Exclusive review | "Chinese wings" soar above the clouds

Pictured: The People's Air Force's "heavenly command post" - the Air Police-500 early warning aircraft. Photo by Zhang Long

Wu Jian/Wen

Today, the 13th China Airshow kicked off at Zhuhai Airport. As a showcase platform for China's cutting-edge aerospace technology, it has become a beautiful "national business card".

During the interview, I met a retired Air Force pilot whose unit had supported the J-8II fighter, the "star" of the first air show in 1996. "At that time, the most exciting thing was to break through the sound barrier. At high altitude, give the plane an afterburner, you will suddenly enter the silent world from sound, and then look at the speedometer, greater than '1.0' (Mach), indicating that the fighter has crossed the speed of sound, and the engine sound is thrown far behind the J-8II, which is shocking! When I took out this newspaper's article to interview the air show, the veteran was very happy, pointing to the title of the article, "China's Wings Have Hardened," and said: "That's right! Come to Zhuhai to chase the air show, just to see for yourself how the 'Chinese wings' grow hard! ”

At this moment, Zhuhai Airport is already a "gathering of heroes", and the J-8II pilots praise the "unimaginably powerful" J-16D electronic warfare aircraft, the Y-20 strategic transport aircraft that has supported the fight against the epidemic in Wuhan and even overseas, and the jet drone that can penetrate the enemy in depth... Some netizens made the photos of domestic aircraft that participated in the air show and parked at the same location at the airport over the years into a contrasting "Flash" (animated picture), which could not help but make people "shock the world". Behind this, the road of innovation traveled by China's cutting-edge technology industry is more worthy of our consideration.

In the past decade, with the strong support of the state, the scientific research front has worked hard, and the aviation industry has overcome many "card neck" projects, especially in the new information technology, new materials, and technological innovation system to achieve leapfrog development. As we can see, the J-16D is a full of heavy fighters, no less maneuverable than light aircraft, a major feature is the wide use of composite materials manufacturing, effectively reduce their own empty weight, increase the payload and fuel capacity, and make the high-value electronic warfare equipment mounted more, stay in the air longer. Looking at the Air Force's "clairvoyant" air police-500 early warning aircraft, thanks to the networked and diversified technological innovation ideas, it has become the "commander tower" of modern air combat, which can enable all combat units included in the network to share a "unified battlefield image", so as to react faster, command faster, and act faster. In the field of aero engines that the Chinese people are concerned about, China has made great progress in tackling key problems and mass production of high-temperature alloys, and has achieved the prestige of the "Taihang" series of engines with the high-temperature hollow turbine blades cast by China itself, laying the foundation for the "soaring" of domestic fighters.

These achievements reflect that China, which is growing at a high speed, adheres to the principle of "cultivating internal strength" and takes the road of sustainable development of basic research and applied innovation, as Schoel Mametiyarov, a reporter of russia's "Expert" weekly, praised: "The exploration of (China's) technology accumulation to a certain extent, like the appreciation of currency depreciation, has allowed the country to make a leap." What is even more valuable is that in recent air shows, many visitors have presented an "expert model", not only asking how powerful the fighter is, but wanting to understand how it fights, what technical support it needs, and even a small aviation fan bluntly said: "Without satellite navigation and communication in the sky, even stealth aircraft will lose 50% of its combat effectiveness!" ”

A radar expert told me that the air show for more than 20 years is like a mirror, which not only reflects the growth of China's economy and science and technology, but also reflects the improvement of people's quality, popularizes scientific knowledge, and promotes advanced production culture, and has formed a social consensus. He recalled that in the past, domestic electronic components were very simple, a bit like a handicraft workshop, you are strict in the process, sometimes can not get the understanding of the master worker, "today's radar component assemblers are wearing closed clothes to work, the micro central processing unit contains hundreds of thousands of parts, if there is dust there, just like the elephant ran into the porcelain shop, will ruin the entire processor", everyone understands that "the process is the law, the quality is life."

"With the strength of the good wind, send me to the clouds." With the progress of China's national defense strength and the rapid development of civil aviation, China Airshow is moving towards the world with more and more confidence, openness and inclusiveness, and the "Chinese wings" will also fly out of the clouds one after another to a new height.