Chapter 949 Type 002 aircraft carrier
Mid-June.
Meeting room of Yangcheng Shipyard.
The expert team of Type 002 medium aircraft carrier, who was selected, looked at the ship model in the center of the meeting room, listened carefully to Liu Tao's explanation, and took notes from time to time.
This ship model is 3.15 meters long, 0.75 meters wide, and very heavy.
Just one look and you will know that this is an aircraft carrier model.
This is the model of the Type 002 medium aircraft carrier.
Although the Type 002 aircraft carrier is a medium aircraft carrier, it is the top of the medium aircraft carriers.
The Type 002 aircraft carrier is 315 meters long and 75 meters wide, with a normal displacement of 59,000 tons and a full load displacement of 65,000 tons. It can carry 36 J-11C/D carrier-based aircraft or 42 J-10 carrier-based aircraft models, and can also carry 15 "Ray Sculpture" helicopters.
The Type 002 aircraft carrier uses catapult takeoff.
It is not an electromagnetic catapult, but a steam catapult.
The so-called catapult is a device on an aircraft carrier that propels carrier-based aircraft to increase takeoff speed and shorten the runway. Its full name is carrier-based aircraft takeoff catapult, or catapult for short.
Because the steam catapult has a complex structure and is monopolized by the United States, the technology is very confidential.
Other countries' aircraft carriers use ski-jump decks, which have a disadvantage that they cannot take off normally if the weather is slightly bad, while catapults do not have these concerns.
However, the steam catapult has a complex structure and heavy weight. The advantage of the ski-jump deck over the steam catapult is that it has a simple structure and reduced weight, and the technical difficulty is also low.
Liu Tao wanted to use electromagnetic catapults directly, but electromagnetic catapults are not suitable for medium-sized aircraft carriers unless he changes the Type 002 aircraft carrier into a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
Speaking of which, catapults have been developed for nearly a hundred years.
The catapult was first invented by the British. The earliest assisted catapult appeared when the airplane was invented. Langley, who was in the same period as the Wright brothers, first used springs and slides to assist flight, and the Wright brothers built a drop-weight catapult under the same concept. With the help of this catapult, the Wright brothers successfully carried out powered flight. Seaplanes appeared shortly after the invention of the airplane. When the navies of various countries used seaplanes, in order to allow the ships to take off in a short time without stopping, they began to develop assisted flight devices. This device was first equipped on large surface ships. The structure includes drop-weight, flywheel, rocket-assisted, hydraulic and pneumatic types.
As for aircraft carriers, early propeller aircraft can easily take off from the deck by themselves due to their low take-off speed, but the weight and take-off speed of jet carrier-based aircraft increased sharply, and they can only take off through catapults. There have been compressed air, gunpowder, electric, hydraulic and steam catapults.
Except for steam catapults, other forms of catapults have been eliminated due to the limitations of safety or catapult energy, which restrict the development and use of carrier-based aircraft.
Steam catapults were developed in the 1940s. At that time, the United States and the United Kingdom mastered steam catapult technology. For example, the British aircraft carriers "Inflight" and "Hancock" were equipped with catapults. However, as the United States and the Soviet Union dismembered the British and French colonies, Britain's comprehensive national strength deteriorated day by day, and it was no longer the empire on which the sun never set. Britain's steam catapult technology failed to continue to develop.
At present, the United States is far ahead in steam catapult technology and is the only country that has mastered mature steam catapults.
Steam catapult technology has been used on aircraft carriers for 50 years and is the only technology that has been proven in actual combat.
With the general trend of the US Navy's full electrification of ship equipment, aircraft carriers will use electricity as the main propulsion power, and all power equipment will also be electrified. In the late 1980s, the United States began to develop electromagnetic catapult technology and equipped electromagnetic catapults for testing at the test base east of Philadelphia.
However, the electromagnetic catapult technology has not yet been demonstrated, and it is difficult to put it into practical use in the short term.
Liu Tao is also very optimistic about the electromagnetic catapult technology, and agrees that it is in line with the development of future aircraft carriers.
Because the electromagnetic catapult has many advantages, the electromagnetic catapult electrical structure is technically compatible with other combat systems on the deck; the operation and maintenance personnel are simplified, and they are compatible with other combat system personnel; the catapult power is increased, which is conducive to equipping large combat aircraft; the controllability and reliability are high, and the test is simplified; the structure is simplified, and the complexity of operation is reduced!
The biggest breakthrough of the 002 aircraft carrier this time is not other things, but the steam catapult technology.
Steam catapult technology is a very complex system engineering, including take-off system, steam system, return system, hydraulic system, pre-stress system, lubrication system, control system, etc.
Only Liu Tao has an item upgrade system, which saves a lot of manpower, material resources, financial resources and research and development time. If a steam catapult development team is really established and the top scientists in the country are gathered, I am afraid that it will take ten years to develop a steam catapult technology with better performance.
However, with the help of the item upgrade system, Liu Tao mastered the steam catapult technology in just two months.
During this period, Liu Tao needed to give technical instructions to the heads of various disciplines so that they could master the relevant technologies before arranging the construction.
This naturally includes the steam catapult.
In a sense, the most difficult part of the entire Type 002 aircraft carrier is the manufacture of the steam catapult.
And the steam catapults of the Type 002 aircraft carrier will not be installed after launching, but the steam catapults will be built in advance, and then installed and tested on land and sea.
This means that Liu Tao has to participate in the construction of the steam catapults.
At the same time, a merchant ship of similar size must be converted as a test aircraft carrier to install the steam catapults, and to conduct catapult take-off tests and landing tests of carrier-based aircraft on it.
It can be said that it is not so easy to build a medium-sized aircraft carrier.
With an additional steam catapult, the carrier-based aircraft are also different, and many tests have to be done from scratch.
In order to build the Type 002 medium-sized aircraft carrier, Panshan Group plans to invest 16 billion yuan, which is about 4 billion US dollars.
Although the tonnage of the Type 002 medium-sized aircraft carrier is only three times that of the Type 001 light aircraft carrier, the cost is more than three times higher.
As long as the Type 002 medium aircraft carrier is completed, it will officially mark that China has mastered the ability to independently develop and build modern aircraft carriers, and will also become one of the countries with the most complete aircraft carrier industrial system.
With the experience of building three Type 001 light aircraft carriers, the construction speed of the Type 002 medium aircraft carrier will be greatly accelerated. It is expected to start construction on August 10, 1997, launch in July 1999, and deliver to the navy in the millennium. The entire construction cycle will take more than three years.
And this involves a large number of companies and departments, and there is a lot of coordination to be done. If it is not a strong country, it will not be able to build a modern aircraft carrier, especially a modern medium aircraft carrier.