Chapter 144: Foundations

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Yang Wei reported the relevant figures in a concise yet forceful manner, finally venting the frustration he had been holding in.

Now Lu Xiao could no longer sarcastically call their engine a sick patient, could he?

“I’ll send you the detailed test-run data directly in a little while. We’ve completed the engine assignment. Getting the Chinese Eagle airborne is up to you now!”

Apart from the engine, the fighter’s radar, flight-control system, fuel system, weapons, and other components were all crucial areas as well. Now that they had made such an outstanding breakthrough in the engine department, it could provide those systems with abundant, powerful thrust.

Even through the telephone line, Lu Xiao could sense the other man’s intense pride in the nation’s rise. And indeed, with figures like these, Chief Engineer Yang could hold his head high anywhere he went. He could practically raise it to the heavens, while everyone else would have to applaud and say that the results were astonishing.

Lu Xiao was not surprised by the data. He had witnessed the birth of the optimized engine parameters and blade materials firsthand. After returning, he had carried out his own derivations, and he had already known roughly what figures the engine could reach. He had been eagerly awaiting the actual data from the new-generation engine.

The results fell within the upper limits of his calculations. Wu Tong was truly remarkable, and Yang Wei, along with every researcher at Institute 614, had surely pursued perfection day and night. They must have worked themselves to the bone.

“No problem. You’ve worked hard, Chief Engineer Yang. We absolutely will not let you down. We’ll complete the assignment beyond expectations!”

They would never become a drag on the project. Lu Xiao made the promise with unshakable determination.

Time was too tight. They would not be able to conduct the test flight in time for the motherland’s birthday during the National Day holiday, but they would give everything they had to ensure that the brand-new J-20 took smoothly to the skies around New Year’s Day and entered operational service.

He was still waiting to invite Wu Tong to Xizhou, where she could personally witness the J-20’s maiden flight.

The T4 titanium-aluminum alloy had been fully integrated with all the necessary equipment and was officially entering production preparation. It was now only waiting to be installed on the aircraft.

According to the projected experimental simulations, using T4 titanium-aluminum alloy for the airframe would reduce the aircraft’s empty weight by nearly one-third compared with before. If it were paired with the weight-reduced engine, the reduction could be even greater. These figures were already approaching those of certain aircraft built largely from carbon-fiber composites, and might even surpass them, while avoiding some of the shortcomings of composite materials.

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Reducing empty weight meant that the fighter could fly higher, faster, and farther. It would also consume less fuel, allowing it to carry more weapons, external fuel tanks, and a greater combat radius. Its flight speed and altitude would rise substantially, while its own agility and maneuverability would improve to meet the demands of aerial combat.

“Strive to remove every gram of weight from an aircraft” was the creed of aircraft designers throughout the world. It was also his own relentless pursuit.

Back then, Chinese researchers had poured their hearts and souls into the J-7E fighter and successfully reduced its weight by forty kilograms. Compared with the fighter’s enormous total weight, forty kilograms might seem insignificant, but in reality, it increased the J-7E’s rate of turn by nearly one degree per second, raised its climb rate by more than three meters per second, and allowed it to carry dozens more cannon shells.

Now, with the superior T4 and T5 advanced materials, the J-20’s empty weight would be reduced to an astonishing degree. With an almost perfect airframe design and a world-class powerhouse of an engine, their Mighty Dragon J-20 would truly be able to challenge the heavens. Its speed and performance would exceed all expectations by an enormous margin, far surpassing even the most optimistic projections.

Everything was ready. All that remained was a favorable wind.

The fastest speed, the strongest power, and the greatest range—this time, the Mighty Dragon J-20 would make a transformational leap into the skies.

Wu Tong received the data sent by the two leading experts. Chief Engineer Yang’s package contained the WS-15S test-run results, which were exactly what she had expected from her own projections. The material Lu Xiao sent consisted of detailed wind-tunnel simulation data.

After becoming the general consultant for Institute 614, Lu Xiao had also arranged for Wu Tong to hold a consultant position at Institute 606. This allowed her to access the materials legitimately, of course, on the basis that Wu Tong already possessed the necessary security clearance.

Placing an aircraft model inside a wind tunnel and artificially controlling the airflow to study the movement of air around the aircraft and its interaction with the model, thereby learning the aerodynamic characteristics of the actual aircraft, was a method of aerodynamic experimentation and simulation known as wind-tunnel simulation. Wu Tong had recently been planning to study the Navier-Stokes equations, so the simulation data held considerable research value for her.

The water flowing through the ocean, the wind surging through the atmosphere, the air passing around an aircraft’s wings—all fluid motion in the natural world was related to the Navier-Stokes equations, which were used to describe and simulate such phenomena.

The existence and smoothness of solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations, as well as their general solution, had always been an insurmountable mountain in the mathematical world, trapping scholars everywhere. Wu Tong had decided to challenge this great problem, one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems, but she had no intention of swallowing the whole mountain in one bite or solving it overnight.

Anyone capable of solving every problem instantly would be a god. She was merely an ordinary person with a little talent, still far from the realm of divine omniscience and foresight.

To solve this problem, she still had enormous room for improvement in both mathematics and physics. But every undertaking had to begin with an idea and a goal before one could plan a path toward it.

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It was like entering primary school and already deciding whether one wanted to attend Tsinghua University or Peking University. Whichever one chose, one still had to pass through primary school, middle school, and high school, studying diligently at every stage before the goal could possibly be achieved.

That was precisely what Wu Tong was doing. She was intensifying her studies in physics, especially fluid mechanics, deepening her research into nonlinear equations in mathematics, and gathering every kind of data and reference material related to the field.

Only after laying a solid foundation could she hope to build a skyscraper and eventually place the final capstone atop it.

Wu Tong spent the entire day deriving and studying the two sets of data. She recorded the insights they had given her, along with a few questions from the perspectives of the Navier-Stokes equations and dynamics.

Under the moonlight, she went to the library and selected the books she needed according to her research direction. This time, books on physics occupied a considerable portion of her selection.

Beginning the next day, Wu Tong decided to organize her paper on the co-bonding effect model and submit it as soon as possible.

Working from the theoretical model, she derived and filled in the verification data, proceeding methodically through the final day of September.

At nearly four in the afternoon, Wu Tong began packing her things. After leaving her office, she first went to Cheng Huanan’s office and told him, “Professor, I’m going to the airport to pick up my family. They should arrive around five. I’ll be leaving for today.”

Her maternal grandfather and maternal uncle had made preparations in advance. Her parents had each taken an afternoon off, and as soon as they finished work at noon, the whole family hurried to the airport. They arrived just in time to wait for boarding and catch their flight.

Thanks to Jinyuan and Wu Jingzhong having accompanied Wu Tong to the airport and helped her complete the procedures several times before, they knew the process well. Nothing delayed them or caused them to miss the flight, and they successfully boarded the plane Wu Tong usually took, flying smoothly toward Shangjing.

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