Drawing 154, how is it used? There are two purposes.

First, to train astronauts.

According to standard training procedures, astronauts are required to practice under conditions of weightlessness on the ground to get used to the weightless environment in advance.

But how to create a weightless environment on the ground? Of course, that’s not feasible, as humankind probably can’t create an anti-gravity device just yet.

However, there’s a trick that involves utilizing Newton’s second law.

People are subject to gravity and have a gravitational acceleration force in a downward direction with a numerical value of G. If one could find a way to temporarily nullify this acceleration, in theory, they would be in a state of weightlessness.

If an airplane first climbs to an altitude of ten kilometers and then pitches its nose down to dive while maintaining a rate of descent with an acceleration also equal to G, the people inside the cabin would no longer be confined to the floor and could float into the air with a gentle push.

As the plane continues to climb and dive, its flight path resembles a continuous parabola, with each descent providing 25 to 28 seconds of weightlessness. A single flight can perform 20 to 30 of these parabolic maneuvers.

During these brief periods, trained astronauts can simulate various emergency operations and learn the principles of movement in a weightless state.

Of course, the first requirement for such a flight would be a high-performance aircraft that one is willing to invest in. Although current commercial airliners roughly have similar performance, no airline would agree to fly like this.

Airlines prefer their planes to fly smoothly and reliably, extending their service life for as many years as possible to make money, not to subject them to such strain.

What, buy one yourself? Lin Ju couldn’t afford the price of 7 or 8 billion even if he sold himself, so leasing was the only option.

But Drawing 154 is much cheaper. At the time, through an intermediary, Lin Ju was quoted a price of just 3 million, and mind you, that’s in RMB.

Even so, he didn’t plan to buy it, preferring to lease because Drawing 154 was too old. Apart from being a gas guzzler, maintenance was also a hassle. If he bought it, he would have to assemble a logistics and maintenance team, which would simply be asking for trouble.

Moreover, leasing had the advantage of finding highly skilled pilots. Pilots from the civil aviation sector would mostly be unwilling to fly parabolas like this, but for the military, it was routine.

The second use of Drawing 154: to transport space shuttles and conduct aero-testing in flight.

The H1 space shuttle only has rocket engines and cannot fly between airfields within the atmosphere, plus its width exceeds road limitations making transport difficult.

The best method is air transportation. Space shuttles are fixed onto supports mounted on the backs of large airliners or transport aircraft, making point-to-point transport fast and convenient.

In addition, before heading to space, space shuttles also need to undergo atmospheric flight performance tests. But what if they can’t take off from an airfield?

They are carried to high altitudes by a large aircraft, then separated after detaching from it, using the altitude for gliding and conducting aero-testing at the same time.

What? You say launching the space shuttle on a rocket to high altitude would also work?

But think about how expensive that is, whereas a big aircraft, including fuel, maintenance, and personnel, costs maybe a few hundred thousand at most, not more than a million, reducing the cost by dozens of times.

Lin Ju contacted a military base through a staff member who was "sorn from the corner." The codename is 96533 Troop, formally known as the Air Force Logistics Department Ulanha Mountain Repair Factory, belonging to a mid-sized domestic storage base.

Greeting Lin Ju was a major, essentially the highest authority at the base.

"Chairman Lin, on behalf of all the members of 96533, I welcome you here!"

Major Wang Zhi was very enthusiastic, showing his high regard for Lin Ju.

Because Ulanha Mountain Repair Factory was in a dire state, and moreover there was no work.

Maintaining aircraft is the plan, but the problem is that these old planes have been out of production for thirty or forty years. The factories that made them have sold off the production lines as scrap metal, so where are the spare parts for maintenance supposed to come from?

Most of the time, everyone’s just tasked with giving the planes a good wipe down and wash. If enough parts can be scavenged from the newer J7 fighters, we might manage to assemble one in decent condition—and then let those idle, retired pilots take it for a spin.

Although they could technically pivot to civilian business, the question at Ulanha Mountain is: what do you produce, what do you sell, and to whom do you sell it?

There’s no shortage of herdsmen, but what they probably like best are rice cookers and flashlights, which the repair factory could definitely make, but with such minimal demand, I’m afraid it wouldn’t even cover the man-hours to retrofit the equipment.

So when Lin Ju got in touch through his channels to ask for a quote, Wang Zhi was almost moved to tears—he agreed to everything Lin Ju said without hesitation.

Finally, a major enterprise related to aviation had come along. Could they let such a client slip away?

Upon entering the base, Lin Ju even received a warm welcome from two lines of soldiers who also worked there. Their eyes shone with excitement, making him feel somewhat overwhelmed by the attention.

But he hadn’t forgotten his purpose:

"Captain Wang, let’s go take a look at the planes."

"Sure, no problem! I’ll take Chairman Lin to see the planes right away. You’ll see for yourself that our maintenance skills are top-notch, no bluffing."

Wang Zhi led Lin Ju to where Drawing 154 was parked, to see a neat row of four airliners, clean yet visibly aged.

Around one of them, over a dozen soldiers were busy, with stacks of parts nearby, including several engines secured on wooden frames.

The engines at the tail end of the plane were open, their casings removed, and maintenance covers at the back of another device were also opened, with a few people working on it.

"Mr. Lin, don’t judge these Drawing 154s by their age—they’re over twenty years old but have only been retired for three or four years. They could fly for another fifteen years without any issues.

We bought plenty of spare parts when they were imported, and we can still get parts from other bases. These four planes will definitely fly smoothly, and doing parabolic maneuvers won’t be a problem at all!

This is no boast—I could even fly them myself."

Lin Ju watched the ground crew’s quick and skilled work and nodded. He believed what Wang Zhi said.

China’s maintenance capability is simply superb, calling it the best in the world would not be an exaggeration.

To what extent? The pipes in a ship’s boiler room are free of oil sludge, and tanks are so clean you could lick them.

The American military’s ships go on a cruise for half a year and come back with as much rust as if they’d been abandoned for three years, while our retired ships, even after a decade, are as clean as the day they left the drydock.

Of course, this has a lot to do with China’s military being extremely poor when it started—so poor that even the commanders would say to save their trousers. Any lax attitude towards weaponry would become the target of criticism.

With Wang Zhi’s assurance, Lin Ju felt there wouldn’t be any issues with the hardware.

"Captain Wang, then how much would it cost to lease these two planes?"

Hearing Lin Ju getting straight to the point about pricing, Wang Zhi took a deep breath, thinking how straightforward big bosses are, ready to talk money.

Though he had the cost ready in his mind, for some reason it just wouldn’t come out. Instead, he swallowed his words and said something else:

"Mr. Lin, I fear two planes might not be enough for you."