We know that in today's world, there is not much left for China that truly belongs to the "crown jewel of modern industry".
From the engines of large cruise ships and liquefied natural gas carriers (LNG) to large aircraft, to lithography machines, chips, etc., they are fading their halos and being "broken one by one" by us.
In a sense, this is the "counterattack" process of China's industrial modernization starting from "millet plus rifle" and advancing by leaps and bounds.
So do you know what the world's top aero engine is?
Not a single screw of it has been sold to China, and even the United States has not been able to surpass it so far. What the hell is going on?
In fact, the remaining few so-called "pearls" have already been won by us, such as lithography machines and chips that are gradually falling off the altar.
As we all know, we (Chinese mainland) have been able to independently manufacture the vast majority of military chips, and those that can be used in the civilian field have reached 7 nanometers.
We must choose another "pearl" that has not yet been picked, and the aero engine should barely be counted as one.
The top four commercial aircraft engines in the world are globally recognized as GE Aviation's GE9X, Rolls-Royce's Trent XWB, Hewlett-Packard Aviation's PW1000G and CFM Leap from CFM International – no Chinese company has made the list.
What many people don't know is that, leaving aside the aero engines equipped with large commercial aircraft, in the military field, Russia's NK32 engine has dominated the limelight for decades.
The NK32 engine on the Tu-160 strategic bomber of the Russian Air Force is currently the most deterrent long-range bomber engine in the world.
It can make the bomber, a behemoth, fly at supersonic speeds like a fighter several times smaller than it.
You know, a bomber is no better than a fighter, and with the huge size and weight of a bomber, the thrust required to achieve supersonic flight is at least several times that of a fighter and an ordinary civilian aircraft.
This is a well-deserved pearl in the field of military aviation.
A total of 35 Tu-160 strategic bombers equipped with NK32 engines were built, all of which were built during the former Soviet Union, which has to admire the scientific and technological strength of the former Soviet Union's superpower.
You must know that the maximum flight speed of the Tu-160 is as high as Mach 2.05 (about 2511.33 km / h), while the cruising speed of ordinary civil aircraft is less than 900 km / h, a difference of nearly 3 times!
Other information shows that in order to catch up with this plane in air combat and shoot it down within the visual range, ordinary third-generation fighters can no longer do it, and it is possible to require fourth-generation fighters with supersonic cruise capabilities.
The Tu-160 strategic bomber not only has a speed advantage, but also has a maximum take-off weight of an astonishing 275 tons!
Not only that, but its maximum combat radius is up to 8,000 kilometers, and with the cooperation of air tankers, it can easily perform transcontinental cruising and combat missions.
The speed and range are more than 45 percent faster than the U.S. B-1B strategic bomber, making it impossible for the U.S. imperialists, which are recognized as the top aviation powers, to match them.
As the ceiling of human aviation technology, it seems that this plane should only appear in science fiction films!
Therefore, the NK32 plays a well-deserved role in this aircraft.
This puts the country with this engine in an absolute strategic advantage.
Compared with the vast majority of countries in the world that can't even build a qualified ordinary aircraft engine, this overwhelming advantage is a proper dimensionality reduction strike.
Clearly, this technology must not be easily acquired by other countries.
Some Russian officials said that they would not consider exporting the engine and its related technology, and that other countries would not be allowed to obtain it for at least 30 years.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also instructed: "Not a single screw on the NK32 engine will be obtained by other countries and will never be exported." ”
So, what are the technical advantages of this engine?
According to the data, the NK32 engine uses a three-rotor design.
Ordinary turbine engines, on the other hand, use a twin-rotor design – including two rotors called "low-pressure compressor" and "high-pressure compressor" that rotate at different speeds with two different transmission shafts.
The technical data of the engine will not be repeated here (we can't understand it too much), simply put, the greater the power of the turbofan engine, the greater the air intake, which requires the diameter of the fan to be increased, and to obtain a higher total pressure ratio, the higher speed of the compressor is required.
This forms a pair of contradictions, because the high pressure ratio corresponds to a high speed, while the turbofan that pursues a large air intake pursues a larger fan diameter, but the larger the diameter, the more the speed cannot go up, so the pressure ratio cannot go up.
This contradiction is especially evident in large military aircraft, which require both large diameters and high pressure ratios.
The NK32 design is distinguished by the fact that a medium-pressure compressor (three-rotor design) is designed between the fan and the high-pressure compressor to act as a transition between the fan and the compressor.
With a medium-pressure compressor, the NK32's fan can achieve a high pressure ratio at relatively low speeds – which improves engine efficiency, with lower speeds and less fuel consumption, resulting in more thrust and longer range.
Another very important point is the diameter of the engine.
The "three-rotor" design balances the diameter of the fan with the thrust of the high-pressure compressor, eliminating the need to oversize the diameter for high thrust and increase drag, and eliminating the need for a smaller diameter fan to accommodate the high-pressure compressor.
Reaching an exaggerated top speed of Mach 2.3, it is the world's only military aircraft with a three-rotor turbine engine, making it the Tu-160 the world's only military aircraft with a three-rotor turbine engine.
So, who else has mastered this cutting-edge technology?
The Russian Tutu-160 strategic bomber equipped with NK32 engine not only has outstanding performance, but also has a streamlined slender body that does not make people feel bloated at all, and its violent aesthetic fuselage design is unforgettable, so it is praised as the "hangar queen" by the former Soviet pilots.
After the collapse of the USSR, numerous arsenals located on the territory of Ukraine were closed and sold cheaply. Russia is too busy to take care of itself, and the domestic situation is in chaos.
The loss of technical personnel and the abandonment of the assembly workshop also led to the loss and destruction of a large number of drawings and related documents for the NK32 engine.
It is said that the United States, Russia and other major powers finally had no choice but to reach a final agreement on the destruction of the remaining 19 Tu-160 bombers left in Ukraine after fighting for no success.
There are rumors that in fact, these 19 Tu-160 bombers have not been completely destroyed, and some of them have only been disassembled, and a large number of parts (including engines) and drawings have become "fish that have slipped through the net".
According to the roadside agency, a considerable part of these "scattered" technical documents, drawings and parts were secretly sold to the mainland by Ukraine, while Russia, on the other hand, still luckily found the "surviving" design drawings in the pile of old papers in the abandoned assembly workshop.
Having said that, one thing is for sure, the Tu-160 strategic bomber, which is an air deterrent, and the NK32 aero engine it carries are themselves "important weapons of the country".
Emperor Pu's statement that he "will not sell to any country" did not refer to China alone.
And in the process of picking up the "crown jewel of human industry" one by one, "take-it-or-leave-it" will never be the final solution.
I look forward to the day when we also have the ultimate technology in the field of military aviation that is coveted by small countries and feared by large countries, and must not be leaked.