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50th anniversary of the first flight of China Air Police 1.
50th anniversary of the first flight of China Air Police 1.

As an experimental early warning aircraft developed by China Air Force in the special period of 1960s and 1970s, Air Police No.1 was born and grew up in that fiery era due to the specific tactical requirements of the Air Force. Although it did not reach the step of equipping troops in the end, its technical achievements did not help China Air Force to develop the "Air Police -2000" large-scale battle early warning aircraft at the end of last century and the beginning of this century, which in itself is for contemporary China military fans.

Combat tasks faced by "Air Police One"

To say that "Air Police No.1" is a combat support model that "meets the specific tactical requirements of the Air Force", we have to mention the national air defense combat mission carried out by China Air Force in 1950s and 1960s.

Although in the national air defense mission, the heroic China Air Force aviation, ground pilots and naval aviation are brave and tenacious, and in the case that equipment, training and support are not as good as those of the enemy, they have successively created many records in the history of world air defense operations.

For example, several U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance planes were shot down in succession, the BQM- 147 unmanned reconnaissance plane was shot down for the first time, the J -6 A plane was intercepted at supersonic speed, and the US F-4B fighter plane was shot down with inferior forces.

However, in many years of national air defense interception operations, China Air Force and Naval Air Force have constantly exposed many defects and problems.

According to General Hu Lin's "Fighting to Defend the Motherland's Airspace", China Air Force had some problems in its national air defense operations from the late 1950s to the late 1960s:

First, there is a lack of densely interconnected near-far air intelligence systems. Air-to-air warning radar stations can only achieve basic coverage in some key areas along the southeast and south China coasts. The situation awareness range between radar stations is not measured by aerial cameras and can only be based on the theoretical maximum detection distance. As for the inland areas, there are a lot of blank areas of air information. Once the enemy plane penetrates the coastal air intelligence radar network and goes deep into the inland area, it is difficult for the China Air Force to quickly capture the movement of the enemy plane.

Secondly, there is a lack of high-performance interceptors. At that time, the interceptor of China Air Force was still mainly based on the J-6 fighter imitating Su MiG-19, and only the old MIG-17PF night fighter had night interception performance. The imitation of Su MiG-19P/PM by the J-6 A/B fighter was really only available in the late 1970s, not to mention. They are still equipped with interception radar, and they need to be guided to a highly accurate interception course on the ground and approach the enemy plane within 10 km to successfully intercept the target.

China's air force's "two major disadvantages" in national air defense operations also cost us a serious price, which is also recorded in "Fighting to Defend the Motherland's Airspace":

For example, in 1957, the number of flights invaded by Chiang Kai-shek's air force in mainland China reached 1 105, with 3,029 sorties, of which 53 sorties went deep into the inland, which were intercepted by our army unscathed;

For example, on the night of March 1958, a B- 17G strategic reconnaissance plane of Chiang Kai-shek invaded the depth of our country. During the 9-hour interception operation, our army used several batches of MIG-17PF night fighters and Tu -2 night interceptors to intercept them, but the enemy planes were unscathed, and our army lost MIG-1 instead.

1960, 165438+ 10, 19 at night, in order to intercept a P-2V reconnaissance plane of Chiang kai-shek, two Tu -2 interceptors of our army crashed into the mountain one after another, killing eight pilots.

It is in this situation that the China Air Force increasingly needs high-performance early warning command and control machines and high-performance night interceptors. The former can effectively make up for the deficiency of air emotion knowledge network, while the latter will give China Air Force effective night interception capability. "Air Police One" early warning aircraft is the product of the first tactical demand.

Thoughts on the Construction of "Air Police No.1"

Compared with all aircraft previously developed by China Air Force, Air Police No.1 undoubtedly set a number of records: this is the first time that China Air Force has developed a strategic and campaign support aircraft based on a large four-engine aircraft.

In 1950s and 1960s, there were very few "big planes" of China Air Force. For example, Yun -8 medium-sized transport plane that imitated Su-12 tactical transport plane didn't make its first flight until the end of 1974, while H -6 medium-sized bomber that imitated Su-16 bomber also made its first flight in 1968.

In the end, the modified platform chosen by China Air Force was the 10 Tu -4 bomber donated by the Soviet Union in the 1950s. This 10 plane is actually a B-29 bomber copied by the Soviet Union. Although they were the only large bombers of China Air Force at that time, and were directly under the command of the Air Force, their performance gradually fell behind, so they were a perfect choice as the refitting test platform of Air Police No.1..

In order to adapt to the particularity of Air Police No.1, the selected Tu -4 aircraft has undergone a lot of adaptive technical modifications:

The first is the change in the appearance of the aircraft. A large glass fiber reinforced plastic radome with a diameter of 7m and a thickness of 1.2m is added on the back of the fuselage, and several special glass fiber reinforced plastic radomes are also added under the fuselage for electronic support or ground-to-air communication.

Due to the technical transformation, the aerodynamic shape of Figure -4 has changed a lot, so Air Police No.1 carried out several targeted test flights to ensure the normal flight quality and maneuverability of the aircraft.

Secondly, the cockpit of the whole aircraft was modified. The bomb bay originally located in the middle of the fuselage was closed and changed to an airtight cabin synchronized with the cockpit in the front of the aircraft. The large night interception radar in the front of the cockpit and several aviation machine guns and aircraft turrets around the fuselage were dismantled, and the middle of the fuselage and the bomb bay were transformed into radar back-end equipment bay and command equipment bay.

Some radar display and control equipment, chart board, air-to-ground communication equipment, etc. Has been installed and the corresponding internal cable routing has been added. The overall structure of its fuselage is not obviously different from the E-3 or Tu-126 early warning aircraft developed by the United States and the Soviet Union, and this technical transformation is the first time in the history of China Air Force. The engine is updated again.

Since Air Police No.1 added radome and command equipment, the air-to-weight ratio of Tu -4 aircraft increased by 5 tons, and the original Ash-73TK piston engine could not meet the flight needs, the developer decided to replace the engine of Tu -4 aircraft with turboprop -6 for Yun -8.

Compared with Ash-73TK, the thrust of turboprop -6 is increased by more than 40%, which can completely meet the flight needs of air police-1. However, because the volume of turboprop -6 is much larger than that of Ash-73TK, there is a big problem in system matching after reloading, which affects the maneuverability and stability of the aircraft. For the above problems, the technicians of China Air Force and aviation industry have also taken short, flat and fast ways to solve them.

Tactical performance of "Air Police One"

Judging from the key tactical performance, the "Air Police One" early warning aircraft uses the domestic 843 warning radar as the main detection unit, which is the first large-scale two-coordinate long-range warning radar equipped by China Air Force.

Its maximum theoretical detection distance (for large bomber targets) can reach more than 400 kilometers. After being transported to "Air Police No.1", it is believed that H -6 bombers flying at medium and high altitude 350 kilometers away can be found.

An -24 aircraft flying at low altitude 250 kilometers away can also be found. As for the MIG-19 aircraft flying at a low altitude of about 500 meters, the detection distance is less than 200 kilometers.

But on the one hand, it is a two-coordinate radar, which can only measure the angle, and the height measurement needs to be carried out with the corresponding altimeter radar. On the other hand, the radar still uses backward magnetron elements, which has insufficient anti-jamming ability and multi-target detection ability.

At the same time, the technical level of the background display and control command system supporting this 843 radar is also relatively backward. Lacking an intuitive radar display and control screen similar to that of the US and Soviet forces on board, radar operators need to observe the oscilloscope to mark the targets intercepted by the radar.

After the target is intercepted, the aerial plotter needs to draw manually on the drawing board. Plotter usually works closely with manipulator and can only be responsible for one trajectory. After determining the flight path, it is necessary to manually calculate the interception route (the aircraft may not have this ability). The calculated interception route cannot be automatically uploaded to the interceptor by a way similar to the Soviet "air" semi-automatic interception data link, but the command post operator needs to remind the pilot by voice prompt.

This means that, in terms of performance, "Air Police No.1" is not so much an "early warning command and control machine" as a real "early warning aircraft" and a radar station flying in the sky.

As for the command ability of the aircraft, Air Police No.1 can only draw manually, and the radar does not have the ability of multi-target detection and command, so Air Police No.1 naturally does not have the ability to command large-scale air campaigns. At best, it can only be used to guide the interceptor to intercept a single and small batch of targets, and it is not even clear whether it has the ability to intercept supersonic targets.

However, considering that the main target of China Air Force's national air defense operation at that time was the strategic and tactical reconnaissance plane or fighter plane of the U.S.-Chiang Air Force that entered Chinese mainland in the form of a single plane or a small fleet, this "single-target interception capability" was basically enough for China Air Force at that time, although it was really not so good.

Disassembly of Air Police No.1

Although the technicians of China aviation industry and China Air Force made great efforts for the development and test flight of Air Police No.1, by the end of 1970s, Air Police No.1 was doomed to dismount.

The main reasons probably include the following aspects:

First, in the late 1970s, cross-strait relations gradually improved, and China and the United States formally established diplomatic relations for the first time. China Air Force's national air defense mission has been greatly reduced. At the same time, the construction of ground radar stations along the southeast coast and south China coast has also made great progress, and the demand for "Air Police No.1" has naturally declined.

Second, from the point of view at that time, especially with reference to the performance of the American E-3A early warning aircraft, the performance of Air Police No.1 was indeed too backward. Neither carrier-based aircraft nor radar can meet the needs of China Air Force in the future, and China Air Force did not carry out large-scale air campaigns or go abroad in the special 1980s.

In this way, 1979, after 10 years of development and 8 years of testing, Air Police No.1 was officially dismounted, ending its legend in the China Air Force. It was not until the late 1990s that the China Air Force restarted the outsourcing and research and development of early warning aircraft. In the case of unsuccessful attempts to outsource the Israeli "Faircom" early warning aircraft, it took out our own "competitive aircraft" air police.