In March, the grass grows and the orioles fly.
The Rocket Research Institute has entered a new stage in its research and development of a new 1,210-ton recyclable rocket.
The integration of various systems is proceeding in an orderly manner.
The fastest progress is the overall shape design of the rocket, which has been initially finalized.
Because of its structure and appearance, it is different from previous three-stage liquid rockets.
Therefore, if the rocket's shape design is to be formally finalized, a series of wind tunnel tests are required.
Aerodynamics Research Center High Speed Institute, Supersonic Wind Tunnel System, FT-51 Wind Tunnel.
The overall dimensions of the new recyclable rocket are 72 meters long and 4.5 meters wide.
Among all the wind tunnel systems in the country, only the FT-51 wind tunnel can test such large-sized supersonic objects.
At supersonic speeds, if the rocket's shape design is slightly worse, the fuel required to reach the same speed will be greatly increased.
So whether it is to increase the speed of the rocket, or to save the fuel consumed during acceleration.
The appearance of the rocket must be designed to the level of excellence.
The wind blowing in the wind tunnel simulates the operation of the rocket at supersonic speed.
You know, because the thrust of the 1,210-ton propulsion system is actually more than enough to propel this rocket.
After all, the weight of the entire rocket, including fuel and payload satellites, will not exceed a take-off mass of 600 tons.
Therefore, the focus of this test is not the fuel economy performance of the rocket.
The real focus is to test the stability of the rocket at supersonic speeds.
If the structure cannot be maintained when the rocket enters supersonic speed, there is a risk of the rocket disintegrating.
"How about the finite element simulation of the shape stress that was done using the small supercomputer in the institute?"
After flipping through various documents, Zhang Xingyang asked Qiao Yang, who was sitting next to him.
The two of them took the train this time and headed to the Aerodynamics Research Center High Speed Institute.
The train carriage is a soft sleeper carriage with only two people, and it is a confidential carriage that has passed national security inspection, so Zhang Xingyang dared to talk to Qiao Yang about the specific information about the rocket on the train without worrying about information leakage.
The entire new rocket has been transported by special train to the city where the Aerodynamic Research Center Expressway is located.
Then it is transported to the location of the high-speed wind tunnel system through extra-long cargo trailers.
Of course, during this process, all transportation is carried out under the supervision of the national security system.
Even the drivers driving these heavy-duty trailers are professional transport teams who have undergone political review.
For the transportation of the rocket, Liang Yi, as the institute's general housekeeper, coordinated with nearly a hundred units before safely and confidentially transporting the rocket from the assembly center to the wind tunnel testing location.
Because after getting off the special train, it is transported in sections, so final assembly is required before wind tunnel testing.
"The finite element simulation results of the stress are pretty good. There are no places where the stress is concentrated, and the stress concentration is not very obvious."
As a genius with a lot of talent in rocket mechanics, Qiao Yang naturally wouldn't make any mistakes.
Therefore, this result was not unexpected at all.
"Qiao Yang, have you ever been exposed to wind tunnel testing before?"
As a newbie who had just stepped out of school for less than a year, Qiao Yang had actually been exposed to it when he was in school.
"I saw it once when I was doing research with my tutor at school, but I never used it."
There is a small wind tunnel in the aerospace industry, but the test speed it can provide is limited and the size is not very large.
However, even so, Qiao Yang, as an ordinary student, still has not actually used it and only visited it by chance.
"Then your eyes will really open this time. The wind tunnel we are going to this time can be regarded as the most advanced one in the country."
"Not only can it test large supersonic objects, but the test speed is also very high, reaching 5 times the speed of sound."
Qiao Yang became interested instantly. After all, there are not many such things in the world.
For a mechanics expert like Qiao Yang, a wind tunnel is like an avid figure enthusiast seeing an extremely rare figure.
His eyes were shining brightly: "I told my seniors at the Audiology Laboratory before that our new rockets are usually blown in a wind tunnel. I didn't expect that I would be able to encounter them in less than a year after I arrived!"
"In fact, the FT-51 wind tunnel looks advanced now, but it is still not enough to develop a real killer weapon!"
Now that the wind tunnel is mentioned, Zhang Xingyang is willing to elaborate a little more.
"Isn't 5 times the speed of sound enough? Isn't this the ultimate speed of rockets now?"
Qiao Yang was a little surprised. After all, at this time, whether it was rockets, missiles, or airplanes, as long as they could fly in the sky, there were very few objects that could exceed 5 times the speed of sound.
"Generally speaking, it seems to be enough, but if you want to develop hypersonic weapons, there is still a long way to go!"
"Hypersonic weapons with speeds above six times the speed of sound will definitely become more and more important in future wars."
"Whether it is a ground attack or an anti-ship attack, hypersonic weapons will be needed."
"In a war where mushroom eggs cannot be used, hypersonic weapons are definitely the sharpest spear we have!"
Zhang Xingyang's words made Qiao Yang somewhat silent.
Yes, this incident was almost a thorn in the hearts of all Chinese people at that time, and it made everyone feel sad!
"The development of hypersonic weapons must rely on hypersonic wind tunnels that can reach more than six times the speed of sound."
What Zhang Xingyang said was like a knife cutting deeply into Qiao Yang's heart.
"Hypersonic wind tunnels are indeed very important as you say, but the technical difficulty involved here, even if I have not been exposed to it, I know it should be very great."
"With the current domestic technical strength and economic conditions, it is very difficult to build a hypersonic wind tunnel!"
"Very difficult!"
Although Qiao Yang kept talking about the difficulty of building a hypersonic wind tunnel, Zhang Xingyang could see that he actually really wanted to accomplish this.
"The technology will be there, and the funds will be there too!"
"It depends on whether we want to do it or not!"
Zhang Xingyang's eyes flashed with a light that Qiao Yang couldn't quite understand.
After all, no one knew at this time that the Asian financial crisis was coming.
Zhang Xingyang had already informed his superiors about this matter in advance last month.
The superiors also agreed to him that if they could obtain a lot of benefits from this original crisis, then part of the funds would be allocated to them for special construction.
At that time, Zhang Xingyang expressed his hope to build a number of hypersonic wind tunnels.
To support the development of hypersonic weapons.
If this thing can really be done.
Then it is to pluck the wool of Western capitalists to make the strongest spear to kill them!
(End of chapter)
