Chapter 332 Blueprint

Not all weapons with speeds above Mach 5 can be called "hypersonic weapons." Generally speaking, conventional missiles can be divided into two categories: cruise missiles and ballistic missiles.

The flight principle of a cruise missile is closer to that of an airplane. Its trajectory is basically inside the atmosphere and the flight resistance is huge. Therefore, its speed performance is relatively average. Most cruise missiles are at the subsonic level. For example, the speed of the "Tomahawk" cruise missile across the sea is only Mach 0.8.

But its advantage is that it can perform flexible high-overload maneuvers like an airplane, thereby reducing the probability of being intercepted.

The flight principle of a ballistic missile is closer to that of a rocket. After taking off, the ballistic missile will break through the atmosphere and glide for a long distance outside the atmosphere with almost no air resistance until it re-enters the atmosphere and carries out a downward attack when it is close to the target.

Therefore, the flight speed of a ballistic missile can easily exceed the upper limit of a cruise missile. However, since the flight trajectory of a ballistic missile is approximately a parabola, its trajectory is easy to predict, and the risk of being intercepted by the anti-missile system by calculating its trajectory is greater. This was an unavoidable flaw before.

The main reason for this flaw is the fuel limit of ballistic missiles. In order to achieve the largest possible range, they must strictly follow the parabola. If maneuvering and changing the trajectory is used, a large amount of fuel will be consumed, so that intercontinental missiles may become long-range missiles, and long-range missiles may become medium-range missiles.

The second reason is the imperfect control technology, materials and processes.

Repeatedly passing through the atmosphere and accurately hitting the target at the end requires superb control means and extremely high measurement and control accuracy. At the same time, re-entry into the atmosphere requires the missile itself to withstand the test of high temperatures.

Therefore, for quite a long time, the mid-course trajectory change of this kind of long-range missile will not be possible.

Wu Tong would certainly not be satisfied with the status quo. If she only wanted to increase the range, she would not need to make any effort to arrange it. She could switch to N24 high-energy fuel. She was committed to changing this situation. Moreover, the genius predecessors had made major breakthroughs, and Qian's ballistics played an indispensable role.

However, due to the difficulty in applying Qian's ballistics, there has not been any breakthrough in its application in China. Wu Tong wants to build on this foundation and perfect the use of Qian's ballistics to make a breakthrough in its application, allowing Qian's ballistics to demonstrate its astonishing and unstoppable brilliant results.

In the previous discussion with Lu Xiao, Wu Tong discovered the waverider warhead design, which also helps to increase the trajectory change capability of the new ballistic missile and accumulate power for it.

Wu Tong felt that the optimized design of the warhead alone was not safe enough, so she added a booster design to the warhead. After careful deduction and simulation, Wu Tong finally decided on a design that combined the booster separation with Qian's ballistics.

After ignition, the missile will quickly rise to near space, the waverider will separate from the booster stage, and it will maneuver at hypersonic speed in the dense atmosphere. It can make multiple jumps at the edge of the atmosphere and within the atmosphere, and it can also make large-scale lateral maneuvers within the atmosphere or inside and outside the atmosphere, changing the parabola of the mid-section into a serpentine maneuvering curve that repeatedly crosses the atmosphere and space. The waverider warhead can also automatically evade anti-missile systems and carry out a top-down strike on predetermined targets.

Moreover, after the waverider ascent phase thrusters are separated, it can re-enter the atmosphere and begin hypersonic gliding based on the diffraction of Qian's trajectory without the need for inertial ballistic flight as before. This gliding flight is located at the edge of the atmosphere or within the atmosphere. Therefore, for the existing anti-missile system designed mainly to intercept ballistic missile warheads, it will become a difficult target and an uninterceptable existence. Moreover, the speed will be able to reach the entire world within an hour.

Such a design has extremely high requirements for kinetic energy and materials.

However, Wu Tong is least worried about these two challenges. For her, the most difficult thing is the lack of direction.

With the general direction of the design as a guide, Wu Tong continued to conduct public relations deductions on materials, and soon finalized the carbon fiber composite materials used to cover the wings and vertical stabilizers, as well as the important heat dissipation structure design, and then matched it with the ultra-high temperature resistant coating that Wu Tong upgraded again. In this way, the heat-resistant materials of the entire missile body were ready.

On the one hand, he protects and tackles the material research and development, and on the other hand, he guides and develops the cooling and heat dissipation structure design. Wu Tong has made great use of the two-way positive combination.

Now that the materials are ready, the next step is to tackle the engine problem.

From fighter jet engines to air-to-air missile engines, Wu Tong has been accumulating experience in the aerospace engine sector without stopping. In this sector, she can truly be said to be a person with profound experience and is second to none.

Traditional engine fuel is limited. After the development of N24 super energy fuel, catapult fuel is no longer restricted. With the same fuel, they have the basis for changing trajectory and increasing consumption while keeping the range unchanged.

The scramjet engine can be further optimized for use on the PL-17, but for the DF-17, it needs to be further simplified to retain the supersonic and high-speed combustion ramjet kinetic energy. The structure should be simple in style, without rotating compressor parts, and the propulsion efficiency should be kept very high.

Wu Tong listed her requirements for the engine one by one. Behind the simple structure lies the huge challenge in the working principle. Step by step, she drew the blueprint of the engine she needed and gradually improved and filled it in. Her eyes were shining, and she had a clear direction to move forward.

Conventional turbojet engines have flames burning at subsonic speeds in the combustion chamber, but the flames of new scramjet engines burn at hypersonic speeds in the combustion chamber, making ignition very difficult. It is as difficult as striking a match in a Category 12 typhoon.

The oxygen in the atmosphere can be used as an oxidant, and only fuel needs to be carried to increase the propulsion efficiency, which is expected to be more than 4 times higher than the rocket propulsion.

In this way, when flying in the atmosphere, the aerodynamic control surfaces can provide control torque, allowing the missile to change its target during flight.

Pneumatically controlled rudder surfaces are another key section!

This is also the key to achieving the combination of ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, allowing the DF-17 to achieve the combination of the two, with both the ability to change the trajectory of a cruise missile and the super speed requirement of a ballistic missile. The scramjet engine plus super-energy fuel gives the new DF-17 super power, which is the biggest premise for supporting the power and fuel requirements for maneuvering and changing the trajectory.

For Wu Tong, the entire research and development process is a game of passing levels. Old problems are resolved and new problems arise. After passing one level after another and assembling into a whole, the door to success is finally reached. The reward is the successful birth of the results.