A few hours later, Fatty Wei and eight team members were already at a large military airport somewhere along the coast.
He never expected that the last method of penetration given by Li Zheng would be through the air.
In the air?
Isn't that a dead end?
But not.
At this time, there was a big silver guy about three hundred meters away from Fatty Wei.
This thing is huge, as big as half a football field.
The runway and apron have long been cleared, the entire airport has been tightly sealed, and military guard posts have been deployed within a few kilometers nearby.
Such strictness is just for this action.
According to Fatty Wei's common sense, that big thing should be called a balloon.
But this thing is obviously not an ordinary balloon. It has a huge body and a special pod. Just now, Fatty Wei curiously asked the engineer who was doing the testing and inspection if this thing was a hot air balloon. The engineer told him that this
Its scientific name is "intelligent stratospheric aerostat".
Fresh!
Fatty Wei laughed on the spot.
Isn’t it just a balloon?
The engineer wearing a pair of glasses stubbornly corrected him, saying that this is a parallel flow aerostat. A balloon is a balloon, it is what it is. An aerostat is a type of balloon, but it is not an ordinary balloon.
These words drew Fatty Wei directly into the situation.
Seeing this, the engineer had no choice but to educate the curious Fatty Wei while working.
Stratospheric aerostats can only be said to be a branch of hot-air balloons. The balloons that people come into contact with every day are the most common ordinary aerostats.
Intelligent stratospheric aerostats can fly higher than ordinary balloons, stay longer, and can carry heavy loads. They can not only perform diversified space and earth detection and communication tasks, but also have certain military uses as a new intelligent platform in near space.
Generally speaking, the maximum lift-off height of a balloon is determined by the material, elasticity and thickness of the ball skin. Ordinary balloons are usually made of latex materials and are mostly used in celebration activities. As the flight height increases, the latex balloon continues to expand, and the ball skin
It keeps getting thinner and often explodes when it reaches an altitude of around 2,000 meters.
At the same time, latex balloons are exposed to strong ultraviolet radiation and ozone corrosion at high altitudes, causing "internal damage", and the ball skin will age rapidly. Therefore, latex balloons are relatively "weak", and their flight height, flight duration, and carrying weight are very limited.
In order to carry out high-altitude scientific experiments, scientific researchers have begun large-scale research and development of high-altitude balloons since the 1960s. It uses high-molecular polyethylene materials, and through material performance improvements, it ensures that the balloons can withstand low temperatures of -70°C, strong ozone, strong ultraviolet rays, etc.
It can work stably for a long time in extreme environments.
The original high-altitude balloon is also called a zero-pressure balloon. It uses a pipe at the bottom of the sphere to communicate with the outside atmosphere, so that the air pressure inside and outside the balloon is equal and the pressure difference is zero. This ensures that the balloon will not burst due to excessive pressure inside the balloon. The zero-pressure balloon
It is huge, even larger than a small gymnasium, and can lift a load equivalent to the weight of a small car.
It can fly to an altitude of 30 to 40 kilometers and can continue to fly for several weeks. It is widely used by scientific researchers to perform tasks such as cosmic ray observation, spectral analysis, and aerospace experiments.
Of course, zero-pressure balloons also have certain limitations.
Since the inside and outside of the ball are connected, the internal gas will continue to flow out, making it difficult for the balloon to maintain the designed flight height for a long time.
Since then, high-altitude balloons have experienced a technological revolution to "strengthen muscles and bones" and developed into super-pressure balloons. It adopts a fully enclosed pumpkin-shaped balloon structure to prevent gas from flowing out of the sphere. This three-dimensional structure allows the balloon to withstand
Greater internal pressure.
At this time, the super-pressure balloon is like a "breath-holding" master who has practiced "steel and iron bones". It always maintains a certain volume during flight and looks like a transparent giant pumpkin.
Currently, stratospheric aerostats using super-pressure balloon technology can achieve ultra-long continuous flights of more than 300 days and complete global flights, with some performances comparable to satellites.
Previously, it was difficult for balloons to accurately control their flight path because they did not use engines and control surfaces like airplanes.
Balloons that are passively controlled by the wind field are like ships drifting with the waves in the sea, often unable to reach their destination smoothly.
This problem has been better solved with the development of environmental big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies. The new round of technological revolution has equipped stratospheric aerostats with the "most powerful brain" and evolved from passive flight of "drifting with the wind"
Go to "Riding the Wind and Ten Thousand Miles" to actively perform tasks.
The new intelligent stratospheric aerostat should have three major skills: "knowing the wind", "using the wind" and "controlling the wind".
"Knowing the wind" means obtaining wind field information in a timely and accurate manner at the location and target area, thereby obtaining a complex and ever-changing wind field "train timetable."
The means of "knowing the wind" mainly include detection and forecasting. Since ground-based and space-based detection methods are difficult to cover the range of high-altitude balloon activities in time and space, stratospheric aerostats need to carry wind field detection equipment with small weight and low energy consumption.
Provide small-scale wind field information. At the same time, in order to effectively carry out large-time and spatial-scale flights, it is necessary to rely on the meteorological department's "treasure" - the global medium and long-term weather forecast system to provide large-scale wind field information.
"Using the wind" means that the stratospheric aerostat "takes an elevator" to "hitch a ride" on the "station" at different heights, which is also the height control technology. The common height control method is built-in the sphere of the aerostat.
A small ball changes the total weight of the aerostat by filling or expelling outside air into the small ball. For example, when the aerostat needs to go to a higher "station", it first exhausts the air to reduce the weight, so that the gravity is less than the buoyancy and rises
; When reaching the new flight altitude "platform", air will be added to increase the weight, making the buoyancy equal to gravity and hovering.
"Riding the wind" means that the stratospheric aerostat decides when to "take the elevator" and which height "platform" to sit on based on the wind farm "train" characteristics and mission requirements.
It can be said that this thing is not much different from a high-altitude aircraft. It can carry cargo, equipment, and people.
But compared to airplanes, this thing has special advantages.
Because this thing is extremely concealable, because the materials it uses are very special, the radar reflection is extremely small, and the height is too high, resulting in very weak ground radar detection capabilities.
Under the current situation of the red side, using this "intelligent stratospheric aerostat" to penetrate Miyajima is the most unexpected and best method.
However, this kind of stratospheric aerostat is also a great challenge for Fatty Wei.
At present, nine members of the team, including him, have participated in high-jump and low-fly parachute training, but these were all below 10,000 meters. They have never attempted an airdrop above an altitude of 30,000 meters.
One mistake will lead to death.
A few hours later, the engineer entered the hangar and announced: "The aerostat is ready and you can board the cabin."
Fatty Wei stood up slightly awkwardly. At this time, he was wearing a heavy pressurized suit, an oxygen device, and a weapons bag. He had at least more than a hundred kilograms of equipment on his body. It took a lot of effort to stand up.
.
"Bros!"
He turned around, raised his hand, and waved it to everyone.