Under the gaze of all those present, the two heavy fighters with full afterburner and chasing each other took off and climbed rapidly, and soon became two blurred bright spots in the background of the clear blue sky.

Seeing the two sides of the race gradually drift away, the enthusiasm of the onlookers cooled slightly, and most people knew how this kind of 1,000-kilometer race would take dozens of minutes to determine the winner, so many people chose to use portable devices to connect to the Internet, or go to the live broadcast hall to continue to follow the competition.

The crowd surrounding the take-off area had gradually dispersed at this time; But the battle of speed in the sky has only just begun.

Long Yun and James, who control the "Flanker" and "Eagle", have the same idea at this time, and their plans are to climb to the economic cruising altitude of their respective landlines as much as possible, and cruise at the highest possible speed while ensuring fuel consumption, so as to fly the full range in the shortest time under the condition of limited fuel.

It is precisely because of this consideration that the two fighters dragging the dazzling tail flame are at full speed at this time, drawing a steep climb track in the air, and starting a scramble to climb vertically; As this process progressed, Long Yun unsurprisingly found that his landline was gradually distanced by the F-15C next to him, and the Americans, who were originally slightly behind, had caught up at this time, and gradually overtook and turned into a large torch with an unclear outline above the field of vision.

Long Yun was not surprised by James's overtake.

After all, in the process of accelerating the climb of the fighter, the competition is originally the thrust-to-weight ratio of the whole aircraft, and the excellent aerodynamic design of the Su-27SK cannot make up for the disadvantage of the thrust-to-weight ratio. So what he should do at this time is not to desperately pull the rod to chase the opponent in vain, but to try to fly out of the optimal climbing route that meets the computer's instructions. Climb to a predetermined cruising altitude with minimal fuel consumption and drag costs. Then compete with the Americans for long-range cruising capabilities.

Think of it this way. In just a few tens of seconds after takeoff, Long Yun had already climbed to an altitude of about 7,000 meters in the airline.

At an altitude of 7,000 meters in thin air, the level flight resistance of the fighter is much lower than that at sea level, in order not to be thrown too far by the F-15C that continues to accelerate in front, he did not enter the cruising state, but appropriately reduced the amount of afterburner fuel injection and maintained a gentle acceleration momentum to catch up with the opponent in front.

Since James was ahead of him, Long Yun used the airborne radar that had just been turned on to observe the air situation, and the F-15C in front had already completed the climb ahead of him. It is now flying at a level flight speed of Mach 0.9 on the predetermined route. Seeing that this strategy of subsonic cruise after climbing is very similar to his own intended tactics, it seems that although James of "MATRIX" is reckless, his skills are really good, and he should also be a veteran of aviation competition.

After thinking about it for a while, and considering that the power consumption of the radar would add additional driving load to the engine, Long Yun decided to maintain contact with the opponent with only the naked eye, and he quickly turned off the radar and entered a silent flight.

A journey of 1,000 kilometers is not a simple journey for a car or other ground transportation, but in the eyes of fighters in the air, it is about a matter of tens of minutes. Starting from the cruising state of Mach 0.9 at a speed, Long Yun steadily maintained the afterburner state to increase the speed of the fighter. The bright spots that had almost disappeared from the field of vision are gradually getting bigger; It was not until it was estimated that the distance between the two planes was close to a few thousand meters that he turned off the afterburner and gradually slowed down. Maintain a follow-up posture towards the Americans.

The speed race between fighters is a bit like a human long-distance race, and the strategy of following the flight can sometimes be very effective, of course, provided that you have enough knowledge of the flight characteristics of your own fighters.

As the two fighters flying in formation cruised all the way to the east, under the clear sky of the vast Rocky Mountains, a continuous roar was heard from a height of several thousand meters, reminding people on the ground that there were now high-speed aircraft flying overhead; The planes rushing one after the other drew two looming white tracks in the high sky, almost pointing straight in the direction of Elcor City, hundreds of kilometers east of Sacramento.

After slowing down, maintaining a speed of about Mach 0.8, Long Yun flew with the F-15C in front of him for a short while, and from time to time he overlooked the North American land under the sky, he felt that in fact, the current flight state was very good: as a follower, he could easily observe the opponent's movements, while James in front could only see him by relying on the cockpit rearview mirror or frequently turning back. In addition, driving the Su-27SK, which has more fuel stocks, will also create some pressure on the opponent by adopting a follow-up strategy, which is similar to a long-distance race.

But at this moment, he noticed that the brightness of the opponent's tail flame in his line of sight began to change, and Long Yun found from experience that James seemed to be speeding up with afterburner again, he turned on the EOS system equipped with the landline, and measured the target distance with a cross-linked laser rangefinder - sure enough, the distance between the two fighters was increasing at this time, and it was almost ten kilometers.

This James, what kind of tricks is he playing?

Finding that the opponent was speeding up with the afterburner, Long Yun quickly judged the current situation, he did not follow the afterburner to catch up, but continued to fly at the original speed unhurriedly.

The reason why he made such a choice was based on his own estimates.

When it comes to fighter racing, many people's first thoughts are that they are racing at a high speed similar to Formula 1, or that a fighter with a higher speed will definitely win; In fact, this is not the case at all, because the maximum level flight speed of the fighter at high altitude can only be achieved when the engine is fully turned on, and the fuel consumption in this case is extremely amazing.

For example, if a long-range fighter like the Su-27SK, which is known for its large internal fuel, really sprints with two AL-31F engines at full strength, it will only take less than a quarter of an hour to burn up all the more than nine tons of oil in the aircraft! In other words, the Su-27SK has a measly 500 kilometers range when it sprints at its maximum level flight speed, and it is clear that this kind of flying method is impossible to use in long-distance races.

As for the current situation, with the 6.1 ton of fuel in the fuel tank of the F-15C and the afterburner fuel consumption of about 1.7kg/daN*h (kilogram/kg thrust per hour) of the F100-PW-220 engine, it is categorically not enough for James to use the engine afterburner and squander it lavishly; So if there is no problem with the judgment of the Americans, then he is adopting a certain feint tactic, hoping that he will be afraid of being thrown off and recklessly drive the afterburner tail chase, so as to consume more fuel in this passive acceleration process.

With this judgment, Long Yun cautiously continued to keep Mach 0.8 behind the F-15C, and in today's sunny weather conditions, as long as he doesn't fall too far, he can completely keep the opponent in sight; At the same time, his flight maneuvers are extremely meticulous to avoid unnecessary additional drag caused by the frequent use of pneumatic controls.

After all, the game has just begun, so what's the point of letting your opponent fly farther away?

Having made up his mind to respond to all changes with the same, Long Yun's subsequent flight has been very smooth; Although after repeatedly measuring the range of the targets captured by the EOS system, he knew that the F-15C in front of him was accelerating and slowing down for a while, and was always using deceptive fishing tactics, but he never paid attention to the opponent's feints.

Compared with Long Yun, who has a calm style, James's life is not so easy now.

Compared with the opponent who was comfortable and flying smoothly behind, after a period of shifting speed, seeing the navigation information indicating that the halfway mark point was in sight, and driving the F-15C at Mach 4 speed, James's palm holding the joystick was already a little hot. In the previous half-flight, he had been using intermittent acceleration tactics in the hope of confusing his opponents, and he kept looking back in the cockpit, but no matter how carefully he searched and observed, he could not see any trace of the gray "Flanker".

In the clear blue sky, there was nothing but white clouds scattered around; If it weren't for the fact that radio contact with the base had been completely normal, he would have almost assumed that his opponent had withdrawn from the race for some reason, or that he had simply flown the wrong route.

This hateful chronic son, why didn't he catch up quickly, and he really didn't worry about being thrown off by himself at all?

Due to the previous repeated variable speed flight deception tactics, instead of fooling the Chinese behind, James consumed a considerable amount of onboard fuel.

Looking down at the fuel gauge, the first half of the nearly 500-kilometer voyage cost him nearly 7,000 pounds of aviation kerosene, although this figure was less than half of the total amount of fuel, but he knew very well that the "flanker" who adopted the following tactics was likely to have more considerable fuel stocks, and the second half of the race was only afraid that the competition would be more intense.

Such a competition situation has to be said to be a big surprise to him.

I thought that after taking off, I would have a speed race with my opponent, but now I found that the Chinese driving the "flanker" obviously considered the tactical arrangement thoroughly, and the competitive James finally had a bad premonition. As an all-rounder in aviation competition and racing, he knows very well that only veterans can be sure to do this in the racing competition, and if the novice blindly imitates it, he will either lose the game or run out of fuel in advance; In this way, this driving "flanker" is also a racing veteran, is he a little underestimated today?

This is not counted, since he is now close to the turnaround point of the route, he who is temporarily ahead needs to complete a 180-degree U-turn over the navigation point and then return; However, due to the lack of consideration just now, the speed of the landline is still not conducive to the Mach 1.4 with a small radius of rotation, and he does not want to lose the speed advantage that he has accumulated so hard.

But trouble is trouble, driving a fighter plane to make a clean and beautiful circle, which still does not bother him.

Thinking about the F-15C's ability to sustain turning maneuvers at current speed and altitude, James made a slight sidestick about two kilometers away from the navigation point and began to fly outside the navigation route, and he planned to use a large radius of continuous turning maneuvers to turn around and enter the return flight. (To be continued......)