"Mr. President, all our other work is progressing smoothly, and the new optical landing equipment ordered from the United States has also been installed." Liu Taoshan, the chief engineer in charge of the entire restoration project and a veteran shipwright from the Oriental country, said to Mhammad.

Mhammad nodded excitedly, he knew that it was extremely dangerous for carrier-based aircraft to land on an aircraft carrier, and in addition to relying on the pilot's skills, it also needed to rely on various advanced auxiliary means, such as this optical landing aid, which was very important.

"Well, that's pretty good." Mhammad said: "If carrier-based aircraft want to compare with land fighters, the most important thing is that they can take off and land on aircraft carriers. ”

"We have solved the problem of landing, but the problem of take-off, according to what you said, really cannot be solved." Liu Taoshan said to Mhammad.

"Why?" Mhammad asked.

According to Mhammad's idea, the catapult is used to accelerate first, and when the catapult is accelerated, it will take off from the jump deck in front, so that the two advantages of the catapult and the jump deck can be combined, and in the case of insufficient power of the catapult, this is the only way to take off the Tomcat.

"Because, the jumping deck can't just be lengthened in front of the original deck, it must start from the middle of the take-off, and there must be a gradual upward angle." Liu Taoshan said.

His words immediately made Mhammad understand.

If you want to catapult and take off, the catapult must be straight, the deck must be flat, and if you want to jump and take off, the deck will gradually climb higher and higher from the middle of take-off, and the angle will be higher and higher, and finally reach the required angle, the two are contradictory.

In later generations, although the Soviets were the aircraft carrier Ulyanovsk. A combination of the two take-off methods was also adopted, but the catapult take-off was used on the beveled deck and the jump flight was used on the bow deck, and the two were not unified.

If you want to use the two together, you can't.

"If you want to put it all together, there are only two options. The first is to completely lengthen the bow deck and extend more than 30 meters to make a leaping deck. The second is to move the catapult back all the way to the middle of the deck. Liu Taoshan continued: "But both of these have congenital defects, and if the deck is moved forward, it will lead to an imbalance in the front and rear weight of our warship. In the event of strong winds and waves, the bow of the ship will sink strictly, and if the weight of the rear deck is increased at the same time, the weight of the upper deck will increase, and there will be a danger of capsizing. And the second, the catapult is moved back, which will overlap the take-off and landing areas, for operations on deck. It will form a strict zhòng interference. ”

Liu Taoshan made the shortcomings of the two situations clear. After repeated deductions, neither of these scenarios can solve the existing problems, that is, the plan proposed by Mhammad is completely unworkable.

Hearing Liu Taoshan's words, Muhammad nodded: "Indeed." We have only one choice, either catapult or leap. ”

"We've designed two new options for two options, and now. It's up to you. Liu Taoshan said.

Either use a catapult and abandon the jump, or completely modify the forward deck with only the jump.

If Mhammad had to choose, Mhammad would not have a second choice, it would definitely be a catapult, because only a catapult could take off the E-2 AWACS aircraft, and in the absence of an AWACS aircraft, the combat effectiveness of the aircraft carrier would be greatly reduced. "Use a catapult." "This also requires minimal modifications to the deck," Mhammad said. ”

In addition to the AWACS aircraft, the catapult is a better choice, in addition to the early warning aircraft, the catapult is used, the deck is straight, in this way, the space in the bow of the ship, you can also temporarily stay the aircraft, Kuznetsov, the displacement of the aircraft carrier is large enough, but the jumping deck occupies the space of the head, and the guide zhì carrier-based aircraft cannot be arranged in the bow, and the deck space is limited, the aircraft has to be towed out of the hangar first, which will reduce the efficiency of the guide.

"Okay, then we'll use the catapult scheme, but I have a new idea." Liu Taoshan continued.

"What thoughts?" Mhammad asked.

"Catapults, all one section at a time, we are now ordering C-11 catapults, which have arrived, we can order a few more as spare, and then, behind the deck, dig out the slots, so that we can put down two more sections, and the length of our catapults will increase, and the increased length will increase the catapult capacity.

Just like the barrel, the longer the barrel, the longer the energy of the gunpowder is released, and the greater the muzzle velocity of the shell.

And the C-11 catapult, as an excellent catapult designed by the United States, could have been increased in length.

"Well, that's a good idea." "However, the length of the catapult is only one aspect, and we have to take into account other issues," Mhammad said. ”

Catapult, in addition to the piston and cylinder barrel, more importantly, there is a tank for storing high-pressure steam, in later generations, the country has been unable to build its own catapult, and this storage tank has a lot to do with this storage tank, because it has to withstand considerable pressure, this kind of tank is a large-size high-pressure vessel. In the chemical, nuclear industry, energy and aerospace technology, the advanced nature of this kind of jar reflects the level of a country's heavy industry.

Although there are strict requirements for canning materials, manufacturing equipment and welding processes, and for aircraft carrier catapults, there are requirements for the number of uses, weight restrictions and high temperature resistance, which makes it more difficult to manufacture. It is made of heat-resistant special alloy steel, which has very good creep properties and tensile strength, and also has to withstand hundreds of thousands of ejection pressurization and pressure relief fatigue cycles.

For example, the commonly used method is to use a steel pestle through the steel ingot, repeatedly forging and pressing to make a link, after turning, and then several links are welded into a cylinder, and the head on both sides is pressed out or divided into blocks with a hydraulic press of more than 10,000 tons, and then welded after cutting. This difficulty even exceeds the cylinder of the catapult.

A simple gas tank can reflect the industrial level of a country. Mhammad was very concerned about this aspect, and he knew that only if the cylinder was lengthened, if there was not enough steam, the goal of increasing the ejection power would not be achieved.

"Another difficulty is the gas tank." Hearing Mhammad's words, Liu Taoshan continued: "If we want to build a large gas tank, I'm afraid we really can't build it, but now, we just need to connect a small gas tank in parallel to the original gas tank, and the capacity is enough for a few extra cylinders to use, and we are sure to build it." ”

Hearing this, Mhammad was overjoyed, this is also a simple solution, on the basis of the original, add a small solution to the problem!

The manufacturing difficulty of the gas storage tank is relative, mainly determined by the diameter of the tank, when the diameter is small, the manufacturing difficulty of the gas storage tank under the same pressure will be greatly reduced.

In this way, the problem of the catapult was finally solved!

"Through these methods, we can ensure that the Tomcat fighter takes off from the aircraft carrier, but it can't take off with a full load, and if you want to continue to take off with a full load, you have to think of other ways, such as increasing the thrust of the Tomcat fighter's engine." Liu Taoshan said to Mhammad.

Increase the thrust! This program, Mhammad is solving! Negotiations with the Americans will definitely be reached in the end, and when the F110 engine with greater thrust is used, the dependence on catapults will definitely be reduced!

There is a big performance gap between taking off with a full load and being able to take off, such as in later generations, China's J-15, although it can also take off from the Liaoning, but it is a half-oil take-off, can only carry a C-602 air-to-ship missile, and only has a combat radius of 250 nautical miles, although the J-15 body is very good, but it is limited by insufficient take-off power.

"Well, just follow your plan." "You are all experts, only I am a layman," Mhammad said. ”

"In addition to the catapult, there is another problem." Liu Taoshan said: "It is the problem of the aircraft carrier's elevator. ”

The fighters of the aircraft carrier are usually stored in the hangar below, and the maintenance and repair are also in the hangar, so when needed, they have to be brought up from the hangar, which involves the lift.

Later aircraft carriers in the United States, the elevators were all side lifts, so that while taking off and lifting, they would not interfere with deck operations, and take-off and landing would not affect each other.

However, the current Pakistani aircraft carrier is a decommissioned aircraft carrier of the United States, which was converted from an aircraft carrier with a straight deck to a beveled deck at that time. By the time it was decommissioned, there were only two catapults in the bow, there were no catapults on the beveled deck, and in addition to this, it was even more inconvenient that one of the elevators was in the middle of the two catapults that took off!

That's right, it's the middle, when the United States went through the deck, it was in this position that it was lifted, and now, this elevator has become a chicken rib, when it works, the deck can't eject the take-off fighter, here is a big pit, and after the plane is brought up, it will interfere with the ejection work.

Since it's chicken ribs, it's better to block it completely! This is what Liu Taoshan means, the extra space below, you can put down one more fighter!

Hearing Liu Taoshan's description, Muhammad said: "Okay, just take the plan you said!" Our first aircraft carrier is of a real nature, and if it is inconvenient, we will change it again! ”

Only such an aircraft carrier, it's okay to scare and scare the Indians, and one day, it will really be impossible to confront the Americans at sea, so the greater significance of this aircraft carrier is to train naval aviation for Pakistan! It's a seed waiting to take root and thrive! (To be continued......)