MTL - Warship of Great Power-Chapter 740 british aircraft carrier
Chapter 740 British aircraft carrier
United Kingdom, Rolls-Royce.
"The Easterners actually want to develop a 40-megawatt gas turbine!" Engineer McCleary said angrily: "Our Great Britain is the first country to develop a gas turbine. We must not lose to the East in this field!"
"That's right, on vertical take-off and landing fighter jets, we let the Easterners get ahead. On this kind of gas turbine, we must not lag behind!" Stanley said.
Rolls-Royce is an old aero-engine giant. Generally speaking, it doesn’t have much relationship with the shipbuilding Mingzhou Group. However, they had a contest on vertical take-off and landing fighter jets. Although the result has not yet come out, everyone We all know that they lost.
The vertical take-off and landing fighters of the Orientals are progressing smoothly. In the last exhibition, the demonstration of the vertical take-off and landing function has been realized. This year’s International Defense Exhibition has not yet been held, but it can be guessed that their vertical take-off and landing fighters will definitely fly performance.
What about Rolls-Royce?
Although the UK does not have a stealth fighter project, the British and the Americans jointly developed the JSF fighter. In this project, the highly skilled Rolls-Royce company helped design the vertical take-off and landing system, and helped one of them design a pneumatic fan solution. Facts have proved that this route simply does not work.
Now, on gas turbines, are they still going to lag behind?
"Of course not, we need to start research and development immediately!" At this moment, a middle-aged man with an indifferent expression came in, it was Conrad, a senior executive of Rolls-Royce: "Everyone, I just received a task to develop four Ten-megawatt gas turbine!"
Everyone became excited immediately: "Should we develop it now?"
"Yes, research and develop now! The defense department has officially decided to develop a new class of aircraft carrier to replace our old Invincible class aircraft carrier." Conrad said: "The displacement of this type of aircraft carrier cannot be smaller than that of the East. It is planned to use the gas turbine developed by us!"
A new class of aircraft carrier? Everyone is excited. Those invincibles are too dilapidated, and they can't show the strength of their Great Britain at all. During the 82 years of war, they deeply realized this, but there is no money!
Only a powerful country can have an aircraft carrier. Look at Europe now, how many have aircraft carriers, and how big is the displacement?
"Mr. Conrad, the aircraft carrier of the Orientals has a displacement of more than 60,000 tons. If we want to build an aircraft carrier of this level, do we really need to use gas turbines to drive it?" Stanley asked.
So far, the largest warship driven by gas turbines is only a cruiser of more than 10,000 tons. No matter how big it is, it is either boiler or nuclear power, and gas turbines have never been used.
"That's right, there are currently several alternatives, but even if the displacement exceeds 60,000 tons, we can still use gas turbines to drive it. If two are not enough, at most four will be used." Conrad said: "The matter of the aircraft carrier We don't care, we just take care of the gas turbines."
"If we start from scratch, then the research and development time is too long, it is better for us to use the existing aero engine to improve." McLee said: "Using our Trent800 aero engine to improve is the most suitable, just like It's the same as the S*M1 engine that we modified with Spey."
In terms of aero engines, the British are still very good. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Spey engine was definitely the most eye-catching. The civilian version of this engine was used on a large number of passenger aircraft, and the military version was used on different fighter jets. , At the same time, the modified version of the developed gas turbine was also used on warships. The British Navy was the first to realize full gas turbine, relying on this gas turbine.
Times have changed, and the gas turbines modified by Spey are outdated. They need more advanced gas turbines, and it is most appropriate to improve them on aero engines.
At the beginning, Rolls-Royce pioneered the three-rotor RB211 series engine, which achieved great commercial success. They provided 40% of the world's airliner engines. Later, on the basis of this engine, they improved it. Trent700 engine.
However, the fan diameter of this engine is too small to meet the power requirements of the latest Boeing 777. Therefore, Rolls-Royce made persistent efforts and developed a new engine with a 2.8-meter-diameter fan, which is the Trent800.
Although it cannot compare with the strongest GE90 in terms of thrust, this engine has a great advantage: it is the lightest among several engines used on the Boeing 777. It is 8,000 pounds lighter than the GE90, 5,400 pounds lighter than the PW4090, and lighter than the PW4090. The PW4098 is 6,500 pounds lighter, and simple calculations can save airlines $200,000 per aircraft per year.
So, after this engine appeared, it immediately became the most popular Boeing 777 engine among customers.
As Rolls-Royce's most powerful engine, it was of course him who changed it to a gas turbine for ships.
"That's right, we will improve on this gas turbine! We will surely make faster progress than the Easterners. The Easterners develop it from scratch, which is not so easy." Stanley nodded.
Conrad shook his head: "No, the Orientals didn't necessarily develop it from scratch."
"Didn't start from scratch? Do they have any aero engines that can be changed? They don't have such a large thrust at hand." When McLeary said this, he suddenly thought of something: "Could it be D-18T?"
For a long time, the D-18T engine has firmly occupied the throne of Damao's largest thrust aeroengine. It can be seen that the largest transport aircraft in the world uses this engine.
"Damn it, Motor Sich can't do this, they can't export this strategic level of engine to the East, we have to sanction them!" Stanley almost shouted.
His worry is understandable. In the past few years, the development of the East has been too fast, and now it is about to surpass the United Kingdom. How could they be reconciled.
"Sanctions? How to sanction? We have no evidence. The Orientals said they did their own research, and they will not publish the research results to us." Conrad said: "However, in retaliation, Airbus has made a decision. Disqualify Motor Sich from bidding on the A400 transport aircraft engine."
In fact, this kind of decision is of no use, because Madasic has known for a long time that their engine is just for fun, and it is impossible to win the bid at all. How could the Europeans give such a big cake to Madasic? Odd Company? It's not that Europe doesn't have first-class aero engines.
This method is only to satisfy their own psychology. Their most important thing at present is to develop high-power gas turbines. After all, no matter which bidding team wins, their Rolls-Royce Company is the only engine supplier.
The British want to build an aircraft carrier, which of course is a big piece of cake, attracting countless teams to bid.
The Royal Navy wept with joy.
Back then, every government came to power, and they all had a high interest in committing suicide to their own troops. Under the butcher knife they wielded, the size of the navy became smaller and smaller. The British invincible-class aircraft carrier, in the mouths of many people , were all fooled by the Americans, thinking that small and medium-sized aircraft carriers are the future. In fact, more reasons were poor. At that time, the Navy racked their brains and used the rhetoric of an anti-submarine ship to complete the construction of the Invincible class. They dare not say It is an aircraft carrier, otherwise, their navy will completely lose its fixed-wing aviation power.
After 82 years, everyone was woken up, in the sense of honor of the empire, no one objected to building an aircraft carrier, and finally reached a consensus: they need a more powerful aircraft carrier.
However, the need is one thing, and whether it can meet the need is another. It has been 1998, and they are still arguing about what kind of aircraft carrier to build. Stimulating, the aircraft carrier on the berth of the Mingzhou Group has gradually shown its outline, and they have not yet made up their minds.
Portsmouth.
"Everyone, we can't be entangled anymore. We must choose three of the nine plans as soon as possible." In the conference room, Sir Benjamin sat on the rostrum, looked at the flagpoles lined up in the military port outside, and then turned to the people below. Said: "Now, many companies have formed a bidding team, waiting for our bidding, we have to come up with a charter first."
Since the 1980s, when they decided to build a new aircraft carrier, they put forward various proposals. There are nine proposals in total, seven of which are newly designed and built, and two of which are refitted from existing ships. .
Those two plans can be ruled out. Now the country must be completely rebuilt, so you have to choose from seven new plans.
These schemes are mainly divided into three categories, namely STOVL (short take-off vertical landing) scheme, STOBAR (short takeoff and arrest landing) scheme and CATOBAR (traditional aircraft carrier catapult takeoff and arrest landing) type. The first type is the British They were already in use, so they were the most familiar with this model, and they proposed four plans, the third proposed two plans, and only the second one proposed a plan, thus making up seven.
They need to select three of these seven schemes, and then invite bids.
"Our plan cannot be decided by ourselves, it still depends on the support of the country." Charles said: "The aircraft carrier we want is naturally the bigger the better. The more advanced the performance, the better, and the more carrier-based aircraft it carries, the better. "
"We also have to look at the choice of carrier-based aircraft." Hook said.
"According to the photos taken by our satellite, it can be determined that in the dock of the Mingzhou Group in the East, the construction of an aircraft carrier has started. At present, the manufacture of the first two sections has been completed. We can estimate that this aircraft carrier It will not be smaller than the Varyag they are currently using, and its displacement may be more than 60,000 tons. Our own aircraft carrier cannot have a displacement lower than this, so we set the target at 65,000 tons." Sir Benjamin said: "Now that the displacement is available, the key is the choice of carrier-based aircraft. Once the carrier-based aircraft is determined, we can even determine the only solution."
"The future is already the era of stealth aircraft, and our aircraft carrier must be equipped with stealth aircraft." Charles said.
They have very few carrier aircraft to choose from.
Now they are using the Sea Harrier, which is a carrier-based aircraft developed and produced by themselves, but it is also the only one. What else do they have now? A Tornado with variable-sweep wings? Or a jointly developed Eurofighter? These fighters are not stealthy.
If it is a stealth aircraft, then there is only the American JSF.
"No, our aircraft carrier is imminent. The U.S. stealth aircraft has not yet completed the bidding, and it will take at least five years to mature. We can't wait!" Hook shook his head: "Let's use our own Typhoon."
"Can the Typhoon be used as a carrier-based aircraft?" Benjamin was taken aback.
"The French Rafale fighter jets can be used as carrier-based aircraft, so why not our Typhoon?" Hook said: "BAE is doing research on refitting the Typhoon carrier-based aircraft. We can invite them to do a simple job for us. Compared with the stealth aircraft of the United States, our Typhoon will definitely be able to catch up with the progress of the aircraft carrier."
Everyone nodded.
Typhoon fighter jets have been brewing since the 1970s. By 1994, the first one was out of the factory. Now it is getting closer and closer to being finalized. If it is converted into a carrier-based aircraft, it can also catch up with the progress of the aircraft carrier. Moreover, Typhoon is a European Own, this also saves a large amount of funds from flowing to the United States.
BAE's aircraft engineers arrived soon.
"Everyone, it's a great honor to introduce our Typhoon carrier-based aircraft to you." A rendering was displayed on the projector, which is exactly the graphic of a typhoon taking off and landing from an aircraft carrier. The aircraft carrier directly used the effect of an American aircraft carrier because there were no samples. picture.
"It is not complicated to convert the Typhoon fighter into a carrier-based aircraft. Compared with other models, we don't need to fold the wings, because we can reduce the area occupied by the deck by placing two aircraft facing each other, which can save a lot of money." space, we just need to simply modify the landing gear and increase the strength..." the engineer continued to introduce.
"Wait, what's that thing above the cockpit?" Someone saw something strange and asked.
"Well, if Typhoon wants to board the ship, it has to increase the angle of attack when landing. In order to allow the pilot to have a better line of sight, we added a periscope to the cockpit cover."
What?
Everyone was shocked.
Typhoon boarded the ship, actually want to add a periscope?
"No, we can't do this. We have laughed at the old Maozi for decades. Their MiG-21 trainer aircraft uses periscopes. When it's our turn, we actually have to add periscopes? Moreover, it is still a carrier-based aircraft landing!"
You must know that there is a big difference between what you see in the periscope and what you see directly! Forget about the trainer aircraft, the landing of the carrier-based aircraft is inherently dangerous, and now you have to watch the periscope land, the risk is not ordinary.
Although the UK did not block the landing aircraft carrier, the relationship between the UK and the United States is good, and their pilots go to the US aircraft carrier for training every year to have a good time.
They know the danger of landing, and they still need to use a periscope? That's absolutely nonsense.
"No, ours is not an optical periscope, but an electronic periscope. Specifically, a camera is installed on the top of the cockpit's bulkhead, and then the image can be displayed on the cockpit's monitor." The engineer explained.
"That's not okay, it's very dangerous to do that! If the plane can't land with a normal attitude, then we refuse!"
The dream of typhoons on the ship was shattered in this way. For BAE, this is nothing. Anyway, the air force needs a lot of typhoons, and it needs to be specially improved on the ship, and the demand is not high. It may not be cost-effective. The navy does not see it Forget it.
There will be many problems when a duck-style fighter is on board, so in later generations, except for the Rafale fighter, no duck-style fighter can go on board, including the J-20.
For the Typhoon, it is even more difficult to get on the ship, because it uses telecoupling, and its canards are at the front and lower of the cockpit!
Such a design makes its canards the smallest size, which can exert the greatest control torque effect, but at the same time, it will also block the front and lower vision of the pilot on both sides.
Normal takeoff and landing is fine, but the takeoff and landing of carrier-based aircraft is different, especially for landing. These two canards are very obstructive, and there is a high probability that they will block the light of the Fresnel light box when the aircraft is approaching.
So, if you want to board the ship, you have to change it. The way to change it is to add a periscope. Unfortunately, the military doesn't buy it.
Of course, it still has many problems. For fighters with air intake in the belly, the strengthening of the front landing gear is also a big problem. However, because the Typhoon fighter has a strong short take-off and landing capability, if it takes off with a ski jump, it does not need to be ejected. device is no problem.
The key is landing. In order to improve the performance, when the British fooled Ah San later, they also came up with a vector version. It is easier to board the ship with this version, but Ah San still has no choice. If you can't ask for this thing, Ah San shouldn't be taken advantage of.
If the typhoon is not suitable, you can only buy it out!
"We can't purchase the French Rafale, that would be an insult to us." Benjamin said: "The only thing left is the American F-18 and the stealth aircraft under development."
The F-14 in the United States is also gradually retiring, and the F-18 has become the main force. Even this aircraft has undergone major changes. When it comes to the E/F version, partial stealth repairs have been carried out.
"If F-18 is used, it means that we have to use catapults and arresting wires. We don't have these technologies. We need to purchase them from the United States like the French." Charles said.
"So, you mean, we wait for the vertical landing version in the JSF?" Hooker asked.
Truth is formed in the discussion, now, they have no time to wait, they have to make a choice.
"In this case, our carrier-based aircraft can be assumed to be F-18 and JSF, and our aircraft carrier can also use three options. We will conduct the next bidding and see if the bidding team can provide us with the most suitable option. said Benjamin.
There are three types of JSF, whether it is a vertical take-off and landing aircraft or an ordinary carrier-based aircraft, they can choose. Anyway, it is outsourced, and there is no point in continuing the discussion at the meeting. We still need to wait for the opinions of the bidding team. After all, the bidding team is also very professional. of.
"Sir, I have an idea." At this moment, someone spoke.
"explain."
"Us, can we invite Mingzhou Group to bid?"
As soon as these words came out, the expressions of everyone present changed.
"Does the warships of our Europeans need to be designed by Orientals?"
"Geiger, is there something wrong with your brain?" Everyone cursed.
"Geiger, tell me what you think. If you just want to annoy everyone, then congratulations, you did it. I think you will be torn to pieces before you leave this conference room."
"Everyone, do you know who has the most experience in designing aircraft carriers in the world so far?" Geiger knew that his words would cause an uproar, but his proposal was also for the Royal Navy, and he had a clear conscience.
"That goes without saying, of course it is the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dock Company. This company has built dozens of aircraft carriers for the U.S. Navy. If you add other ships, there will be seven or eight hundred." Charles said.
"So, have they ever built a 65,000-ton aircraft carrier?"
Everyone stopped talking.
Since the end of World War II, the displacement of the aircraft carrier of the US Navy has been increasing. The displacement of the Kitty Hawk class was 80,000 tons, and the current Nimitz class has expanded to 100,000 tons.
A 60,000-ton aircraft carrier? The Americans really didn't make it.
"There are very few aircraft carriers of this level in the world. Originally, the old men were very experienced, but now, almost all of those experienced people are in the east." Geiger said: "Mingzhou Group has built several aircraft carriers. Luo’s 10,000-ton light aircraft carrier has a 30,000-ton aircraft carrier for the football country, and a 60,000-ton aircraft carrier that their own navy is building. They even sold aircraft carrier blueprints to Tuji. Their designs are also unique. One style can be said to lead the trend of the entire era, so we can see their best design proposals when we call them over to bid, anyway, we will not adopt their proposals in the end.”
Geiger's meaning is also very clear: Huyou Mingzhou Group came over and came up with the best plan to bid, so that the Royal Navy would have one more choice, and it would be good to increase some knowledge.
"Your idea is very interesting, but how can we invite them? It will make them proud." Charles said.
"We don't need to invite them in person, as long as we say a few more words when we make a public statement, they will definitely come." Geiger said.
Britain wants to build two 60,000-ton aircraft carriers, which is a lot of fat. The Mingzhou Group is expanding, and it will definitely come to join in the fun.
Benjamin nodded: "Okay, next, I will hold a press conference."
"In order to better maintain world peace, we in the UK have decided to build two aircraft carriers with a displacement of 65,000 tons. Therefore, we have decided to invite bids from all over the world. Any company that has the ability to build aircraft carriers can come to bid. Those who have built aircraft carriers Companies or groups are more welcome, and I will invest at least two billion pounds for these two aircraft carriers!" At the press conference, Benjamin talked eloquently, and his bidding advertisement spread all over the world.
(end of this chapter)
