Chapter 12 Simonov

After receiving the order from his superiors, Kozhidub asked the ground crew to clean up the rooms and the canteen to prepare dinner, intending to invite the technicians from Factory 126 to eat, sleep, and rest up so that they could continue working tomorrow. He even prepared a welcome speech.

Unexpectedly, these people didn't even enter the base headquarters, but went straight to the EP-3!

Therefore, Kozhidub, with a depressed look on his face, had to come out of the headquarters and sit in an open-top GAZ off-road vehicle and head towards the end of the runway. In the back seat of the car was Andrei, who was still in an excited state.

Originally, Andrei didn't need to go along to greet the technicians from Factory 126, but Andrei really wanted to see how Ep-3 was disassembled and studied, so he applied for it and Kozhedub agreed.

When they drove to the side of the EP-3 reconnaissance plane, the technicians had already boarded the plane. Following Kozhedub into the narrow cabin door, Andrei felt that the base commander in front of him seemed a little excited.

"Comrade Simonov, it's nice to meet you. I am the commander of this base, Kozhedub." Kozhedub, with a smile on his face, stretched out his hand to the person in front of him.

This was a technician who was less than fifty years old, a little fat, with high cheekbones. He reached out and shook Kozhidub's hand: "Commander Kozhidub, thank you very much to the comrades of the 523rd Regiment for allowing us to have access to advanced Western electronic technology. This is an outstanding contribution to our technological progress."

No wonder the superiors did not blame him for this matter, but were very happy and awarded him a third-class merit. It turned out that this plane was of such great help to them! Kozhidub immediately understood.

Simonov! Seeing this old guy should be the leader of this team, Andrei behind him suddenly became excited. The person in front of him was the father of Su-27, Mikhail Petrovich Simonov!

Simonov also has a rich resume. He graduated from the Novocherkassk Polytechnic Institute and then went to the Kazan Aviation Institute in the Urals. In 1953, he and his classmates from the Kazan Aviation Institute founded the Student Design Bureau, which designed and built a world-leading all-metal structure. This design bureau eventually became the State Design Bureau.

In 1970, Simonov accepted the leadership of Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi and entered the famous Sukhoi Design Bureau. He was highly regarded by Sukhoi and presided over the development of the Su-24 fighter-bomber. During the development, he overcame many difficulties and completed the finalization, which made Sukhoi very satisfied. After that, he participated in the Sukhoi Design Bureau's collection and sorting of information about the F-15 and then determined the task of a new generation of Soviet fighter jets that were suitable for it.

The prototype of the Su-27, the T-10 verification aircraft, was designed in 1969. Unfortunately, in 1975, the weathered Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi passed away. The design work of the T-10 was taken over by the former first deputy chief designer Ivanov. A few years later, the chief designer became Simonov in front of Andrei. It was Simonov who overcame all objections and almost started over with the T-10 plan, which resulted in the Su-27 fighter whose performance completely overwhelmed the F-15!

Last year, Sukhoi passed away, and Simonov became the chief designer of the Sukhoi Design Bureau. This time he led a team to Komsomolsk-on-Amur to inspect and guide the improvement work of Factory 126. He just received the news and rushed to Sokolovka.

Although the prototype of T-10 was still under design, preparations for mass production of the fighter had already begun. The new fighter was very different from the Su-17 aircraft currently being produced by the factory in terms of structure and process. Simonov came here to help Factory 126 improve the process and technical conditions required for the production of new aircraft, so that the new aircraft could be put into mass production quickly after it was finalized.

The most advanced electronic reconnaissance aircraft in the West! By studying this reconnaissance aircraft, the Soviet Union's electronic technology can be advanced by ten years! After all, the Soviets were busy developing and taking their own path, but there was no object to refer to.

This American electronic reconnaissance aircraft must have the most advanced electronic technology in the United States, and the gap in electronic technology between the Soviet Union and the United States is indeed not small.

Seeing that the commander of the Sokolovka base had come to welcome him, Simonov just shook hands and talked with him for a few words. At this time, he also noticed that there was a tall man with sparkling eyes following Kozhedub. At just one glance, Simonov knew that he must be a pilot.

At this time, the pilot was looking at Simonov with admiration. Simonov smiled. In the Soviet Union, soldiers and technicians were respected, especially the chief designer like Simonov who was at the forefront of Soviet aviation technology.

"Why are there only transistors?" In this short period of time, the technicians were still working, dismantling the internal equipment. When the screws on the control panel were removed, revealing the circuit boards inside, a technician suddenly screamed.

"Why does that black bump have so many leads? Is it an integrated circuit?"

"Why are the electron tubes missing?"

Originally, they planned to disassemble the circuit to see the specific structure inside, try to map it out as soon as possible, and determine the operation mode of these reconnaissance equipment. However, after disassembling it, they found that it was different from what they thought. It was not a variety of glass bulbs, but transistors and integrated circuits! Especially for integrated circuits, it is difficult to analyze the circuit structure and imitate it without knowing the internal structure.

The electron tube is made based on the thermionic effect discovered by Edison. In a vacuum glass bulb, electronic diodes and triodes are manufactured. They have gate and amplification functions and constitute various complex electronic circuits.

Later, in 1949, Americans invented the crystal diode and triode in Bell Labs. They were made of semiconductor materials and had low power consumption, small size and low failure rate. In 1959, they manufactured integrated circuits, combining many diodes and triodes together to make a chip, further reducing the size and lowering the failure rate.

It is now 1976, and the Americans have made rapid progress in the application of transistors and integrated circuits, which are also widely used in the military field. However, the Soviet Union has never been interested in transistors and integrated circuits, and they only love vacuum tubes.

"What are the Americans thinking? Once a nuclear war breaks out, the intense electromagnetic radiation will break down these transistors and integrated circuits." A technician began to worry about the Americans.

"The Americans' approach is correct." Just then, a voice came from behind.