Remember Zhao Xu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a senior engineer at a trial training base of the Air Force

Source: People's Liberation Army Daily

Original title: Deep in the desert, a lifetime of pursuing a dream - remembering Zhao Xu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a senior engineer at a trial training base of the Air Force

Before the release of a certain type of unmanned aerial vehicle, Academician Zhao Xu commanded in the front line of the airport. Photo by Yang Jun

In early summer, the empty and tranquil Gobi Desert roars with the roar of engines.

Amid the roar, Zhao Xu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a senior engineer at a certain air force's trial training base, was instructing officers and men in inspecting the final work before the target plane was released. Looking into the eyes of the nearly octogenarian, an unmanned target plane was ready to go on the airport runway.

"Take off!" When the command came, the target aircraft glided at high speed and took off. Watching the target plane fly into the sky, Zhao Xu began his 54 years of work on the Gobi Desert.

"I have a dream in my life to study China's unmanned target drones well!" In Zhao Xu's office, the yellowed books on the shelves and the thick target machine archives bear witness to his decades of desert dreams. Looking back at the choice of that year, Zhao Xu sincerely sighed: "It is the greatest happiness that people can do something for the country in this life!" ”

In the accusation cabin, the flight route flashing on the screen seemed to reflect Zhao Xu's dream track.

In September 1964, Zhao Xu graduated from beijing aeronautical academy. Inspired by Premier Zhou Enlai's encouragement to contribute to the construction of the motherland, Zhao Xu gave up the opportunity to stay in Beijing that autumn and came alone to a certain experimental training unit in the depths of the Northwest Gobi.

"The Yellow Sands are full of Gobi Desert, the blank field of unmanned aerial vehicles, the urgent needs of experimental tasks, and the urgent shortage of scientific and technological research talents..." When it comes to the needs of the party and the country, the academician's speaking speed is significantly accelerated; when it comes to drones, the elderly are even more precious.

In the early 1960s, there was no unmanned target drone in China. Without a target drone, no matter how good the weapon is, it cannot be fixed. This is a difficult problem facing that generation of aviation people.

Expanding the territory means surpassing the challenges, responsibilities and sweat of ordinary people. Zhao Xu and the team members took the book, pen, tape measure, and multimeter, and measured little by little on the plane, and calculated the design model by hand.

On December 6, 1966, the "Long Sky No. 1" unmanned target aircraft successfully flew for the first time. From that day on, China had its own unmanned target drone.

The road of scientific research is long, and it is even more necessary to constantly break through and move forward. With the rapid development of aviation weapons, a more realistic target aircraft has become a bottleneck restricting weapons testing. Target machines with the same performance need to spend tens of millions of yuan abroad.

"The needs of the country are the direction of my efforts." Zhao Xu boldly proposed the idea of converting a certain type of aircraft that has been retired into an unmanned target aircraft.

After thousands of tests and verifications, the long-retired aircraft has been successfully developed into a full-size, solid-type, high subsonic target aircraft.

"No matter what you do, if you want to succeed, you have to be serious or serious." It was more than a thousand late nights and hundreds of overnight nights, Zhao Xu led the team to overcome the technical problems that were solved in 8 years abroad in 4 years, and the supersonic unmanned target aircraft soared into the sky...

Over the years, under the unremitting efforts of Zhao Xu and the team, China's large-scale unmanned aerial vehicles have achieved leapfrog development, a set of research and production, test flights, provision of use, quality assurance in one of the development of unmanned aerial vehicles with Chinese characteristics has been formed, a new type of combat force gradually took shape, a number of experts and high-level scientific and technological talents stand out.

"The new era must have a new state!" In recent years, seeing that the reform and development of the state and the army has been constantly moving forward, Zhao Xu has both felt gratified and shouldered a heavy responsibility.

Passion does not grow old with the years, faith and with the years. Zhao Xu's students said that now Zhao Lao is still active in the front line of scientific research, and he often comes to the office like a worker at night and on weekends, maintaining the same passion and enthusiasm as a young man.

Scientific research does not stop, the pace does not stop. Not long ago, a new type of target aircraft was successfully developed under the efforts of Zhao Xu and his team, providing a new target that is closer to the real fighter for the test of new equipment. (Yao Chunming, Cheng Guo, Hu Xu)