It can be said that the research and development of air-to-air missiles is going smoothly, or it can be said that it is not going smoothly.
It went smoothly because with the help of transistors, radars, computers... Strictly speaking, they can only be regarded as computing units rather than computers. The computing unit used for air-to-air missiles is not as complicated as a computer. It calculates based on the received data.
The missile is positioned in relation to the target and then the missile is maneuvered to approach the target.
The miniaturization of these things has been achieved through the efforts of R&D personnel, and the weight has been reduced to less than 100 kilograms.
The reason why it didn't go well is because after contacting the "La 5" production line, I found that even though they have been miniaturized, it is still difficult to install them.
The reason is that airplanes are relatively sophisticated equipment, even for Mao Xiong's airplanes. The size and location of various equipment, instruments, fuel tanks, etc. must be designed from the beginning. At this time, if you want to stuff it into the
An equipment that weighs more than 100 kilograms can affect the whole body with just one move.
The words from the aircraft factory are: "It is impossible to fit such a big thing into it by improving or eliminating certain parts, unless it is redesigned!"
Everyone knows what "redesigned" means.
If this "redesign" is just a car or a tank running on the ground, it would be easier, just change it and it will come out.
But that is an aircraft flying in the sky. Once redesigned, many issues such as aerodynamic layout, balance, and maneuverability must be considered, and then it must be flown and tested. It will take a year or two to complete the design.
The Eighth Route Army obviously couldn't wait that long... Even if the Eighth Route Army was willing to wait, the BF109 on the Japanese side would not let the Eighth Route Army wait.
This problem stumped the researchers at the institute, and even the progress of the research was delayed for a day. In the end, there was no other way out before Su Xin was asked to report to Wang Xuexin.
Su Xin went to Wang Xuexin's office and said with an embarrassed look on her face: "Commander, there may be something wrong with our air-to-air missile. It is both a radar and a computing unit. They said they need to redesign the fighter jet...
…”
Wang Xuexin asked strangely: "Why should it be redesigned?"
"This is too big!" Su Xin said: "And the shape and size are not suitable. Even if we dismantle all the machine guns and guns, and change the pilot's seat, we still can't fit it in..."
Wang Xuexin rolled his eyes and replied: "Can't you just hang it outside? Wouldn't it be enough to install an extra pylon on the belly of the fuselage?"
Su Xin was stunned for a while, then she said "I'll let them try" and then ran away.
Wang Xuexin is to blame for this.
Wang Xuexin had been planning to expose these things from the beginning, but he just thought about it but did not explain it clearly to the researchers.
This is a very common thing in modern times. For example, a certain fighter aircraft can perform electronic warfare missions by attaching an electronic pod, and an aerial refueling pod can refuel other fighters in the air.
Therefore, Wang Xuexin took it for granted that the researchers knew this and would also think of adding a pod.
Who would have thought...
What Wang Xuexin didn't know was that as soon as Su Xin returned to the research institute and mentioned this idea, the researchers once again experienced the feeling of being crushed by Wang Xuexin.
"Yeah, why didn't we think of it?" He Zhimin said: "The 'La 5' is a fighter jet that can carry more than 500 kilograms of bombs. We just need to integrate the radar and computing unit into one, and then make the shape of the auxiliary fuel tank into a streamlined shape.
, wouldn’t it be possible to bring things up and reduce the impact on the aerodynamic layout?”
Professor Su clapped his legs and said, "Thankfully we have been thinking about it for two days. We have even sent the telegram to the aircraft production line to discuss how to improve it. We are also thinking about redesigning it. The aircraft is so complete that there is no need to modify it at all!"
"Some changes are still needed!" Su Liguo said: "But we only need to connect the data to the cockpit and add a radar display, and the rest can be put into the pod!"
So the matter was settled like this. At that time, what the researcher was thinking about was not the joy of solving the problem, but feeling ashamed for himself... Such a simple problem actually stopped the research progress for a day. If you add in the previous planning time,
The time spent, let alone how much time was wasted.
The time they saved by forgetting about food and sleep was not as good as Wang Xuexin's words in the end.
But objectively speaking, we can’t blame them. Fighters of this period could only hang auxiliary fuel tanks and bombs under the fuselage. Who would have thought that modular pods could be hung to increase the performance of the fighter aircraft?
Wang Xuexin's ability to think of things is not a big deal. What he relies on is not his own brain and imagination, but historical knowledge.
With the concept of pod, there is no difficulty in the development of air-to-air missiles. After all, any accessories you want to add can be freely inserted into the pod. What needs to be noted is that the pod cannot be too large, otherwise it will affect the takeoff and operation of the fighter aircraft.
Maneuver.
Other changes are to change the three machine guns into one machine gun (the two machine guns on both wings are eliminated and only the nose machine gun is retained).
The reason why only one machine gun is left is because Wang Xuexin believes that the combat mode has changed when air-to-air missiles are available, or it can be said to be partially changed.
"La 5" originally had four pylons, two on each wing. Later, Wang Xuexin added a wingtip pylon, so there were six pylons.
In fact, "Pull 5" does not have much problem with the load. After it is upgraded to "Pull 7", it can carry 600 kilograms of bombs.
The reason why the "La 5" limits the bomb weight to 300 kilograms is because its wings are wooden structures and cannot carry too much weight, otherwise the wings are likely to break.
For this reason, it is obviously inappropriate to directly carry anti-aircraft missiles to the aircraft, because one of them weighs more than 200 kilograms, and only one can be mounted on one wing. If one is mounted on one wing, it will be overweight.
On the other hand, the range of anti-aircraft missiles is 10 kilometers, while the range of air-to-air missiles is only 3 kilometers.
Although the longer the range, the better, but at this time, if the range of the air-to-air missile is 10 kilometers, it is a huge waste.
The reason is that the detection range of the radar brought into the air by the Eighth Route Army is only a dozen kilometers.
When an enemy fighter plane is detected more than ten kilometers away, the pilot needs some time to react. Then the enemy plane has already entered a range of about three kilometers. By then, even if the missile's range is 10 kilometers, it will only need to hit 3 kilometers or even closer.
Considering these two aspects, Wang Xuexin decided to reduce the size of the air-to-air missiles: reduce the range and reduce the weight, and control the weight of each air-to-air missile within 100 kilograms, so that one "La 5" can carry 6 air-to-air missiles into the air.
This improvement plan is obviously much better than a "La 5" taking off with only two air-to-air missiles.