H-20 Project Approved! Rich Country, Stand Up, Don't Kneel! (Please Subscribe!)
"The bomber we develop must be a full tier above the B-2 'Spirit' bomber."
Zheng Lixing nodded with a smile. "Supersonic capability will be its basic feature!"
Eagle Sauce's B-2 bomber had been developed back in the seventies and eighties, while Great Xia had only begun developing this kind of new strategic bomber in 2009, lagging behind by two or three decades. They couldn't possibly merely match it in performance, could they?
Its inability to enter supersonic flight was the B-2 bomber's greatest flaw, and that had to be remedied.
"A supersonic strategic bomber that's also stealthy?" Duan Fei clicked his tongue in astonishment.
The difficulty was anything but ordinary.
After all, supersonic capability and a stealth bomber were inherently hard to reconcile.
If a large bomber wanted to achieve stealth, its best choice was a flying-wing configuration like the B-2, which could minimize electromagnetic wave reflection to the greatest extent. However, the drawback was immense frontal drag. Near the speed of sound, shockwave divergence would occur easily, making it several times harder for it to enter supersonic flight than even an ordinary civilian airliner.
Another design approach was the Soviet Tu-160. While it could enter supersonic flight and carried a terrifying payload, its fatal flaw was precisely that it was a non-stealth strategic bomber.
This research goal was to allow the H-20 to perfectly combine the greatest strengths of the Tu-160 and B-2, two of the world's top bombers.
"I'm afraid the development time will need to be extended by another two or three years." Duan Fei frowned deeply. "Its cost will probably be astonishing as well."
Even with the complete B-2 bomber technology package, Duan Fei still conservatively estimated that it would take seven or eight years