Chapter One Hundred and One: The Tide of the Times

If we are to increase the thrust of the thirteen, there are many ways to do it. And since we have secured the thirteen itself, the first priority is to improve the high-temperature turbine. We can adopt a technology for directionally solidified, precision-cast, integrally cooled hollow turbine blades.

The name is long and sounds extremely impressive, but in truth the technology is nothing more than a combination of several second-rate methods from aircraft-engine development, all of which could already be managed domestically without much difficulty.

Directionally solidified materials were somewhat challenging, but by the nineteen-eighties they were no longer anything extraordinary. Sun Chuanqi, the great figure from the materials institute at Beihang University, had already solved that problem.

Precision casting without machining, as the name suggests, means casting the finished part in one step, with no need for subsequent mechanical processing. By nineteen eighty-three, this technology was also nearly within reach.

At an earlier stage, the country had already carried out extensive research on it. Most importantly, the imported nine already used this process, so if we need it now, we can simply put it to use.

In fact, the discontinued nine had already produced its first batch of engines, which underwent testing in Britain. This shows that the technology was already mastered in nineteen eighty-three, and the later thirteen and fourteen both adopted precision-casting without machining, further confirming the point.

As for the integrally cooled hollow design, the key lies in the word hollow. For the Republic’s aviation industry, this was even less of a problem. Back then, under the leadership of Shi Changxu, a towering figure in Chinese materials science, a great deal of effort was devoted to hollow-cooling technology.

In the end, it achieved complete success, making the Republic the second country, after the United States, to break through in hollow-cooled blade technology. During the import of the nine, this was the only area in which the technology exceeded the British requirements of the time. This is also why the official media has always praised the nine for having surpassed the British standard.

These three technologies were not considered especially advanced in the nineteen-eighties, and the Republic had already mastered them. So at this point, the basic conditions for integrating the three technologies were already in place.

As for the technology Yang Hui proposed, Director Bai had already given it some thought.

"Hmm, this new blade technology you mentioned is indeed very feasible. Directionally solidified materials, precision casting without machining, and integrally cooled hollow construction are all technologies we can obtain by approaching other brother units. In the end, integrating them into a single blade will mainly require extensive testing. This can be done."

Hearing that Director Bai, who specialized in engines, had endorsed Yang Hui’s first improvement proposal, the other attendees set aside their initial disdain and instead began to look forward with even greater interest to the proposals that would follow.

Seeing that his turbine improvement proposal had passed, Yang Hui continued.

"There is also another point: we can directly apply the improved technology from the seven B to the new thirteen. That will be another major step forward."

Applying the seven B’s technology to the thirteen sounded odd. After all, the thirteen itself was already an improved version of the seven, so how could the seven’s technology be used on the thirteen? But the experts in the room understood at once what he meant. The addition of the letter B to the seven indicated that this was already the second modification of the Soviet-style seven.

In those two rounds of modification, the combustion chamber was redesigned, and zone-based, pressure-segmented fuel delivery as well as straight-through fuel-nozzle rod technology were adopted. Compared with the original seven, the revised seven was effectively seventy kilograms lighter and five hundred and sixty millimeters shorter.

These new technologies could absolutely be applied to the thirteen. Although they would not add much thrust, shaving off five hundred and sixty millimeters and seventy kilograms was certainly a tremendous leap.

This proposal to improve the thirteen by adopting the seven B’s technology did in fact appear in later development work on the thirteen. So proposing it now was not a difficult technical challenge at all.

Since the base was currently manufacturing the seven B, everyone was naturally quite familiar with this engine. Even Chief Engineer Yu, who was not especially specialized in engines, was full of praise for Yang Hui’s idea.

"Good. This improvement is truly ingenious. With that five hundred and sixty millimeters of extra space, we can do many things, not to mention the saved weight."

"Go on. Your idea can be used," said Director Bai, growing more and more curious about the remaining improvement plans.

After discussing the two relatively simple modifications, Yang Hui moved on to the next two, which would be much harder to implement. These would require money, and a desperate amount of research.

"There are two more proposals. One is to change the thirteen’s annular duct combustion chamber into an annular combustion chamber."

Changing an annular-duct chamber to an annular one would not greatly affect thrust, but an annular combustion chamber was something an advanced engine had to have.

The annular chamber had a more advanced structure, with advantages such as better combustion, more even temperature distribution, a simpler structure, and lighter weight, but it did not help thrust much. This proposal left Director Bai somewhat puzzled.

"Changing the combustion chamber doesn't seem to do much for increasing thrust, does it? Is there really a need to make such a change on this engine?"

What a lovely pair of questions. Yang Hui had only one thought in his mind: Director, please do not be so honest. It may not add much thrust, but this technology is something we must master sooner or later. If we have the chance now, are we supposed to save money for the foreign side?

Thinking this, he naturally said it aloud, to correct the director’s "backward thinking."

"Right now, since we have the chance to get foreign investment, we have to solve this technology issue. This annular combustion chamber is something we will have to do sooner or later."

Damn it, this...

The year was nineteen eighty-three, and that exact expression did not yet exist, but no words could more directly capture the feelings of the director and the others.

"Yang Hui, what you’re saying is... this... doing it this way... is it really good?"

At first, the director had looked down on Yang Hui’s behavior, but after thinking it over, he became more and more unsettled. Yang Hui’s plan to use the other side’s resources to hatch their own chick was far too tempting. For a research institute director with no money for development, the idea was nearly irresistible.

Still struggling over whether this was proper, Yang Hui immediately launched into a stream of reasoning.

"Director, how are we cheating the foreign side? Once we develop our own annular combustion chamber, it will absolutely push the new engine’s performance up another level. There is not a shred of falseness in that. This annular chamber is the current international trend. If we have nothing to offer, the foreign side probably will not be optimistic about this project."

Once again Saudi Arabia was mentioned, and once again the words fashionable and trendy came up. What more was there to say? All anyone needed was an excuse. As for whether it was reliable, who cared? What we want is only an excuse.

With that excuse in place, everyone naturally went along with it. This new model did indeed need a combustion-chamber improvement. Everyone selectively forgot that changing the combustion chamber would not do much for thrust, and agreed.

"Good, I think this measure can work."

"What do you mean, can work? It must work."

...

Seeing that everyone had accepted his proposal, Yang Hui finally relaxed. That was more like it. What we needed was to keep up with the international trend. And not just in technology—we had to keep up in spirit too, with those capitalist aircraft manufacturers, black-hearted and ruthless.

Director Bai accepted Yang Hui’s new plan to borrow strength by using the other side’s resources, but when it came to the several improvement schemes Yang Hui had proposed, he still had his reservations.

At most, the new engine’s thrust could be raised to six point eight tons, and that was the absolute limit. If they wanted to reach a minimum of seven tons, or even more, this engine was clearly not enough.

"All right, hurry up and tell us your final engine-improvement project. Let us hear what you have in mind."

When it came to the final project, Yang Hui was finally about to reveal his ultimate trump card. This improvement would not only increase thrust; more importantly, it would greatly enhance the research capacity of the entire base institute. Of course, it would also be a test.

"That’s right. The earlier improvements alone absolutely cannot bring us to sufficient thrust, so at this point we can no longer focus only on turbojets."

If the focus was no longer on turbojets, then it could only be turbofans. But turning the thirteen into a turbofan sounded almost too ambitious to even imagine.

Chief Liu from the Liyang factory was the first to speak. Although he was already planning to get out of the Liyang trap as soon as possible, he still felt a wave of dizziness at Yang Hui’s proposal.

"You want to change it into a turbofan? Do you think an aircraft engine is dough, something you can knead however you want? Do you understand the technological leap between a turbojet and a turbofan?"

The others were not entirely in agreement with Factory Director Liu, but the idea of converting it into a turbofan still seemed far too troublesome.

"How exactly would you change it? Tell us. I believe you have your own reasons for making this suggestion."

After speaking, Director Bai looked at Yang Hui, prepared to listen carefully and see whether the idea was feasible.