This is a bomber with a unique shape.

The wing-body fusion wing structure is adopted, and the middle part of the fuselage is significantly raised upward. In the middle of it were two standard-sized magazines arranged in series, on either side of which were the engine compartments. In front of the magazine is the cockpit that protrudes from the leading edge, and this is the only place in the whole bomber that appears to be slightly abrupt. Behind the cockpit side, the upper surface of the wing was an engine air intake masked with a fence. The vent of the engine is set above the trailing edge, the fuselage blocks the vent, and the trailing edge of the wing is perfectly integrated with the tail.

Viewed from above, the bomber resembles a boomerang with a wooden stick attached to the middle turn.

Just looking at the aerodynamic layout, the most prominent place is actually the complete elimination of the rear wing.

Not only is there no horizontal tail, but even the vertical tail has been eliminated.

In order to control the direction, a flap and aileron control system with more than 20 operating surfaces was set up, which is the most complex to date.

In fact, this is the most unique thing about this bomber, or the biggest problem encountered in the design.

Without a vertical tail, not only is course control difficult, but there is also the problem of not being able to maintain course stability, which makes the aircraft difficult to navigate.

In many aircraft, in order to maintain course stability, there is not only a vertical tail, but also a piece or a pair of pelvic fins.

Even if the bomber is not a fighter and does not need to perform vigorous maneuvers, it needs to fly steadily.

Just rely on the flaps and ailerons to control the course, and by adjusting the aerodynamic operating surface to maintain stability, then you can only work on the flight control system.

The key is the flight control system.

The "Zh-10" is the world's first fighter with a statically unstable aerodynamic layout, and relying on this aerodynamic layout, it has gained agility that surpasses that of contemporaries.

Looking at the world, there is no fighter that can compete with the "Battle-10" in terms of maneuverability.

The key to daring to adopt the pneumatic cloth bureau that the pilot cannot control, and flying smoothly, is the four-degree digital fly-by-wire control system.

This computer-based control system has made many impossible things a reality.

The "Attack-11" can fly into the sky, relying on this system.

It can be seen that without the world's most advanced digital fly-by-wire control system today, the aviation enterprises of the empire would not have been able to design such a strange aircraft.

The last type of aircraft with a flying wing layout was a demonstrator developed by the Empire in World War II.

Although it did not rely on the digital fly-by-wire control system, it also flew, but it was a propeller slow plane, and it was not difficult to maintain course stability, and the vertical stability plane was not completely abolished, and several small rudders were retained, which had the function of a vertical tail.

That's right, this is the "H-X" that has been circulating among the people for several years.

For a long time, the "H-X" was the number one project of the Imperial Air Force, and the priority was always at the top of the list.

If it is said that the "Zhan-X" will change the face of air warfare, then the "H-X" will change the face of war.

Do not forget that the Imperial Air Force was developed from the army's strategic aviation, that is, it started with bombers, and paid the most attention to strategic bombing.

In Li Yunxiang's words, an air force that does not seek to attack has no value in existing.

For decades, the Imperial Air Force has unswervingly pursued an offensive strategy, and has long preached the military idea of destroying the enemy on the ground and letting air supremacy determine victory or defeat.

In addition, the ultimate goal pursued by the Imperial Air Force was to defeat the enemy through bombing and win the war by bombing.

According to the theory of the Air Force, as long as the air strike is strong enough to destroy the enemy's infrastructure through bombing, it will be able to achieve victory without fighting a ground war, at least force the enemy to surrender, and minimize the casualties suffered in the war.

After the end of the Polish-Iraqi War, this set of military theories put forward by the Air Force was greatly respected within the empire and influenced the military construction of the empire.

If anything, the third post-war military reform is related to this.

It was in this environment that the "H-X" project was born.

If I want to say, all the "H-X" projects carried out by the Imperial Air Force in the past were aimed at this as the ultimate goal.

For example, after entering the jet age, the Imperial Air Force felt that the "H-9" could rely on an altitude of more than 12,000 meters to break through the enemy's anti-aircraft artillery system, and completely destroy the enemy. Unexpectedly, when the "H-9" formed combat effectiveness, anti-aircraft missiles replaced anti-aircraft guns, and the firing altitude exceeded 20,000 meters, making the efforts to raise the maximum ceiling meaningless.

Later, the Imperial Air Force also pinned its hopes on strategic bombers with 3 times the speed of sound, hoping to break through the enemy's air defense system by speed. It's a pity that because the indicators are too advanced, there are many technical problems that cannot be solved in the short term, so after the project built 4 engineering prototypes, it failed to control costs, there were insurmountable technical obstacles, and the tactical value was not obvious enough.

Today, these four bombers, nicknamed "Thunderbolt", are the treasures of four major military museums, including the Imperial Air Force Museum.

In fact, the Imperial Air Force also has high hopes for the "H-10A", believing that there is potential for the development of ultra-low-altitude penetration.

It's a pity that ultra-low-altitude penetration is also a dead end.

That is, after repeatedly hitting a wall on bombers, and successive projects were dismounted for various reasons, the Imperial Air Force was forced to start anew and work on ammunition.

From this, there are cruise missiles.

But the problem is that cruise missiles are too expensive to consume in a full-scale war, and they certainly cannot be used to replace traditional bombs.

Because it is too expensive, cruise missiles cannot become the main strike weapon.

Relatively speaking, various inexpensive guided bombs, such as inertial guided bombs using high-precision laser gyroscopes, have more potential for development.

In addition, the empire has invested heavily in building a satellite navigation system covering the whole world, and has adopted an extraordinarily complex sub-parent satellite system, and has also deployed a valuable parent satellite in medium and high orbits that cannot be reached by anti-missile missiles, to a large extent, in the hope of using this system to improve the efficiency of strategic bombing, or to reduce costs, such as replacing other complex and expensive guidance equipment with satellite navigation.

Among other things, the Imperial Air Force is developing several precision-guided bombs that rely on satellite navigation, and the Air Force has set a target price of less than 10,000 gold yuan, and it explicitly requires the use of existing bombs, to be precise, the development of low-cost guidance kits for unguided bombs.

This is actually done because cruise missiles are too expensive.

In an all-out war, large-scale strategic bombing can still rely on bombers, and cheap bombs are still mainly used.

This means that the bombers still have to risk breaking through the air defense net.

Although precision-guided munitions can greatly improve the bombing efficiency, theoretically it can be increased by hundreds of times, thereby reducing the degree of dependence on bombers, such as the bombing mission that required 100 bombers to be completed in the past, and perhaps only one bomber needs to be dispatched after the use of precision ammunition, but this does not change the reality that bombers are easy to be intercepted and are particularly easy to be shot down by anti-aircraft missiles.

In the Polish-Iranian War, the Imperial Air Force lost hundreds of strategic bombers in the face of the not very strong Polish-Iraqi air defense forces.

This, if you have to say, almost gave a death sentence to strategic bombers.

A loss rate of more than 1% is simply not affordable in a global war.

Not only are bombers very expensive, but if the death rate of pilots is too high, by the time the bombers are produced, I am afraid that no pilots will be able to fly them.

In fact, it was these practical problems that forced the Imperial Air Force to find a way to improve the survival rate of bombers.

After several less successful attempts, the Imperial Air Force finally found the right direction.

If you want to say, the "Attack-11" is more like a demonstrator of stealth technology.

The H-X project was launched almost simultaneously with the Attack-11 project, and after weighing the pros and cons, the Imperial Air Force decided to prioritize the development of the Attack-11.

The reason is also very simple, before the "Attack-11" flies, no one knows how to achieve radar stealth, and no one knows the military value of "stealth". In fact, even after the first flight of the "Attack-11", many people were skeptical about stealth technology.

That soon changed.

Before participating in Sri Lanka's judging operation, the "Attack-11" proved its worth with its actions.

During the joint military exercise in the 145th year of the new calendar, four "Attack-11" successfully "destroyed" the headquarters of both sides of the exercise without prior notice, and were not detected by both sides of the exercise. The military value of "stealth" was clearly revealed during this exercise.

Otherwise, the Imperial Air Force would not have dared to send the "Attack-11" to Sri Lanka to suppress the rebellion in the second year.

In fact, in the 145th year of the new calendar, the "H-X" project entered the fast lane.

At that time, the aviation enterprises of the empire, especially several major military aircraft factories, had already gained a clear understanding of radar stealth through the "Attack-11", and during the test flight of the "Attack-11", they found many problems and set out to find solutions.

Strictly speaking, the stealth performance of the "Attack-11" is actually not perfect.

In eight specific directions, the radar signal reflected by the "Attack-11" has not only not weakened, but has also increased, so it is necessary to avoid aiming these directions at the enemy's radar as much as possible, at least not at the enemy's radar for a long time, thus putting forward higher requirements for mission planning and the pilot's personal ability.

If I want to say, it is on the basis of the "Attack-11" that there is the current "H-X".

For Li Tianling, the "H-X" is not a mystery.

At the beginning of the year, after missing the opportunity to become a military test pilot of the "Zhan-X", Zhang Jiazheng also specifically asked him if he was interested in becoming an acceptance test pilot of the "H-X".

As a result, Li Tianling refused in one bite.

He knew at that time that the H-X was a typical heavy strategic bomber, with a maximum take-off weight of more than 250 tons and a maximum bomb load of at least 30 tons. In the case of standard loading, such as carrying 12 "Snake Spear" class cruise missiles, or 24 short-range air-to-surface missiles, or 36 gliding guided bombs, when the bomb load is controlled within 20 tons, the range will not be less than 12,000 kilometers, and after a refueling in the air, it will reach 20,000 kilometers. Even if it is fully loaded, that is, when it is loaded with 72 500-kilogram aerial bombs and the bomb load reaches 36 tons, the range can reach 8,000 kilometers, and after refueling, it can reach 14,000 kilometers.

As for the rest of the performance, there's nothing to brag about.

Due to the limitations of the flying wing layout, the H-X will certainly not be able to fly at supersonic speeds, and the maximum ceiling is between 12,000 and 15,000 meters.

In addition, the H-X has a good chance of becoming the first strategic bomber of the Imperial Air Force with only 2 pilots.

"Well, the nickname 'boomerang' is appropriate, right?"

When the officer came over to say hello, Li Tianling came back to his senses.

"Lao Wang?"

That person was Colonel Wang Qingen, Li Tianling's classmate at the Air Force Flight Academy, and he was also a fighter pilot with outstanding ability before.

"Listen to General Zhang, you don't want to fly this kind of bomber yet."

"You don't know him yet, he is arrogant." Zhang Jiazheng said at this time: "There are 4 in total, and all of them have made necessary modifications and installed weapon control systems. The second purpose is to test the performance of the H-12A, especially the stealth capability. If there is an opportunity, the first goal will be achieved by the 'H-12A', that is, to bomb the forward headquarters of the Western Continent Group. ”

"Finalized?"

"The test is over, and the final process is finalized." Wang Qingen answered Li Tianling's question.

"Lack of pilots?"

"Don't dream." Zhang Jiazheng smiled. "I'm bringing you here just to let you know that this operation is definitely not for you to make unnecessary sacrifices. If we can destroy the front command of the Western Continent Group in one fell swoop, we will have a good chance of holding Astrakhan and even hope to launch a strategic counterattack before the onset of winter. If everything really goes well, it won't even give the Beigu group a chance to participate in the war. ”

Hearing Zhang Jiazheng say this, Li Tianling immediately tightened his brows.

"You two, you haven't seen each other in years, have you? There is still half a day before the start of the operation, you guys have a good chat, I have other things, don't talk about it. ”

"General Zhang walks slowly." Wang Qingen was very well-behaved and sent Zhang Jiazheng to the door.

Don't look at him and Li Tianling as classmates, he doesn't have a background like Li Tianling, a real civilian officer.

Of course, Li Tianling was not so polite.

It's not that Li Tianling is rude, but his attention is still on the bomber.

Actually, he regretted it a little.

If he had known that the "H-X" would be finalized within the year and would have been able to catch up with the global war, he would certainly not have rejected Zhang Jiazheng's proposal.

If anything, the bomber is the general in the army.

In modern warfare, stealth bombers such as the "H-X" are invincible generals who take the heads of enemy generals in the midst of thousands of troops.

Fly the bomber over the enemy's head, drop the bomb and fly away.

Definitely more exciting than flying a fighter jet on an escort mission!

The key is even greater.

It's a pity that there is no regret medicine sold in the world.

Not to mention that there is no shortage of pilots, even if there is a lack of pilots, it will not be Li Tianling's turn.

It will take several months just to become familiar with the piloting method, and it does not mean that Li Tianling is a pilot and can fly a bomber to fight in the air.

Obviously, there was no time for Li Tianling to master the skills of driving the "H-X".

Thinking of this, Li Tianling secretly sighed.

"You don't need to sigh, I heard that the 'Zhan-20A' is also about to be finalized, and it will enter the pre-production stage within the year, and it will be equipped with troops at the beginning of next year at the latest."

"Is the information reliable?"

"I've heard of it too, but it should be reliable."

At this time, Li Tianling's mood was a little better.