At the airport of the Gorky City Aviation Research Institute, soldiers and workers have cleared the snow from the base's extra-long concrete runway in the morning sun, and a special engine starter is warming up a twin-engine plane that has just been towed out of the hangar. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

This is a prototype fighter with a different kind of fighter with the number 02 on the fuselage and the experimental model I-20 - it is special because it has no propellers!

Today is the third test flight of the IL-20 prototype No. 2, and everyone at the airport is busy in an orderly manner. Twenty meters away from the plane, Ilyushchenko, the chief test pilot of the design bureau in a winter flight suit, was having a final conversation with the chief designer of the aircraft, Nikolai Nikolayevich Polikarpov, before takeoff.

The systems had been put to the fore, and the technicians in charge had reported to the chief designer that everything was in order -- today's test flight was of great significance, because it was the first time that the I-20 had made a full-load test flight: the guns that had not been loaded with ammunition in the previous two test flights would already be loaded, and the fuel tanks would be fully loaded.

The front line is in full swing, which puts great pressure on designers and test pilots, and they can't use the two-year or three-year schedule for test flights of one model in peacetime, and they need to speed up! However, Polikarpov, Ilyushchenko, and others did not do anything brutally, but only compressed the time intervals between all subjects in the test flight schedule -- every time a subject is finished during the day, all departments of the base rotate 24 hours a day, and all formalism is thrown away without hesitation, just so that the new aircraft can reach the practical stage one day earlier.

In terms of the I-20 armament, Polikarpov did not use any kind of 23-mm guns that had already been put into use in large quantities by the Soviet Air Force, but installed three latest NR-30 guns for the new aircraft, a new type of aircraft gun with extremely powerful power!

The successful development of the NR-30 aircraft gun was nothing short of a miracle for Soviet aircraft artillery research, and in Polikarpov's opinion, it would not be outdated for at least 20 years!

However, the number of the I-20 guns on the runway was not four, but three, and they were arranged in a triangular shape in the nose -- the reason for the reduction of one gun was that the NR-30 gun was the best design after taking into account the recoil, ammunition arrangement, and rate of fire of the NR-30 gun.

The NR-30 aircraft gun is a tube-retreat single-barreled gun, with a caliber of 30 mm, a muzzle velocity of 780 m / s, and a rate of fire of up to 900 rounds per min! Its extremely high rate of fire ensures sufficient firepower density, and for this reason, the artillery design department has designed a large magazine of 120 rounds for the I-20 in accordance with the proposal of the Gorky Research Institute, so as to ensure the continuity of its firepower.

However, this also led to the need to reduce the number of guns in the original design: if four guns were to be crammed into the nose of the I-20, it would become extremely crowded, and even the overall balance of the aircraft would need to be adjusted again.

However, three NR-30 guns are enough!

The new gun has a maximum recoil of 58.84 kN, a chain cartridge with a feed belt, a total weight of 66 kg, and a design life of 2,000 rounds. Currently, the available types of ammunition are anti-personnel explosive incendiary bombs and armor-piercing incendiary bombs. The No. 1 aircraft used for static tests showed that the structure of the I-20 was capable of withstanding the tremendous recoil and vibration generated by a salvo of three latest 30-mm guns, and the unit ammunition projection density was sufficient for it to deal with any target that could fly in the sky -- it is estimated that no matter how many rounds of a large aircraft the target is, a single burst of three NR-30 guns can make it bloom in the air!

If the target is a fighter jet, a single 30mm anti-personnel explosive incendiary bomb can deliver a devastating blow!

A two-seater MiG-1 fighter will take off as an observation plane this time to record the test flight of the I-20. Ilyushchenko will conduct a test of the aircraft's maximum speed at an altitude of 8,000 meters when the fuel consumption reaches 70 percent. As Ilyushchenko returns to the airfield, a P-2 high-speed bomber will tow the target, and Ilyushchenko will shoot at it in the air.

This is a preliminary test flight of the three subjects at one time, and all the test flight participants are full of confidence in the chief designer and the chief test pilot comrade. The "Phantom" in Zhukov, Moscow, also gave Gorky's team more confidence -- the engine of the I-20: the powerful DP-1-2 engine caused only a few minor problems in the "Phantom" test, and there were no unforeseen accidents such as fires and explosions during the service life.

At 9:40 a.m., Ilyushchenko entered the cabin and, with the help of a mechanic, put on a parachute backpack - in case of an irreversible situation at high speed, he would have to turn the plane upside down before he could parachute, otherwise he would very likely hit the tail part.

Just now, Polikarpov told Ilyyushenko about the possible future testing of new escape seats equipped with the I-20 and the Phantom, which was carried out by a research group under the design bureau in charge of Polikarpov: the situation is bad!

"Last time, the deputy commander mentioned that we should use rocket technology in the research of high-speed aircraft escape seats, and relying on rubber bands and compressed air is a dead end, but now those comrades have not been able to come up with a reliable design in a short time." Polikarpov was a little helpless.

"I heard about it, let the comrades hurry up and fill the big hole in the No. 7 hangar, otherwise it will be miserable after two months of rain! Hehe. Ilyushchenko said it very lightly, he hardly thought about his own safety, only thinking about how to complete all the test flight subjects as soon as possible.

Ejection seats, a completely new subject, did not go well in Soviet research: as early as the First World War, the aviation powers involved in the war began to equip pilots of combat aircraft with parachutes. But as aircraft get faster, it's becoming increasingly difficult for pilots to climb out of the cockpit and skydive. The speed of these fighters has generally increased to more than 600 kilometers per hour, and pilots parachute at the risk of being blown down by strong winds or scraped into the tail of the plane.

At a speed of more than 500 kilometers per hour, people will be blown backwards as soon as they get out of the cabin, and hitting the tail wing is a life and death!

According to information obtained by the intelligence services, Germany on the other side began to study seats that can eject pilots out of the cabin for a long time: in 1938, Germany experimented with rubber band-powered ejection seats, but they did not meet the practical requirements. In the spring of the previous year, Germany developed an ejection seat powered by compressed air, but the performance did not seem to be ideal, at least no German aircraft had been equipped with an ejection seat during the war.

At the beginning of last year, the Soviet Union also conducted an experiment of compressed air ejection seats based on intelligence, but the outcome was devastating - the first experiment came with a "chair destruction and death", but fortunately a dummy was used - the seat exploded! The compressed air bottle had an unexpected effect, not only did the seat fall apart, but the dummy was blown into several sections!

After the start of the war, the Soviet Air Force's research on ejection seats had to be suspended, but with the breakthrough progress of the "Phantom" and the I-20 project, the need for ejection seats in the Air Force became very urgent. After learning about the previous research on the ejection seat, the deputy commander directly made a decision - use rocket power, and everything else is not to be discussed!

The technicians were super fast and replaced the compressed air with homemade rockets, but the first experiment with a dummy was similar to the "chair crash" accident!

They experimented in the hangar, connecting a solid stake to the ground and attaching a chair to a wire rope to prevent it from hitting the roof of the hangar. Then an 80-kilogram dummy was strapped to the seat, and the electronic ignition - with the power turned on, there was a loud "bang" and the smoke after the rocket was ignited, and the scene was spectacular! Finally, in a very short time, there was a loud bang of something being broken!

When the smoke cleared, everyone noticed that the seat was gone!

At that time, Major Tukolev, the No. 2 test pilot of the Design Bureau, was at the scene, and after seeing this scene, he turned his head in a daze and said to the people around him: "If I am killed, I will not sit on this dangerous bomb!" ”

The seat didn't explode, but flew away: apparently the deputy commander's direction of research was correct, at least the seat could fly, but the people below had messed it up! The wire rope, which was about the thickness of a little finger and attached to the stake, was broken, and even more excessively, the skylight was opened on the iron roof of the tall hangar - the staff found the broken seat and the dummy in the snow more than a hundred meters away from the hangar!

The initial acceleration of the rocket ignition is too high, the seat and the dummy are "launched" like a cannonball, and the huge power even the wire rope is neatly broken, what will happen if the human is on it?!

Don't try to live! This escape seat will be more like a guillotine, whoever dares to go up will finish playing!

"Such a violent ejection, if I were on it, my upper body would have to turn into a compressed biscuit!" Tukolev heard what he said to himself, Polikarpov clearly - the researchers are in a hurry, they must be serious, and they must not use the pilots as rockets!

Rocket technology must be improved, and the "rocket artillery" standard cannot be used. "The technical strength of the Rocket Research Institute will help us, but you won't need an ejection seat anytime soon."

"I can trust your plane." Ilyushchenko's answer to Polikarpov appeared crisp.

The instrument panel showed that everything was normal, and Ilyushchenko turned on the ignition button: in two somewhat muffled pops, two DP-1-2 engines successfully ignited.

Push the canopy, release the brakes, and slowly push the accelerator lever forward with the palm of your left hand. The DP-1-2 engine roared violently, and the concrete floor of the runway shook slightly! Personnel in the distance behind the side can see that the inside of the engine vent turns red in a short time, and even see the almost cyan flame dragging out!

The wheels began to turn, and the plane slowly accelerated! When Ilyushchenko put two throttle sticks (one of the features of early twin-engine jets, whether it was a bomber or a fighter. When pushed to the "take-off" position, the plane runs faster and faster!

(My bat is back again, and some time ago I was busy preparing for the renovation of my new house - a great pain in the world: decorating the house!) (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )