The entire test flight process lasted about half an hour.

Under the control of Fu Guoxiang, the No. 1401 aircraft touched the ground lightly with the rear wheels with a minimum sweep angle of 20°, which drew a perfect end to this mission.

Since American-made planes are rarely equipped with parachutes (unless they plan to be deployed in the Arctic Circle for a long time), the distance of the aircraft after landing is slightly longer than that of the aircraft on the Chinese side.

There was a round of applause and cheers in the command hall.

"Very good, very good."

General Persia, who had picked up his binoculars again and stared in the direction of the runway, repeated the words of praise twice in a row, apparently very satisfied with the performance of the F14IC during this test flight.

"Your Excellency General, we have to go down, the data recorded by the flight computer needs to be archived as soon as possible, of course, when the aircraft is officially delivered later, all the test data will also be copied to you."

He Ming directly handed the telescope in his hand to the assistant next to him, and said to the leader of the Persian delegation not far away:

"In addition, I arranged a dinner to celebrate the breakthrough of the cooperation project between our two countries."

After being promoted from deputy chief engineer to deputy general manager of the group, he also had to learn to get in touch with some administrative and communication affairs.

The first flight was successfully completed, and when they heard that there was a reception dinner, a group of Persians also happily followed He Ming downstairs.

Their delegation came with the first batch of F14s, and they have been in the factory for a little two months, which is really a bit suffocating.

Shia law is not very strict in terms of doctrinal norms, and it doesn't matter at all about feasts or anything, even fermented or distilled food and drinks, as long as they are not drunk openly.

At the same time, the two pilots who had just climbed out of the 1401 had just squeezed out of the crowd of celebrants and signed their flight records.

Unlike the usual test flight process, today they have a special task to complete.

A little farther away, an Air Force colonel had been waiting for some time.

Wang Kang, the brigade commander of the aviation brigade of Dingxin Base, is also Zhao Mengtian's superior, but it is the first time he has met Fu Guoxiang.

After completing the necessary physical examinations after landing, the two did not even have time to change their flight jackets, so they followed each other into a Mitsubishi off-road vehicle and came to a conference room in the administration building.

Several other people in the room stood up.

"Comrade Fu Guoxiang and Comrade Zhao Mengtian, first of all, congratulations to the two of you on your victory."

After the colonel officer finished speaking, he took the rest of the people and saluted the two:

"I called you here in such a hurry because the organization hopes to be able to understand your feelings in all aspects after the test flight of the F14 fighter as soon as possible."

The planes that the Persian side allocated to Huaxia for the mission of the imaginary enemy are still dismantled in the 70# plant, so Fu Guoxiang and Zhao Mengtian are the only two pilots in the entire air force who have flown F14.

Although the upgraded F14IC is different from the F14A and F14D, the basic flight characteristics will not change much.

The two pilots glanced at each other, and finally the higher-ranking former spoke:

"In terms of flight performance, the F14 gives me the feeling that it is lighter than I imagined."

After a momentary pause, he added:

"I mean, even with our upgraded engines, this plane is much easier to maneuver than it seems."

"The variable sweep wing does allow the aircraft to have several very different performance characteristics, and it can be switched according to different environments, especially the F14's wing sweep angle during flight does not require me to operate additionally, but is linked to the flight control computer to trim itself as I manipulate the throttle stick."

"In short, although this is the first test flight, and I haven't touched the limits of this aircraft yet, its geometric maneuverability must be very strong, and in the early stage of a line-of-sight battle, it will be a very difficult opponent within the first four or five flight maneuvers."

While Fu Guoxiang was descripting, a lieutenant next to Wang Kang was also tapping on the keyboard quickly, apparently recording what he said.

"The first four or five ......"

Wang Kang quickly captured the key point in his passage:

"That is, you don't think this mobility is very sustainable."

"That's right."

Fu Guoxiang nodded:

"Although the small sweep angle state can provide a good instantaneous disk ability, the drag is also very obvious, plus the weight of this aircraft is still too large, and the thrust of the engine is not enough, a little toss will cause the problem of insufficient energy, so as to fall into passivity."

"As far as the two third-generation aircraft I have flown are concerned, as long as the J-11 is not caught off guard in the process of just taking a look, it should not be difficult to win by virtue of the advantages of energy and large off-axis angles of weapons, and in the same way, after the J-11 is equipped with a 1493 self-use radar with similar performance to this aircraft, it can also accumulate enough energy advantages in the process of medium-range projectile firing and evasion."

"However, if it is a second-generation aircraft, even if it is a leader in the second-generation aircraft such as J-8C, it also needs some targeted skills to win, or simply use the speed advantage to fight quickly and withdraw quickly, of course, J-8C does not have an absolute speed advantage of more than 2.8 or even more than Mach 3 like MiG-31 or MiG-25, and it still needs to be dealt with carefully."

"Oh yes, although the F14's wing sweep angle does not need to be manually adjusted by the pilot, the process of wing change is relatively long, only about 6-7 degrees per second, and in this process, the aircraft will be in an extremely difficult state to control, if you can seize this window, you can take a big advantage."

In fact, the last comment will be given entirely because Fu Guoxiang has not flown other variable-swept wing aircraft.

The wingspan speed of 7° per second is actually far ahead of similar aircraft.

He recalls it again, making sure he didn't miss anything, and then concludes:

"In general, I think that the F14 is subject to the basic design, and the potential should be inferior to those real third-generation fighters later, but considering the reality of our Air Force, it is still necessary to face it with great vigilance."

What Fu Guoxiang said is already very complete, and there are not many parts that need to be added by Zhao Mengtian:

"The performance of the 1493 radar is very good, I tried to turn it on in the air, and found that the warm-up speed and refresh rate are very fast, far better than the N001 on the Su-27SK, and during the test flight, the radar even captured a medium-sized air target 240 kilometers away, which should be a passenger plane that happened to fly by."

"In addition, I think that with the improvement of the performance of the radar, as well as the fire control computer, in the course of over-the-horizon air combat, it is practically no longer necessary to have a separate pilot to operate the radar and guide missile firing."

"However, if it is a ground attack mission, then considering that the guidance method of air-to-surface weapons is generally more complex, like many people who need to control the whole process in the loop, the second pilot is very important."

"So I propose to carefully consider the number of equipment of the two-seat J-11, that is, the Su-27, unless it is prepared to develop a multi-role fighter with ground attack capabilities on its basis."

“……”

The conversation continued until the evening of the same day.

In 98, the F14 can still be regarded as the main model in the carrier-based aircraft force of the US Navy.

Therefore, Wang Kang asked very carefully.

And, as the topic continued to unfold, it was later involved not only the performance of this F14, but also some pilot training, as well as problems in the formation of the Blue Army.

"Seriously, Comrade Guoxiang, are you interested in transferring to our Blue Army Aviation Brigade to work?"

Before leaving, Wang Kang patted Fu Guoxiang's shoulder and quipped.

Of course, he knew that the other party would not be able to agree, but he just said it casually.

Sure enough, Fu Guoxiang did not take this stubble, but changed the topic a little bluntly;

"We exchanged the F14s for our own use, and the first of them should be about to roll off the assembly line, and when the time comes, Brigade Commander Wang, your troops will be more like the US army that has been replaced."

Zhao Mengtian, who was following behind the two, had been touching his chin and thinking for a while since just now, and then he also raised his head suddenly and said:

"Speaking of which, the U.S. military's F14 fighter is called Tomcat, so now this F14 has been improved by our country...... Is it okay to call it a panda? ”

……

The news of the completion of the first flight of the F14IC naturally quickly reached Chang Haonan's ears.

But for him, this incident can only be regarded as a small episode in his busy work.

If you insist on saying that it has anything to do with you, it may be that the new engine turbofan 9A is an improved model that he "accidentally" made.

I'm ashamed to have made only a small contribution.

Originally, he also thought that after the component-level testing work at hand was over, he would take the time to take a look at the 112 field to see what the "living" F14 looked like.

But before he could actually make the trip, by the end of May, there was exciting news.

The NH90 prototype on Eurocopter's side finally went wrong.

(End of chapter)