The Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier, a peculiarly shaped aircraft, is in the ejection position.
The head is big, the body is small, and the back is extremely slender, just like a strange big insect.
The engine, on both sides of the belly, is very weird. At the same time, it is also a common carrier aircraft on American aircraft carriers, the A-6.
The A-6 can be traced back more than 20 years ago. After the Korean War, the U.S. Navy felt that it desperately needed an all-weather carrier-based attack aircraft, so it ran for several aircraft companies and finally singled out the Gru. MAN’s design, so a generation of famous aircraft A-6 began its career.
Although it is only a subsonic aircraft, it has a solid structure and reliable flight. It immediately became the core of the US aircraft carrier formation, especially for low-altitude and high-speed penetration at night.
After nearly two decades of development, the first batch of A-6s are already very old, especially the electronic equipment at that time. It is really too complicated, which makes it very difficult to maintain. It takes 80 hours for every hour of flight. Maintenance is simply appalling, so the U.S. Navy modified this early aircraft, dismantled the A-6A’s avionics, replaced it with refueling hoses and control equipment, and became the U.S. Navy’s standard ship-borne tanker. , KA-6D.
The appearance still looks ugly. It is impractical for the Navy to have the size of the Air Force and use large passenger planes to refit aerial tankers, because the Navy’s aircraft carriers cannot take off and land, so they can only use their existing ships. Carry the aircraft to carry out the modification.
After the modification, its maximum take-off weight exceeds 26 tons, and it can carry more than 14 tons of fuel, which basically meets the requirements of being a tanker.
Now, after receiving the order, the tanker was lifted up from the hangar and brought to the take-off position on the deck. The pilot looked at the catapult in front of him with emotions.
There are not many opportunities to take off by yourself.
As the catapult's righteousness filled, the tanker roared, and the two turbojet engines in the abdomen were running at full power. The air tanker left the deck and flew north.
The E-2C, which took off early, has found the position of its returning fighter plane, and as long as it flies northward, it can merge with its own plane.
At this time, Nathan was driving a fighter plane, flying at an ultra-low altitude, and had already escaped the pursuit.
The back was completely wet.
Launching a fighter plane is a physical task, and every large overload maneuver is like a few people pressing on him. After some tossing down, Nathan's physical exertion is very large.
Now, Nathan steadily drives the fighter plane and starts to climb. After avoiding the interception of the Soviets, there is no need to continue flying at ultra-low altitudes in safe airspace. That is also very labor-intensive and fuel-consuming.
"The fuel is enough to burn in three minutes," Gus said from behind.
There is a boundless sea all around, more than two hundred kilometers away from the aircraft carrier, is it really going to fly until the fuel is clean, and then fall into the sea? The weather is still very cold now, the sea is cold, it is not a good thing to fall.
"The Lone Ranger calls Kitty Hawk, the Lone Ranger calls Kitty Hawk." Nathan pressed the intercom device again: "How long will the tanker take?"
Can't hold on anymore, when will the tanker fly over
"Lone Ranger, hold on, the opportunity to come in five minutes."
five minutes? In less than five minutes, his plane fell down!
If it is an aircraft like the MiG-25, one engine can be turned off, leaving only one engine, which can greatly extend the time.
However, the Tomcat can’t. The two engines on the Tomcat’s tail are separated by more than one meter. The original design was for one engine to catch fire and would not affect the other. But one side effect is that once one engine When the flame is turned off, the fighter will definitely have a considerable yaw moment under the impetus of the other.
Nathan didn't dare to do that.
So, how do you want to make fighters fly longer
As long as the time is the longest, not the farthest, because the refueling opportunity will fly over, of course, Nathan pushed the two engines to the idle state.
What is the slow state? It is the state of the lowest speed just started. In this state, the ground crew can overhaul the engine. The engine has almost no thrust, and it will not drive the fighter plane to fly.
In this state, the fuel provided to the engine is only enough for the engine to run on its own, which is the most fuel-efficient, but there is no power.
As a result, Gus in the back seat felt something was wrong: "Lone Ranger, we seem to be dropping in height?"
"Yes, we are dropping altitude." Nathan said directly: "We need to drop altitude for five minutes."
How much will it drop in five minutes? Gus has already had an ominous premonition, it must be falling into the sea!
But Gus knew that he had no choice but to trust Nathan. Nathan has always been good at creating miracles, and this time, he will definitely be able to!
Fly, keep flying forward!
Just before calling the Kitty Hawk, it was already five kilometers high, and now, the fighter plane began to slowly descend, four kilometers, three kilometers... when it was lowered to two kilometers, suddenly, Nathan backwards. Slightly pulling the joystick, the fighter's head is up, and it actually starts to increase in height!
what happened
"I just encountered an updraft." Nathan said, "God didn't abandon us!"
The flame at the tail of the Tomcat fighter is almost invisible, and when it keeps falling, there is actually an updraft!
The movement of the atmosphere includes horizontal airflow and vertical airflow. The horizontal airflow is the wind, and the vertical airflow is very scary. For example, once a passenger plane encounters a downdraft, a sudden drop will cause the passengers in the passenger plane to lose weight. Floating up, it must be an exclamation of death.
Now, Nathan was very fortunate that he encountered an updraft during the flight. He adjusted the attitude of the airplane to make the most of the airflow, so he jumped three kilometers.
Hold on, hold on!
The Tomcat fighter swayed and continued to fly forward, and the altitude began to drop again. When the altitude fell to one kilometer, finally, a voice came from the headset: "Batman calls the Lone Ranger, Batman calls the Lone Ranger."
"The Lone Ranger received it, please fly ahead of us immediately." Nathan said, "My fuel is empty and I can't climb."
Generally speaking, the receivers are looking for aerial tankers, and for safety, the height of refueling is generally about 3,000 meters. If the air force tanker can even rise to more than 6,000 meters, the higher it is, the higher the air The smaller the impact.
But now, Nathan dare not fly much. (End of this chapter)