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J-6I High Altitude Fighter

On July 31, 1964, the "Beibu Gulf Incident" directly led to the escalation of the Vietnam War. In February 1965, the U.S. Air Force began an air strike against northern Vietnam. The Beibu Gulf waters and northern Vietnam are adjacent to China. In order to prevent the Korean War from reappearing, the US military needs to collect a large amount of intelligence on China's southwest border. One of its main methods is high-altitude unmanned reconnaissance aircraft. The model of these "Firebee" unmanned reconnaissance aircraft was BQM-147G in the early stage, and later improved to BQM-147H. Its maximum flight altitude can reach 20,000 meters, and the typical reconnaissance flight altitude is above 17,500 meters, which exceeds the practical ceiling of the F-6. Therefore, our aircraft failed to obtain results in many attacks.

At 11 o'clock on October 31, 1964, Zou Guangru, deputy commander of the combat unit of the 1st Air Division in Suixi, drove a J-6 fighter to intercept a "Firebee" high-altitude unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, and carried out multiple attacks when it rose to the limit of 17,900 meters. Neither hit the key. After the shells ran out, Zou Guangru was determined to hit the enemy plane. However, because the plane was at the limit of ceiling, Zou Guangru was eager to wipe out the enemy and moved too violently. The plane stalled and entered the spin and could not be recovered. Zou Guangru could only parachute.

Since then, the U.S. high-altitude unmanned reconnaissance aircraft repeatedly invaded Chinese territory during the day when the weather conditions are good, and shooting down this high-altitude aircraft has become the most important task of the PLA air force, and the development of a high-altitude fighter with a higher ceiling has also become the primary issue. Soon, the superiors decided to develop the J-6I high-altitude fighter with high-altitude combat capability based on the J-6 aircraft. During this period, my country's scientific research departments are conducting nuclear weapons tests, and there is an urgent need for a high-altitude aircraft to observe and collect high-altitude particles after an atomic bomb. Therefore, the task of developing the high-altitude F-6I was very urgent.

In 1964, the development of the F-6I was officially launched. The engineers Mao Yilian and Cao Jionglin of the 112 Plant Aircraft Design Office were mainly in charge, together with Wang Yongshan's maintenance crew of the flight test workshop, and were attended by the flight test workshop leaders and test pilots.

At the beginning, the focus of increasing the static ceiling of the J-6 fighter was mainly on improving the turbojet 6 engine (called the 811 engine at the time), but after nearly two years of testing, the effect was not satisfactory. In June 1966, the members of the modification team conducted investigations and studies, and in order to make the modified J-6 aircraft have a ceiling of at least 20,000 meters, the main contradiction of raising the ceiling of the J-6 aircraft must be grasped. Therefore, a simple and effective "light installation" solution was proposed.

The program used a No. 2306 J-6 aircraft that had flown 13 takeoffs and landings but had not yet qualified at the test flight station to carry out modification tests. While troubleshooting various problems on the aircraft, the program was modified according to the "light installation" program to modify 410 factory The thrust is increased by a large turbojet 6A (811A) engine, one 30mm caliber cannon is retained on the fuselage, two cannons on the wings and some airborne equipment are eliminated, and the flap area is increased by 0.6 square meters to increase the altitude Stability, eliminate the side-to-side swing phenomenon of the prototype when it is close to the ceiling; remove the bulletproof steel plate, landing lights, signal gun, two oxygen cylinders and two cannons of the wings, thus building 485 kg; adopting 0.5 mm thickness The thin-walled fuel tank also reduces the weight of the aircraft.

On August 2, 1966, the modified No. 2306 F-6I aircraft underwent a special intake port to test the engine surge boundary value. Three combinations were carried out at the scene, breaking through the installation and use of turbojet 6A engines. In early September, the new turbojet 6A engine was installed on the 2203 J-6I aircraft, and Wu Keming successfully flew for the first time. After two months of testing, the aircraft modification work was completed. The flight test results proved that the goal of improvement was basically achieved.

The leaders of the Air Force decided to send the newly refitted No. 2203 J-6I high-altitude fighter to the 16th Air Division for further test flight evaluation. On January 1, 1967, the No. 2203 aircraft was transferred to the 16th Air Division. After a trial, the Air Force believed that the aircraft could shoot down the high-altitude unmanned surveillance aircraft. This achievement was praised and supported by the Central Military Commission.

In February 1967, the Central Military Commission instructed Factory 112 to immediately produce 12 high-altitude fighters of the same type for use by troops. On February 27, 1967, the factory issued a notice, deciding that this modification task would be specifically in charge of the flight test workshop modification team, and required the assistance of relevant units throughout the plant to complete. On the basis of the original members, Cao Yixiang, Sun Yangde, Sun Rongxuan and others were added, and the flight test team cooperated to form a flight test workshop modification team. Members of the modification team were designing aircraft drawings, writing process specifications, and organizing production. In just over three months, they successfully completed the production of 12 F-6I high-altitude fighters.

The modified F-6I aircraft had a speed of 1.46 Mach and a ceiling of 18,800 meters, which exceeds that of the F-6 aircraft. However, due to the requirements of the "light equipment" program, two wing cannons were removed, and only one fuselage cannon was retained, which greatly reduced firepower and affected the attack hit rate. In addition, some special equipment was removed, which reduced the widespread use After the "light installation", the aircraft's center of gravity shifted back beyond the regulations, so the upper special cabin had to increase the counterweight by 40 kg. Therefore, after the troops used it for a period of time, these F-6I aircraft returned to the F-6 status.