Chapter 209
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Chapter 209: Domestic Fighters of the Third Generation Together
“Ha ha! No way! This factory is at least an investment of over a billion. We would need at least 100 fighter jet orders to break even. How could my family let me waste money like that? That’s just a joke; renminbi isn’t toilet paper, it doesn’t just roll off.” Chen Haiqing laughed heartily, shaking his head. He had just spoken offhandedly and didn’t expect anyone to take him seriously. Even if someone were to waste money, they wouldn’t casually throw away over a billion, not even the richest person in the world could afford that.
Rows of steel-structured factory buildings appeared impressive. Lin Mo had seen the production base of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) from the air, which was even larger than this one. However, it was an old aircraft manufacturing and repair factory that took on maintenance and assembly tasks for the Indian Air Force, but now it had turned into a wasteland. Lin Mo was indeed one of the initiators.
For a newly established aircraft manufacturing factory, this was already quite impressive. Moreover, there were more cleared lands nearby that could be used to build new factories at any time. There were train tracks, suggesting that this place was once of significant national secrecy, although it had been abandoned. Still, the quality of the defense system could be restored with just a bit of effort; at the very least, it could transport some heavy equipment.
“We’ve arrived!” Chen Haiqing announced in front of a large steel structure numbered as Factory 9. There was a guard post at the entrance manned by two soldiers. Lin Mo noticed that this area was essentially a semi-militarized management zone, likely a production base for national defense weaponry, guarded by professional soldiers and volunteers as security measures.
After handing over their ID cards for verification and passing fingerprint and iris scans, a door was opened for their entry. Lin Mo and Professor Yan hopped on the Electric Cart and drove straight into the factory.
The factory had no windows, but it was brightly lit inside, and he could hear the faint sound of machines operating. In front of them was a three-meter-high isolation wall.
“Come, take a look!” After parking the Electric Cart, Chen Haiqing led them through a dust-removal cleaning process and changed into light blue coveralls before approaching the isolation wall.
Chen Haiqing waved his hand, “Let us witness the moment of miracles!” Like a stage magician revealing his secrets, he forcefully pulled open a sliding door that isolated their view, and everything inside was unveiled to Lin Mo and Professor Yan.
Inside were many unfamiliar devices, and several people were busy moving about. However, what captured Lin Mo and Professor Yan’s attention immediately were three small square sections.
Surrounded by isolation mesh walls and various workbenches, they could vaguely see that inside were three different aircraft.
The sign in front of the first section clearly read, J-14 “Eagle Falcon.”
The second section drew even more attention, J-20 “Mighty Dragon.”
But the third section nearly blew Lin Mo’s eyes out—X-1 “Monstrous.”
How could this be? Lin Mo staggered, moving at an inhuman speed, and rushed to the third section, eyes wide. Inside was a massive aircraft with a canard design, twin seats, with winglets, main forward-swept wings, and twin vector engines. This was not the “Monstrous” from his drawing!
“What is going on?!” The air combat weapon Lin Mo had been yearning for showed up as a finished product here. How could this even be possible?
Even Lin Mo himself had only just completed a skeletal half-finished model. Here it was, fully covered with its outer skin, the dazzling cockpit, and the perfect pentagonal vertex layout; it was at least the dream model starting at the fifth generation!
Lin Mo had never anticipated this. Chen Haiqing’s words about “witnessing miracles” were not exaggerated; it truly was a miracle.
“Ha ha ha ha…” Chen Haiqing laughed triumphantly, stepping forward to pull open the isolation door to the third section for Lin Mo, “This is your drawing. Don’t be surprised; when you were designing it, it already circulated among all the design institutes. Because of you, we gathered experts from all over China to work on this, tsk tsk, a truly top-tier design. I had a tough time convincing my family to modify your drawing slightly and invested heavily to create this prototype. How does it look?”
Chen Haiqing gently placed his hand on the wing of the X-1, as if caressing the tender skin of a young girl. Even after seeing it countless times, he couldn’t help but marvel at its stunning craftsmanship, which felt more like an art piece than a fierce aerial weapon.
“It’s a pity that, due to technical issues, the structure of the variable wings couldn’t be realized. This will affect the stealth capabilities of this X-1. The forward-swept wings have always struggled with the radar cross-section (RCS) being too large. Perhaps a better stealth coating could make up for it, along with a silencing mechanism; we still need better noise-reduction designs.” Chen Haiqing shook his head in slight regret, noting that the various functions and designs detailed in Lin Mo’s drawings meant that this X-1 was not truly perfect; it still had certain flaws.
After all, this was not considered a developmental prototype ready for production, but rather an experimental trial model.
Lin Mo was already shocked to see this step achieved; he could barely speak. It felt as if he was touching his beloved, and Chen Haiqing’s words completely faded into the background. Even without speaking, Lin Mo could see clues from the aerodynamic structure.
“This is the Demag DMG CTX gamma 2000 TC GILDEMEISTER. I can’t believe you also have this machine tool! It’s a great piece of equipment! This J-20 should be using the WS-15X engine, right? It’s definitely the fourth-generation ‘Emei’ turbofan with three-dimensional annular blade and single-crystal cooled turbine blades, triaxial vector nozzles, a full-titanium inlet casing, and a short annular combustion chamber. Much stronger than the AL-31FN! Combined with the J-20’s canard and strake configurations, as well as its all-moving tail, it provides better stability compared to the J-10’s statically unstable design. It can reach a maximum speed of 2.5 times the speed of sound. If only it could be a bit lighter, it might even achieve three times the speed of sound! I wonder how much the load-bearing capacity of the cockpit has improved from before.”
Outside, Professor Yan’s surprised voice called out, indicating that this master and disciple were indeed well-matched.
Hearing Professor Yan dive into the first section and recite data on the aircraft as if greets old friends, Chen Haiqing couldn’t help but smile, realizing that calling Lin Mo was indeed the right move, especially since he was bringing along a heavyweight.
The military design personnel in China were not widely known and usually kept a very low profile, making it challenging to recruit them.
“Hey, Chen Haiqing, has this X-1 been test-flown yet?” Lin Mo suddenly yelled, his eyes ablaze.
He wished he could jump in and start up the engines himself. Although this wasn’t the authentic original design, this streamlined version of the “Monstrous” excited Lin Mo to the core.
It had been a long time since he had felt such passion, perhaps only when he forced the gold giant dragon to take him aloft for the first time did he feel such exhilaration.
Damn standardized weapons! The Dragon Knight didn’t need them; only a custom-made super weapon could truly unleash his incredible power.
“Uh! No, it hasn’t. Are you in a rush? The maiden flight is definitely reserved for you; this is my precious darling. Don’t think about running off with it!” Chen Haiqing had been waiting a long time for Lin Mo to say that.
Finding a pilot isn’t just about connections; you also need goodwill and exceptional skills. Where else could you find a super ace pilot like Lin Mo? Not to mention the additional prestige from being the apprentice of Professor Yan—he intended to squeeze every bit of juice from this guy.
“When?” Lin Mo jumped onto the aircraft, unable to contain his eagerness as he hopped into the front cockpit seat. Everything looked good; the familiar instrument panel was there, featuring an unconventional long-stroke all-touch LCD screen. The entire setup was designed by Lin Mo himself, and he didn’t even need to flip through an operations manual; he knew the function of every button.
The lights in the cockpit lit up immediately.
“Begin self-test!” Lin Mo shouted, and just as he thought, a lot of the cockpit operations used voice control features. He didn’t know how the National Defense Star solved its AI voice recognition challenges, but many of the devices had merely realized the functions he originally designed, though their actual operations might not match the original design scheme.
“Warning: Fuel empty! Warning: Fuel empty! Would you like to continue self-test?”
“Continue!”
“Fire control system normal, engine normal, control system normal, life support system normal…”
This was a great design, Lin Mo sincerely admired. He had never imagined that he was alone, competing against such a powerful team.
“How is it? Not bad, right?” Chen Haiqing climbed onto the wing, stepping on the canard next to the cockpit, looking at Lin Mo with an expectant expression.
“Not bad, not bad!” Lin Mo nodded vigorously. “But we’ll need to see how it performs in the air. By the way, how did you solve the strength issue of the forward-swept wings?”
The aerodynamic layout of this aircraft had been developed using real high-speed wind tunnels and computer simulation systems. Whether it could hold its own would still need to be confirmed in practice.
Although the forward-swept wing structure had several advantages—especially in subsonic maneuverability—it offered unparalleled performance. For example, Russia’s Su-47 “Golden Eagle,” which served as a fifth-generation technology demonstrator, faced issues with structural divergence. Currently, only three experimental models worldwide had completed test flights, leading to a temporary halt on forward-swept wing designs. Lin Mo’s new model combined forward-swept and variable wings, balancing both subsonic and supersonic maneuverability.
