Lin Hongfei thought of the American-made A-1 "Sky Raider" heavy attack aircraft, which is known as "the strongest piston attack aircraft in the world."

The A-1 attack aircraft is one of the most successful heavy attack aircraft in the United States, and its characteristics of thick skin and low cost are very much in line with the requirements of the US military at that time, and now it seems that it also meets the requirements of the army's frontier patrol aircraft: whether it is the practical ceiling of 7,950 meters, the carrying capacity of 3.6 tons, or the maximum cruise time of 10 hours, it can meet the requirements of the army, and the power structure of the star-type air-cooled piston engine can meet the requirements of the second AVIC group to reduce costs.

"This is the U.S. A-1 attack plane we got from the monkey back then?" The aviation experts who came with Lin Hongfei were amazed. Although the aircraft has been retired for more than 20 years, the thick fuselage and rugged design style still shocked these experts: they thought that only hairy bears could play this rough and rough style. I didn't expect when the bald eagle played this hairy bear style. It's even more hairy than a bear.

"Yes, this is when the U.S. military aided South Vietnam, and later after the fall of Saigon, it fell into our hands." Deputy Director Wang Bolin looked proud.

"Teacher, what did we imitate the A-1 attack aircraft for back then?" A little girl who followed the internship next to her was a little curious and a little puzzled, "I heard that the maximum bomb load of A-1 is more than 6 tons. It's very powerful, it's more powerful than our strong 5 fighter plane, with our technical level, it shouldn't be difficult to imitate this kind of aircraft, right? ”

Wang Bolin and the expert glanced at each other. Together, Ha Lu Ha Da Lu laughed.

"Huh?" The little girl blinked, and she had a hunch that she had asked a very stupid question.

"Little girl, I'll tell you this question," Deputy Director Wang Bolin stopped laughing and said, "It's actually very simple, first of all, we have a supersonic strike aircraft like the Strong 5 in our hands, although the bomb load is not as much as A-1, but we don't need to drive the Strong 5 to attack targets hundreds of kilometers away, for the threats around us, the attack power and combat radius of the Strong 5 are sufficient, and the supersonic speed can also make the strong force out of danger at the fastest speed when it encounters an attack, which is not good for A-1, The maximum flight speed of this aircraft is 560 kilometers and only packs up...... Although this plane has a record of shooting down the MiG-17, it is just a coincidence, the high-altitude and high-speed MiG-17 and the low-altitude and low-speed A-1 are playing low-altitude and low-speed combat with the A-1 at low altitude, what is the difference between that and looking for death? ”

"Curator Wang is right." The little girl's teacher nodded, and took the opportunity to take the words, "Also, don't be superstitious about those data, for any army, there is no weapon with the best performance, only the most suitable weapon for them, you think, in the Vietnam War, the US Navy and the Army have basically realized the combat aircraft I wheel, why do you still retain such an A-1 attack aircraft An old-fashioned piston propeller aircraft?" In terms of the combat and equipment habits of the US military, this is not the habit of the Americans at all...... The reason for this is that the Americans feel that this kind of old-fashioned aircraft can still meet their requirements for combat use, and if you look at the performance of the A-1 attack plane on the battlefield in Vietnam, you can see why the US military chose to keep this plane. ”

"Well, that's right." The little girl nodded...... If you think about it, isn't that what it is?

"The second reason is that for the use of our Air Force, after having the supersonic strong 5, one more type of aircraft needs an additional logistics support system, and the worst thing is that this aircraft still uses aviation gasoline, which is very troublesome. On the whole, the low-altitude and low-speed performance of this aircraft is indeed very good, but it does not meet the requirements of the Air Force, so we have no intention of developing such an aircraft at all. ”

"I see." The little girl suddenly realized that she was smart enough to understand a little, "Now the army aviation unit needs this kind of low-altitude and low-speed aircraft again, whether it is a 'battlefield aircraft' that is being widely discussed in the world or used for long-term border patrols and some low-intensity operations, this aircraft can meet our use requirements." ”

"That's it." I don't know when Lin Hongfei stood over, and added with a smile, "So, the weapon thing, it doesn't matter whether it is advanced or backward, only the one that suits you is the best, and the fighters of Double 3 are available, what can you do with low-altitude and low-speed helicopters?" A high-caliber and high-power high-precision sniper rifle can already explode a light armored vehicle at a distance of 1,500 meters. Coming back, it's still the same sentence, only the right one is the best. ”

The little girl nodded, her face thoughtful.

……………………

"Lin Dong, after the inspection, the main structure of the aircraft is still intact, and we can immediately start the imitation of the main structure." Xiao Shouting came over and reported to Lin Hongfei.

"So fast?" Lin Hongfei was slightly surprised.

"The main reason is that our comrades in the aviation museum have preserved this plane better." Xiao Shouting said politely.

Well preserved? Lin Hongfei looked at the huge black hole in the nose of the A-1 because the engine was removed, and then looked at the cockpit cover that I don't know who knocked it out, and couldn't help but be a little speechless: This can be called good preservation? What should be called a poorly preserved one?

"Lin, we just measured it, and our engine can fit in, but there is a problem." Chapregin, who came with Lin Hongfei and was full of silver hair, also completed the measurement of the nose of the plane and came to report to Lin Hongfei.

"What's the problem?"

"The power is insufficient," Chaprekin spread his hands, "the A-1 attack aircraft is equipped with a double-row star-shaped 18-cylinder engine with 2,500 horsepower, well, it is to arrange the two 9-cylinder star-shaped piston engines one after the other, but we don't have such a high-power engine." ”

"Don't have such a powerful engine?" Lin Hongfei frowned, he didn't think about the turboprop engine at all, the reason is very simple, the turboprop engine of this power grade is too expensive, even the cheapest AI-24 engine produced by the Zaporosh Progressive Machine Building Bureau in Ukraine, one is as high as 800,000 US dollars, which is definitely the price of cabbage among turbo engines: 2000 kilowatt turbine engine, which one can be less than 2 million US dollars? But even this is not enough, an engine accounts for the total cost? This is absolutely not a no-go!

"Yes, that's the biggest problem," Chapregin said helplessly, "our engines are not powerful enough, and the result of our calculations is that with our engines, we can barely carry 500 kilograms of load and take off, and if we have more, we won't be able to." The Americans will not sell us this engine, and it is said that this engine has long been discontinued; Because the number of aircraft purchased is too small, there is no need to develop an engine specifically for these aircraft. ”

Now it's a problem. Lin Hongfei frowned, of course he knew that what Chaprekin said was right, but he didn't want to lose such an opportunity. (To be continued......)