336 Air refueling

Chen Fei and Li Li took off the last time.

They also operate the same way, directly turning on the afterburner and taking off at a high elevation angle, which is simple and crude, but extremely efficient.

It is no exaggeration to say that if the 404th Brigade was not the first to take off today, the two Brigades would have probably one-third of the planes not able to fly within the specified time, thus losing the opportunity to continue participating in the Red Sword Exercise.

After Chen Fei took off, he joined the 404 formation and waited for a while. After waiting for another brigade of pilots, he then contacted the tower by radio: "Tower, the 404th brigade has already formed. Please instruct the next step of what to do!"

"Adjust the frequency xxxxx, contact Hongzhi, follow Hongzhi's command, and it's over!"

"I understand, contact xxxxx and follow the command of the Red Sword!" Chen Fei re-entered the radio frequency and then started calling the Red Army Command Center: "Red Sword, I am the 404th Brigade, now accept your command!"

"Battle of 404, accept new routes, enter according to the new route, and enter the No. 34 airspace on time at 8:00 am!"

"Understand, accept the new route and enter according to the new route!"

Chen Fei received the flight map of the new route and looked at their route carefully. He was a little surprised because their current route was different from the routes sent before. It was more than a thousand kilometers more, and it had to circle a large circle from the southeast. Therefore, if they follow the route of the new route, their air fuel would not be enough to fly to the Red Army base, because if they wanted to reach the No. 34 airspace on time at 8 o'clock, they would have to fly supersonic, and supersonic flight would consume a lot of air fuel.

After thinking about it this way, Chen Fei knew the above intention and must have them undergone air refueling training.

This is unlikely to be a requirement of the Red Army command post, and it is likely to be an order issued by the director's department.

Such an exercise is really a huge test for the Red Army, because they not only have to face the harassment of the Blue Army, but also have to honestly accept the difficulties of the director's department, such as the previous tactical box egg strike, and the sudden increase in air refueling now!

"Everyone has it, fly according to the new route, with altitude of 7,000 and a speed of Mach 1.1, and it's over." Chen Fei ordered on radio.

"Flying on the new route, altitude 7000, speed 1.1 Mach, the team understands!"

"The second team understands that it will fly according to the new route, with an altitude of 7,000 and a speed of Mach 1.1!"

Everyone reported one by one, and then the six squadrons dispersed from each other, followed the formation that had been practiced countless times before, and steered together, and flew towards the target airspace.

The flight route of another brigade at the Red Seal Base is different from that of Chen Fei and the others. They flew from another direction to the Red Army Base. It seemed that they were going to another airspace to complete air refueling.

After the sun rose, Chen Fei and his team's aviation fuel was almost exhausted. Although their fuel tanks were filled with aviation fuel before departure, because everyone was full of loads, and their flight speed could not be too slow and they had to fly supersonic, the consumption of aviation fuel was very huge!

Sure enough, at this time, the Hongzhi's order was issued: "Battle of 404, go to the airspace No. 34 to refuel in the air!"

"Received, airspace No. 34 is being refueled in the air!" Chen Fei said.

Aerial refueling aircraft are known as "flying fuel tank" and "air fuel depot", which is equivalent to an aerial gas station.

After the birth of the aircraft, due to the limited fuel tank capacity, the time for it to fly in the air was limited, and landing and refueling was very troublesome. It was usually fine, but during the war, it may be related to the life and death of the pilot and the victory or defeat of the battle. Therefore, the knowledgeable people wanted to refuel in the air early.

On August 27, 1923, it was destined to be recorded in history because on this day, people conducted the first aerial refueling test.

That day, two planes appeared over San Diego Bay, California, USA. They flew up and down in formation, and suddenly a hose was hung from the above plane. The pilot in the plane below stood up, reached out to grab the hose, and inserted it into the fuel tank of the plane.

After a while, fuel was injected from the above plane into the fuel tank of the plane below. At this point, people finally completed the first air refueling. Although the refueling process seems very funny and dangerous today, it has become a great innovation in aviation history.

After the emergence of aerial refueling aircraft and technology, it has received attention from many countries and has invested heavily in upgrading and improvement, making aerial refueling aircraft another prominent flight family after fighter jets, bombers and transport aircraft.

The advent of air tankers has brought about changes in at least three aspects of air combat: it has increased the combat radius of fighter jets and bombers; it has increased the number of bombs and loads of fighter jets and bombers; it has rescued aircraft that have exhausted fuel and fuel tanks that have been broken through and leaked.

But refueling in the air is a relatively dangerous thing. If a pilot is not careful or makes a mistake in operation, it will cause disaster.

One day in 1965, a KC-135 tanker of the US Air Force was ordered to refuel a B-52 bomber. During the docking process of the two aircraft, the pilot of the B-52 bomber made an operation error and hit the tanker.

Our army's aerial refueling aircraft started relatively late. It was not until the late 1980s that the Ministry of Aeronautics and Industry of the State began to develop aerial refueling aircraft.

In 1988, based on repeated argumentation and testing, my country chose the H-6 as the first generation of tanker. With the help of the United Kingdom and Israel, after hundreds of air docking tests, my country finally successfully achieved the first air refueling of the H-6 and J-8ii on December 23, 1991.

Six years later, my country's first aerial refueling regiment was born in the Guangzhou-zhou Military Region, marking a revolutionary leap in the Chinese Air Force.

However, due to the insufficient load capacity and volume of the Hongyu-6, its fuel supply capacity is only about 18 tons, and it can only supply three J-8 fighters. It is limited to light fighters such as the J-8 or J-10, and cannot refuel large bombers, patrol aircraft, long-range radar alert aircraft and unmanned reconnaissance aircraft.

In order to change this situation, in 2006, China and Russia reached an agreement to purchase 30 Russian Il-76 transport aircraft and 8 Il 78m refueling aircraft for US$1.5 billion. However, due to various reasons, these aircraft were not delivered in the end.

Until 2014, China purchased three Il 78 aerial tankers from Ukraine. The Il 78 heavy tanker fuel supply capacity reached 60 tons, which was enough to provide fuel for eight fighters. If the Il 78 aerial tanker was used with Su-30 or J-11b, my country's fighter jets could cover the entire South-Sea cruise and double their long-range combat capabilities.

Of course, if the Chinese Air Force wants to rise strongly, it is impossible for it to rely on purchasing advanced foreign tankers for a long time. It must have large air tankers independently developed. The emergence of the Y-20 just fills this gap.

At this time, the one who came to refuel in the air with Chen Fei and his team 404 was the refueling machine modified on the Y-20 platform.

After receiving the instructions from his superiors, Chen Fei immediately pulled up the fighter plane. After the height increased a little, he pressed the rod and pushed the rudder, turned left and left, and after flying to a certain distance, he began to command the formation to refuel.

Their brigade of 26 aircraft naturally had to accept refueling one after another, and it was impossible to rush forward, as someone needed to command it.

At this time, there were two Y-20 refueling machines in the No. 34 airspace, and Chen Fei and his team had to be divided into two teams to refuel separately.

"First team three teams five teams, the tanker on the left, the tanker on the second team four team six, and the tanker on the right."

The 404th brigade immediately separated from left to right, lined up in a row, and then flew one by one to the near the refueling machine and started refueling!

At present, there are two ways to refuel military aircraft in various countries, namely hose refueling and hard pipe refueling.

Among them, hose refueling is the most common method of air refueling, while hard pipe refueling is currently only the US Air Force.

Refueling hard pipes. When the refueling machine is about to refuel the oil receiver, a retractable hard refueling pipe will be released from the tail. When the oil receiver flies into the refueling position behind the oil receiver, the operator in the control compartment of the rear of the oil receiver will operate the wing surface on the oil receiver to move the oil receiver, thereby aligning the oil receiver pipe on the oil receiver. After alignment, the operator will lock the oil receiver pipe and then refuel. After refueling, the operator will withdraw the oil receiver pipe and the oil receiver will disengage.

Chen Fei and the others used hose to refuel.

The equipment for refueling hoses is simpler than the equipment for refueling hard pipes. It is composed of a winch and a hose that is dozens of meters long and a cone sleeve.

After the other pilots finished refueling, Chen Fei and Li Li started refueling in the air.

Chen Fei flew his fighter plane dozens of meters below the tanker.

At this time, the most important thing is that the speed of the two aircraft must be consistent.

The tanker has released a soft refueling pipe, and the cone sleeve will remain stable under the action of air resistance.

Chen Fei carefully drove the fighter into the refueling position, then controlled the aircraft to slowly approach the cone sleeve, and then seized the opportunity to insert the oil receiving pipe on the nose of the aircraft into the cone sleeve. The locking mechanism in the cone sleeve immediately locked the oil receiving pipe mouth and then started refueling. After the refueling is completed, the oil receiving machine slows down and takes off the cone sleeve, and the refueler starts the winch and retracts the hose.

When refueling, as the fuel transfers, the weight of the tanker will be reduced, and the weight of the fuel receiving aircraft will increase. Therefore, the pilots of the two aircraft must fine-tune the aircraft at any time;
Chapter completed!