It took hours to get ready for takeoff, but after sliding onto the runway and starting the two engines, everything was easy.

In any case, the "Night Phoenix" came out a few years later than the SR-71A, adopted some new technologies that appeared after the SR-71A entered service, and the Empire's aviation technology was much more advanced than that of the Newland Republic, so the overall performance of the "Night Phoenix" significantly exceeded that of the SR-71A.

The most representative is actually the engine.

The PC-220 used in the "Dark Night Phoenix" is essentially the same as the J-58-1 of the SR-71A, both of which are first-generation variable-cycle engines, and are optimized for high-altitude and high-speed flight. In addition to the maximum afterburner thrust of an astonishing 220 kN, the main difference is actually just as critical, if not more important, than the engine, which determines the fuel loading and delivery system for the fastest flight speed.

Here, a very critical issue is involved.

Pneumatic heating.

Although the cruising altitude of the "Night Phoenix" is more than 25,000 meters, which is already the top of the stratosphere, basically to the middle layer, the air is very thin, but flying at a speed of Mach 3, the heat generated by friction with the air, that is, the pneumatic heating problem is often said to be very serious.

For this reason, both the "Night Phoenix" and the SR-71A use a large number of titanium alloys with better high-temperature performance.

More than 10 years ago, machining titanium alloys was a very troublesome thing, not only the cost was high, but also the yield was frighteningly low.

However, the titanium alloy also cannot withstand the high temperature generated by pneumatic heating at Mach 3.5 speed.

In dealing with this problem, the MIG-25, a three-speed sonic interceptor developed by the Empire and West Luosha, adopted a very crude but very effective method, using stainless steel with better high-temperature performance, but also more cumbersome, to manufacture parts of the temperature station.

Apparently, the designers of the empire did not resort to such barbaric means.

Like the aircraft designers of the Nuland Republic, the designers of the Reich had their eyes on the cryogenic fuel that had to be used in variable-cycle engines.

Actually, this sentence should be said the other way around.

It is precisely because of the use of a variable-cycle engine, or the use of low-temperature fuel, that the problems caused by aerodynamic heating can be solved by a heat dissipation system based on the fuel delivery system without the use of stainless steel, so as to achieve the designed flight speed.

Otherwise, even the aircraft designers of the empire can only choose stainless steel.

In addition, that is, there were no variable-cycle engines available, so the MIG-25 had to use stainless steel.

The key is the fuel storage and delivery system.

As with the SR-71A, the Dark Night Phoenix's body is lengthened by pneumatic heating, which causes the internal pipes to deform and displace.

Because there was no good solution, Nuland's designers had to go selectively blind.

To put it simply, it doesn't matter about the oil spill.

As a result, the SR-71A was in an "oil leak" state before and after takeoff, and needed to be refueled in the air after takeoff. In order to improve the efficiency of fuel utilization, it is usually arranged at an altitude of 10,000 meters, and dozens of tons of special fuel are obtained from large tankers that have been specially improved. After completing refueling, the SR-71A climbs to cruising altitude at maximum speed and continues to fly at a high cruising speed.

After reaching cruising speed, that is, after the effects of aerodynamic heating are felt, the SR-71A will not continue to leak.

Obviously, this is also a very crude solution.

The difference is that the designers of the empire, using the most advanced technology, solved this problem.

The manufacture of oil pipeline sliding ball valve joints is a special memory alloy that has not been disclosed to the public so far!

The only thing that is certain is that this memory alloy must be resistant to high temperatures.

In addition, the tank of the "Night Phoenix" is made of plastic composite materials.

This material is not a novelty, the latest products are already used in a number of fighters, including the "Battle-11B", but the "Night Phoenix" must be able to withstand high temperatures. As a result, the fuel tank has a lifespan of only 10 times, i.e. all internal fuel tanks have to be replaced every 10 flights.

In fact, it is with these advanced technologies that the "Night Phoenix" has achieved unparalleled flight performance.

The point is that after takeoff, there is generally no need for in-flight refueling.

There is no problem of oil leakage, so naturally there is no need to do more.

It's just that this time it's different.

After taking off, the two "Dark Night Phoenixes" had to join up with the tanker planes that had already taken off and were on standby at an altitude of 10,000 meters more than 500 kilometers to the south.

The main thing is that the flight range of this mission exceeded the maximum range of the "Dark Night Phoenix".

With a maximum range of 7,500 kilometers, the "Dark Night Phoenix" is capable of performing almost all strategic reconnaissance missions, such as flying non-stop from Ebony Island to Kuba Island in the northern Caribbean.

The distance between the two places is up to 7,000 kilometers.

In fact, this was also the farthest route faced by the strategic reconnaissance aircraft of the Imperial Air Force during the development of the "Night Phoenix."

If anything, this is also the basis for the maximum range of 7,500 kilometers.

It's just that the reality is certainly more complicated than the ideal situation that was referenced when the design was made.

The mission was to take off from the Keith Naval Air Station and fly to the northern and northeastern waters of the transit island, and after completing the reconnaissance mission, fly to the southwestern and southwestern islands of Noumea, with a range of nearly 9,000 kilometers, and there was no way to refuel in the air on the way.

In addition, to the south of the transit island, there is no airport where the "Night Phoenix" can land!

On the east side of the island, there are only four airports with long enough runways and Class A standards, that is, high enough pavement standards to withstand the strong impact of special aircraft landing, in addition to Keith Naval Air Station and Ebony Air Force Base, the other two are on Hounu Island and Jotun Island. After the entry of the Nuland Republic into the war, both airports were subjected to major bombing.

In fact, all four airfields were bombed.

Fortunately, the Nuland army must have relied on intelligence from years ago.

The Keith Naval Air Station was only expanded three years ago, but it was actually renovated and then resurfaced to bring the runway to Class A standards, and in between, the airport was quasi-Class A and could only support strategic transport aircraft, not special aircraft.

In addition, several large hangars were built during this period.

The point is, it's all a thermostatic hangar!

It's a real high-end thing.

After the birth of the "Attack-11", the Air Force built the first thermostatic hangar, or only stealth attack aircraft need to be maintained in the thermostatic hangar.

The main thing is that the stealth paint is too delicate and can be easily damaged.

Theoretically, the "Attack-11" has to be "dressed up" every 20 times, repainted with stealth paint, and repaired after each flight.

It is for this reason that there are thermostatic hangars in the main air bases.

In this regard, the Navy is not lagging behind.

Although the Air Force's "Attack-11" has not been purchased, and even if it does, it cannot be used, and the poor low-speed performance of the "Attack-11" cannot be used on the aircraft carrier at all, the "Attack-12" invested and developed by the Navy and has the highest priority has already entered the prototype flight test stage.

The "Attack-12" is also a stealth attack aircraft, and it also uses stealth paint.

Obviously, before the official equipment, to be precise, at the test flight stage, it is definitely necessary to take into account the various complex operational environments faced by the Navy.

These include the marine environment at high latitudes.

Clearly, the Keith Naval Air Station is such an environment.

Crucially, Keith Island is far from the mainland of the Empire, and has only over 1,000 inhabitants, all of whom live in a small town run by the Navy.

That is, the probability of a leak is lower.

If anything, the Air Force's choice to deploy the "Night Phoenix" to Ebony Island is also related to this.

Ebony Island is more inhospitable than Keith Island, with only 421 native residents.

According to the Navy's arrangement, the "Attack-12" will go to the Keith Naval Air Station for acceptance test flights, and a thermostatic hangar will have to be built here.

It is these constant temperature hangars that provide convenience for the deployment of the "Dark Night Phoenix".

The main thing is that it is large enough and has all the internal facilities and equipment.

Obviously, the Nuland army did not receive accurate information about the specifics of the Keith Naval Air Station, and as a result, after destroying the runway, as well as the main infrastructure, the strike momentum was not maintained, giving the officers and men stationed at the base time to repair the damaged runway and other infrastructure.

In fact, it is also related to the fact that the Ebony Air Base has restored some of its operational capabilities.

On October 5, after the garrison repaired a section of the runway, the Air Force resumed combat patrols in that direction by sending 20 Battle-10Cs to the Ebony base.

After that, during the operation to intercept the Nuland bombers, these "Battle-10Cs" behaved very actively.

To say anything, the "Battle-10" itself is an air superiority fighter.

Although in actual combat, the "Zh-10" was often sent to carry out "mud-throwing" attack missions, in the beginning, the Air Force wanted to obtain air superiority fighters.

To put it simply, it is a fighter that is more agile than a heavy fighter and is more suitable for combat air combat.

In fact, in the era of designing the "Zhan-10", the ideal fighter in the minds of the air forces of various countries was this light and flexible small aircraft.

Compared to the "Battle-11", the "Battle-10" has almost no difference, except that it is smaller.

Although the maximum speed is only Mach 2.0, most of the time, there is no need to fly faster, even to intercept incoming bombers.

According to actual combat experience, under the command of AWACS, Mach 2.0 is enough to complete the interception mission.

As for the less bomb load, it can also be ignored.

To carry out an interception mission, the main thing is to force the enemy's bombers to drop bombs in advance and abandon the bombing mission by impacting, rather than necessarily shooting down the bombers.

The main value of these "Battle-10C" is actually to attract the attention of the Nuland Air Force.

Since then, the Nuland Air Force has focused on Ebony Island and rarely comes to Keith's side.

Otherwise, there would be no way to deploy the "Night Phoenix" here.

Because the range is too long, the "Night Phoenix" must be refueled in the air after takeoff.

This is also a major feature of the "Dark Night Phoenix", or a performance of great value obtained by using the PC-220 variable cycle engine.

Before entering the war zone, the Night Phoenix was able to fly at a relatively low economic cruise speed.

At altitudes from 24,000 meters to 26,000 meters, maintain a speed of Mach 2.5.

If anything, relying on the relatively slow and lower fuel consumption of the economic cruising speed, the "Night Phoenix" has only gained a range of 7,500 kilometers.

If you fly at Mach 3, that is, cruising speed, you can only fly 5,000 kilometers at most.

Of course, this is also related to the fuel storage and delivery system of the "Night Phoenix". Because there is no oil leakage, there is no need to maintain a high flight speed.

However, there is another benefit of economic cruising speed, which is rarely appreciated.

Ability to fly "overloaded".

Under normal circumstances, the Night Phoenix lifts off with a maximum take-off weight of 112 tons and carries 64 tons of fuel, but in order to solve the problem of aerodynamic heating and balance, it is necessary to retain at least 8 tons of residual oil, and to empty the fuel tank about one-fifth.

The reason is simple: when reaching Mach 3 flight speeds, the cryogenic fuel also expands after being heated.

Although the increase in volume is not so large, the relevant service equipment, such as the oil pump, has requirements for working pressure, so it is necessary to control the pressure inside the fuel tank.

In fact, when flying at economical cruising speeds, there is no need to waste this precious space.

Because the maximum take-off weight is exceeded, it must be refueled in the air after takeoff, and the speed must be controlled within Mach 2.5 before burning off the excess fuel, otherwise it will explode and disintegrate in the air. This means that it is necessary to fly about 3,000 kilometers with economic cruising.

Obviously, as a rule, not a single mission is flown so far.

With military bases scattered around the world, even if not all bases meet the Class A standard, they can rely on the tanker aircraft deployed in these bases, so most of the time, reconnaissance planes will enter the mission area after takeoff, and there is no need for long-distance transfers.

Only this time, this unique performance of the "Night Phoenix" has come into play.

Take off from Keith Island and fly 3,500 kilometers south before entering the mission, which is just enough to burn off the extra fuel on board.

In addition, the mission range is only 2,500 to 3,000 kilometers in total.

In other words, after the mission range, the two "Night Phoenixes" will slow down and fly the rest of the flight at an economical cruising speed.

Only in this way will it be possible to gain a range of 9,000 km!

In total, the whole journey takes almost 4 hours.

In fact, this is also the most serious problem.

Because it flies too fast and the effects of aerodynamic heating are particularly severe, the "Night Phoenix" is not equipped with the datalink equipment that has been used on various combat aircraft. Aside from a not-so-advanced encrypted radio station, this huge plane has no other communication equipment!

In addition, conventional cameras are used instead of digital cameras with CCD elements.

In order to facilitate the photo, the designers equipped the "Night Phoenix" with an airdrop capsule specially designed to transport film, and envisaged that when flying through the Empire's military bases, there was no need to land, and the film was sent out by airdrop, after all, not all bases could land the "Night Phoenix".

Although the Military Intelligence Agency has sent professional intelligence analysts to Noumea, and the Air Force has actively assisted and cooperated, theoretically, it will take four hours after the "Night Phoenix" takes off at the earliest to obtain reconnaissance information for this operation, but in practice it will definitely take more time.

The "Dark Night Phoenix" carried out a mission, and the film shot alone was several kilometers long.

Even if you have enough people and prepare the processing equipment in advance, it takes a lot of time just to read so many photos, and it is definitely not an easy task.

If anything, this is also the main reason why the Imperial Navy is not very interested in the "Dark Night Phoenix".

Only this time, the two "Night Phoenixes" are the main and even decisive force.