Anyway, there is a group of students, and a group of students is just like that, not afraid of annoyance, afraid of useless, so that they can coax each other more, after all, Nathan is definitely the most skilled person in driving a Tomcat, which has been recognized, and he came to be an instructor, which is definitely a great advantage.

Under Nathan's various deceptions, the representatives of the BS countries who came to Grumman Company this time and wandered around here for several days, looking for their leaders, finally accepted this proposal, since Nathan said it, then it is to quickly find pilots and come here for training.

Talibi left with the men before Keniel asked, "Major Nathan, you actually agreed to update their onboard equipment?" ”

This is completely overstepping! Keniel didn't say the rest of the sentence.

"I said it and it doesn't count." Nathan smiled and said, "When the time comes, you can push it to me." ”

Nathan's words immediately made Keniel show the characteristic smile of a capitalist, and he played the ball, which was a good idea.

Nathan's suggestion has been supported from top to bottom because everyone feels that the current BS country is a little unstable, and in this case, it is a bit risky to export fighters to them, so it is better to wait a little longer and talk about the situation when the situation is stable.

On the other hand, it is because of inflation, and when the time comes, you can continue to let them invest more under the pretext of inflation.

As they spoke, the group walked to a separate workshop.

"We intend to conduct modification experiments on this fighter." "It's an F-14B. ”

The Panda fighters used now are all F-14A models, and they are also the initial production models, even if they are now equipped with TF41 engines, they are also the same F-14A models.

At the same time, since the Tomcat entered service, everyone knows its problems.

The biggest problem is the engine! The prototype TF30 engine, which was designed for bombers, was not suitable for fighters at all, so it began to prepare for replacement from before it was finalized, and the original TF30 engine was intended as a transition.

In terms of selection, it is intended to emerge from the competition between General Electric's GE1/10 and Pratt & Whitney's JTF22. At this time, it was the initial development plan of the Tomcat fighter jet, and the F-14A was a transitional model, and after the F-14B with a new engine entered service, the early A model was improved to the B standard. Pratt & Whitney won the engine competition, with the JTF22 being designated F401-P-400 for the Navy, and the F100 engine, also derived from the JTF22, had been chosen by the U.S. Air Force as the power plant for the F-15.

That is, the Navy would have chosen the same engine as the Air Force.

The F401-P-400 has a maximum thrust of 7,439 kg and an afterburner thrust of 12,700 kg, which is a significant increase over the TF30. It is expected that the F-14B with this engine will have significant performance gains, such as a 40% reduction in the turning radius and an 80% increase in the combat radius.

At the same time, the 7th prototype/pre-production version of the F-14 fighter was selected as the F-14B prototype. On September 12, 1973, the aircraft made its maiden flight with a mixed TF30 and an F401-P-400, and the new engines gave the F-14B prototype a thrust-to-weight ratio of more than 1 for the first time, allowing for an F-15-like vertical climb maneuver.

Although the U.S. Navy has planned to reequip, however, the United States is withdrawing from Vietnam, the domestic economy is sluggish, the Navy funding has been drastically reduced, the upgrade funds are nowhere to be found, and the F401 engine has exposed many serious reliability problems, and has not passed the flight test, just at this time, the Air Force's F100 has also encountered many problems in its development, causing many F-15 to lie on its stomach, so this replacement plan was abandoned, and the prototype that only flew for 33 hours was mothballed.

Later, at Nathan's suggestion, it was decided to use Spey's modification, that is, the TF41 engine to replace the prototype, so the mothballed fighter was unsealed, and after replacing two Spey engines, although the thrust was not greatly improved, but at least the reliability was greatly improved, and it was by relying on this engine that Nathan dared to do various maneuvers on the battlefield in Hokkaido.

After that, other fighters of the Navy began to change Spey.

However, Spey and its modification are also just a transition, after all, Spey is the foundation of the second-generation engine, and the subsequent replacement still needs to wait for the maturity of the engine of the real third-generation aircraft.

In later generations, it was not until 81 that the Navy decided to unseal the F-14B and replace it with two General Electric F101DFE engines, the F101 was the power plant of the B-1B, and the fighter derivative increased the fan and afterburner, and later developed the F110-GE-100 engine on this basis, which became an alternative power for the Air Force F-15 and F-16.

How powerful is this engine? The F-14B can be accelerated from Mach 0.8 to Mach 1.8 in 90 seconds, and there is no need to open afterburner when the deck catapults to take off, but unfortunately, this time it still did not enter service, and it was pushed until 86 years, when the F110, which had been successfully finalized, finally successfully completed the refitting and served as the power of the Tomcat fighter.

Now, the third generation of engines is still immature, so even if Nathan desperately wants to get a new engine, it is not Nathan's will.

They can only continue to use the TF41, and at least another two or three years will need to be insisted on before a suitable engine can appear.

It is useless for Nathan to be anxious, however, the upgrade of the avionics system is imminent, so on the basis of this F-14B, the avionics system will be improved.

Whether avionics is suitable for fighters is not only to be tested in the laboratory, but also to be measured by installation.

"The main body of avionics upgrade is radar, and we can only hand over this radar to Raytheon." "In order to reduce the burden on the project, in terms of radar, our plan is to keep some of the AN/AG-9's in-line replaceable units, such as transmitters, power supplies, rear cockpit tactical information displays," Kennier said. The new digital devices include digital signal and data processing machines, frequency synthesizers, antenna control parts, digital displays, and multi-channel receivers. Technically similar to the AN/APG-70. ”

This aircraft is to be modified, but the newly developed radar has not yet come out, so Keniel can only introduce Nathan first.

"At the same time, we are also looking forward to new ground-to-ground precision-guided weapons, and strive to be able to carry more ground-to-ground weapons."

This is a fighter specially designed for aerial combat, but now it has to be improved to multi-purpose, and the reason for this improvement is well known to everyone present.

"I've always hated big bugs." Nathan said to Keniel: "Our modification must make the big bugs redundant and squeeze out the living space of the big bugs." ”

In later generations, the fate of the tomcat, largely because of the big bug, when it was first developed, the big bug was used as a low-grade machine in the high and low matching, and when it was built, it was found that the price was not cheap, and in terms of combat effectiveness, if it was not as good as the tomcat, then Nathan had a great ability to keep the tomcat.

"At the same time, I have a new proposal." Nathan said to several senior officials present: "Even if we raise our own funds, we have to pre-develop a new project. ”

Hearing his words, Keniel pricked up his ears: "What project?" ”

"Stealth machine." Nathan said.