"The round-the-world flight of the B4143 has been postponed to December."

As soon as the hot search list on November 27 came out, aviation enthusiasts at home and abroad wailed.

The round-the-world flight challenge, originally scheduled for the end of November, has been postponed because both An-1250s have work to do.

The B4043 aircraft needs to transport the rocket body of the Xinyuan-2 A-modified rocket body and the H2 space shuttle, so the launch mission of the lightning can only be handed over to the B4143 aircraft.

At a large military airport in Quanzhou, B4143 landed on a 55-meter-long, 8-meter-long, shiny-looking fusiform fuel tank, and on the back of the Il-76 next to the runway was a lightning with a cocked nose.

Anderov and Dou Ping supervised the crew to hoist the Lightning on the back of the An-1250 and carefully install the fuel pipes.

The fuel tanks of the Inazuma were disposable, mostly made of magnesium-aluminum alloy to reduce weight, and the surface was divided into numerous hexagonal blocks by shallow dents.

Although the fuel tank did not have any technical content, Seryov carefully optimized it to reduce the cost as much as possible.

The fusiform fuel tank is designed to maintain a steady state for only 16 hours after being refueled, and if it does not take off during this time, the internal structure will be discarded due to metal embrittlement caused by hydrogen that does not meet safety standards.

Such a program life brings an extremely low cost, and it also means that the launch preparation process must be very careful, otherwise a fuel tank and 300 tons of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen may be scrapped, the latter of which is valuable.

Dou Ping was very curious about the lightning that made a new trick silently, and he only found out about it a week ago, and then rushed over.

The first time he learned about this aerial launch method, Dou Ping decided to copy it.

Not for anything else, cheap.

At present, there are two launch methods for the Shenlong-1A (SL-1A) at the desert base: a liquid rocket launch such as Xinyuan-5B or a Long March-7, and a solid rocket launch under the S2100 emergency state.

The preparation time for the launch of the liquid rocket is too long, and the solid rocket S2100 is so expensive that the space agency does not want to use it, and it is not willing to use it at all.

Air launches are too cheap, and the researchers at the base themselves estimate that they are only 30 to 50 percent of liquid rockets, and they are more flexible, as long as there is an airfield.

For example, the Lightning was arranged to Quanzhou, took off to the southern sea area for launch, and the fuel tank fell directly into the Pacific Ocean, and the landing area control and launch location were selected at will.

For Shenlong No. 1 armor, this means a wide range of maneuvering capabilities, and if the enemy wants to strike unless he plows all the airfields, but even so, then if I say that the carrier aircraft field airfield takes off, how will you deal with it?

Dou Ping: "Anderov, I think the military should order a few more Y-40 (the military code name of An-1250), I didn't expect you to resurrect MAKS here, no wonder the alliance supported this thing back then, it is indeed very good." ”

Anderov was a little puzzled: "Isn't Xifei developing the Y-35?" The load of the aircraft is also 350 tons, and the time for our new batch of An-1250 is actually not much different from that of the Yun-35, which is much more economical. ”

Dou Ping: "But we want it now, and it doesn't seem to need to be modified, right, Shenlong No. 1 has built another one, and now it is not finished to modify the nose of the aircraft, and I will rent your plane for test launch next year?" ”

“……”

Dou Ping: "Also, you developed the Lightning to transport low-G-value spacecraft, so why don't you develop a manned version that can hold at least 6 people?" Isn't it more cost-effective? ”

"Well, the current way of space tourism is actually quite good, and the An-1250 air-launch also requires some preparation time, and the money saved is not necessary in our opinion."

Dou Ping let out an "oh" and suddenly said:

"Anderov, I suddenly want to demonstrate the feasibility of a manned aerospace fighter like the MiG-105, which may be more flexible than the Shenlong No. 1 armor."

Anderov coughed dryly, he didn't expect these people to be so interested in Korolev's casual work, is this to resurrect the alliance step by step?

With so many unfinished projects of the Alliance, maybe in the future it can be said that the Orthodoxy of the Alliance is in the East?

When the chatter between the two was about to end and the An 1250 was about to take off, Dou Ping said meaningfully:

"The significance of the Inazuma may be even greater than that of H2M."

However, at this time, the eight XW-30 engines had been started, and Anderov did not hear too clearly, only saw the mysterious smile on his face.

6 crew members, 4 engineers of the Lightning, took off on the B4143, and then immediately turned to fly south, and the Su-35 and J-11BSH at the nearby airfield took off several planes one after another to escort them.

Such an undisguised straight southward flight trajectory was immediately detected by an RC135 taking off from Okinawa walking nearby, and the radar recognized the unique signal of the An-1250 at a glance, and the crew quickly leaned over.

Because it had entered the open sea at this time, the B4143 fleet only gave a routine greeting to RC135 and advised it to stay away to avoid accidents, but the latter just kept getting closer, and then took out his camera to take pictures.

Wright, the co-pilot of this execution, was so happy that he didn't have much effort to understand the purpose of the combination of the lightning and fuel tank on the back of the An-1250 aircraft, and he was immediately very excited, and took out the Canon 400D camera and began to take pictures.

These photos can be sold to the media at a good price as long as they land, and the air-launched space shuttle is likely to be in orbit, which is absolutely big news.

RC135 followed the worm all the way to the sea near Mindanao, which was close to the equator at this time, and the launch would save a lot of fuel.

In Captain Ryder's footage, the An-1250 continued to climb to 11,500 meters, the escort fighters pulled away slightly, and the RC135 moved away a little.

The crew of the B4143 increased the power of 8 turbofan engines to the maximum, allowing the aircraft to reach a speed of about 870 kilometers, and then pulled up an elevation angle of about 10 degrees.

On the back of the aircraft, liquid hydrogen first entered the H300 engine turbopump at the tail of the lightning through the pipe, and with the ignition command issued in the engine room, the H300 began to output thrust at 110% power, and at the same time, the explosion bolt connecting the fuel tank and the lightning bolt was energized.

The 330-ton thrust with the injection angle pointing at the center of gravity allowed the free-flowing Lightning to break away from the B4143 with the fuel tank, and the latter immediately pressed down on the nose to prevent burns from the tail flames, forming a ">" shape in the air.

The tail flame of the hydrogen-oxygen engine working at an altitude of 10,000 meters can still be seen orange-red, and the huge tail flame makes a bright fire suddenly appear in the airspace, making the Indonesian natives on the ground think that the fire is coming, and they kneel down in the indigenous language.

Wright, who witnessed and recorded the spectacle throughout the process, kept the RC135 climbing to capture as much of the Inazuma as possible, almost ignoring the convoy of escorts next to it.

In fact, in the back seat of the Su-35 closest to them, there was also a pilot with a camera in his hand who was speechless and looked at the RC135 that was joining in the fun.

In a sense, the latter became the first foreign "journalist" to witness it.

There are also ...... in the evening

(End of chapter)