Spy Wars: Get the Predator equipment at the beginning

Chapter 1070: The First Armed Helicopter Debuts

“Hey, this design is really powerful and imposing. Who designed it?” Zhang Yunhe asked.

Director Fan replied, "It was a weapons research and design engineer named Zhang Chang. In 1939, an American weapons expert named Sikorsky designed a VS300 vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. It was a single-rotor aircraft with a tail rotor, and its design structure was simple, easy to operate, and reliable!"

"By 1940, the U.S. military had purchased the R4 helicopter, an improved version of the VS300, and began equipping its troops with the R4 for reconnaissance, transport, and casualty evacuation missions!"

"Our institute's engineer, Zhang Chang, studied in the United States and worked at an aircraft manufacturing plant. He even witnessed the design and manufacturing process of the R4 firsthand. This aircraft was designed by him in three months."

"The R4 helicopter has no weapon system and is only used for reconnaissance, transport and casualty rescue. The armed helicopter designed by Zhang Chang is equipped with a 12.7 mm machine gun on each wing and a cannon under the nose. After training, the pilot can remotely operate the cannon and machine gun to strike ground and air targets while the helicopter is in flight!"

Zhang Yunhe looked up from the blueprints and asked, "You mean you've already developed a prototype?"

"Yes!"

Zhang Yunhe raised his wrist to look at his watch and immediately said, "Let's go to the research institute to see that helicopter. I want to observe its actual combat effectiveness with my own eyes!"

Director Fan was very excited: "Great!"

Zhang Yunhe got up, walked to his desk, picked up the phone, and said, "Get ready, I'm going to the weapons research institute with Director Fan!"

After hanging up the phone, Zhang Yunhe turned back to help Director Fan pack up the drawings and materials and put them back in his briefcase. He said to him, "These drawings and research materials must be kept safe and the confidentiality level must be raised to the highest level!"

"Yes, sir!"

When the two went downstairs, the secretary, guards and the motorcade were already waiting downstairs. After getting into the car, the motorcade left the governor's mansion and entered the street.

About half an hour later, the convoy arrived at a heavily guarded area at the foot of the mountain.

The area is shaded by green trees, with high walls and red tiles. A high-voltage wire mesh is strung on the 4-meter-high wall, and there are sentry towers on the wall with sentries on guard. Inside the wall, there are armed patrol teams patrolling 24 hours a day.

After the convoy entered the research institute, it drove along a 6-meter-wide cement road to a row of three-story buildings. The building was 60 meters long and each floor had 15 rooms.

When Zhang Yunhe got out of the car, there were already about a hundred researchers waiting downstairs and applauding enthusiastically.

After greeting everyone loudly and shaking hands with some important researchers in the front row, Zhang Yunhe asked, "Where is Engineer Zhang Chang?"

"Zhang Chang, come here quickly!" Director Fan immediately shouted to the crowd.

A young man wearing glasses squeezed out of the crowd: "Hello, sir, I'm Zhang Chang!"

"Hello, you are indeed young and promising!" Zhang Yunhe smiled and shook hands with him. After exchanging a few more pleasantries, he asked, "Where is the helicopter you designed and developed?"

Zhang Chang replied, "At the No. 1 aircraft test site, pilots are conducting training in it!"

"Come on, take me to see it!"

"Yes!"

So the convoy set off again, and after half an hour arrived at a military restricted area, which was also heavily guarded.

After getting out of the car, Zhang Yunhe saw a helicopter hovering in the air above the open ground. Under the pilot's control, the helicopter sometimes hovered, sometimes took off and landed, and sometimes turned around.

Zhang Yunhe was dumbfounded. The performance of this helicopter would be quite good even by today's standards. He turned to Zhang Chang and asked, "Does the helicopter have ammunition on it now?"

"This is a flight training exercise. For safety reasons, the helicopter is not equipped with any ammunition!"

Zhang Yunhe added, "I've seen the design drawings. It seems the helicopter is equipped with avionics systems such as radio communication and radar."

"Yes, when I was designing it, I considered that fighter jets, bombers and other aircraft are now equipped with radio communication and radar systems, so I took that into account in the design. Radio communication is easy to handle, there are existing ones. As for the radar system, we jointly designed and manufactured a small airborne radar with the equipment research institute that is smaller than the existing radar and has a search range of up to 50 kilometers, which is used on this helicopter!"

"It can be said that as long as enemy aircraft enter the 50-kilometer range, they can be detected by this radar, while enemy fighters and bombers cannot detect our helicopters due to altitude issues!"

"In the future, this helicopter can also be used on ships for anti-submarine warfare, attack small boats on the sea surface, and for search and rescue operations!"

Zhang Yunhe nodded repeatedly and asked, "How effective is this armed helicopter at ground attack?"

Zhang Chang said, "Very good, the firepower is very strong. The machine gun can deal with ground tanks, armored vehicles, and even attack bunkers. The airborne heavy machine gun can attack enemy troops on the ground, trench machine gun positions, light armored vehicles, and surface landing craft!"

Zhang Yunhe added, "Could we contact the pilot by radio and have him order the ground crew to equip the attack helicopter with live ammunition after landing? I want to see its destructive power!"

“Sure, this is one of the experimental projects!” Zhang Chang agreed.

He then ran to the terminal and contacted the helicopter pilot by radio.

Not long after, the helicopter flew over and landed slowly on the helipad. As the rotor gradually stopped spinning, the cabin door opened, and two pilots in flight suits stepped out, each carrying a helmet.

Upon receiving the order, the ground crew immediately pushed a flatbed cart loaded with ammunition boxes and assembly tools toward the helicopter to prepare for equipping it with live ammunition.

Two pilots walked over and saluted Zhang Yunhe and his group.

Zhang Yunhe shook hands with both of them, then asked, "What are your respective roles?"

The pilot on the left said, "Sir, I am the lead pilot, and I also operate the cannon under the fuselage."

The pilot on the right said, "I am the co-pilot, responsible for operating both heavy machine guns, and also serving as the main pilot's observer, guiding the direction and attack targets!"

"How long have you been training?" Zhang Yunhe asked.

“One and a half months!” the pilot on the left replied.

Zhang Yunhe then asked, "Have you received any training in weapons shooting?"

"Yes, we have a shooting training exercise every day where we operate helicopters to attack ground targets!"

After chatting for more than ten minutes, the ground crew had loaded the ammunition into the various bomb bays inside the helicopter and refueled it.

"Go ahead, let me see your training results and the actual combat effectiveness of this weapon!" Zhang Yunhe waved to the two of them.

"Yes!"