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

Chapter 63 What? The radar was sent to Northwestern Polytechnical University?

A few days ago, Shen Yang.

A straight runway lay beside Factory 112. Countless anxious people stood beside the runway, looking up at the sky and in the direction from which the roaring sound came.

With its nose air intake, delta wing, and normal aerodynamic layout, it looks a lot like a J-7, but it is thicker and longer than the J-7, and has two engines at the tail!
Deploying landing gear, touching down, deploying the drag chute... the whole process was completed in one go, demonstrating the pilot's skillful technique.

Once the plane came to a stop, a group of people rushed over.

"Old Deer, how's it going?" someone asked immediately upon seeing the pilot disembark.

"It's not working, Engineer Zhu. Just like before, our airborne radar can't acquire the target! It's strange, it worked fine at 10 kilometers, but now that we've set the target to 13 kilometers, it just can't acquire it!"

Zhu, the head of R&D for the 204 radar, immediately looked grim: "Come on, explain the operation process in detail..."

In the 1960s, the J-8 fighter jet began development, and the supporting high-altitude interception and targeting single-pulse airborne radar was also put on the agenda. After several changes, it became the current Institute 607. They worked on it in Neijiang for more than ten years and finally made the 204 radar mature. It was then installed in the nose of the J-8 and began matching experiments.

Then, the nightmare began: the radar could not effectively intercept the target!
Each launch costs tens of thousands of yuan, but the hidden malfunction of the radar remains unresolved, causing great anxiety.

Inside the hangar, the nose of the J-8 fighter jet was disassembled, and engineers from Institute 607 were searching for the cause of the malfunction once again.

Before they knew it, it was dark outside, and the food delivered from the cafeteria had gone cold, but they were still busy...

The roar of airplanes could be heard outside.

"Engineer Zhu, Engineer Zhu, come quick, follow me!"

Foreman Zhu didn't even look up: "I'm not going!"

"Quickly, it's an emergency!"

When Engineer Zhu was towed to the airport, he saw an unfamiliar transport plane parked there. The rear door of the transport plane opened, and a plane was slowly towed out.

That is……

MiG-23!

Engineer Zhu immediately held his breath and stared intently at the nose of the aircraft, where there was a pulse Doppler radar!

The MiG-23 was the first Russian aircraft to have an empty nose section, precisely to accommodate a large-diameter radar!

Although its specific performance is unknown, it's estimated to have a search range of at least fifty kilometers! Compared to it, our own 204 radar is utter garbage!
"Mr. Gu!" Engineer Zhu greeted the people getting off the plane and asked, "Was the airborne radar on this plane assigned to us by our superiors?"

If we don't give them to them, we absolutely won't let him come to see it! There are only about a dozen people in the audience.

Old Gu nodded: "That's right, the most important part of this MiG-23 for us is the nose! We will graft the nose onto the J-8 to give our J-8 beyond-visual-range air combat capability. Engineer Zhu, thank you for your hard work on the radar!"

"it is good!"

That night, the MiG-23 was towed into the hangar, and then they started taking pictures and disassembling it. Around midnight, the nose radar section was finally disassembled. When Engineer Zhu saw the circuit board inside, he was dumbfounded as he looked at the small light bulbs on it.

Vacuum tubes!
Although our 204 radar is technologically inferior, it is at least a fully transistorized radar. This MiG-23, on the other hand, still uses a vacuum tube radar! These things are inherently sensitive to vibration, and on an aircraft, they would probably malfunction after only a few minutes of operation!
"Old Zhu, how's this radar?"

“Old Gu, I think this radar is too outdated, only at the level of the Soviet Union in the 1960s. We…” Engineer Zhu shook his head: “Let’s go back and study the 204 radar.” Engineer Zhu felt that today had been a waste of time.

One day, two days, three days... For some reason, the MiG-23's nose radar kept appearing in Engineer Zhu's eyes. Even if it was a vacuum tube radar, it was still a pulse-Doppler radar! Should we take a look at it?

Finally, on the fourth day, he couldn't resist anymore and went to the workshop where the surveying and replication were being carried out again.

Then... he saw that the place where the radar used to be was completely empty.

"Old Gu, where's the radar?"

"Radar? Yesterday, when the higher-ups asked about the radar, I told them you didn't want it, and they arranged for it to be taken away."

gone!

"Where did you go?"

Northwestern Polytechnical University.

"Northwestern Polytechnical University? Such a good thing, why would we arrange for it to go to Northwestern Polytechnical University? What can it do there? Use it as a teaching sample? That's just nonsense!" Engineer Zhu said, and then ran outside.

"Engineer Zhu, Engineer Zhu, what are you doing?"

"Buy a train ticket, let's go to Northwestern Polytechnical University!"

Northwestern Polytechnical University, Department of Electronic Engineering.

"Dear teachers, this was coordinated by Director Liu. If our department can handle it, we'll keep this machine. If we can't, then..."

"Well, Qin Liang, are you trying to goad us?" Department Head Zhu Qiu rolled her eyes at him. "The Aircraft Engineering Department took on the responsibility of developing the entire aircraft, the Mathematics Department took on the development of computers, and now it's our Electronic Engineering Department's turn to give away this project that we've already secured?"

“Director Zhu, I’m not trying to provoke you. If we’re talking about mapping and replication, our department definitely has no problem. Transistor-based modifications are also no problem if we thoroughly understand the circuit principles. But now, we’re talking about digital transformation… that’s not easy.” Qin Liang said, “Back then, I promised Leader Liu that I would do digital transformation!”

“If it were just us, it might not be easy, but…” Zhu Qiu looked at the books on the table, especially the top one, “Introduction to Airborne Radar,” and smiled. “We’ve read all the books you sent over the past few days. To be honest, this radar sample is really just a sample. We still have to figure out most of the circuitry ourselves, but… we’re confident!”

"Alright, then it's up to you! The relevant research and development funding will also come from the Super 7 project, everyone..."

Just then, a voice came from outside: "Comrade, comrade, you can't go in! It's a classified meeting inside!"

Boom!
The door opened, and a middle-aged man appeared in the doorway. Looking at the prototype on the table, he let out a long sigh of relief: "Thank goodness, thank goodness, you didn't take it apart... Hey, hey, what are you doing!"

Two security guards came up, one on each side, and dragged the middle-aged man outside.

"Let me go, let me go! I'm Zhu Kexin, from Institute 607... Ouch!"

Seeing that he still dared to struggle, the third clerk slapped him in the stomach.

"Wait, put him down!" Qin Liang's voice rang out.

Research institutes and universities are different entities. Institute 607 is a classified unit and has not requested any graduates from Northwestern Polytechnical University in recent years. Therefore, the teachers at Northwestern Polytechnical University do not know Engineer Zhu at all. However... Qin Liang has heard of him.

(End of this chapter)