Great Power Fighting Falcon

"PR-44! I am the Chinese Navy! You are approaching my no-navigation zone! Leave immediately! Otherwise, you will be responsible for the consequences! This is the last warning!"

Li Zhan once again revealed his identity and issued a warning, his tone becoming more severe.

Niu Jun's attention was no longer here. She operated the control panel to quickly mobilize the comprehensive tactical pod to collect the detected electromagnetic signals. Every second was very precious. We have seen many tactical electronic reconnaissance aircraft that simulate the Blue Army, but this kind of strategic electronic reconnaissance aircraft based on the Boeing-707 four-engine passenger aircraft is rarely encountered.

Don't miss this opportunity.

Beads of sweat broke out on the PR-44 captain's forehead. He was very worried about another strong wake attack from the Nanhai Mad Dog. He had no doubt about the courage and skill of the Nanhai Mad Dog. In the dark night, the distance between the two planes was shortened to twenty or thirty meters many times. This is an extremely dangerous distance and it is very easy for a collision to occur. The captain didn't dare take such a risk.

Seeing that the PR-44 is about to enter the no-navigation zone, if it is allowed to enter the no-navigation zone, the no-navigation announcement issued by the Red Army exercise unit will be reduced to a piece of waste paper, and the authority of the Red Army troops will be affected and their dignity will be affected. provocative.

Li Zhan will never sit back and watch.

"Niu Jun! Sit tight!" Li Zhan reminded Niu Jun, and then he steadily closed the distance with PR-44 again.

This cloud layer is very thick and large. From two thousand meters to five thousand meters, there are cloud peaks like mountains on top of each other for more than ten kilometers, and it is a very dense cloud layer. Li Zhan couldn't see the outline of PR-44 clearly, even with night vision goggles.

The reason why night vision devices work is to amplify natural light to increase visibility. There is no way to see the target through the cover.

So Li Zhan could only stare at the bright light of the PR-44's engine tail flame, using it as a reference point to close the distance. As long as the distance is close enough, the PR-44 can't hide.

Zooming in from above the rear hemisphere of the PR-44, when Li Zhan vaguely saw the outline of the PR-44, he activated the aircraft gun mode, and the aiming ring was firmly pressed on the outermost engine of the PR-44's left wing. , then slightly raised it two directions, and then he opened fire!

Several 23mm shells flew out with a trail of fire, grazing the top of the left wing of the PR-44. Tracer bullets are loaded at intervals, so among the shells fired, there are three tracer bullets, which are three straight yellow trajectory lines that are very eye-catching.

"Oh my God! He opened fire!" The captain stared at the shells flying far away from the left side, dumbfounded.

The captain ignored it and quickly called the commander of the operation unit: "I have to turn. Did you see he opened fire? You'd better get everything sorted out in a few minutes!"

Of course the commander of the operation unit saw it. He was more frightened than the captain. Without hesitation, he quickly ordered all electronic reconnaissance equipment to be turned on. The detection equipment for early warning radar signals integrated in the nose of the aircraft was also turned on. .

Li Zhan, who had stabilized his fighter plane and always occupied the attacking position, heard Niu Jun shouting excitedly, "All green! Great! Brother! Follow it and fly! The longer the better!"

Undoubtedly, she has begun a comprehensive collection of electromagnetic signals. All equipment that can emit radio signals carried by the PR-44 will be exposed to the integrated tactical pod.

Li Zhan saw that the PR-44 began to turn. It turned clockwise north and tried to fly north along the east line of the no-fly zone. Obviously, PR-44 still did not give up reconnaissance and confrontation with Red Army alert fighters. Without hesitation, Li Zhan fired several more 23mm shells. This time, the shells grazed the leading edge of the left wing and flew under the PR-44 cockpit. The distance was only two or three meters.

One of the shells struck the leading edge of the left wing and took away a piece of fuselage skin. The sudden flash of fire caused by friction made the captain see it clearly. He was about to go crazy. The South China Sea Mad Dog could really fire. Aren't they afraid of imitating the huge fleet of the Blue Army coming over?

The captain quickly checked all systems of the aircraft and breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that there were no problems with all systems. It seems that there is no problem with the fuselage mechanism, and the aerodynamic shape of the leading edge has not been damaged.

The captain of PR-44 was scared out of his wits and called quickly: "Command center, PR-44 requested to return, we received a fire warning! Repeat, we can't win such a confrontation without fighter cover, over!"

The command center was also in chaos. The commander at the Kaidao Command Intelligence Center immediately agreed to the PR-44's request to return. As for whether to send fighter jets to provide support for subsequent reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance confrontations, he needed to carefully consider.

Sending fighter jets means that the reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance confrontation will evolve into a confrontation of multiple aircraft types in the air. He is not sure whether expanding the scope and scale of the confrontation will help to ultimately win this confrontation.

Li Zhan didn't leave much time for the PR-44, and he stopped giving voice warnings. Just when he was about to fly again, the PR-44 shook its wings and turned east at a large angle.

"At the command post, the angry Lao Bao reported that the target has turned east and is far away from the no-navigation zone. He is probably going to return." After the report, Li Zhan requested instructions for action. "I will need some time to complete the next step of the work. Please accompany the target." Flying away, it’s over.”

After quick consideration, the command post replied to Li Zhan: "The angry old leopard can be driven away by flight. Pay attention to the fuel situation and report any situation quickly. It's over."

The command post deployed on the early warning aircraft certainly knew that the No. 81198 JH-7 driven by Li Zhan was responsible for testing the combat performance of the integrated tactical pod. This night is a very good opportunity, and maybe some surprises will be harvested.

Li Zhan quickly followed the turn, and then followed the PR-44 not far or too close to the left rear, forming an angle of 45 degrees with the warning light on the vertical tail of the PR-44 along the extension of the longitudinal axis of the fuselage. If an emergency occurs, Li Zhan can destroy the two engines on the left wing of the PR-44 within three seconds.

Of course PR-44 knew that the Mad Dog in the South China Sea was accompanying the flight. This was routine surveillance and no one found it strange. However, after flying east for thirty minutes, the South China Sea Mad Dog was still flying with him for surveillance, which made the crew suspicious - what did he want to do?

It was already forty minutes later when the commander of the operation team realized the problem. He quickly ordered several key electronic devices to be shut down before he remembered the infrared telescope. He looked out of the observation cabin window and immediately discovered J-H 81198. The pod hanging under the belly of the -7 aircraft felt extremely regretful.

Niu Jun's face flushed with excitement. She had never expected such a big gain. To be honest, the electronic combat capability of the integrated tactical pod is limited, but passive collection of electromagnetic signals within the range does not require a very complicated design. The accumulation of these original basic data will be of great help to future confrontation operations and related equipment development.

After Li Zhan confirmed that the remaining fuel could only maintain the accompanying flight monitoring for another five minutes, he asked Niu Jun, "We have to return in five minutes. How are you doing?"

"The main part is completed and we can return at any time." Niu Jun glanced at the fuel gauge, quickly calculated in his mind, and said.

Li Zhan stepped forward and said, "Give them another set of close-ups."

"Understood!" Niu Jun quickly took a set of photos of the PR-44, but little did he know that this set of photos turned out to be the last photos of the aircraft.

JH-7 No. 81198 decisively returned when it was about to reach its maximum combat radius. At this time, it was already 1,700 kilometers away from Dachang Station. This meant that Li Zhan had to directly divert to Dachang Station to refuel before he could restart. Take off and join the alert mission on the eastern front of the no-fly zone.

He also didn't know that the PR-44's life had entered a countdown in minutes.

At an altitude of 9,000 meters, PR-44 can finally heave a sigh of relief and return to Kaidao base with peace of mind. They can land on the runway of the base in thirty minutes at most. They still have five or six hours to rest before dawn. , but most people in the crew and operations team expressed during the discussion that they wanted to have a drink to cope with the thrill they had just experienced.

The crew and operating team members who survived the disaster were more eager than before to land as soon as possible. Only by stepping on solid and stable ground can they regain a sense of security.

Death is approaching them at a speed of 850 kilometers per hour.

The weather radar showed that there was a thunderstorm ahead, and the color on the display screen representing the thunderstorm airspace was light yellow. This was a moderate thunderstorm, several levels more severe than it. The space covered by thunderstorms is six to three thousand meters. If PR-44 maintains its heading and altitude, this thunderstorm will not affect them. However, after the co-pilot’s calculations, the thunderstorm airspace happens to cover the aircraft. part of the descent route.

If it does not descend as planned, the aircraft will have to make a circle over the base before landing.

The captain did not hesitate to choose to establish a landing route as planned and pass through the thunderstorm airspace. The co-pilot had no objection to this, and neither did the ground command center, because moderate thunderstorms would not affect flight safety.

Moderate thunderstorms are nothing.

It's really nothing. Without the help of a tropical storm, a thunderstorm of this intensity cannot shake the more than 160 tons of PR-44. At most, it will only cause some relatively strong turbulence. And it only takes two minutes for the plane to pass through.

But the god of death has already opened a hole in PR-44.

Nearly an hour of high-altitude cruising and weather changes in the airspace it passed caused ice to form on the wings of the aircraft. The captain turned on the de-icing system, and all hidden threats were resolved. But the captain did not know that the small damage on the leading edge of the left wing quickly turned into a warning sign after the plane plunged into the thunderstorm area.

Thermal expansion and contraction caused by the rapid alternation of hot and cold finally caused the left wing leading edge de-icing system to work, and at this time the aircraft was already flying in a thunderstorm area. The wind and rain were shaking the PR-44. The captain and co-pilot were focused on maintaining the attitude of the aircraft. They did not notice that the mechanical control device in the wing was freezing rapidly after the de-icing system on the leading edge of the left wing failed!

Because it is a continuous descent attitude, the leading edge, flaps, and tail of the aircraft are all in corresponding states. The failure of the left wing leading edge de-icing system has a very rapid chain reaction. First, the mechanical device of the de-icing system fails. Then the hydraulic oil in the left wing's hydraulic system quickly froze, and the left wing's mechanical control system failed.

Encountering a specific environment in a specific state, in just two minutes, the fate of PR-44 was destined by God.

The plane passed through the thunderstorm area, and no one felt anything unusual about the plane. Everything returned to calm, and the base was twenty kilometers ahead. No one expected that these short twenty kilometers would become a journey that they would never be able to walk in their lives. End of the road.

The captain finally discovered something was wrong, because when he adjusted the flaps and tail, he found that the entire left wing did not respond at all. When the plane fell further, the descent rate suddenly increased tenfold and continued to climb! At that moment, as if it was an appointment, several warning lights flashed at the same time, and the cockpit was filled with rapid alarm sounds - the abnormality was finally captured by the sensors that did not malfunction.

"Damn it! What happened!"

The captain roared and pulled the stick back with all his strength in an attempt to return the plane to level flight. In order to cross the thunderstorm area faster, he had just chosen to descend at a high angle and at high speed. At this time, the plane was traveling at a speed of 880 kilometers per hour and every second. The descent rate is more than 200 meters and the altitude is more than 2,800. If it does not resume level flight as soon as possible, the plane will crash into the sea in more than ten seconds.

However, he should not have pulled the lever so violently, nor should he have changed the position of the right wing flap and tail, creating a situation opposite to the left wing.

However, God did not give him a chance to correct himself.

After a heart-wrenching loud noise, the entire left wing was torn off by the strong relative force. The entire left wing detached from the fuselage and flew backwards before quickly disappearing into the night! The plane that lost its left wing immediately lost control and all balance, and then quickly rolled and fell vertically! After several rolls, the nose of the plane was pointed vertically towards the sea. The two engines were still working, and the speed of the plane was accelerating, and finally it plunged into the sea at a speed exceeding the speed of sound!

It only took five seconds from the time the left wing fell off to the time it fell into the sea. The crew had no chance to report to the ground command center.

The ground radar could not find the signal of PR-44, and the controller could not call PR-44. The Kaidao base dispatched a maritime search and rescue team half an hour later. However, it was within the thunderstorm area, and the bad weather brought difficulties to the search and rescue work. encountered great difficulty.

The PR-44 crashed into the sea 20 kilometers west of Kaidao Base at 1:05 a.m., killing all 37 crew members on board. At dawn, the maritime search and rescue team, which simulated the Blue Army's island base, picked up a body floating in the water. Through sonar detection and analysis, the PR-44's fuselage disintegrated when it hit the sea, and there were scattered floating objects everywhere.

There is no evidence that the PR-44 was attacked. Preliminary investigation results show that the aircraft only lost its left wing before crashing into the sea. This shows that the PR-44 crashed into the sea at a very high speed, and the strong kinetic energy tore apart more than a hundred pieces. tons of four-engine aircraft.

A very tragic plane crash.

The final investigation concluded a year later that a small skin damage on the leading edge of the left wing was the cause of the crash. Investigators believed that even a dozen such small damages would not have caused such a serious air crash. However, after investigating the weather conditions at the time, investigators finally came to the conclusion that the disaster was caused by several coincidences. .

There was no problem with the crew's operation. The thunderstorm at that time could not possibly endanger flight safety. However, the captain's operation after discovering the malfunction is open to question.

The investigators concluded with hindsight that if it had stayed at an altitude of 9,000 meters and flown through the thunderstorm airspace, the PR-44 would not have had any problems at all. The captain just didn't want to make one more circle over the base, and the cost was that lives including his would disappear.

The direct impact of this air crash was that the simulated Blue Army grounded all aircraft of this type until the possibility of mechanical failure causing the air crash was eliminated.