Back in 1978, I was admitted to Northwestern Polytechnical University.

Chapter 12: Publish a paper in an SCI journal!

The Science Citation Index (SCI) is a world-renowned journal literature retrieval tool edited and published by the Institute for Scientific Information in Philadelphia in 1957.

It covers natural science fields such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, agronomy, forestry, medicine, and biology. Through statistical data such as the frequency of citations, it conducts multi-faceted evaluations of academic journals and research results. It can be said that publishing a paper in a journal indexed by SCI represents one of the most influential scientific achievements in the world.

This is something that cannot be cheated on, and the journals included are adjusted every year, which also prompts these journals to accept high-level manuscripts. It is very difficult to publish a paper in such a journal.

At the same time, this is also determined by the national conditions. Now, to publish a paper internationally, various reviews are required. There are experts in the industry, as well as personnel from confidential systems who have nothing to do with the industry. They often hide papers that are sure to be published for various reasons.

If it weren't for the difficulty of publishing, how could the prize money be so high? Two hundred yuan is equivalent to several months' salary for these professors!
However, Qin Liang was quite familiar with the field of aerospace among the SCI-indexed journals. There are indeed eight major journals in the field of aerospace, and among them, AEROSPACE, ranked sixth, is recognized as the easiest to publish in. JOURNAL OF AEROSPACE ENGINEERING, ranked first, has a review period of about a year!
At this moment, in response to Professor Liu's questioning, Qin Liang smiled and said, "That's right. It's too difficult to publish ordinary papers. After all, everyone is researching them, so you have to have extremely professional papers with a lot of data to have a chance of being published. If we change our direction to one that no one else has ever explored, then it will be much easier to publish them."

"Airplanes have been studied for so many years, they're already quite mature. Everything that needed to be studied has been studied, so what area is there that hasn't been studied yet?" Professor Liu asked.

"Professor Liu, have you ever considered that there might be an aircraft that can be undetected by radar?"

"A wooden airplane?"

Qin Liang shook his head.

"A plastic airplane?"

Qin Liang continued to shake his head.

"Kite?"

"No, no, it's just an ordinary airplane made of aluminum alloy."

"That's impossible. Anything made of metal can reflect electromagnetic waves, and radar can detect it, unless it's a small, remote-controlled aircraft, like the size of a soccer ball..."

"What if there were an aluminum alloy aircraft that wouldn't reflect radar waves towards the source of the radar, but instead reflected them in other directions? In that case, to radar, this ordinary aircraft might be smaller than a soccer ball, or even the size of a ping-pong ball..."

Professor Liu was stunned for a moment. It seemed that this was indeed possible, and it seemed that no one, either at home or abroad, had ever ventured into this field!
In 1962, Soviet scientist Pyotr Yakovlevich Ufimochev published an article entitled "Edge Wave Behavior in the Theory of Physical Diffraction," which studied the influence of object shape on radar detection and gave relevant formulas. This means that an optimal aircraft shape can be obtained through formulas so that radar waves are almost not reflected back, thereby achieving radar stealth.

Qin Liang explained: "However, the Russians have never paid attention to radar stealth. This article was published in the Journal of Radio Engineering of the Moscow Academy, which is about the same level as our Northwestern Polytechnical University's school journal. It quickly faded into obscurity. Only the old professor in our village collected a copy. I have read it before. So, I studied some related derivations, especially using a computer to divide the aircraft into several surfaces for study, which can yield the optimal shape."

Ufimov is considered the father of modern stealth aircraft, but unfortunately, his research wasn't valued by the Russians. Instead, it was only after the newspaper article was translated into English that it caught the attention of the Skunk Works team. By now, the prototype should be almost finished, though the first flight won't be until 81. Publishing a paper like this will surely astound those guys! And, of course, this paper will need a diagram…

"Qin Liang, if what you're saying is true, then I'm sure this paper will be too confidential and won't be allowed to be published at all..." Professor Liu said with a worried expression.

Qin Liang smiled and said, "My theory will always remain just a theory. It requires a supercomputer to calculate a smooth shape, and given the current state of global computer research and development, it won't appear for another twenty years. So, it's just a castle in the air."

The F-117's angular shape led many to believe it couldn't fly, as it completely violated aerodynamics! It wasn't until the F-22 that the shape became more streamlined, which is attributed to improved computer performance.

Ten years from now, there will be a satisfactory computer. However... just to be on the safe side, Qin Liang decided to give a longer timeframe. After all, people in this era have not yet realized how terrifying Moore's Law is.

"Your theory contradicts aerodynamics?" Professor Liu realized.

"It can't be called a contradiction, because the computing power of computers is limited, which means that the shape of the aircraft cannot be particularly smooth. As a result, the shape of the aircraft is composed of several surfaces. Such an aircraft... is similar to the shape of a Transformer."

Transformers? Professor Liu was even more curious. What was that?

Qin Liang was also taken aback. He apologized, saying it was too early. Transformers products, comics, animations, movies, and so on wouldn't have existed until 1984. It was too early to say this now.

"Ahem, Teacher Liu, let me draw it first, and you'll see what I mean when I do."

Qin Liang's sketching skills were not high. If he drew an ordinary airplane, it would look awkward. However, the fuselage of the F-117 was made up of folded lines. He could use a ruler to trace the lines, and soon, a strangely shaped three-view drawing of the airplane appeared on the paper.

From the nose to the rear, the aircraft has a triangular structure that extends all the way to the rear fuselage. There is no horizontal tail, only two vertical tails, which are also tilted. The air intakes are above the wings. The whole aircraft looks like a polyhedral configuration, which made Professor Liu think of...

"diamond?"

"That's right, the best stealth shape is a diamond shape, but this shape can't fly, so we need to add two wings. At the same time, in order to control the aircraft, we also need to add a V-shaped tail fin, which controls both the horizontal and vertical directions..."

Professor Liu stared at the design for a long time, then sighed: "The relevant departments will definitely approve it, but... I don't know if it will be published in an SCI journal..."

"As long as it gets published, it will definitely be published!" Qin Liang said. "Professor Liu, I'll finish writing the paper in the next few days!"

We absolutely must get our hands on that huge sum of two hundred dollars!
(End of this chapter)