Viktor Rezenov's strength, probably any pilot in the parallel world will be in awe, but admitting the gap is one thing, when it is really time to compete, Wang Weiguo and his comrade-in-arms Zheng Bin's desire to fight is still far better than speculation about the outcome, the two quickly got ready, and walked towards the two gray painted J-10 "Raptor" fighters towed to the side of the runway with steady steps.

Since it was a friendly confrontation rather than a real battle, the two J-10 fighters, one in front of the other, were also carrying training bombs under their wings.

The gray-white PL-11 with huge wings and the orange PL-8 with equally large wings were loaded, and two of each of the two symmetrical pylons under the delta wing were mounted; In addition, what the group didn't pay much attention to when they visited just now was that, unlike Long Yun's understanding, the wingtips of the J-10 "Raptor" fighters in the parallel world had changed, from a simple cut delta wing to a wingtip missile launch slide that poked out a section forward.

The wingtip pylons themselves are not a very difficult task, but they are rarely used by fighters in Eastern countries.

For example, the Soviet Union, an aviation power, has developed countless fighter models since its establishment, but except for some technical verification aircraft and prototypes, there is no model with wingtip hardpoints, and it was not until the Su-27 in the 80s that it was the first socialist camp fighter with pylons on the wingtips.

In this way, it seems that the technology of "wingtip anchorage" is very high-end, or difficult to implement, but in fact, it is not the case, and it is mainly a comprehensive consideration of the designer.

The setting of wingtip hardpoints has the advantage of having two more light-load attachment positions, which is beneficial to the ammunition arrangement of the fighter, and can also be used as a wing counterweight on some models. At the same time, there are also many disadvantages, not only to increase the drag of the fighter - the farther away from the main body of the aircraft is from the aerodynamic point of view, the greater the drag, but also to reduce the agility of the fighter on a certain distance.

In addition to this, the wingtip anchors of models with higher speed requirements are also limited by Mach cones.

For a supersonic fighter. If the wing position itself is relatively forward, plus the pylons and weapons, it will often protrude beyond the Mach cone formed by the nose, so that when flying at high speed, not only the drag will be greatly increased, but also the flight safety will be endangered, so a basic principle of the aerodynamic design of the fighter is "sharp". The whole machine has only one shock wave center when facing the atmosphere; Conversely, if a fighter with a forward wing has wingtip pylons, such as an F-16 or F/A-18, then it can be assumed that the aircraft is not very fast.

Of course, there are many reasons why a fighter does not have wingtip pylons. Among the third-generation fighters of the Soviet Union in the Cold War era, the MiG-29 did not have wingtip pylons mainly because it was unnecessary, and a heavily equipped front-line fighter only needed to carry six air-to-air missiles and underwing pylons.

The larger Su-27, as a long-range heavy aircraft originally equipped with PVO, has as many hardpoints, the better, and in addition, taking into account the problem of flutter of the wingtips, and at the same time, the pylons that serve as the wingtip missile launch slides and counterweight rods will appear, and the number of ten external hardpoints of the whole aircraft is already quite a lot. The inner section of the wing is still empty, and a pair of heavy-duty hardpoints can be added later, which can be regarded as making full use of the large size of the Su-27 series fighters.

This is the case with the MiG-29 and Su-27, and then look at the situation with the main fighters of the Chinese Air Force. In the early years, aviation technicians did experiments on a J-6III aircraft, and modified a pair of missile launch rails on the wingtips of the "Sixth Master" to carry PL-2 missiles.

However, the experiment is only a kind of exploration after all. On the follow-up J-7, J-8 and even J-10 fighters, the wingtip pylons have been missing. There are many reasons for this, but the most important one is the shape and position of the wing - due to the pursuit of high-altitude and high-speed performance. In addition, the engine itself is more restrictive, these kinds of main fighters without exception use delta wings, if you do not cut the tip, you can't install the wingtip pylon, in addition to another reason is from the delta wing, the wing tip position is backward, if the pylons are set up, it will affect the center of gravity of the aircraft, and it is also an additional burden on the flight control.

In addition, there is probably another consideration, judging from the operational needs of PLAAF and the payload capacity of these fighters, there is no urgent need to increase the demand for pylons.

This is the situation in the real world, when Long Yun and his comrades walked out of the combat preparation room together, and saw the two gray-green camouflage MIG-29M ready to fly on the same wide runway, and also saw the two J-10 "Raptors" with slow engines not far away, he quickly found the orange PL-8 training bombs mounted on the wingtips of the fighters.

When I visited the fighter just now, it was probably the "Raptor" in the hangar that was not equipped with a wingtip missile launch slide, and Long Yun didn't notice it, and now he found that the J-10 in this world actually has this kind of design.

Indeed, for a multi-role fighter similar to the F-16, the more hardpoints the better.

Although limited by the structural strength and overload value, the wingtip hardpoint can only hang one combat bomb or over-the-horizon missile, but it can liberate two underwing hardpoints, and if you transfer them sequentially, the last two empty inner wing hardpoints are very promising, whether it is hanging opposite ammunition or auxiliary fuel tanks.

After catching up with the lesson of wingtip pylons and talking with Chinese personnel near the tarmac, the members of the military delegation agreed with the host some details of the confrontation exercise.

A moment later, under the guidance of the base tower, two J-10 fighters with gray air superiority paint and bright and eye-catching "Bayi" aircraft emblems on the wings slid into the air, and then the MIG-29M painted with a big red five-pointed star also flew off the runway, and the four fighters formed a simple multi-plane formation in the sky and flew towards the predetermined confrontation airspace.

The order of departure, according to the consideration of the Chinese personnel, must be to let the J-10, which has a longer range in internal oil, take off first.

This arrangement, it can be regarded as taking care of the "airport defender" nickname of the MiG-29, in fact, this statement is somewhat selfish, according to the conventional process, the fighters on both sides are full of fuel tanks in the air, and the J-10 twin planes that leave the ground first hovering in the sky are waiting for the grouping, and they can also burn off some fuel, and the thrust weight of the whole aircraft is a little cheaper than that of the second lieutenant.

Of course, the problem of the short range of the MiG-29 has been solved to a certain extent on the improved M-type, and now the difference between the internal fuel range of the two fighters is not large, which means that they are standing on the same running line in this regard.

After taking off, flying with two sharp "Raptors", piloting the MiG-29M fighter with the number blue 09, Long Yun looked around from the cockpit of the MiG machine for a long time, and flew the plane for the first time in the sky above the motherland in the parallel world, next to two J-10 fighters that had never been seen before, he controlled the landline to maintain a stable route, while carefully observing the flight conditions of the "Raptor" fighter, of course, at this time, Wang Weiguo and Zheng Bin who were flying flat were the same.

In Beijing in early spring, the westerly sun shone on the smooth skin of the fighter planes in the afternoon, and after taking off, the formation flew southward at an altitude of about 2,500 meters, and the large blue sky outside the cockpit was very familiar to Long Yun.

It seems that, like the capital Beijing in the real world, the growing industry and the increasingly noisy urban activities have made the sky in this world also full of dust, although it is not yet the time for a sandstorm, but as far as the eye can see, the lower edge of a large clear blue sky is still gray and unclear, and it is obvious that the air quality on the surface is not good.

As a VVS ace pilot, he has been fighting in Central Europe, the Caucasus and the Far East, and the sky in different regions is also changing under the changes of sky, time and weather.

Flying with the wingman on the side of the "Raptor", Long Yun stood in Viktor Rezenov's point of view to observe, he must admit that the surface atmosphere of the "parallel motherland" is not very good, just like now the plane lifts off into the air, after flying over the thin layer of dust on the ground, the sky above his head and around him is as blue as washing, as if the environment is not bad, but if you look down, you will suddenly leak the stuffing.

Next, according to the arrangement of the confrontation process, the four fighters entered a group of predetermined routes, actions of the formation flight, each group of twin aircraft to maintain the same formation, the two groups of twin aircraft do not need to follow closely, through guò this way to let the pilots have a certain understanding of the basic performance of the fighters.

If the test flight in the sky is to understand the flight performance of the fighter, it is probably most efficient to directly let the pilot fly around the sky.

However, the J-10 in the base, as well as the visiting MIG-29, do not have a two-seater, and it is impossible to directly let the pilot fly an unfamiliar model alone.

Under the requirements of the process, according to every call from the tower, Major Wang Weiguo and wingman Zheng Bin controlled the J-10 to enter the standard navigation subject, and the two "Raptors" first turned on the afterburner, came to a period of horizontal acceleration, and then the nose was raised, and the constant speed climbed into the large angle of attack, continued to pull up and then flattened, and then the push rod dived to complete a high-strength maneuver with a speed of 600 kilometers. (To be continued)