Chapter 475: T45 Is Back
Chapter 475: The T-45 is back
A beautiful parachute flower appeared in the sky.
Malandrino's body relaxed, and his vision gradually became clear.
Where is Delano? Where is the plane? Where did it go?
If it had fallen into the sea, why didn't he see the fragments of the plane, and the remaining fuel would pollute the sea area!
Although he was puzzled, he would not doubt his old friend's determination to commit suicide. He just thought that Delano had some special means to put the plane directly into the sea, and then continued to turn it into a submarine.
In fact, with his eyesight, if he turned his head and looked far behind, he could see that the T-45 trainer was flying close to the sea surface.
Plop!
Malandrino fell into the water. His parachute had been thrown away before he entered the water. Then, he pulled the inflated life buoy and tried to lie on it. Next, just wait.
The moment he ejected, the distress device was activated. The base must have received the message and contacted a helicopter to rescue him. As for what punishment he would receive, that would be considered after he returned. At worst, he could just blame it all on Delano, since Delano was already dead.
The dead Delano had already escaped. He was flying over the sea in a T-45, with waves flying under the wings, as if they could hit him at any time. However, Delano was not afraid at all. When he flew the Tomcat before, he had done these actions more than once. Now he was just repeating them.
Delano hummed a little tune. Ten million dollars was in hand, and all went into his pocket!
It was quite difficult to fly on the vast ocean with only simple instruments, but the US Navy Air Force had a more advanced means: the global positioning system.
In that war, the global positioning system played a huge role. After that, this device was more widely used. The T-45 trainer had this receiving terminal, which allowed him to calibrate the route more conveniently.
The pointer of the fuel gauge showed that it was halfway through, which meant that his flight had become a one-way flight and he could never go back. However, he didn't care, he was just taking an adventure.
This kind of excitement would make him more addicted.
The sun gradually slid to the west, and the sea was sparkling.
Delano looked at the sea and tried hard to find it. After calibrating the direction again, he finally found the Zhenhua No. 1 circling in the distance.
The special ship could be distinguished from other ships at a glance, and when Delano flew over, the people on the ship also found the plane, so someone climbed to the highest point of the ship and waved two-color small flags there.
Confirmed!
Delano looked at the fuel gauge and the pointer was no longer moving. However, in order to avoid accidents, he still flew around Zhenhua No. 1 twice until all the fuel was exhausted. When he drove the T-45 close to the water, he pulled the pull ring between his legs.
The T-45 poked the sea surface with a graceful posture. Due to the slow speed, no accidents occurred. It entered the water and sank slowly.
A small boat started from the Zhenhua No. 1 and went to the parachuted Delano.
After Delano got on the boat, he excitedly said to the personnel who responded: "My mission has been completed. Whether this plane can be salvaged depends on you!"
Unless an aircraft carrier is driven over, otherwise, the T-45 cannot land at all. Even if it is a tanker of hundreds of thousands of tons, the deck is not flat and is covered with pipes. It must be modified. Moreover, in order to allow the carrier-based aircraft to land, the welded steel plate must be strong enough, and there must be a Fresnel light box or something like that.
Therefore, the only way is to throw the plane into the sea first and then salvage it.
In order to facilitate salvage, they deliberately found a relatively shallow place. The depth of the sea water here is less than two kilometers, which is the shallowest place nearby.
However, Delano was not sure whether it could be salvaged. If it could not be salvaged, it would have nothing to do with him. He had already completed his mission, and the 10 million US dollars were all his own.
"Of course there is no problem. Our salvage work has begun." The responding personnel said, pointing to the back of the Zhenhua No. 1. Behind this huge special ship, a crane was sending down a small submersible. The shell of the submersible was shining and looked very high-end.
This is of course the high-end Jiaolong deep-diving lifeboat! Two thousand meters of sea water is definitely a piece of cake for it that can dive to a depth of seven thousand meters. So far, Jiaolong has completed all sea trials and officially become a generalist in deep-sea work.
Rescue, salvage, scientific research, everything is proficient, and now it is just a small test for it.
T-45 fell into the nearby sea area. After Jiaolong was put into the sea by the crane, it immediately tracked forward and downward along the falling position. When T-45 finally fell on the seabed, it also followed up.
The cables were tied up with a manipulator, and then the crane was connected to the upper part. When it was completely dark outside, the T-45 was hoisted into the cabin of the Zhenhua No. 1, covered with a camouflage net, and the ship began to return at full speed.
Everything went smoothly!
When Delano leisurely returned to the east with Zhenhua 1, Malandrino took a helicopter and returned to the base. After returning, he reported everything that happened with a pale face, and his leader immediately roared.
"Damn it, that guy just wanted to die and wasted one of our planes!"
"Should we salvage the plane?"
"No need, that plane is almost at the end of its flight life. There is no point in salvaging it. It will cost a lot more money, that damn mad dog!"
No one paid much attention to the T-45 that fell into the sea. After all, it was just a training aircraft.
When the good news spread back to the East, Qin Tao was attending an academic exchange meeting at Capital University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Originally it was none of Qin Tao's business. Qin Tao just wanted to stay in Huating, but his father-in-law called Qin Tao back with a phone call.
When Qin Tao entered the conference room, he saw some familiar faces, including Zheng Ming from the Navy, Luo Yang from the 601 Institute, Shi Lao from the 320 Factory, Wang Hua from Huating, and even someone from the Mingzhou Iron and Steel Plant. There are some technicians whom Qin Tao doesn't know.
After meeting Qin Tao, these familiar people all smiled, especially Mr. Shi, who frequently cast expectant glances, which made Qin Tao feel flattered.
Everyone is here, are you here to discuss matters related to carrier-based aircraft?
"Even if we don't consider the need for ejection take-off, and only consider the landing of carrier-based aircraft, we still need advanced materials to manufacture the landing gear of the aircraft." Zheng Ming was in charge of presiding over the meeting. He spoke: "With our land-based aircraft Unlike fighter jets, Navy carrier-based aircraft must be used in marine environments, so our materials must not only have high enough strength, but also be corrosion-resistant. Today, we will discuss this topic. I hope we can solve it as soon as possible. this problem."
"Everyone, let me first introduce the development history of steel for our aircraft landing gear. This will not take up too much of your time." A gray-haired old professor said. After speaking, he looked at Qin Tao. : "After all, Mr. Qin is not in our industry, so he may not know much about this."
Qin Tao smiled: "Thank you."
"The high-strength steel used in our landing gear has gone through three generations in total." The old professor said: "In the 1950s, we mainly emphasized static strength design, that is, using the tensile strength and yield strength of the material to evaluate , At that time, we used 1175 MPa high-strength steel 4130, 30CrMnSiA and other materials to make them by manual arc welding and other methods.”
"However, later on, we found that it was enough to use simple static strength to measure it. The landing gear would suffer from fatigue damage, so we later used the higher-strength 1580 to 1760 MPa ultra-high-strength steel 30CrMnSiNi2A. , 4330M, 4340, etc.”
Qin Tao listened very seriously. In fact, he really didn't understand. After all, he built warships. But now, the old professor was talking so enthusiastically, he had to look like he was listening carefully.
"In the 1960s, we developed the low-alloy ultra-high-strength steel 40CrMnSiMoVA steel with a tensile strength of 1860 MPa. It has good process performance and comprehensive mechanical properties and is used on the J-8 and Qiang-5. However, due to unstable quality , gradually withdrew. In order to solve the problem of steel for aircraft landing gear, in the 1980s, we established a joint research group of the General Iron and Steel Research Institute, Capital Aviation Materials Research Institute, and Fushun Special Steel. After unremitting efforts, we finally successfully smelted it. 300M steel. This steel material has a significantly longer lifespan due to fatigue cracks, allowing our aircraft’s landing gear and body to finally reach the same lifespan.”
The old professor talked endlessly about this, because he is the leader of the research team for this project, Mr. Zhao!
"Now, our domestic aircraft landing gears are all made of 300M steel. However, this is still the second generation of steel after all. Therefore, we plan to continue to research and develop the ultra-high-strength steel AerMet100 that is equivalent to the U.S. advanced fighter aircraft. A-100 steel, the strength of this steel must reach two thousand MPa, and it must also have ultra-high strength and high fracture toughness, excellent plastic toughness, fatigue resistance, stress corrosion resistance and impact load resistance. As our The preferred material for the landing gear of carrier-based aircraft and new-generation fighter aircraft.”
What reflects the basic industrial level of a country is the smelting of steel. This 300M steel has reached the world's leading level, but it is not enough!
The United States has developed powerful AerMet100 steel, which is specially used on fighter jets, especially carrier-based aircraft.
Take the famous F-35 in later generations as an example. The landing gears of A and B are made of different materials. The former uses 300M steel commonly used in commercial aircraft landing gears, while the latter will use carrier-based aircraft grade Aermet 100 high-strength steel.
China also needs to develop advanced landing gear steel!
Qin Tao finally understood that today's meeting is probably to decide on the development of aircraft landing gear steel!
“So, we hope that relevant departments can invest funds, just like the research and development of 300M steel, and cooperate with important domestic departments to carry out scientific and technological research and breakthroughs in key technologies such as ultra-pure metallurgy, precise control of large ingot compositions, and large-size bar billet forging. The third-generation aviation ultra-high-strength steel A-100 has been developed to meet the needs of domestic fighter aircraft. Mr. Qin, what do you think? "
Qin Tao subconsciously wanted to nod. To successfully develop our carrier-based aircraft, we cannot do without advanced steel! You have to study what you should study.
Moreover, there are also personnel from the Mingzhou Steel Plant present, and they may even join forces with the Mingzhou Steel Plant to work on technical research. He should support it.
But what is Wang Hua doing here?
He is engaged in 3D printing, and he has achieved a lot of results now. What is the purpose of coming here to attend the meeting?
Don't express your opinion easily!
"Is there only such a way in our country?" Qin Tao asked.
"Of course not!" Sure enough, Wang Hua, who was sitting below, said: "These are just conventional technologies. Even if they can produce landing gear materials, it is quite wasteful to use them."
This traditional craft is too wasteful!
Just look at the structure of the landing gear of the aircraft to know that it generally uses a strut sleeve type landing gear, which consists of a buffer strut connected by an outer barrel and a piston rod. The wheel is directly connected to the lower end of the strut, and the upper end of the strut is fixed to the aircraft body. On the skeleton.
This means that when a large forging blank is used for precision machining, the material cut out is many times the material left, and a large amount of high-strength metal is wasted!
"The outer barrel of the landing gear and the piston rod are cylindrical components, which are manufactured using traditional forging and machining methods. The solid part inside the barrel needs to be removed by deep boring and cutting, which causes a waste of material, is difficult to process, and has a long manufacturing cycle, especially for , when conducting trial production, processing new parts is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Therefore, we believe that we should use our 3D printing technology to quickly prototype and change the design at any time. We believe that this is the best solution. The landing gear that came out can fully meet the needs of use. ”
Sure enough, just as Qin Tao thought, Wang Hua came here just to use 3D printing technology to manufacture landing gear!
He is becoming more and more courageous. He used to only make small parts. Later, with the investment from Parthia, he began to make some larger titanium alloy parts. It is said that he recently used 3D printing technology to make a titanium alloy wing. box!
"Moreover, no matter what kind of steel is used, whether 300M or A-100, it cannot resist the corrosion of seawater. Therefore, it is necessary to add a coating on the outside to improve the corrosion resistance. If titanium alloy is used, the appearance does not need to be treated in any way. Suitable for use.”
"Yes, this technology can be used, but the cost of using titanium alloy to make aircraft landing gear is too high!" Mr. Zhao said: "We know that Mingzhou Group has a source of titanium alloy, but if What happens next when this batch of titanium alloys is used up? The cost will definitely go up.”
What is titanium alloy?
The most expensive metal used in aerospace! Only Lao Maozi has a mine at home, so he can use titanium alloy to build it luxuriously. No other country dares to do this, not even the United States.
The current domestic titanium alloy 3D printing technology is gradually maturing and can produce a variety of parts, but what about the future? After using up Lao Maozi’s titanium alloy submarine shell, what will I use in the future?
You have to think about it for a long time!
Qin Tao finally understood. No wonder he was asked to come here to decide what technical route to take. This was so critical!
"Mr. Qin, Mr. Qin!"
Someone called Qin Tao several times before Qin Tao recovered from his thoughts.
"Mr. Qin, which of these two technical routes are you more optimistic about?" Zheng Ming said to Qin Tao.
"I'm just a shipbuilder, and I'm really not familiar with these technologies." Qin Tao said.
He is really not familiar with it, so he can't comment.
However, Zheng Ming would not let him go. Zheng Ming said with a smile: "Mr. Qin, as an outsider, your opinions are often more useful than those of an expert. I think you should give me your opinion!"
Qin Tao thought for a while: "Currently, both options have their own advantages and disadvantages. Using 3D printing technology to mold it in one go saves raw materials, but the material is more expensive. Using our high-strength steel and traditional processes to manufacture it is more wasteful. If Let’s combine the two methods.”
When thinking of this, Qin Tao suddenly had an idea: "If we use 3D printing technology, but instead of using titanium alloy, we use this kind of high-strength steel, whether it is 300M steel or the A-100 steel that we plan to continue research on. , will manufacturing it this way solve all the problems?”
Can 3D printing only use titanium alloy?
The answer is of course no. Since titanium alloy can be used, other alloys should be able to do it too!
Using 3D printing technology, that is, using lasers to melt special steel, to make landing gear?
Everyone was stunned by Qin Tao's creativity.
"Old Wang, you are an expert in this field, do you think it is possible?" Qin Tao looked at Wang Hua.
Wang Hua frowned, pondered for a moment and said: "I think it is feasible. As long as the relevant units provide us with relevant special alloy wires, we can try to use lasers to melt these alloy wires and then directly deposit them to eventually form related products."
"Is this okay? Is the structure not strong enough?" The old experts present began to question.
"At least we have achieved relevant performance requirements in the use of titanium alloys. The strength of titanium alloy parts manufactured with 3D printing technology is no worse than that of forgings. As for this new alloy, such as 300M, we still need to go through some process Experiment." Wang Hua is very rigorous.
He can't pat his chest and say yes, it would be irresponsible, but he can try.
Definitely another breakthrough if you can.
By using advanced processing technology, we can achieve the purpose of simplifying the production process and saving costs. At the same time, we can also conduct rapid trial production. Such an operation can be tried.
"Are we still researching our advanced steel?" Mr. Zhao asked.
"Of course we need to study. In addition to carrier-based aircraft, the new aircraft we develop in the future also need world-class steel." Qin Tao said: "Since Lao Wang said to try it, I think we can walk on two legs. On the one hand, Try to use 3D printing technology to use existing 300M steel to manufacture landing gears. On the other hand, we must also develop new steel materials to strive to reach the world's advanced level. "
Zheng Ming smiled bitterly, "Mr. Qin, it sounds simple for you to say it. It costs a huge amount of money to develop a brand new steel material. You don't know that we can't afford it!"
Perhaps knowing what Zheng Ming was thinking, Qin Tao said: "The staff from our Mingzhou Steel Plant are also here, so we can also join in the fun and put the research work in our Mingzhou Steel Plant. All the technical staff, They all come to Mingzhou for research, and we invest fully. Of course, the final steel production will also be done by our Mingzhou Group.”
Zheng Ming nodded: "Okay, then we will do as Mr. Qin said."
Investment is the most important thing. Developing new steel materials means trying over and over again. It requires a lot of effort and a lot of money. If Mingzhou Group takes on this project, they will produce related steel materials in the future. That is to say, it is logical.
Anyway, Mingzhou Group has plenty of money.
"As for using 3D printing technology to manufacture landing gear, the funds still need to be provided by the Navy. I have a hunch that this will be easier. Maybe a breakthrough will be made in a few months. At that time, we can use it first, even if the lifespan is insufficient, in the medium term To replace the landing gear, we must first achieve independent production.”
Zheng Ming nodded.
This project was decided in this way. It is related to the development of two types of fighter aircraft and is very important. Moreover, Qin Tao didn't know at this time that this advanced 3D printing technology was quite suitable for manufacturing aircraft landing gear. It was simply a revolution.
Breaking through specification restrictions, reducing raw material waste, shortening the processing and manufacturing cycle,...and the most critical fatigue resistance performance has been improved by 20%!
Originally, Qin Tao planned to stay and discuss with everyone to see how the development of the two carrier-based aircraft was going. Their simulation base was still waiting. Moreover, now that he has come to Capital University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, he can also see if there are any talents that can be poached. Qin Tao has also had the idea of starting a private aerospace company before.
However, before Qin Tao said anything, Xu Zhengyang came in and whispered something in his ear, so Qin Tao was instantly overjoyed.
"Everyone, if there's nothing else, I'll leave first. By the way, Mr. Shi, if you're okay, please come with me!"
Shi Lao originally came here because of soy sauce. Although their project also requires the use of carrier-based aircraft-strength landing gear, their aircraft is light after all, and they can make do with the existing ones. At this time, he heard Qin Tao say this, Shi Lao suddenly thought of something and felt excited.
Shi Lao and Qin Tao walked out together and got into the car outside.
"Mr. Qin, is the prototype here?" Mr. Shi asked excitedly.
"That's right, the prototype is here!" Qin Tao nodded: "This aircraft followed Zhenhua No. 1 to the dock of Zhenhua Group. We went there to pick up the goods. After picking up the goods, we removed the wings and vertical tail. Then stuff it into the cargo bay of our Mi-26 helicopter and transport it directly to Factory 320!”
The cargo bay of the Mi-26 is 12 meters long, which can just fit the T-45 into it, but the width and height are not enough, so just remove the wings and vertical fin.
"Well, I'll contact the factory and ask them to send technicians to Huating! By the way, we'll bring the test pilots there too. Maybe we can fly this kind of aircraft back directly!"
Qin Tao smiled and shook his head: "Do you dare to fly a plane soaked in water?"
If it is not soaked in water, there is no way to get the plane back without being noticed. Although it has not been soaked in sea water for a long time, it is still soaked in water. What if something goes wrong and it flies into the sky and falls? The trouble is big.
It's very difficult to get a second one.