In recent years, as China's aviation industry has reached a new level, the early unattainable early warning aircraft has appeared in a blowout. Not only has advanced performance but also has a rich model, including self-use KJ-200, KJ-2000, KJ-500, as well as professional Y8J maritime alerting machine, export ZDK-03, etc. All types of aircraft are flying all over the sky and full of déjà vu.
Although the results are gratifying now, the development path of China's early warning aircraft can be said to be forced out. For example, everyone has the impression of " Felcon Early Warning Aircraft Incident ". The order was ruined by the United States back then, which is enough to prove that the powerful weapons of a great country have never relied on others, and the advanced aviation industry that cannot be bought may be stuck at any time. However, although aviation development has been very backward for a long time, it does not affect the exploration and pursuit of high-tech equipment by scientific researchers. We will turn our time back to the 1970s, starting with the arduous development of the first generation of domestic early warning aircraft.
Kuan-200 Early Warning Machine
Felkang Early Warning Machine
For us, the vast territory and territorial sea area is not small, and there is a very realistic demand for aerial Early Warning Machine . Since the 1950s, the US military has been conducting close-in reconnaissance on us. At that time, the national air defense system was in the early stage and often felt powerless about such reconnaissance. When time entered the 1960s, as the United States, the Soviet Union and Britain took the lead in owning early warning aircraft, we also had a corresponding version of the world's aviation development trend. In 1969, the aviation industry began to develop the early warning aircraft code-named "926 aircraft".
"926 aircraft" early warning aircraft has high basic performance requirements, mainly including three aspects. First, it has strong loading capacity, can carry large radar antenna and accommodate more electronic equipment and operators. Secondly, it has a large battery life and can perform air patrol and alert tasks for a long time. Finally, it can be used to monitor low-altitude aircraft and surface ship , and can also perform emergency maneuver alert reconnaissance and escort missions at the same time.
E-2 "Hawkeye" early warning machine
Figure-126 "Moss" early warning machine
Development of early warning machine must be equipped with a carrier platform, especially it is required to be able to carry a large number of electronic equipment and personnel, and the body platform must be a mainframe. At that time, there were very few available models in service, including Il-18, Boeing 707, Viscount, Trident , Tu-104, Tu-4, etc. Considering the international environment at that time, we finally chose the Tu-4, which we could process parts, as the carrier. The prototype of this bomber, , is the World War II American B-29 bomber. Later, he was injured and forced to land in the Soviet Union while bombing Japan. He was soon copied from the Tupolev Design Bureau, and then 10 were given to us in 1953.
Figure-4 Bomber
After selecting the carrier platform, the important radar installation design began, and an early warning radar antenna was installed on the body of Figure-4. If the aerodynamic layout is destroyed, the aircraft must be modified greatly. First, the middle section of the aircraft was modified into a radar compartment, and a small "843 type altimeter radar" was installed, as well as electronic equipment such as Doppler navigation system , pilot computers, coordinate computers and other electronic equipment. Secondly, a large radar radome and support system are installed, so that the aerodynamic resistance increases by about 30%, to ensure that the aircraft can fly normally and safely. The original piston engine was removed and the domestic turboprop-6 engine (Y-8 supporting power) was replaced. The power of the entire machine increased by 67% and the power was increased to offset the performance degradation caused by the modification.
From December 1969 to August 1970, scientific researchers modified and adjusted the aerodynamic shape and structure of the aircraft. In order to ensure that there is no accident, more than 2,000 wind tunnel blowing tests were conducted in the entire development cycle. On June 10, 1971, the "926 aircraft" finally succeeded in its maiden flight in Shaanxi, and was also named "Air Police No. 1". But the problem is lack of experience. Although it has undergone a lot of blow-up tests, after the test flight with a straight radome, the "KJI 1" was still accompanied by violent vibration during flight, and the operators inside the aircraft were unable to perform normal work at all.
KJI No. 1
KJI No. 1
KJI No. 1 first flight
KJI No. 1 first flight
solved the problem while discovering more than two years of efforts by subsequent scientific researchers, after more than two years of hard work, the shaking of the aircraft caused by the radome spoiler was finally eliminated. After normal flight, the Air Police No. 1 begins to enter the performance testing process, mainly conducting simulation tests based on sea and air targets.
uses H-6 as the medium and high altitude simulation target. This large high-sonic bomber is relatively easy to identify, and the radar detection distance can reach 300-350 kilometers. Taking An-24 as the low-altitude simulation target at sea, the radar detection distance can reach 250 kilometers, and taking large submarine hunting at sea as the simulation target, the radar detection distance can reach 300 kilometers. Overall, although KJI No. 1 uses a large number of full electronic tube systems, it is comparable to the advanced early warning aircraft of the same era in terms of detection distance. The biggest disadvantage is that it is reflected in backward radar data processing and transmission.
Kuaiguan No. 1
Kuaiguan No. 1
"Kuaiguan No. 1" then carried out multiple rounds of radar detection performance test flights under various complex terrains such as plains, mountainous areas, deserts, and sea lakes. The detection distance basically meets the requirements. However, airborne radar has never been able to effectively eliminate ground object echo interference. It can be understood in this way that it is visible but not clear, and it cannot effectively discover and judge and lock the target.
Starting from the second half of 1976, the Air Force focused on organizing radar anti-earth objects and sea wave interference research. Two years later, it conducted multiple sea test flights again. Due to the inability to effectively solve the problem, the final effect was not ideal. By 1979, since the performance of early warning radar never met the usage requirements, the "Kilo War One" that had been tested and flew for several years could only stop its development. Although
"Kilo War One" failed, it can be seen that the requirements are not low based on the performance parameters at that time. The diameter of the radome is: 7 meters, and the maximum thickness of the radome is 1.6 meters. The maximum take-off weight is 63.6 tons, the maximum load capacity is 14.9 tons, the maximum flight speed is 465 km/h, and the cruise speed is 380-420 km/h. The practical ceiling is 8,000 meters, the maximum range is 3,970 kilometers, and the battery life can reach 9.5 hours. If three relays are used, seamless cruise can be achieved.
KJI 1
KJI 1
It is obvious that the air early warning aircraft is not about moving the radar into the air. It involves too many requirements, based on the scientific research strength at that time and the supporting industrial foundation, the gap is obvious. However, the development of "KJI 1" also proves that we are very successful in modifying Figure 4, and the overall flight performance, handling and stability after replacing the engine are slightly better than Figure 4. Moreover, its emergence made our country the fourth country with air early warning aircraft at that time, after the United States, the Soviet Union and Britain.
However, due to the gap in electronic technology, the performance of the airborne radar has not been able to meet the combat requirements. In the end, there is also a Y-10 air early warning aircraft that has not been able to move forward due to platform problems, but overall, the creation of aerodynamic layout is not a problem at all. In particular, the experience accumulated in the development process of Air War One was eventually inherited and learned from the new domestic early warning aircraft, which led to the explosion of domestic early warning aircraft we are seeing.
Yun-10 Early Warning Machine Model
KuAutomotive No. 1
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