In the 1970s, Western countries were eyeing our country, and the hostility with the Soviet Union also made China, which was not technologically developed at that time, lose the opportunity to obtain the most advanced air force equipment. At this time, our country must be self-reliant and begin to design fighters that are completely our own.
But this process is not easy to talk about, so in the field of new fighter research and development in China, there are many stories to sing and cry. Especially in May 1976, when China's J-8 aircraft was flying, but there was a sudden accident, pilot Wang Ang in the emergency landing airport runway, but found two people in front of the bicycle crossing the runway!
At the moment of a thousand gunshots, what will pilot Wang Ang do? Please take a look with the army, and remember to pay attention if you like.
In a sense, the J-8 fighter is China's first self-designed and equipped mass production fighter, although this fighter is simply regarded as a MiG-21 amplification in foreign countries, but in fact, this fighter has a lot of unique designs inside.
Generally speaking, if a fighter wants to go from prototype to equipping troops, it must at least wait for a long period of testing to be completely completed before it can officially install troops. But the international environment at that time had already deprived us of any opportunity to experiment slowly. The J-8 fighter is a fighter completely designed by China, so there are many unknowns in this fighter. However, we can only assemble the troops first, and then slowly experiment from actual combat.
As a second-generation aircraft built by our country, no matter what danger occurred, the pilots at that time had to do their best to keep the aircraft. Because the experimental data contained in the prototype of each aircraft is very important, if the experimental data is lost, then subsequent modifications will not be possible. Therefore, in the process of testing, there will often be pilot death to protect the aircraft, and even crashes.
Although the J-8 fighter at that time was not safe, and even accidents often occurred, many test pilots volunteered to take the test work of the aircraft. After all, this is an opportunity to fight for the motherland, and they also want to use their superb technology and strong psychological quality to contribute to the construction of the motherland.
Wang Ang was such a test pilot, he volunteered to join the test flight team, and put forward many constructive suggestions for the J-8 aircraft. The time soon came to May 28, 1976, wang Ang came to the test field again to test the flight test, this time he was going to test the subject of the test is aerial shooting.
Wang Ang
This test flight can be said to be the most important of the several test flight activities he has experienced, because after this test flight, whether the weapon system of the J-8 fighter can be finalized and mass-produced is in one fell swoop. After a morning of mobilization meetings, at 1:54 p.m., Wang Ang pushed the throttle valve in his seat, and the J-8 fighter took off.
This high-altitude high-speed fighter designed by Chinese himself, the performance really lived up to expectations, and soon climbed to an altitude of more than 10,000 meters. Then, following the guidance of the ground command center, the fighter began a dive maneuver, and after reaching 8 kilometers, it was about to carry out a flight test operation of Mach 1.5.
It was such a very common experiment that a very serious problem occurred. Wang Ang quickly pushed the aircraft's throttle valve to Mach 1.25, but at this moment, he noticed that the aircraft's dashboard began to shake violently and inexplicably, and then the entire fighter began to tremble.
Wang Ang was very familiar with this situation, which was a problem caused by the rudder shake of the fighter. As usual, as long as the plane continues to accelerate more than Mach 1.35, the jitter will naturally disappear. After communicating with the ground commander, the ground commander allowed him to accelerate further. So Wang Ang continued to push the throttle valve, and the speed of the aircraft accelerated to Mach 1.38.
But as usual, the plane's shaking continued, and there was a growing trend. Wang Ang could only continue to accelerate, and in order to capture more accurate flight data, he raised the aircraft to Mach 1.41. However, by this time, the jitter of the plane was beyond the scope of control, and even the dashboard was shattered.
At this time, Wang Ang realized that perhaps the shaking of the plane was not caused by the rudder. Because at this moment, the engine made an almost gasping sound, and just when he wanted to figure out what was happening, there were suddenly three loud noises from the fuselage, as if something was slapping the tail of the fighter.
In fact, the jitter this time is because in the process of afterburning, the afterburner oil pipe has ruptured, and a large amount of combustion gas has rushed out of the joystick connection and constantly collided with the fuselage, causing serious shaking of the aircraft. In the process of Wang Ang's continuous efforts, these gunpowder gases had rushed out of the fuselage, blowing up three large holes in the fuselage.
Now the sound of the engine is very abnormal, and often only the afterburner system can be turned off. But at this moment, he found that the afterburner of the engine on the left side of the aircraft could not be turned off, in fact, the afterburner point had been burned out at this time, and the thrust of the engine had been maintained in the afterburner state.
If the forced landing is carried out in the afterburner state, it is a very serious test for both the pilot and the aircraft, and the risk factor is very large. The aircraft in the afterburner state is like a rocket, if it collides with the ground, it will inevitably destroy the aircraft and kill people.
At this time, Wang Ang could only tell himself that he must be calm, and only by calming down could he fly the plane back safely. So he turned off the engine system and let the shaking slowly stop. Now the engine is on the verge of stalling, but now the speed of the fighter has been lower than Mach 1.35, if there is no emergency landing, then the fate of the engine in the air will inevitably be stopped. But now that the amount of fuel in the fighter jet exceeds 1.5 tons, the amount of fuel must be maintained below 1.2 tons in order to force the landing, otherwise it is likely to explode when landing.
Now the test pilot is faced with two choices, the first is to continue to consume fuel in the air, and the second is to hurry up and land. Wang Ang couldn't think about it so much now, and he chose the latter. But the ground commander repeatedly urged him to try again, and Wang Ang said that if he did not land immediately, the situation was very dangerous.
The ground commander immediately realized the seriousness of the problem and informed the entire base to empty the runway. The air defense sirens in the base sounded in the air, and Wang Ang flew a fighter jet over two peaks next to the airport and almost crashed into the mountain, and now he was about to land 2 meters per second downwind.
However, something even more terrible happened, the tail of the plane had been burned out and the parachute could not be ejected, and without the parachute, the fast plane was likely to fly out of the runway and destroy people. So he clutched the brakes and turned off both engines. Seeing that the plane was still 400 meters away from the runway, Wang Ang prepared to brake urgently.
However, at this moment, he unexpectedly found that on the right side of the runway, there was a fellow villager riding a bicycle and driving a woman with the plane, seeing that the plane was about to hit the fellow, Wang Ang could only step on the left rudder to the end, the plane was deflected from the left, the wings crossed the two people, and the two compatriots were frightened and could not move and fell to the ground. But the fighter lost its way and rushed straight out to run for more than thirty meters.
It can be said that it was Wang Ang's emergency decision that not only saved the plane but also saved the lives of the two compatriots. His behavior of protecting the people regardless of personal life safety can be said to be the pride and inheritance of our military personnel.
Wang Ang quickly jumped out of the cabin, and when he looked back and saw the tail, he found that the tail was still burning and smoke was billowing, and the lower part of the fuselage was also on fire. The fire truck arrived in time to extinguish the fire, and after the technicians inspected the aircraft, they could only sigh that Wang Ang was worthy of being a bold and careful senior pilot. If he hadn't made a decisive landing at the time, it would have taken only two minutes for the plane to explode and disintegrate in the air.
Wang Ang's flight accumulated sufficient data for the new aircraft, and also found problems with the engine's afterburner fuel pipes. After experiencing this experience of not being afraid of danger, Wang Ang was rated as a third-class merit. This is actually the second time he has received a test flight, just a few months ago, when he flew prototype One, the plane caught fire. And that time he also handled it properly and won the second class merit.
It can be said that in the process of finalizing the formation and loading of the J-8 fighters, Wang Ang is one of the well-deserved chief heroes. Later, he still completed many test flight experiments and witnessed the entire process of this fighter entering the service of our army.
With the passage of time, the current J-8 fighter has also retreated to the second line and is no longer China's main combat equipment. However, the story of the first second-generation fighter designed by our country is still inspiring our aerospace people to continue to forge ahead. Without the accumulation of technology in the front, there would be no modern take-off of our air force.
It was those predecessors who recorded flight after flight with rudimentary equipment, and cast the immortal glory of the Chinese Air Force with their own lives. Let us pay tribute to Wang Ang, and also pay tribute to the countless air force soldiers who have dedicated their lives to the front line of aviation! Thank you for defending the blue sky of the motherland!