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 and the need to make full use of the existing resources at hand. Although it did not reach the step of equipping the troops in the end, its technical achievements did not help China Air Force to develop the "Air Police -2000" large-scale early warning aircraft at the end of last century and the beginning of this century, which in itself was a satire on 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 the 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 continuously, the BQM- 147 unmanned reconnaissance plane was shot down for the first time, the J -6 A aircraft was used for supersonic interception, and the American 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 and far air information systems. The air early 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 inland areas, there are still a large number 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, China Air Force's interceptor 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 J -6 A/B fighter imitating Su MiG-19P/PM didn't really come out until the late 1970s, not to mention. They are still equipped with interception radar, and need to be guided to a highly accurate interception route on the ground, and get close to the enemy plane 10 km before successfully intercepting the target.

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

For example, in 1957, the number of flights that Chiang Kai-shek's air force invaded the mainland reached 1 105 and 3029 flights, of which 53 flights went deep into the inland sky, and these 53 flights were intercepted by our army unscathed;

For example, on the evening of March 1958, a B- 17G strategic reconnaissance plane of Chiang Kai-shek invaded the deep areas 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 we lost MIG-10 instead.

1960,165438+1October19th night, in order to intercept a P-2V reconnaissance plane of Chiang kai-shek, two Tu -2 interceptors of our army crashed into a 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 aircraft 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 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, China Air Force had very few "big planes". For example, Yun -8 medium-sized transport plane that imitated Su 'an-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 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 Air Force Command, their performance gradually fell behind, so it was a perfect choice to use them as the refitting test platform of Air Police No.1..

In order to adapt to a large number of specialties of Air Police No.1, the selected Tu -4 aircraft has undergone a large number 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 of1.2m was added on the back of the fuselage, and several special glass fiber reinforced plastic radomes were 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 transformed. The bomb bay originally located in the middle of the fuselage was closed and changed into an airtight cabin in synchronization with the cockpit at 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 bomb bay were transformed into radar back-end equipment bay and command equipment bay.

Some radar display and control equipment, aerial 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. This technical transformation is the first time in the history of China Air Force. The engine is updated again.

Because the air-to-weight ratio of Air Police No.1 increased by 5 tons compared with Tu -4 aircraft after installing radome and command equipment, 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 requirements 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, technicians of China Air Force and aviation industry have also taken short, flat and quick measures to solve them.

Tactical performance of "Air Police One"

From the key tactical performance, the domestic 843 warning radar is used as the main detection unit in the "Air Police One" early warning aircraft, 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 1", it is believed that H -6 bombers flying at a medium 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 fighter 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 be used for angle measurement, and the height measurement needs to be carried out with the corresponding altimeter radar. On the other hand, it is still a radar using backward magnetron components, and its anti-jamming ability and multi-target detection ability are insufficient.

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

After intercepting the target, 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 route, it is necessary to calculate the interception route manually (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 One" is not so much an "early warning command and control machine" as an "early warning aircraft" and a radar station flying in the sky.

As for the command ability on board, Air Police No.1 can only draw by hand, and the radar does not have the ability of multi-target detection and command. Therefore, 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 interceptors to intercept single and small batches 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 US Chiang Air Force that entered Chinese mainland in the form of single aircraft and small fleet, this "ability to intercept a single target" was basically enough for the China Air Force at that time, although it was really not very good.

Disassembly of Air Police No.1

Although technicians from 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 may include the following aspects:

First of all, in the late 1970s, cross-strait relations gradually improved, and China and the United States took the lead in formally establishing diplomatic relations. China Air Force's national air defense mission has been greatly reduced. At the same time, great progress has been made in the construction of ground radar stations along the southeast coast and south China coast, 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 aircraft carrier nor radar can meet the needs of China Air Force in the future, and China Air Force did not conduct large-scale air campaigns or go abroad in the special 1980s.

In this way, 1979, after 10 years of development and 8 years of flight test, "Air Police No.1" officially dismounted, ending its legend in the China Air Force. It was not until the end of 1990s that China Air Force restarted the outsourcing and R&D of early warning aircraft, and took out our own "competitive aircraft" air police after trying to outsource Israeli "Faircon" early warning aircraft unsuccessfully.