Chapter 207
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Chapter 207: National Defense Star (NDS)
To see any results from this money, it would take at least a billion; the development cycle for fighter jets typically spans a decade.
This wasn’t just a rich second generation; it could better be described as a financial consortium.
Lin Mo found the contact information left by Chen Haiqing and wrote an Email reply, offering to drop by to show his support and act as a temporary test pilot. Being a disciple of Professor Yan, he had the qualifications both as a pilot and in theoretical knowledge of aircraft.
“Hey! Professor Yan!”
Lin Mo took a moment to call Professor Yan, reporting that he was safe. After being missing for a month, the old man must have been worried.
“Hmm, yes, I’m fine. Just returned from a mission; nothing happened, not even a scratch.”
“By the way, have you heard about the new aircraft manufacturing company in the country? It’s called National Defense Star, code name NDS. They’re currently testing the J-20. There are several prototypes of the J-20 in the country, and the one they have uses the WS-15X vector engine, which has a thrust-to-weight ratio of 10. They invited me to visit for a test flight.”
“Really? You got an invitation too? Haha, that’s a company started by one of my comrades; you’ve met him, code name ‘Three Yellow Chick.’ He was the guy who came to find me at the Zhuhai Airshow. His family is wealthy, and as a rich young heir, he became a pilot because his family wanted a reliable high-performance fighter jet manufacturing company. I never thought they would actually make it; I thought it was a joke.”
“I’ll be there at the end of the month, in about two weeks; let’s meet up then. Take care, I’ll submit my assignments on time. I’ll make up for the ones I’ve missed in these few days.”
“That little rascal!” Professor Yan, who was far away in Shenzhen, hung up the phone, chuckling and shaking his head. He picked up an envelope from his desk and pulled out an invitation letter along with an itinerary.
This National Defense Star Aerospace Company (NDS), which found him through who knows what channels, was impressively well-established and managed to connect with many formidable research institutes and manufacturers in the country. They uniquely built a technologically advanced fighter jet production facility and even rivaled well-established manufacturers like the Shenyang Aircraft Factory.
It was time for him to introduce his recently acquired disciple to his long-time expert colleagues. All these years of serving the country wouldn’t go to waste, passing on his skills to the most suitable candidate would surely make the old-timers envious.
“Crossing forests and snowfields, my spirit soars to the skies,
I express my grand ambitions, facing the mountains in the south.
May the red flag flutter proudly in every corner of the world,
Even if I must dash into a sea of flames and mountains of knives, I wish the flying snow would turn into spring water, bringing a new dawn to the world…”
Professor Yan gathered his thoughts, humming a little tune from "Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy," while sorting through materials from his tall bookshelf. He needed to assign some work to that kid. The tasks left unresolved would all have to be completed this time. If he couldn’t turn them in, he’d just have to settle with his fighter jet as payment.
“Hurry up with your assignments!” Meanwhile, completely unaware of his teacher’s transmformation into Huang Shijun, Lin Mo mumbled as he started scrolling through his email. He saw rows of dense aircraft design topics and even proposals related to cannons. His face instantly turned as sour as a bitter gourd.
Sweat! And this was like a debt in the twelfth lunar month; how long would it take to settle?
While he was out on field assignments, Professor Yan still sent a steady stream of coursework daily. This elderly man didn’t allow for any excuses; he had to catch up quickly. Gathering a pile of reference books, he connected to the computer center, applying for computing resources, and began a flurry of calculations.
He pulled Gold Coin from his wrist, slapping it on the table. Not for any other reason but to help him finish his assignments; this indulgent gold giant dragon should contribute more.
Professor Yan’s assignments were broad, covering aircraft-related expertise and classified data on foreign fighter jets, raising the bar for Lin Mo’s knowledge base. Sometimes, before pilots from two countries even engaged, their design teams were already competing behind the scenes.
Fighter parameters were compared, leveraging various advantages to devise specialized maneuvering techniques that often exhibited unexpected effects in combat.
The initial aerial combat techniques originated from the ingenious ideas of aircraft designers.
The "Night" Special Forces computing center had powerful calculation capabilities, even simulating wind tunnel computations. This greatly afforded Lin Mo a unique learning environment, as he was already a fighter pilot with top-notch flying skills and combat awareness, comparable to an excellent mechanic. He had an intimate understanding of each aircraft component’s function, and even unfamiliar equipment could be roughly understood by assessing its appearance and position.
The assignments Professor Yan gave Lin Mo were targeted, enhancing both his theoretical and practical groundwork, strengthening his foundation more solidly than that of a typical aircraft design researcher. After all, most designers lacked the actual flying time and real-life combat experience that Lin Mo possessed. The integration of designer and user, combined with Lin Mo’s innate spatial awareness, conferred him exceptional advantages.
“Urgent notification: Sichuan pilot Zhang Bin, code name ‘Gold Coin,’ is critically injured due to a failed emergency landing. According to the wreckage and black box data, the aircraft encountered a strong electromagnetic wave and infrasound shock from a specialized directed energy weapon, causing internal bleeding to the pilot’s organs. The aircraft briefly lost control; despite attempting an emergency landing, the airframe was severely damaged, and the entire J-10B is a total loss.”
Lin Mo’s pupils dilated sharply. This news, akin to a report, absolutely wouldn’t appear on his tactical tablet for no reason. Scrolling further, the Staff Group and Intelligence Group analyzed this news, indicating that foreign powers had used specialized lethal equipment to orchestrate a deliberate attack against the Chinese Air Force, targeting the pilot known as ‘Gold Coin,’ Zhang Bin. Consequently, the National Security Bureau had dispatched a task force for investigations, and local security forces had begun searching for the assailants.
The Sichuan ‘Gold Coin’ was one of the many cover codes for Lin Mo. How could this happen? Zhang Bin, whose real name was ‘Gold Coin,’ had gone to Pakistan alongside Lin Mo as military volunteers providing military assistance and participating in combat.
The foreign black hand had quickly reached into the domestic realm, and it would likely surpass Lin Mo’s expectations. If it hadn’t been for Lin Mo changing his code name at the last moment and maintaining his true style during the attack, the Americans, with their global surveillance capabilities, would have undoubtedly identified the real ‘Gold Coin’ and his location, which meant Lin Mo’s life was in peril.
Realizing this, Lin Mo broke out in a cold sweat; as an individual, he was powerless against a national machine. Unless he kept everything to himself, any slip could allow others to discover the truth. There wasn’t a wall that didn’t have cracks in this world. It was a twist of fate that this ‘Gold Coin’ named Zhang Bin had taken the hit for Lin Mo. What about next time?
There wouldn’t be a next time!
Brotherhood had ironclad ties. This Sichuan ‘Gold Coin’ and Lin Mo had shared gunfire in the past; fellow warriors on the battlefield—any American daring to lay hands on him was touching a Dragon Knight’s sore spot.
“Brother, I will avenge you!” Lin Mo gritted his teeth, clenching his fists, knuckles cracking loudly. What good were morals or kindness in this national-level struggle? A person felt as fragile as an ant; only by banding together could they survive.
No matter how many times he had to experience that emergency landing, Lin Mo would just crush that arrogant Lockheed heir like an ant once again, wiping all traces away.
Almost every time, it was trouble that found its way to Lin Mo. The Dragon Knights had never known fear. When provoked, they would punch a hole in the sky!
The Staff Group and Intelligence Group added a note to the news: for safety reasons, the "Night" Special Forces would erase all critical keywords associated with the code name ‘Gold Coin’ and replace them with Lin Mo’s new code name, ‘Dragon Knight.’
As for the real name, the Americans wouldn’t find it out. Besides, Lin Mo usually stayed silent in the skies, making it hard for electronic reconnaissance systems to identify his voice pattern. Moreover, Lin Mo’s J-10A’s camouflage frequently changed, and he took off and landed discreetly.
He prioritized retrofitting the airframe to enhance its resistance to directed energy weapon attacks, highlighting this information in his workload and asking Gold Coin to assist in gathering data on directed energy weapons. This new type of attack method raised serious alarms for him; he didn’t want to be brought down by such weaponry one day.
“I need to figure out a way to install a laser cannon pod on the airframe,” Lin Mo mused about his J-10A. Although a slowly forming “monstrous” fighter jet was being prepared to replace it, this J-10, a product of the expertise of Professor Yan and the specialists from the 611 Institute, remained highly effective.
At Xi’an Xianyang International Airport, Lin Mo picked up his suitcase and glanced at his watch, which was fashioned by the gold giant dragon.
The clock’s accuracy could almost rival that of an atomic clock. In fact, this gold giant dragon had captured cesium-133, utilizing the electromagnetic waves emitted when electrons leap between two energy levels in cesium atoms, creating a nearly invisible module known as a “fountain clock.” The magnetic field applications for Gold Coin were as instinctive as breathing.
However, for a person, using it as a timekeeper seemed a bit extravagant; this miniature module also served as a timing system and GPS functionalities.
“Professor Yan has arrived.” Lin Mo spotted an elderly man with white hair dragging along a large suitcase as he stepped out of the terminal. He hurried over to greet him.
