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

Chapter 24 Plan A rejected? Then let's try Plan B!

Dormitory 13, Room 308.

When Qin Liang returned to the dormitory before lights out, he saw...

A huge group of people crammed into their dorm room, five on the lower bunk and three on the upper bunk... Aren't you afraid that the upper bunk will fall down and crush the people on the lower bunk to death?
At that moment, everyone was looking at him, and then...

"Teacher Qin, I have a few questions, could you please answer them for me..."

The first one to rush up was surprisingly Zhang Yong, who addressed Qin as "Teacher Qin" so affectionately, without any of his previous shyness.

“Teacher Qin, I have just one small question. I feel like I’m stuck on this one point…” Zhao Zhijian also rushed up.

"Sigh!" Qin Liang sighed. It seemed he wouldn't be able to go back to the dormitory anymore. With so many people asking questions, wouldn't he have to answer until midnight?

"Classmates, could we do this..." Qin Liang hesitated before speaking, "If you have any questions, try to figure them out yourselves first. If you can't solve them, then discuss them together. If you still can't solve them, then ask the teacher... Also, we're not in the classroom right now, and I'm not on the podium. Just call me Qin Liang, you don't need to call me Teacher Qin."

I'm so sleepy, my eyelids are starting to droop!

"That won't do. Confucius said, 'Among three people walking together, there must be one who can teach me...'"

"No, it's 'Once a teacher, always a teacher,' cough cough..."

“Classmates, as you can all see, Qin Liang is very tired tonight. How about we come back tomorrow morning? We can also summarize and organize the questions and wait for Qin Liang to answer them…” Tang Changhong said. In this situation, it was time for him, the dormitory head, to step in.

beep, beep...

Just then, footsteps sounded outside.

"Qin Liang, Qin Liang!" That's the dormitory supervisor's voice! As for calling from afar, it's probably because she's worried about embarrassing situations if there are students taking cold showers in the water room.

"what's up?"

"The Fifth Department office building called and wants you to come over for an emergency meeting!"

Sigh, it's hard to stay anywhere. Even the donkeys in the production team need a rest!

"Qin Liang, what are you busy with?"

"Sigh! You guys better study hard. Once you've mastered it, I'll be able to relax..." Qin Liang sighed and walked downstairs with weary steps.

The Fifth Department Office Building features double-triangular wing offices.

"Oh, Elder Tu is back? You came back so quickly!"

You make a phone call during the day, but it would take a whole day and night to travel by train?
Old Tu smiled and said, "It just so happened that an Air Force plane was going to Factory 172, so I hitched a ride. Come on, Qin Liang, tell me your plan again!" Qin Liang looked around at the others. "We've been discussing this all afternoon. I've said so much, can't you just repeat it?"

"Qin Liang, we think it's best if you explain it yourself. After all, we're still thinking about your idea and haven't fully grasped it yet!"

Qin Liang nodded: "Okay, we can understand the Air Force's desire for all-weather fighters. However, the ordinary modifications to the MiG-21 simply cannot meet the needs of all-weather fighters. No matter how the air intake cone is improved, it cannot install a large-caliber radar, and the search range is only twenty or thirty kilometers, which is not very meaningful. So, let's just do a major overhaul!"

"In the 1960s, the Mikoyan Design Bureau made a major modification to the MiG-21, codenamed the Ye-8 technology demonstrator. It kept the rear fuselage of the MiG-21 unchanged, but changed it to an under-fuselage air intake, which freed up the nose to install the Sapphire-1 fire control radar from the MiG-23..."

In later years, Factory 132 produced an ultimate modified version of the J-7, which also featured an air intake under the fuselage and a large-diameter radar installed in the nose. Unfortunately, due to the existence of the JF-17 Thunder at that time, this project only remained at the model stage and was exhibited at the Zhuhai Airshow.

Qin Liang has vivid memories of this project. At that time, some people who liked to find foreign backers for domestic projects started to find fault, saying that this project was actually just the Soviet Ye-8 technology demonstrator. In order to refute these claims, Qin Liang had to look up a lot of detailed information.

So, I thoroughly understood this facelift.

In pursuit of high angle-of-attack air intake efficiency, third-generation fighter jets generally use under-fuselage air intakes, such as the American F-16, the Soviet Su-27 and MiG-29, and the European Typhoon...

However, for the MiG-21, this improvement was a major overhaul!

"Raise the nose as a whole. As for the increased weight at the nose, a pair of canards can be added to increase lift, thus re-matching the center of lift and the center of gravity..."

Old Tu examined it carefully for a long time, then shook his head helplessly: "Qin Liang, this plan does sound feasible, but... the modifications are too great, it's practically a completely new development. Even if our Factory 132 and Northwestern Polytechnical University cooperate, I'm afraid we probably can't pull it off. In particular, the front landing gear needs to pass through the air intake, and we've never dealt with landing gear modifications before..."

The changes are too drastic, I can't handle it!

Qin Liang thought to himself, "Sure enough, Tu Lao is the person who knows the J-7 best. He saw the problem with this modification at a glance: the air intake is under the fuselage, so the front landing gear has to go through the air intake, which means it has to be lengthened!"

The Russian Ye-8 had to raise its nose for this reason, even risking its rear end scraping the ground.

Before the J-10 was successfully developed, China simply couldn't handle the development of a completely new landing gear. This meant that Qin Liang's afternoon of work on the design plan was all for naught.
Everyone felt discouraged. The teachers at Northwestern Polytechnical University really couldn't get close to the production line; their ideas were too naive!

What to do? Side air intakes? This solution doesn't seem very innovative... It's a lot of trouble, and even if it's modified, the performance won't be significantly improved. Will the Air Force agree to this?
Seeing the disappointed looks in everyone's eyes, Qin Liang knew that if Plan A was rejected, it was time to move on to Plan B.

"Well, then it'll just have to look a bit uglier, with the air intakes pressed against the sides of the cheeks."

The three-surface J-7 is only a model, but the FTC-2000 is a production model that has been modified to the point that even its mother, the Mikoyan Design Bureau, could not recognize it!

Cheekbones? What does that mean?
The nose intake is the most efficient, but it cannot accommodate a large-diameter radar. Second-generation aircraft began to widely use side air intakes to free up the nose. Third-generation aircraft began to design the air intakes on the belly. Where are the cheeks?
Of course, it's viewed from the front of the engine, with the air intakes positioned on the lower sides of the engine!

Back then, Factory 132 collaborated with Pakistan on the Super-7 project. The original design had air intakes on both sides. However, under the guidance of Grumman engineers, the fixed D-type air intakes with positive shock waves that were originally located on both sides of the fuselage were tilted inward by ten degrees. In other words, they were moved down a bit from the sides. If you were to view the front of the nose as a human face, it would be that the air intakes were moved from where the ears were to where the cheeks are.

Later, the Super-7 evolved into the JF-17 Thunder, and Guizhou Aviation Industry Corporation also transplanted the nose of the Super-7 onto its own Mountain Eagle trainer jet. The Mountain Eagle was later upgraded and became the FTC-2000, which can not only train pilots but also fight, becoming the first choice for third-world countries!
(End of this chapter)