I don't know when dancing with death became a part of life, from the day I joined the army, from the night I joined the air gunboat unit, or from the time I swore to the military flag to dedicate my life to the cause of national defense and did not hesitate to use my life as a substitute opportunity to practice the values of revolutionary soldiers.

Li Zhan remembers very well that when he wrote his suicide note for the first time, he never thought that there would really be a day when there would be a rain of bullets and shells, but now these are already part of life.

Occasionally, when I can't sleep at night, I often wonder, why do I do this? Isn't it better than anything else to live a good life as a cadre in the army? Without exception, they got an answer that was not very convincing to themselves - the revolutionary soldiers had the responsibility to defend the land. But now what kind of society is living its own little life, who has ever looked at them more. When Li Zhan occasionally talked to non-military personnel on the phone, and the other party's focus was on income, the more he doubted this answer.

remembered the scene when the Russian pilot sat in the cockpit and took out an absorbent towel, but he firmly believed that the answer was correct.

"I am a soldier of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and I swear an oath to obey the leadership of China's ** and ...... wholeheartedly"

"Zhan, what did you say?"

Li Zhan turned his head and saw that it was Vasily standing on the boarding ladder.

"Oh, I'm reciting the law of victory." Li Zhan said with a smile and half-truths.

Vasily pointed to the instrument panel and said, "All the information is displayed on these two large color screens, no matter how familiar you are, you will definitely like this aircraft." ”

At this time, in the cockpit of the No. 03 Su-35, Li Zhan was already in place, and Vasily was making the final confirmation with him. Mao Zi was indeed very nervous, and they were not worried that Li Zhan would break the plane at all. Li Zhan knew that they wished that the plane would break down and stay, and exchange a prototype plane that had been flying for several years for 100 million US dollars in foreign exchange, so they would not do this business foolishly.

The command center of the tower is already in full swing.

From 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. now, the final preparations have been completed, and the rest is up to the pilot. At the same time, the staff officers prepared flight plans according to the subjects of the test flight, the meteorological department provided accurate weather forecasts for the next 24 hours, and the emergency detachments carried out drills overnight to prepare targeted plans......

From heaven to earth, all the preparations were completed in five hours. At six o'clock in the morning, the order from the higher authorities arrived, agreeing to conduct a test flight of the Su-35 fighter, along with the approval of the test flight subjects submitted by the 101st brigade. Obviously, the decision must have been made by the higher-level leadership after studying and weighing the pros and cons overnight.

No matter how well the preparations on the ground are done, in the end, it is up to the pilot, and everything is tied to the pilot. When the pilot becomes a test pilot, everything seems more sublime and deeper.

Glancing at Fang Chenghe, he found that the new brigade commander, who had served as the chief military and political officer, had a serious expression, Bao Guanhua smiled and said, "Li Zhan is no problem, his ability is stronger than many test pilots." Some time ago, the rear loading department of the test flight institute asked our brigade if we could transfer him to the test flight center for a period of time. The air defense base was worried that the meat buns would beat the dogs, and there would be no return, but they did not agree. ”

Fang Chenghe couldn't help laughing, "This kid has two strokes, and he is a good hand at engaging in combat training, and no one is willing to let go." However, these subjects he wants to fly are not ordinary test flight subjects, and I want to say that you will not believe it if you are not worried about the political commissar. ”

Bao Guanhua looked like a person who had come over and said, "I'm also worried, but it's useless to worry." This kid is not reassuring one day, and he gets used to it after worrying too much. Brigade commander, he didn't let you worry a lot in the second division. ”

As soon as he talked about this, Fang Chenghe shook his head helplessly and smiled bitterly.

"It's really evil, this kid is out of luck after he arrives in Beiku." Fang Chenghe shook his head and said, "After flying in the Second Division for nine months, there have been three special dangers and two mission losses before and after, and I am afraid that there is no one who has come before." ”

Bao Guanhua remembered the No. 01 Su-27SK that fell apart and the three engines that were scrapped, but he was speechless for a while. He couldn't say that Li Zhan also harmed some fighters and major parts after he arrived in Beiku. You must know that the Su-27 is worth more than the second-generation aircraft.

The two chatted without saying a word, and after a while, Li Zhan asked for instructions and slipped out.

Fang Chenghe picked up the microphone and gave an order in a deep voice, "Hole three can slide out." ”

From a distance, I saw the No. 03 Su-35 sliding out of the tarmac, and Vasily and the crew could be seen neatly lining up to salute the sliding fighters. In the tower, Nie Jianfeng, who served as the deputy commander, was blocked in his heart for no reason, and when he watched the No. 03 Su-35 slide out, he seemed to see Li Zhan embark on the road of no return.

Everyone knows the difficulty and significance of today's test flight.

When he taxied to the take-off line, Li Zhan was also thinking, but he would not take a big risk if he had an extra day. Li Zhan couldn't be clearer about how big the risk is, and it is obviously nonsense to use his so-called luck to offset the risks that exist in the Su-35 mass production aircraft.

At the end of the day, it's about strength.

Li Zhan looked up at the sky and reported to the tower, "Dong San is ready to take off, it's over." ”

The weather was neither good nor bad, gloomy but windless, and in the southern coastal areas, such symptoms generally indicate rain in the afternoon, and it is very likely to be heavy rain. But this is not the case in the Beiku area, which often remains gloomy and gloomy all day, with no rain or wind, but the temperature drops sharply by a few degrees in the middle of the night, and the temperature difference between day and night is more than 20 degrees.

It's just that this gloomy appearance makes Li Zhan really unhappy.

Steady in his mind, he quietly waited for the command of the tower, and one hand was already on the throttle lever and ready to push to the end and take off.

The strange thing is that after waiting for two or three minutes, the tower gave the take-off order: "Dong 3 can take off after checking, it's over." ”

Li Zhan was very cautious, it should be said that it was the first time he was so cautious. The most obvious difference between the old and the new is in the experience, such as driving, the old driver gets in the car and steps on the accelerator and leaves, while the new driver touches here and there to see for a long time and can't put his mind at ease.

Now Li Zhan is the appearance of a new driver, and it is always reassuring to look at it there.

"Flight control system, power system, communication system, temporary identification code of friend or foe, radar system ......" Li Zhan checked and reported verbally, and the tower could clearly understand Li Zhan's real-time movements.

Fang Chenghe and Bao Guanhua both looked at a flat-panel monitor in the command seat, on which four pictures of the same area were drawn, the first picture was the perspective of Li Zhan, the second picture was the first-person dashboard view, the third picture was the content of the left wing, and the fourth picture was the scene of the right wing. This is a camera temporarily installed in the cockpit, which is transmitted back through the signal of civil satellite communication.

At this time, you can see from the second picture that Li Zhan is checking in an orderly manner, and in the first picture is the front of Li Zhan who has already buckled the oxygen mask, the mask has not been buckled yet, and his blazing eyes and sharp sword eyebrows can be seen.

"It's rare to see him so serious." Bao Guanhua said.

Fang Chenghe said in a deep voice, "He knows the weight of today's test flight. A lot of people are watching, up and down. ”

glanced at Andreevkosky, who was chatting with the deputy brigade commander in skilled Russian not far away, but Fang Chenghe didn't reveal more. Although the level is the same, Bao Guanhua's upper-level news channels are very lacking, and it is difficult for him to understand some secretive small news. Even if he understands it, Bao Guanhua won't care very much, what he cares about can't be simpler - take off alive and land alive.

The No. 03 Su-35 took off, and after crushing the runway of more than 300 meters in afterburner take-off under the control of the youngest ace pilot of the Chinese Air Force, it suddenly climbed at a large elevation angle, and the rocket launch generally rushed to the sky.

It continued to climb through the clouds and pierced 18,000 meters into the air.

Li Zhan can clearly feel that the power of this aircraft is much stronger than that of the J-11B. He secretly calculated the time and found that the acceleration performance was actually almost 20 percent higher than that of the J-11B. The gap made him smack. With the same load, it has already been shown that the performance of the 35S engine adopted by the Su-117 is very good. It climbed more than 18,000 meters above sea level, and Li Zhan turned off the afterburner and gently resumed level flight. This height is sufficient, there is no need to arch any further.

He suddenly turned the nose of a drum downward, resumed level flight, and dived at an almost vertical angle, and the airspeed quickly exceeded the speed of sound and quickly climbed to Mach 2, at an altitude of several thousand meters.

When level flight resumed again, it was already below a thousand meters above sea level.

Immediately, he climbed to 6,000 meters again and flew at level at great speed......

Pendulum, barrel rolling, Yinmaiman turning, Levisman, falling leaves, catty bucket and half catty bucket......

All aerobatic maneuvers and the difficult combat subjects specified in the syllabus.

The continuous and intense flight of more than four hours was not a great test for the fighters. Conducting test flights of typical and difficult tactical subjects is what everyone is most worried about. The so-called typical high-difficulty tactical subject is low-altitude penetration strikes in mountainous areas. This is the famous stunt of the Eagle Falcon Brigade and the signature tactic of the 101st Brigade. In order to solve the problem of radar blind spots in the canyons of the Beiku Mountains, the air defense base urgently dispatched several mobile radar vehicles to the mountainous areas last night, otherwise no one would be able to see Li Zhan as long as he plunged into the canyon.

After more than 30 minutes of low-altitude penetration, everyone put down half of their hearts.

By two o'clock in the afternoon, the test flight was coming to an end, and there was still one last subject left - the Super Cobra maneuver.

The old pilots believe that the difficulty coefficient of falling leaves is more difficult than the maneuvering of the eye snake, and the former can only be more sure if it is done by using fighters equipped with vector engines.

However, Li Zhan asked to put the Cobra maneuver last.

Nie Jianfeng joked that it was because Li Zhan had never completed a cobra maneuver in training. Li Zhan's two Cobra maneuvers were completed in actual combat conditions, the first time was to drive the No. 037 J-7E, and was forced to complete a highly suspected Cobra maneuver at ultra-low altitude, and the second time was to drive the No. 01 Su-27SK, which also completed the Super Cobra maneuver with an entry speed of nearly 600 kilometers under passive conditions.

Prior to this, every Cobra maneuver training session had ended in failure, and even once he stalled and fell into a tailspin.

However, no one thought that the Cobra maneuver would be more dangerous than the many difficult subjects that had been performed in the past four hours, and in fact the Cobra maneuver was gradually included in the training content of some combat units, and the world-famous flight maneuver was not so mysterious.

Su-01 appeared in the desert on the southwestern side of the base, and then disappeared from radar range. At this time, Li Zhan was flying at high speed at an extremely low altitude.

Three meters above the ground, with an airspeed of five hundred and six, the powerful air flow from the engine nozzle raised up gusts of dust and formed a lying tornado in the back. The speed is still accelerating, rapidly approaching the speed of sound, Li Zhan's attention is on the undulating terrain, and the data of the altimeter is the most important. This area is also very familiar, and it is a rare relatively flat section of the road, so you can fly close to the ground with confidence.

At an airspeed of more than 900 kilometers per hour, Li Zhan galloped more than 10 kilometers close to the ground, and only when he reached the landing navigation point five kilometers away from the base did he pull up and climb back to 1,000 meters in the air.

"Tower, prepare for the last subject, Cobra maneuver, over." Li Zhan called the tower.

Su-01 No. 35 reappeared on the radar display, and it was already possible to visually see flying from the southwest.

"Agreed, watch the speed, done." Fang Chenghe breathed a sigh of relief, after the Cobra maneuvered and flew over, today's test flight was successfully completed, in fact, the success can be celebrated now.

Enter at an altitude of 1,000 meters with an airspeed of 380 kilometers per hour, disconnect the autopilot, disconnect the angle of attack limiter, and quickly pull the lever to the end. The action is very simple, but it must be completed within the specified two seconds, and at the same time consider the actual flight attitude of the fighter, weather and other factors, which is not something that ordinary people can do. How long can two seconds be, tick tock.

The No. 03 Su-35 suddenly raised its head and the elevation angle quickly approached 120 degrees, the tail moved forward under the action of inertia, and the engine instantly sensed a sharp decrease in the speed of the fighter and made a hissing sound. Just like that, the nose is vertically up, the belly is facing forward, and it flies forward at a speed of less than 100 kilometers per hour.

Using all the lift surfaces as speed brakes to slow down the fighter in a very short period of time is the significance of the Cobra maneuver. This is generally believed to be an excellent tactical maneuver for a Jedi counterattack, used to get rid of enemies in the rear hemisphere while placing yourself in a powerful rear hemisphere position. However, another view is that the Cobra maneuver itself is an energy-consuming maneuver, and a fighter without energy support is no different from a lamb to the slaughter.

This is where the controversy over the cobra maneuver lies.

Li Zhan resumed level flight step by step, and the fighter plane flew out steadily, quickly disappearing into the distant sky. Li Zhan was very surprised, the whole process was smooth and smooth, without the slightest sense of jerkiness, which was completely different from the feeling when he was driving the Su-27SK.

The cobra maneuver was the only one he didn't pass the assessment, and he was about to become the laughing stock of the whole brigade, but he didn't expect to do it smoothly today.

"It seems that it's not that I'm not good at technology, but that I can't do it."

Li Zhan was inexplicably happy.