In recent years, in order to deter The Taiwan independence forces, the fighters of our Air Force have conducted flight drills around Taiwan many times a year.
In the face of the platters of the People's Liberation Army Air Force's large troops, although the Taiwan authorities will also send military planes to accompany the flight every time and deceive themselves to cheer up the Taiwan independence forces; however, the vast number of netizens know very well that once the Taiwan Air Force is engaged in a war, the entire army will be destroyed.
Although domestic netizens feel very relieved now, it is well known that more than 20 years ago, Taiwan's Air Force was the most advantageous side.
So why was Taiwan's air force stronger in the 1990s, and how did the People's Air Force reverse this unfavorable situation?
In 1996, the air power in the Taiwan Strait was unbalanced, and The Taiwan independence elements clamored not to be afraid of a war
In 1949, the People's Liberation Army destroyed the mainland, and the forces of Chiang Kai-shek's army that had not escaped were completely annihilated. However, after the defeat of the Chiang Kai-shek clique in Taiwan, the Platon Army, which did not have a strong navy and air force, could only sigh with joy.
In the 1950s Chinese the People's Liberation Army, with the strong support of the Soviet Union, finally formed an air force with the world's advanced level at that time.
For example, jet fighters such as miG-17 and Il-28 were purchased from the Soviet Union; and successfully copied the MiG-17, which was later the J-5 fighter, and imitated the Il-28, which was later the Bomber V.
But at the same time, the United States also recognized Taiwan's role and began to sell jet fighters such as F86s to Taiwan in the 1950s.
F86
Prior to the Battle of Kinmen in 1958, the two sides engaged in a large-scale aerial battle in the Kinmen area.
After 1958, there were basically no more air conflicts between the two sides. At that time, the mainland introduced the MiG-19 to imitate the first supersonic fighter J-6, the MiG-21 imitated the J-7 fighter, and the Tu-16 imitated the Bomb-6 bomber.
However, Sino-Soviet relations deteriorated completely, and the mainland was no longer able to obtain advanced aviation equipment from the Soviet Union. During the same period, the United States sold F101 and F5 jet fighters to Taiwan, and the air power of the two sides in the Taiwan Strait was equal for more than a decade.
Although China improved its relations with the West after 1979, it was unable to buy advanced fighters in large quantities. As a result, in the 1980s, the balance of air power between the two sides of the strait began to be unbalanced.
Battle of the Golden Gate
The J-8 fighter[1] developed by the mainland since 1964 is essentially just an enlarged version of the J-7, and the technical level has been hugely different from that of Western countries. However, with the help of the United States, Taiwan began to develop a first-generation "Economic Country" fighter.
And after a twist in China's relations with the West in 1989, Taiwan bought 150 F16 fighter jets from the United States and 60 Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets from France in November 1992.
Although these F16s do not have radar medium-range shells, they still have strong air combat capabilities, which is by no means comparable to the J-8 at that time.
J-8 fighter
Although the Legal Mirage 2000-5 was stripped of some key equipment but was equipped with the Mika air-to-air missile, it was impossible for China or even the Russian Air Force at that time to compete with it.
Coupled with the mass production of the "Jingguo" fighter jet since 1994, the Taiwan authorities were not afraid of the mainland's use of force during the Taiwan Strait crisis in 1996.
The People's Liberation Army, which is deeply ill-equipped, urgently needs a new type of fighter to turn things around.
Jingguo fighter
Song Wenqiu tried his best to exclude public opinion, and the J-10 project was born
At the critical moment when China was facing a serious nuclear threat in the 1950s, a group of great scientific researchers represented by Qian Xuesen and Deng Jiaxian developed "two bombs and one satellite."
In the 1980s, when China's aviation industry was relatively backward, there were also a number of pioneers in the aviation industry in the mainland who finally found the right path for development after hard work.
In 1964, when the Shenyang Aviation Industry Group developed the J-8 fighter, the Central Military Commission decided to walk on two legs. The J-8 fighter strives to be safe, and only makes small-scale improvements on the basis of the J-7 in order to produce results as soon as possible.
The new Chengdu Aircraft Design Bureau is responsible for the development of the epoch-making J-9 fighter, whose performance has reached a maximum speed of 2.5 times the speed of sound and a ceiling of 25,000 meters. Its technical indicators far exceeded the conditions of China at that time, so it was forced to step down in 1980.
Qian Xuesen
At this time, as an important backbone member of the J-9 project, Song Wenxiao began a new research and development journey. Song Wenxiao was a well-known aircraft designer and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, born on March 26, 1930 in Kunming, Yunnan Province.
After the end of the Anti-Japanese War in 1946, he entered Kunming Tiannan Middle School and began to read progressive books to draw closer to our party.
In 1949, Song Wenqiao joined the army as a scout, and entered the Second Aviation School of Changchun Air Force the following year. In May 1951, he graduated early and became a mechanic in the Volunteer Air Force, making his own contribution to the victory of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.
In August 1954, Song Wenxiao was admitted to the Harbin Military Engineering College and began to fully study aviation-related theoretical knowledge.
In July 1960, he was assigned to the 601 Institute in Shenyang, and from 1962 to 1964 he served as the leader of the aerodynamic layout team, becoming an important backbone of the J-8 aircraft program.
Song Wenxiao
In 1970, Song Wenxiao obeyed the organizational arrangement and came to Chengdu and established a new fighter research institute, which was later known as Chengdu 611. He started as the director of the overall room and the pneumatic room, and later served as the deputy director and chief designer.
In October 1981, he was appointed as the chief designer of the J-7C aircraft, which was also song Wenxiao's first famous work. Song Wenxiao has been committed to the study of advanced fighters for more than a decade, and he is not satisfied with only the relevant technical solutions of the Soviet Union, but also boldly explores new fighter design ideas.
Beginning in the 1970s, both the West and the Soviet Union began to develop new third-generation supersonic fighters. The new fighter no longer emphasizes high-altitude, high-speed performance, but instead places subsonic maneuverability in a significant position.
Song Wenxiao led his research team to follow up the world's advanced theories in a timely manner, adopted a new canard wing layout with relaxed static stability in the late J-9 program, and carried out a large number of related experiments.
However, the relevant person in charge of the aviation industry at that time did not have such forward-looking thinking. So much so that on February 16, 1982, when Song Wenxiao brought his research results to the relevant meeting, he did not arrange for him to speak at all.
But Song Wenxiao cleverly took advantage of the gap between meetings, deliberately looking for opportunities to talk about his new theory when everyone was relaxed. Unexpectedly, it was such an informal speech that completely changed the understanding of the leaders present at the meeting on the existing air combat theory.
On April 26, 1984, after repeated studies of the overall and engine selection, Song Wenxiao's duck layout was selected by the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense as the final plan for development; the J-10 fighter project on behalf of the "No. 10 Project" was listed as a major national project.
Song Wenxiao was appointed as the chief designer of the new aircraft.
To this day, some people still believe that the J-10 was copied on the basis of its "Lion" fighter when the mainland cooperated with Israel.
But in fact, the J-10 is a derivative project of the J-9, and after the J-9 was overthrown, it obtained enough resources to achieve comprehensive development.
After 1985, Song Wenxiao led the team to start to tackle the problems of the abdominal intake tract and blister cockpit that had never been designed in China, the first international advanced level of digital fly-by-wire flight control system simulation device, and the first integrated avionics weapon system simulation comprehensive test bench design.
These subsystems not only laid the foundation for the birth of the J-10, but also marked that the continental fighter research system has fully entered the era of the third-generation aircraft.
The J-10 changed the situation, and the J-20 was completely reversed
The 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis made the Central Military Commission deeply aware of the backwardness of the mainland air force, so the "No. 10 Project" also began to accelerate.
On March 23, 1998, China's first autonomous third-generation fighter, the J-10, finally made its first successful flight.
The dashing of the J-10 announces the basic fact that our people's army has the ability to develop fighters with the world's modern level on its own; the air force across the strait can only have the technical superiority over our army by purchasing.
In 2004, the J-10 fighter finally completed the relevant research project and began formal large-scale service in 2006. At this time, Taiwan's Air Force was still using F16, Mirage 2000 and "Jingguo" fighter jets to support the façade.
In the face of a large number of J-10 service and the formation of combat effectiveness in the Taiwan Strait region, the Taiwan side felt pressure for a while.
However, its plan to upgrade mirage 2000 was rejected by France, and the upgrade of F16 and the "economy" fighter program were also perfunctory by the United States under various pretexts. In this way, the balance of air power on both sides of the strait, which had been overturned, was restored to balance and tilted toward the mainland.
J-10 fighter
After leading the team to develop the J-10, Song Wenxiao did not give up the pace of progress.
In 2001, Song Wenxiao published the famous paper "Research on the Aerodynamic Layout of a Small-Scale String Ratio High-Lift Aircraft", which laid the foundation for the research and development of a new generation of fighters in the mainland.
So on the day of U.S. Defense Secretary Gates' visit to China in 2011, China's first fourth-generation supersonic fighter J-20, which is on the same level as the U.S. F22, took off. On that day, military fans across the country were so excited that all the hostile forces were slapped hard.
The emergence of the J-20 has completely changed the balance of power between the Chinese Air Force and neighboring countries, and has completely reversed the balance of air power on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to the mainland.
J-20
Without giving up new technology foreign aid, the introduction of Su-27 is also indispensable
Although the successful development of the J-10 is a key factor in changing the balance of sea forces in the background since 1996, its success is inseparable from another major project in the same period, that is, the Introduction project of the Su-27. As we all know, in the development of China's aviation industry, the engine is the weakest link.
On the one hand, this is because after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the basic research on the mainland lagged seriously behind that of the developed countries, and it did not improve until after the 21st century.
On the other hand, in the process of learning from the Soviet Union, the mainland also learned the Soviet concept of treating the engine as a subsystem of the aircraft; so that an aircraft had to be launched on an engine project, wasting a small amount of resources.
Therefore, the biggest obstacle after the launch of the J-10 project is still the lack of a suitable engine. Third-generation supersonic fighters like the J-10 generally used high-thrust turbofan engines, or two medium-thrust turbofan engines; at that time, only medium-thrust turbojet engines were available in the Chinese aviation industry.
Turbofan engine
The turbofan six engines previously supported for the J-9 project had to be dismounted in 1986 due to too many technical defects and no supporting aircraft. Fortunately, in 1989, the Soviet Union, which was already in a state of turmoil, actively improved its relations with China in order to save the country's economy that was on the verge of collapse.
After high-level exchanges between the two countries, the Soviet Union offered to sell the MiG-29, the main Soviet fighter at that time, to China. Naturally, the Central Military Commission was overjoyed and immediately sent a delegation to the Soviet Union to investigate. As a result, the regimental commander, General Lin Hu, after careful investigation, found that the Soviet Union had a better Soviet-27 fighter.
And what makes General Lin Hu's eyes light up is that many of the properties of the MiG-29 and the J-10 under study overlap, which means that the introduction of the MiG-29 is likely to mean that the J-10 must be dismounted.
As a heavy fighter, the Su-27 and the J-10 can achieve functional complementarity; at the same time, the AL31 engine supported by the Su-27 can also become the power of the J-10.
Lin Hu (second from left)
So after receiving the support of the Central Military Commission, General Lin Hu made it clear that China did not want the MiG-29 but only wanted to buy the Su-27. The Soviet Air Force disagreed with this, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian economy that took over its legacy became more difficult, and scientific research units and arsenals were eager to feed.
So Russia put aside its arrogance and quickly reached an agreement with China, and the first Su-27 finally came to China in 1992. In this way, before the first flight of the J-10, the People's Liberation Army finally had a third-generation advanced fighter, which solved the urgent need for the balance of air power.
At the same time as the introduction of the Su-27, the mainland and the Russian side reached an agreement, on the one hand, in the Shenyang Aircraft Design Institute to imitate the Su-27, that is, the later J-11 series; on the other hand, the introduction of the Su-27 engine and radar, providing relevant reference for the development of the J-10.
It can be said that although Song Wenqi is the biggest contributor to the birth of the J-10. However, without the efforts of General Lin Hu, the mainland may not be able to introduce the Su-27 in the early 90s; the entire J-10 project without the introduction of engines will encounter great difficulties, and the domestic turbofan 10 series will be put into practical use in this century.
Lin Hu (left)
The difficult years are long gone, and we will always miss the heroes
Although the majority of military fans are no longer interested in the J-10, everyone just wants to know when the J-20 will be able to completely replace those backward fighters.
But after all, the full installation of a weapon takes time, and to this day, the J-10 is still the most equipped domestic fighter on the mainland.
Although the J-11 is regarded by some people as an imitation of the Su-27, in the process of thoroughly imitating the Su-27 and developing the J-11, our aviation industry has also benefited a lot.
J-11 fighter
For his outstanding contributions to the J-10 and J-20 projects, Song Wenxiao won the "Aerospace Laurel Award" Lifetime Dedication Award in October 2006, and was elected as one of the top ten people who "moved China" in 2009 in February 2010.
Unfortunately, Academician Song Wenxiao died of illness in March 2016 at the age of 86. General Lin Hu also died in March 2018 at the age of 91.
We are eternally grateful to the generation of aviation people represented by Song Wenxiao for supporting a powerful aerial umbrella for the mainland in an era of such poor conditions.
Today, the mainland's air force can display its strength over Taiwan Island and Diaoyu Island with great swagger, so that all the sons and daughters of China will be proud and raise their eyebrows.
bibliography
[1] Chinese: J-8: Only thick accumulation of thin hair can have today's sea and air bright sword. China Aviation News Network. 2017-02-21
[2] Chinese: "Father of the J-10" Song Wenxiao Biography: Contributed greatly to multi-type fighters. China News Network. 2016-03-24
[3] CCTV deciphered for the first time the story of the birth of China's third-generation fighter J-10. Observer Network