A secret base at Rongfei.
Top experts and senior engineers in numerous aircraft and hypersonic engines had rushed here overnight.
They needed to treat and repair the captured Black Eagle as quickly as possible.
But after dismantling it and studying it for six or seven hours,
some of the technologies displayed by the Black Eagle had nearly shattered their confidence.
"How did the Black Eagle combine turbojet, subsonic combustion ramjet, and scramjet engines—three completely different kinds of engines?
There might still be hope of combining subsonic combustion ramjets and scramjets, but turbojets have turbine blades. Their design is fundamentally incompatible with ramjets."
"An incredible design. It seems we're still behind the other side in certain fields."
"Unfortunately, the engine's combustion chamber was pierced and damaged. Other structures were damaged to varying degrees as well, and with the impact from the crash, it will be difficult to restore the engine's structure in a short time."
"The copper-based material used in this engine is also better than ours."
"The gap, the gap, still the gap.
We've already caught up in major national assets like aircraft carriers.
But in elite, cutting-edge fields like hypersonic aircraft and near-space vehicles,
in strategic fields involving intelligence, reconnaissance, suppression, and ultra-high-speed near-space strikes, we're still far behind.
We have to catch up in these fields as soon as possible.
In the near-space region within the atmosphere, Zhen-8's liquid rocket engine is still far inferior to this triple-combination scramjet engine.
Once they deploy these near-space aircraft, we won't have any matching means to deal with them!"
The experts, exhausted after staying up for half the night, were endlessly arguing over the Black Eagle's engine.
Although domestic high-end fighter engines had already produced a prototype variable-cycle engine that integrated turbofan and turbojet technologies into a single engine,
when faced with the Black Eagle SR-72, which combined turbojet, subsonic combustion ramjet, and scramjet technologies in one engine,
everyone was still somewhat at a loss.
In turbojet mode, the Black Eagle's engine allowed it to take off from a runway and accelerate to Mach 3.
After Mach 3, it entered subsonic combustion ramjet mode and continued accelerating to Mach 5.
Then scramjet mode activated.
Ignoring cost and time, it could rocket from Mach 3 to Mach 21.
It could be said that a single Black Eagle engine adapted to every environment and operating condition: subsonic, supersonic, hypersonic, low altitude, high altitude, and near-space.
Meanwhile, Master Ba, which countered the Black Eagle and used a liquid rocket engine,
might not have been much worse in speed or endurance, perhaps even surpassing it.
But in adaptability and responsiveness, it was far inferior to the Black Eagle equipped with a triple-combination scramjet engine.
Liquid rocket engines were inherently unsuitable for low-speed operating conditions, and their fuel consumption was greater at low altitudes.
Much of the time, in order to save fuel and reach high-speed ranges as quickly as possible,
Master Ba needed the help of a transport plane just to take off, being carried to an altitude of 8,500 meters before being released at high altitude and high speed.
War was a race against time.
Those seemingly brief response times of a few dozen seconds to a few minutes could often change the course of a war.
During yesterday's Eagle Capture Operation, if Master Ba had arrived at the battlefield thirty seconds earlier, Chen Yi would not even have needed to act. The Black Eagle would never have escaped.
"Old Zhang, has that genius you mentioned in aircraft engines been invited over yet?"
After a while of heated discussion,
someone suddenly looked toward Professor Zhang, who was studying the Black Eagle's aerodynamic layout nearby.
"I arranged for someone to invite him over more than three hours ago. He's coming by fighter jet and should be arriving about now," Professor Zhang replied without raising his head.
"By fighter jet?"
An Academician beside him chimed in and could not help complaining, "You put someone with no flight training in a fighter jet?"
"Couldn't be helped. That kid has caused too much trouble lately.
Let's not even mention the earlier incidents. This time, he even shot down an Eagle.
The other side sent over their protest overnight.
They demanded that we return the Black Eagle, and they urgently activated a group of moles to investigate intelligence on the crash.
Under these circumstances, letting him take Civil Aviation with all those mixed crowds would be too risky.
Besides, with his personality, seeing that he could ride in a fighter jet would probably make him excited."
Professor Zhang explained from the side.
Only heaven knew how shocked he had been when he learned yesterday that Chen Yi had brought down the Big Black Eagle.
It had been a beautiful shot, a marvelous shot.
But it had also truly poked a hornet's nest.
If a professional hunter had done the poking, since the Black Eagle had entered their airspace, the other side could only grit their teeth and take it.
But when Chen Yi did the poking, the matter became enormous!
Rumble!
As Old Zhang finished speaking, waves of thunderous roars sounded outside the hangar.
A fighter jet descended from the sky and landed steadily on the runway.
The ground crew and medical personnel waiting nearby immediately rushed over with ladders and stretchers.
"No need. I can walk on my own."
The fighter jet's sealed canopy opened.
Chen Yi removed his safety harness, rose to his feet, and waved at the ground crew and medical staff who had come to receive him. He looked excited, but his steps were unsteady as he supported himself and slowly climbed down.
"Haaah."
Once he reached the runway and his feet touched solid ground,
Chen Yi took a deep breath and shouted excitedly, "That was incredible! When I have time, I'm going to build one too and fly it around myself!"
"..."
Hearing Chen Yi's excited shout, the pilot who had come down with him, along with the nearby ground crew and medical personnel, all froze. They truly had no idea how to respond.
Because that was simply not something a normal person would say.
He found flying a fighter jet thrilling, so he wanted to build one himself and fly it around. How was anyone supposed to answer that?
"Stop shouting, Little Chen. Since you're still so energetic, hurry up and change out of that flight suit, then come take a look at how to deal with this scramjet engine."
Professor Zhang, who had come out to receive him from afar, heard Chen Yi's shout and quickly waved him over.
"Got it!"
Hearing that he could soon see the Black Eagle up close, this world's top unmanned aircraft,
Chen Yi calmed his excitement a little.
Led by a member of the ground crew, he headed to the changing room to take off his flight suit.
"Old Zhang, there's something a little off about the person you invited."
Watching Chen Yi head off to change, a top expert beside Old Zhang spoke.
"Indeed. Anyone normal wouldn't think about building a fighter jet themselves," others chimed in.
"You'll understand after interacting with him more. A fighter jet? To him, it's basically a toy."
Old Zhang waved a hand. "If one day he builds a space fighter and goes to the moon to mine helium-3, I won't even be surprised."
"He's that impressive?" Everyone was astonished.
"The Black Eagle lying over there was shot down by him. He used a small drone with a wingspan of less than two meters and a weight under fifty kilograms. Would you call that impressive or not?"
Gasp!
"He brought down the Black Eagle with a small drone? Are young people this fierce nowadays?"
Everyone sucked in a breath.
"Oh, and that small drone was a rechargeable new-energy model that used ion propulsion."
"..."
"Also, the rotating detonation engine we've been testing lately was developed by him.
He even used that engine to build a Lunar Lander Drone and successfully landed it on the moon."
"Haaah."
"Monster!"
"Freak!"
"This is simply inhuman!"
A few minutes later,
when Chen Yi emerged after changing clothes, he was greeted by a group of gazes as though they were looking at some monstrous prodigy.
"Professor, why are you all looking at me like that?"
Seeing everyone's strange looks, Chen Yi subconsciously lowered his head and examined the laboratory work clothes he was wearing.
Everything was in order.
There was no unzipped fly or accidental exposure.
"It's nothing. They're welcoming you."
Professor Zhang smiled as he explained, not mentioning that they had all been frightened by him.
"Yes, yes, Little Chen, welcome to Rongfei. Everyone, make room and let Little Chen come study the Black Eagle's condition."
"Come over here, Little Chen. This Eagle got seriously sick yesterday. See if you can find a way to treat it, and maybe learn some useful technology while you're at it."
A group of experts and senior engineers older than Chen Yi's father called out warmly and welcomed him with fervent enthusiasm, making room for him to enter the hangar and inspect the Black Eagle together.
"Let me take a look."
Hearing that the Black Eagle was in the hangar, Chen Yi did not stand on ceremony and stepped inside.
But the moment he entered the hangar, Chen Yi stopped.
Parts and components covered the ground.
The Black Eagle's engine, functional components, radar instruments, and main fuselage
had all been dismantled and arranged in orderly sections throughout the more than five-thousand-square-meter hangar.
Good heavens.
How was this treatment?
This was clearly an autopsy.
"Little Chen, the Black Eagle was already badly damaged when it was brought back yesterday.
Although the main body was intact, it was still battered and broken.
To treat it better, we dismantled it."
Seeing what Chen Yi was trying to say, an expert Academician beside him explained, "Just as modern medicine cannot do without the contributions of anatomical donors, if we want to treat it, we naturally have to dissect it first to understand it."
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