Chapter 114: Battle of Tomcats (Part 2)

Only a fool would go down! Andre watched the light spot on the radar screen rise higher and higher, and he knew that he had successfully led the other party to high altitude.

The practical ceiling of the Tomcat fighter is only 18,000 meters. Even if it has risen to 20,000 meters and can perform various flight maneuvers, its performance is greatly limited. What the American pilots should do now is to turn around instead of rushing up to fight with themselves.

Since you are here, that’s great. Two R-40 missiles are ready!

Andre pushed the nose of the plane forward. His fighter plane had already resumed level flight at an altitude of 20,000 meters. It couldn't be too high, otherwise the enemy would not come up.

Breathing the fresh air from the helmet, Andre's mind was very clear. He turned off the afterburner to save precious fuel, and continued flying in the direction of the opponent.

The Tomcat fighter's climbing rate was not high, as was the case with all fighters of this era. When the silver fighter appeared in sight, the distance between the two sides was only three kilometers.

The enemy finally entered the launch envelope of his Sparrow missile, but it was useless! Through the goggles, watching the enemy flying towards him quickly, William knew that he had to move faster!

The TF30 engine at the rear had been running for a minute! The fuel was being consumed at an alarming rate, and William was running out of time.

The combat bullets of this era are unable to effectively lock onto the front hemisphere for attack, so if you want to kill your opponent now, you have to turn around first after flying head-on!

Moreover, the other party is an excellent pilot, and I only have one chance! The Tomcat will not lose!

The speed was very fast, almost brushing against each other. Then William pushed the joystick, and the wings of the fighter plane automatically adjusted the sweep angle to the minimum. The turning radius was the smallest at this time. William was fully confident that he could turn around first and lock onto the opponent's anus!

At this time, the weapons operator in the rear cabin was turning his head back. In close combat, he was responsible for observing the airspace, which was equivalent to giving the pilot an extra pair of eyes.

Unfortunately, the tall ejection seat blocked his rearward view, and he did not see the MiG-25 that flashed by. It did not turn horizontally like them, but instead pulled up into the sky!

In terms of horizontal maneuverability, the MiG-25 may not be able to beat the Tomcat, and Andre did not want to surpass it in horizontal maneuverability. The advantage of the MiG-25 is its high-altitude performance! He pulled back the joystick and turned on the afterburner. The huge MiG-25 fighter plane, with its nose facing up, quickly pulled up.

Soon, Andre looked down, and the fighter plane had turned 180 degrees. From here, he could see that the Tomcat fighter plane a few hundred meters below was swaying left and right looking for him.

Americans, don't you know that I'm above you? Andre continued to push the nose of the plane, and the fighter plane dived down from the sky in a graceful arc.

If you look from a distance, you can see that the Tomcat fighter drew a circle in the horizontal direction, while the MiG-25 drew a circle in the vertical direction. If you look at the size of the circle, the Tomcat fighter still has the advantage, as its radius is less than half of that of the MiG-25. However, in terms of effect, after completing a circle, the Americans found that the MiG-25 was gone, while Andre was still firmly tracking the opponent.

"Oh my God, he's coming down from above!" At this moment, suddenly, the weapons operator in the rear cabin discovered that there was a huge object flying down from above his head. He looked up and saw the steel fighter plane and the red five-pointed star on its wing!

William looked up and saw it too. He saw the other party falling rapidly and turning behind him!

Damn it! William knew that at this moment, his advantage had been lost, and if he wanted to regain the advantage, there was only one way!

Attract the opponent to a low altitude!

Although Chrysanthemum was already facing the opponent, William had no choice. He pushed the joystick forward, and with a huge roar, the fighter plane began to dive downward.

Altitude is converted into speed. This kind of dive will make the speed of the fighter plane quickly exceed the design value, but only in this way can the opponent follow it to a low altitude!

It was obvious that the opponent had already bitten his tail. If the opponent wanted to attack him, he would have to continue tracking him and then launch infrared missiles.

Therefore, William did not simply dive, he kept pushing the joystick left and right and pedaling the rudder. During the dive, the direction of the fighter plane kept changing.

The altimeter was constantly rotating and the altitude was dropping rapidly. At the same time, the speed displayed on the Mach table was constantly increasing, and soon it would exceed Mach 2.5!

The huge overload pressed the two pilots' bodies tightly against their seats, and their hands began to feel heavy and weak. Moreover, the infrared missile was launched without warning, which further increased the psychological burden on the two men.

Infrared decoy bombs are constantly thrown out from the tail, hoping to interfere with possible missiles launched by the enemy.

What's wrong with the Americans? Andre, who was following behind, couldn't help but wonder.

The Americans' actions at this time are very crazy. It can be said that they are dangerous subjects during test flights. And what the Americans are doing now is to pull themselves to a low altitude?

Constantly swaying left and right, out of the range of the missile seeker, and with a large number of decoy bombs, Andre never got the chance to launch a missile. But Andre knew that the Americans did this without having to launch missiles themselves, and the enemy would crash due to a mechanical accident, because the American Tomcat fighters used the TF-30 engine!

TF30 is a high-pressure ratio axial-flow twin-rotor turbofan engine developed by the American Pratt & Whitney Company. In 1959, the company began to develop the civilian JTF10A as a private business plan. At the end of 1962, the F-111 fighter selected the military afterburner version of JTF10A, TF30-P-1. The non-afterburner version of TF30-P-1, TF30-P-6, was selected by the US Navy in 1964 for the carrier-based attack aircraft A-7.

The TF30-P-412A engine currently used by the F-14A is developed from the TF30-P-12, which is the afterburner model of the JTF10A turbofan engine. This engine has a low thrust, with a maximum military thrust of 5,600 kg and an afterburner thrust of 9,480 kg, which makes the Tomcat thrust-to-weight ratio only 0.7, limiting its maneuverability.

If that were all, it would be fine. The excellent aerodynamic performance of the Tomcat fighter could make up for these defects. However, another defect of the TF30 engine is the most fatal. In order to improve compression efficiency, Pratt & Whitney designed the compressor stall tolerance to be too small, making the engine extremely sensitive to changes in airflow, and it is easy to cause surge or stall!