A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

Chapter 684 Let's try a different approach.

"These two are engines? Seriously? You just leave them out there so openly? Won't they fall apart if you move them?!"

"Hey, two vertical tail fins? That still looks a bit odd!"

Pang Guoxing stared at the strangely shaped airplane on the blueprint, and was first shocked by the two huge engines that were abruptly hanging at the rear of the fuselage.

Having grown accustomed to seeing Soviet aircraft with their engines deeply buried in the fuselage, he was genuinely worried that if these two "big iron cans" roared, they might tear the thin, rod-like fuselage in the middle apart.

"Hmm, ugly, right?" Jiang Xia replied casually without even looking up.

"It's not ugly, it's just a bit strange! But as long as it's useful, that's fine. We pilots aren't picky; anything that can strike the enemy is a good thing!"

Jiang Xia's lips twitched: Brother, you really dare to think. Do you know why I called this thing a scrap of paper?

Jiang Xia ignored him and turned around to continue watching the fighter jets busy below through the large glass window.

Below the control tower, the bustling scene at the airport is enough to shock any ordinary person.

Even the quietly parked fighter jets exude a completely different aura. Although the aircraft taxiing and towing in front of me are all older models, such as J-5, J-6, Il-10, and even that Tu-4.

But the smoke of battle and the mission accumulated on the steel bodies of these "veterans" have an indescribable aura of majesty that deeply attracts Jiang Xia's attention and fascinates him.

"Wow! Good heavens!" Pang Guoxing's voice suddenly rose, as if he had discovered a new continent. "You're not building an airplane at all! You're trying to build a cannon that can fly into the sky! And then you went through all that trouble to put a shell around it, right?"

He pointed to the huge muzzle cross-section on the blueprint, looking like he'd finally figured it out.

As expected of a top-notch pilot among the new generation, he accurately pinpointed the core intention of this A-10-like design in no time—everything revolved around that terrifying machine gun.

"Hey!" Pang Guoxing continued to exclaim in surprise, pointing at the wing. "You put ten hanging points on this wing?! My God, do you think this is a clothesline? Aren't you afraid of breaking the wing if you hang too many on it?"

Jiang Xia remained silent, but his gaze was fixed on a long, slender jet that the ground crew carefully dragged out of the hangar.

“And this cockpit,” Pang Guoxing was still nitpicking at the blueprints, “is like a giant bathtub! It’s as thick as a city wall! What kind of design is this? Hey, brother, don’t try to be like those naval guys and put a few tanks on the ship to make a show of it! Our air force is all about speed and agility, we don’t need this kind of iron turtle…”

"Hey, but this kind of iron turtle should have pretty strong protective capabilities!" Pang Guoxing tilted his head and gestured, "Hey, this is good, this is good..."

Jiang Xia finally lost his patience with the nagging and waved for Pang Guoxing to come to his side. "I already told you it's a draft, why are you getting so worked up..."

"Hey, tell me! Isn't that an Il-28 down there?"

Pang Guoxing was interrupted and looked in the direction Jiang Xia was pointing. He saw that the plane had sleek lines, and its silver-gray skin gleamed coldly in the morning light. Its iconic straight wings and twin-engine layout were clearly visible, and the tail turret was temporarily covered by a canvas.

“Yes, that’s it!” Pang Guoxing nodded in confirmation, then curled his lip. “Tsk, actually I don’t really like this guy…”

"Tell me?"

Looking at Jiang Xia's calm expression, Pang Guoxing sensed that Jiang Xia was acting differently, but the straightforward man continued speaking:

"Remember that joint operations campaign I told you about earlier? This guy didn't carry enough!"

As Pang Guoxing spoke, he began to gesture, “It flies over in a flash, drops four bombs, and that’s it. In terms of ground support, it can’t even compare to the Tu-2. At least the Tu-2 can lower itself and sweep ground targets with its cannons after dropping its bombs, but these Il-28s can’t do that… They can’t do low-altitude penetration! They fly high and make a lot of noise, so they’re caught off guard when ground fire comes in.”

"It can't even penetrate defenses at low altitudes!"

"However, the navy still has a few, and it seems they've equipped them with air-to-ground rockets and torpedoes. But I haven't heard of them sinking many ships with those things. On the other hand, our air force managed to cripple four ships in some joint operations battle!"

Jiang Xia nodded, offering no further comment on Pang Guoxing's remarks. Having entered a state of rationality, he began to consider another possibility.

"What do you think about modifying the Il-28 into an attack aircraft? Like the blueprints suggest, enhancing its ground attack capabilities and adding armor?"

"Not good at all!" Pang Guoxing said with a look of rejection, shaking his head like a rattle drum. "Its build is just not cut out for this job!"

Jiang Xia remained calm as he began to give examples: "The Q-5's maximum payload on the blueprints is only 1.5 tons, with a range of 1200 kilometers. But the Il-28 is different. Although you say it can drop four bombs and run, you forgot that it carries 500 kilograms of bombs... Moreover, its range is at least twice that of the Q-5..."

"It can travel farther and carry more... It looks much better than the Super 5 on the blueprints!"

Pang Guoxing was taken aback and instinctively wanted to refute, but the data listed by Jiang Xia left him speechless for a moment.

He suddenly snapped out of his daze and slapped his thigh: "Hey, wait a minute! Bro, you've led us astray! We were just discussing that 'Iron Turtle' plane on your blueprints, how did we end up talking about the Il-28 and the Q-5?"

"Oh...did Old Wang say something like 'the navy is miserable, the navy is a disgrace' to you again? Hey, you can't do that..."

"However..." Pang Guoxing changed the subject, a hint of schadenfreude in his voice, "The navy really lost face this time. After all that effort, all they got was a small boat that wanted to 'go to heaven'... Hahaha."

Pang Guoxing's somewhat "vivid" analogy instantly broke Jiang Xia's defenses...

"You really know how to use analogies... Don't do that again. By the way, that 'missile' that was spotted by 'KJ-1' is still in the Navy's hands, right..."

"I reckon this thing is no ordinary object. It might have some impact on the development of the Air Force..."

"Hey... what's there to worry about? It's already spread throughout the team..."

Pang Guoxing patted Jiang Xia on the shoulder casually: "Alright, let's not talk about it anymore. So tell me the truth, why didn't we build this thing? Why did we call it a scrapped draft? It looks pretty cool to me! Heavy firepower, durable, lots of deadly points, isn't this exactly the 'aerial artillery platform' that our frontline brothers want most?"

"It's good..."

Jiang Xia smiled wryly: "But, I just rejected the Dongfeng-113 plan. If I bring this up now, it'll probably become the Dongfeng-114..."

"Eh?"

"I've made the mistake of aiming too high, with indicators that have been raised indefinitely!"

"This thing, not to mention the wings, its engine... we... we just can't make it..."