Chapter 275 Orbital Flyer

As mentioned earlier, on July 15, 2056, a major event occurred that changed human civilization.

Subsequently, Lu Wen used an incredible argument to apply for a special scientific research fund to develop equipment for detecting flying objects at a speed of light.

By the end of August, the basic research work was completed.

The detection principle adopted is the gravity field fluctuation theory, that is, when objects propelled with anti-gravity field technology fly at the speed of light, they will have an impact on the nearby gravity field, resulting in gravity field fluctuations, and this abnormal phenomenon can be detected at a relatively long distance.

In theory, this technology can roughly determine the flight trajectory of light-speed objects.

By September, Chinese scientists built the first gravity field fluctuation detector.

The problem is that no one knows whether this detection theory works, nor does anyone know whether this expensive instrument can work properly.

The only way is to conduct an experiment.

Unfortunately, it took more than half a year to build the second "Deep Space" spacecraft, and there was not enough anti-gravity field shielding material in China's warehouse at that time.

In the end, the Navy decided to retire the "Flying Dragon" and provided sufficient anti-gravity field shielding materials.

At the end of 2056, the Deep Space 2 spacecraft was completed, and Lu Wen was preparing to conduct a second light speed flight experiment and take this opportunity to test the gravity field fluctuation detector.

Compared with Deep Space, Deep Space 2 is the real spacecraft.

To put it simply, Deep Space 2 is much larger than Deep Space, with about ten times the mass of Deep Space, and has more subsystems.

At that time, the first prototype had been manufactured for the "orbital vehicle" developed for the International Space Station.

Strictly speaking, "orbiter" is the first aerospace platform based on anti-gravity field propulsion system and has round-trip flight capabilities.

Later, "orbiter" replaced all chemical energy rockets.

Although only a prototype was launched at the end of 2056, the success of the Deep Space spacecraft has practical application value.

This orbital vehicle named "Cosmic Rainbow" is actually a behemoth.

In the initial stage, the engineer responsible for the project should first build a smaller one, and after mastering the necessary technical parameters, build a larger one to carry out systematic construction in a gradual improvement manner, thereby solving the troubles encountered during the construction process.

It must be admitted that this is the right way to do it.

However, after the war, the changes in the situation and some unexpected gains helped Chinese engineers resolutely resolve many problems in the construction process.

First of all, the combat pressure of the army is reduced, and we can do things that have little to do with war.

For example, help scientists transform a fighter jet with orbital flight capabilities to collect data necessary for orbital round-trip flights.

At that time, the Air Force planned to transform the J-40's prototype into an orbital fighter.

This idea is very realistic, because the j-40 is originally a suborbital fighter, and during the development process, the technical indicators did not shrink, otherwise it would not be delayed until the end of the war (the low-end version of the j-40 was mass-produced in the last half of the war, and it was equipped with troops, becoming the main escort fighter of the Chinese Air Force, but the equipment volume is far less than that of the j-33 series fighter jets, so it did not play a big role in the war. Because the US Air Force basically lost its combat capability in the late stage of the war, the j-40 failed to encounter the f-51a in the air.

It was not until the end of the war that the Chinese Air Force used the captured F-51a and J-40 for comparison and testing, and believed that some of the performance of the F-51a was above the J-40, and many design methods were worth learning from. It was this judgment that made many people believe that if the F-51a could join the US Air Force one year ahead of schedule, the war process would change, and China would not be able to win in August 2056. Some even believed that this fighter could help the United States win). In other words, with a slight improvement, the J-40 could become a space shuttle that could only carry two pilots.

However, the Chinese Air Force did not do this.

At that time, there were only four J-40 prototypes with complete boards, all of which were undertaking a lot of test flight work. Even if one was used for scientific research, it would have a great impact on the development of J-40. Don’t forget that after the war, military expenditures will definitely be greatly reduced, and many equipment projects will have to be discontinued, and the equipment projects that have not been completed will be terminated first. The Air Force is counting on the development of J-40 to be completed as soon as possible, and mass production will be carried out before the fiscal years 2057 to 2058, otherwise the project will be likely to be cut down or delayed. The result is that at this critical moment, the Air Force is unwilling to take out precious prototypes for scientists to do experiments.

Later, the Air Force proposed to provide several j-33m aircraft.

However, this kind of fighter is not suitable for transformation into a space shuttle, and even if it can be transformed, it is too difficult to keep up with the progress of scientific research.

Finally, the scientists chose F-51a seized from the United States.

However, the modified F-51a is no longer like a fighter. For example, the engine was removed and more than half of the wings were cut off, and the rest was barely enough to glide and fly in the atmosphere, and the fuselage was doubled to be installed to install an anti-gravity field propulsion system.

In the end, the only thing that was preserved was the pilot's life-sustaining system.

Using this modification, a small space shuttle was obtained. Chinese scientists and engineers collected a large amount of flight data within a month.

In other words, there is no need to build a small experimental aircraft.

Subsequently, a major discovery by intelligence agencies in the United States helped Chinese engineers a lot.

As mentioned earlier, the United States is also developing anti-gravity field technology, and its progress is second only to China. More importantly, in the late stage of the war, the United States had many extremely crazy equipment plans, including a space bomber based on anti-gravity field propulsion technology. When the United States announced its surrender, American engineers had completed the basic design of the space bomber and were waiting for the anti-gravity field propulsion system.

It must be admitted that the design of this kind of space bomber is very immature.

But it must also be admitted that the United States has very strong strength in designing large-scale aerospace equipment.

You should know that before the outbreak of the war, only the United States had manufactured launch vehicles with a capacity of up to 100 tons, and only the United States had developed space shuttles with practical application value. The United States also built large space stations, and the United States had accumulated technology on large aviation platforms far exceeds China.

Interestingly, China had no plans for space bombers at all at that time.

To put it more directly, even though many Chinese engineers have realized that anti-gravity field propulsion technology will be first applied in the aerospace field, China has not funded projects related to it, and several engineers dedicated to the development of large-scale orbital vehicles only have clear design ideas and have done some basic work, but have not carried out any design-related work during the war.

As a result, the information brought back by intelligence agencies from the United States became a treasure in the hands of Chinese engineers.

These are the basis of "Deep Space 2".

In fact, there were some American engineers at that time, and they were the best aerospace and aerospace platform design engineers in the United States, who participated in the design work of "Deep Space 2". Among them, there were Professor Noah, the chief engineer of the Aerospace Division of Lockheed Martin.

In the history of human aerospace, Professor Noah is very famous, even surpassing the Chinese aerospace engineers of his contemporaries.

Later, many people believed that Professor Noah was the designer of Deep Space 2 because he designed a similar orbital vehicle several years ago and completed the work on the map. More importantly, after the war, Noah was the first American scientific researchers controlled by the Chinese side, and was taken away by Chinese intelligence agencies before the United States officially surrendered, and then worked in Chinese scientific research institutions.

Noah is not a fanatical warrior, but an absolute scientific madman.

In the eyes of people like him, there is no concept of a country at all. All he needs is a platform that can realize his scientific ideals.

China provided him with this platform, so he used all his intelligence and talents.

Of course, in China's official records, the chief engineer of "Deep Space 2" is not Noah, but Professor Gan Xiaowen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and the general manager of the project is Lu Wen.

Regarding Noah's contribution to the project, it mainly comes from Lu Wen's memoirs.

Obviously, even if Noah was not a major contributor, he played a huge role, such as letting Chinese engineers at that time know how to design an orbital vehicle weighing hundreds of tons.

With these basic conditions, Lu Wen did not make any mistakes and decided to directly build an orbital vehicle with practical value.

Since it has to be of practical value, the design indicators will not be much lower, and there are great risks.

At that time, Lu Wen must have known how much risk there would be, and the main reason for her doing so was the same as the reason why the Air Force was unwilling to provide the J-40 prototype aircraft, that is, the war had ended, and military expenditures would have shrunk by at least 50% in the next fiscal year. Many military projects would have to be disbanded, and those scientific research projects funded by the military were in danger. Therefore, only by finding results before this can the scientific research projects be preserved.

In Lu Wen's opinion, risks are not necessarily bad things.

If you have achieved your results, you can apply for more grants. If you fail, there are similar reasons to let the government show mercy when making a budget.

All in all, the key is the speed of the project progress, not the final result.

Fortunately, with the help of a large number of American scientists, Lu Wen solved all obstacles, allowing Deep Space 2 to reach a practical state in early 2057.

At this point, the second light speed flight test was finally ready.

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Chapter completed!