With nuclear power, it does not mean that there is no need for an engine. It’s just that the turbojet engine behind it will be redesigned. The fuel is no longer fuel, but is carried out by a nuclear reactor.

This reactor is naturally a fission reactor.

"Is it any advantage? How long can it fly if it is refilled once?" Jiang Yanhai asked a key question.

Although everyone knows that the amount of fuel used by nuclear power is very small, this nuclear power itself is an extremely small reactor, which means that even if it is allowed to store its key core, it will not be able to accommodate too much nuclear fuel.

"The flight range of fuel is about 100,000 kilometers." Professor Hu gave a specific number.

Jiang Yanhai took a deep breath, 100,000 kilometers, this number is already extremely terrifying. The equator surrounding the earth is only more than 40,000 kilometers. This means that it is more than two circles to circle the earth.

This is no longer a matter of combat radius, which means that it can even not change fuel for a long time when flying. As long as its tail turbojet engine can last, it can even be in the sky all the time.

"Can it go to space?" Jiang Yanhai re-estimated its data in his heart. Whether it can go to space depends mainly on how high its utilization rate of air. If the utilization rate is high enough, although the air will become very thin after the aircraft leaves the ground at a certain height, at that time, as long as the power is strong enough, it should not be too big a problem to fly out.

"It's difficult at the moment, but this is our purpose. However, according to our current data, although it cannot fly into space, its maximum flight altitude can reach an extremely high altitude of about 60,000 meters."

60,000 meters, which is 60 kilometers from the ground, this altitude has exceeded the flight altitude of all existing fighter jets, and even some intercontinental missiles have the ability to fly above this altitude. Ordinary interceptor missiles, air defense missiles, and air-to-air missiles do not have this capability.

Jiang Yanhai estimated in his mind that in fact, if all parameters are corrected according to the data analysis system, it can actually barely fly to space, but after flying to space, its internal fuel will basically be exhausted, and this landing must be a problem.

But this is really a huge improvement compared to previous aircraft.

"Where is the speed of the plane?"

"If a brand new composite material is used, the cruise speed can be achieved by Mach 4.5 and the maximum speed can be achieved by Mach 6, but it needs to be at a very high altitude." Professor Hu gave a number.

"Have the materials to solve the thermal barrier been found?" Jiang Yanhai was really a little surprised this time. Human fighter jets have never been able to break through Mach 3 or more. Before the Phantom came out, it was because the thermal barrier was not so easy to solve.

When the Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft broke through Mach 3, the overall length of its aircraft could even be increased by more than 20 cm. It can be imagined how terrifying the thermal expansion and contraction of the materials were.

The Phantom solves this because the expensive ultra-high high temperature resistance on its fuselage is in line with the material's resistance to high temperatures to reach a certain level, so that after it reaches such a high cruising speed, the thermal expansion of the fuselage will be controlled within a certain range, and the parts will not undergo too much deformation.

However, after exceeding Mach 3 or more, it can be said that the speed increases by 1 Mach, and the temperature increase becomes even more intense. At least the original Phantom's material cannot withstand the cruise speed of Mach 4.5 and the ultimate speed of Mach 6.

"I found it. Speaking of this, I have to say, Xiao Jiang, you are this." Professor Hu gave Jiang Yanhai a thumbs up.

Several other professors also looked at Jiang Yanhai with admiration, "We actually discovered this material before. It is a composite material that uses the new materials from Daqin and Hongxing. We found that it has extremely strong high temperature resistance, and the thermal expansion coefficient is the same as some ceramic materials, infinitely close to zero."

"Of course it's not just these two points. It also needs to have other characteristics that can become a fighter material."

"But we have never discovered the most suitable formula, because there are too many new materials, and new materials are discovered almost every day. The data recorded by the Institute of Materials in this regard has exceeded the data they have increased in the past year."

"If it weren't for the Pangu system, we probably don't know how long it will take for us to find it."

"Because of the existence of the Pangu system, we have solved the problem of this new material in a very short time, so we have these argumentative next-generation phantom upgrade plans." Professor Hu said.

Jiang Yanhai smiled and shook his head and said, "I just provided the tools, but in fact, you are still the ones who have completed it. Even without us, you will still complete it in a very short time."

"However, before I came, I heard from Professor Liu that you have other upgrade plans?" Jiang Yanhai was a little curious.

The next generation of Phantom has two upgrade plans, which can be said to be two-choice.

However, before coming, Jiang Yanhai was not sure about the two plans.

"Yes, the second plan is still conventional power." Professor Hu nodded, "but thanks to the application of new materials, we have made a new upgrade to the Phantom engine."

"It mainly improves its fuel efficiency. With the current fuel load of Phantom, its range has been increased by more than 50%, and its turbojet efficiency is higher and its output power is higher in a short time. In addition, we have also super pressurized its compression chamber." Professor Hu said quickly.

"Now it has a smaller size, smaller spout, but more power."

Jiang Yanhai immediately gave Professor Hu and the others a thumbs up. Generally speaking, when the gas speed of the fighter engine passes through the tail nozzle is certain, the larger the diameter of the nozzle, the greater the thrust.

Of course, the nozzle diameter can be adjusted. Different flight postures adopt different nozzle diameters, and now they have made smaller nozzle diameters in this regard.

In fact, to put it bluntly, the reason why we can do this is that our materials were not up to standard in the past, but now our materials have passed through the standards and even the material performance has great redundancy, so we can squeeze the ultimate performance of the material...

The air is compressed even harder. Even if the diameter of the nozzle is reduced, the jet speed is faster than before! The thrust will naturally increase!

And the basis of all this is materials... Without strong enough materials, nothing can be done.
Chapter completed!