Qin Feng is also quite familiar with this fighter because he has read a lot of materials before, and some Western magazines even have some records written by flying veterans.

This aircraft is quite good, it is simply cross-generational, for a fighter that began to enter service in large quantities in the seventies, it is worthy of the title of king, fighting ability, volley ability is quite outstanding, but at the same time, it also has one of the biggest drawbacks.

It's the engine.

In the era when the Tomcat fighter was born, the advanced third-generation engines were in a state of pre-research, and there was no time for them to mature, so this fighter used the engine of the same period as Spey, TF30.

As a veteran military engine manufacturer in the United States, Pratt & Whitney has always had outstanding performance in aero engines. After entering the turbofan era, Pratt & Whitney's first full-line turbofan engine is JTF10A, which is planned to be used in the civil aviation market. The JTF10 was first put into operation in December 1959, but was not actually installed.

In the early 1960s, in order to cooperate with the F-111 fighter-bomber of the US Air Force, Pratt & Whitney launched a military version of the TF30 on the basis of the JTF10A. The engine began flight tests on the B-45 flight test bench in the summer of 1962 and made its first flight on the F-111A in December 1964.

When it was first installed on the F-111, it didn't seem to be too bad in performance, after all, although this is under the title of F, it is actually a bomber, and for the bomber, there will be no sudden change in thrust at all, as long as it is soft and used.

However, it is very bad on the Tomcat fighter, the Tomcat fighter often does all kinds of complex maneuvers, and the pilot will pull the throttle stick directly from the slow state to full power at any time, and at this time, the TF30 engine is terrible, because it will produce a surge at any time due to the sharp change in speed, just like human asthma, and then, it stops.

This problem has plagued the U.S. Navy for many years, so much so that it has been criticized by everyone, even though Pratt & Whitney continues to improve its reliability, it is still called a plague-like engine by U.S. Navy pilots.

In addition to its poor reliability, it also has a big problem, which is the longevity, and the initial TF30 rebuild life is only 150h. By 1972, the TF30-P-3 and P-6 reached 1000 h, and later the refurbishment life of various types of TF30 reached 1500 h.

The maximum thrust of this engine is only 9.3 tons, and the thrust-to-weight ratio of the heavy Tomcat fighter is only about 0.7, which cannot be compared with other third-generation aircraft.

Therefore, the biggest problem with this fighter is that the engine, the previous F-16, is castrated with an engine, and this fighter, even if it does not castrate the engine, just use the original, it is still very unreliable, and it is difficult for the US Navy, such an engine has been used for many years.

But now, looking at the data of this engine, it is completely different from what he understands, Qin Feng looked at this data with a puzzled face.

"What do you have any questions about this aircraft?" Just then, Pele-Haq spoke.

Qin Feng immediately asked in fluent English: "Mr. Pelehake, the data of this engine is very strong." ”

Hearing Qin Feng's question, Pelehak immediately became excited: "Yes, what we are introducing to you is our latest F-14 fighter, which uses the F110 engine, and the Tomcat equipped with this engine is the real Tomcat fighter!" ”

F110！ When he heard Pelehak's answer, Qin Feng was also instantly shocked, sure enough, the latest third-generation engine was used, if this is the case, then the Tomcat will no longer have any shortcomings, and it will definitely become a fighter worthy of the name!

In the past, when there was no qualified engine, its maneuverability, acceleration ability, etc., were already full of praise, and if you have this new engine, it is definitely the best choice for your side.

Qin Feng is also clear about the origin of this engine.

The Americans were so technologically powerful that they developed the F8 engine, which had a thrust-to-weight ratio of up to 100, and installed it on their F-15 and F-16 fighters, but soon they found that their engines had such problems with reliability that they had to ground them.

At this time, the US Air Force found out that it was fooled and could not put its eggs in one basket, and they began to prop up another engine, which was the General Electric F110!

This engine, of course, is not newly developed, its core machine, as early as the sixties began to ignite, at the same time, it is also the engine that initially competed with Pratt & Whitney, of course, it still uses the F101 engine, this engine has been improving, and it values the most is reliability, the thrust-to-weight ratio is not very high, but the reliability is quite good.

So, on the F-16, this engine completed all the experiments and proved its effectiveness, and at the same time, this engine was also selected by the Navy to change the engine of the Tomcat fighter, this special naval model, named the F110-GE-400 naval model.

"The engine we are using now has an afterburner thrust of more than 12 tons, and in the state of air combat, it can already make the thrust-to-weight ratio of the fighter close to the level of 1." "At the same time, fuel consumption has been greatly reduced, and the combat radius has been increased accordingly, as we have just said," Pellehak said. ”

Exactly how to improve, only those who have flown will know, in short, all pilots who have flown the new engine, will be full of praise for this fighter.

Now, marketing to China is the most important part of Grumman, and they also believe that their Tomcat is the most suitable for the needs of the Chinese Air Force compared to the Frenchman's Mirage 2000.

As long as you look up to the north and look at the terrible backfire bombers that China is facing, you will know what they need, and the powerful interception ability of their Tomcat fighters is simply the nemesis of backfire bombers!

After Grumman built the Tomcat fighter, it has been selling to the outside world, but except for Iran, the rest of the foreign sales have failed.

Many of them were interrupted by McDonnell Douglas, who was beaten by McDonnell Douglas F-15 fighter jets in a bidding for fighter jets from the Japan Air Self-Defense Force just a few years ago, so Grumman showed great enthusiasm for this marketing as the last straw to break into the Asian market.

If the export of the kind of TF30 engine aircraft, it will definitely not succeed, just like the F16, it is considered a kind of contempt by the Chinese side, and now, its own side has directly brought over the most advanced things, and the Chinese side must have nothing to say about the performance.

You know, in our own country, the navy has not yet been equipped with this kind of aircraft.