Chapter 113: Battle of Tomcats (I)

Water injection for boosting! This is not science fiction. Even in later generations, various civil airliners have this technology, which is used to increase thrust when the engine thrust decreases in summer.

The Americans and Israelis have also conducted experiments, modifying the F-4 Phantom fighter by spraying water to cool the compressor. The high-altitude thrust of the engine increased by 150%, and the maximum high-altitude speed could theoretically reach Mach 3.2!

The MiG-25 also uses the same method to increase the thrust of the engine. Of course, this method was added by the designers of the Tumansky Design Bureau after rigorous experiments.

To increase the power of the engine, the intake flow must be increased, but increasing the intake area is limited and will also increase wind resistance. Water injection is to spray water in the intake duct to cool the air and increase the air density to increase the intake flow. At the same time, ethanol is added to increase the volatility of water.

In addition to carrying a huge amount of fuel, the MiG-25 also carries a 250-liter water tank filled with a mixture of water and ethanol. When needed, it can spray water like a shower, allowing the engine to run externally and have stronger power.

Normally, Andre did not want to use watering. Precious things should be saved for the most critical moment. And now, encountering the Tomcat, it is time for the MiG-25 to show all its teeth!

Water continuously sprayed out from the nozzle to cool the intake duct, and more air was blown into the engine. The tail flame at the rear became hotter and hotter, and the power was instantly increased!

After completing a turn, the speed dropped below the speed of sound. Now, the fighter quickly broke through the sound barrier and continued to accelerate. At the same time, the radar completed the preheating, and high-power electromagnetic waves filled the airspace in the front hemisphere. Several bright spots appeared on the screen.

A Tomcat fighter was in the airspace 60 kilometers away, and the missile flying from the high altitude had already deviated from its high-altitude trajectory and dived down from the sky, only 5 kilometers away from Andre's fighter!

Head-on confrontation!

Andre pulled the joystick back, and the MiG-25 continued to climb while accelerating, flying towards the two Phoenix missiles, moving forward.

In the goggles of the helmet, the two targets became clearer and clearer. Andre stared at the incoming missiles until his retina was completely occupied by the two missiles. He then pushed the joystick, pedaled the rudder, and the differential horizontal tail pried the nose of the aircraft. At this time, the altitude had exceeded 10,000 meters, and the control surface response of the MiG-25 began to become very sensitive!

The two missiles almost brushed past Andre's fighter plane, but were still outside the range of the proximity fuse and gradually flew away.

17G overload, is it very powerful? Although Andrei in the later generations was a member of Shenfei and had never been in the field army, he had practiced countless times on the flight simulator. He even threw away the high-overload AIM-120 missile in the simulator, not to mention the current slow and fat Phoenix. The original purpose of developing this missile was to attack bombers. It was not good enough to deal with high-mobility targets, not to mention that it was aimed well, but when it got close, the target disappeared from its sight! Both Phoenixes lost their targets at the same time.

Damn it! What's wrong with this guy? William on the opposite side knew that he had run into a tough guy this time. Anyone who dared to fly towards the missile and then get rid of the high-performance air-to-air missile was either a madman or a flying genius!

What should he do? At this time, if he turned around and flew back, he could fly back into the range of fire of the long-range missiles of his own aircraft carrier formation within five minutes, and he would be safe. The madman was obviously here to challenge him! However, as a proud American Navy pilot, he would never shrink back like this, and his fighting spirit was also aroused.

Come on! Let's have a fair duel! Let's see whose fighter plane has better performance and who has more experience! William is confident in his fighter plane.

Two Phoenix missiles have been launched, and the Tomcat fighter also carries two Sparrow missiles and two Sidewinder missiles. These weapons are enough. Moreover, after launching the Phoenix missiles, the Tomcat fighter instantly dropped a ton of load and became more flexible.

"Prepare to launch the Sparrow missile." William said to the radar operator in the rear cabin.

As a two-seat fighter, the division of labor between the front and rear cabins is very clear. The front cabin is responsible for flying and close combat, while the rear cabin is responsible for operating the radar. Long-range and medium-range interception are both the tasks of the rear cabin.

Although the Sparrow missiles were not very reliable, the two sides were flying head-on at this time, which was a good time to use the medium-range Sparrow missiles for a standard battle! This was almost a textbook launch condition.

However, just as the radar operator in the rear cabin was fiddling with the switches, the target on the radar screen was already faster than they had imagined, and had already soared to an altitude of more than 20,000 meters! Damn, the target was actually much faster than their own wing-swept sprint speed!

The Sparrow missiles carried by the Tomcat fighter are no longer the outdated AIM-7E-2 used during the Vietnam War, but the AIM-7F that was put into service only last year. This missile uses a new two-stage thrust engine, the Hercules Mk.58Mod.2, which increases the missile's range. At the same time, the guidance head has been improved, and all solid-state electronic components are used, which has led to a qualitative improvement in performance.

However, there was still a 5,000-meter height difference between the two sides! If the missile flew upward after being launched, it would consume more energy and its range would be greatly reduced. The computer system gave a prompt that the missile had to be launched at least 20 kilometers away to have a chance of hitting. Now the enemy was outside the attack envelope!

"The altitude difference is too great, unable to launch." William was very depressed after hearing the voice of his companion in the rear cabin. The other party had an advantage in altitude! If he wanted to shoot down the other party, he had no choice but to continue to increase his altitude!

Pulling the joystick back, the Tomcat continued to rise. William was already feeling uneasy. Although the Tomcat's variable swept wings gave it excellent performance in all airspaces, high and low, it was better not to fight against a high-altitude, high-speed fighter like the MiG-25 in the airspace that the opponent was familiar with.

But William had no other choice. If he did not increase his altitude, he would not be able to launch missiles and would not be able to shoot down the enemy.

The Soviets are so shameless, if you dare come down and fight us!