Electromagnetic catapults, as well as steam catapults, are both catapults, and their functions seem to be about to pop things out.

But the two are not the front and back nodes on the technology tree, and electromagnetic catapults are not upgraded products for steam catapults.

They are products of two different technological branches, and the technologies they use can have nothing in common.

Developing steam catapults first cannot provide any useful help for the research and development of electromagnetic catapults.

At most, when it comes to tools that hang the plane wheels, you can refer to the technical indicators of structural strength.

However, the two are located at different technological levels. Steam catapults are equipment that are more mechanical, while electromagnetic catapults are equipment in the era of electronic technology.

When the relevant technology matures, it is natural to directly abandon the outdated steam catapult and take the route of electromagnetic catapults.

As a product of the new era, electromagnetic catapults have a comprehensive leading advantage over steam catapults.

The first is that it consumes less energy.

Electromagnetic catapult is the conversion from electrical energy to mechanical energy, and to some extent it can be regarded as a technology of a motor.

The deconstruction of electromagnetic catapults can be regarded as an infinitely large motor or a whole row of motors.

When the motor rotates, each motor has a force, and everyone will relay the aircraft and continue to accelerate forward and taxi.

This technical principle is very simple and mature, and the energy efficiency of a normal motor starts at 95%.

For electromagnetic cannons with the same origin as electromagnetic catapult technology, the energy utilization rate has reached more than 65% under current technical conditions.

The steam catapult is a long cylinder with a piston inside the cylinder, which divides the cylinder into two parts.

I want to continuously rush into the cylinder behind the piston to form a huge air pressure.

At this time, the valve that fixes the piston is opened, and the internal air pressure is released instantly, which will push the piston forward, and the hook on the piston is hung with the plane moving forward.

This push mode is actually a one-time transaction, which is very similar to the logic of the balloon explosion or even the expansion of gunpowder after the gunboat explodes.

According to the pilot, when the steam ejected, he and the plane were kicked away.

The energy release is mainly at the beginning moment, and the energy in the second half is getting smaller and smaller, because the larger the space in the cylinder, the smaller the steam pressure will naturally be.

This method of ejection itself will waste a lot of energy.

In addition, the piston in the cylinder needs to be connected to the hook that hangs the plane moving, which requires that the cylinder cannot be closed and there must be a long slot that runs through the entire cylinder.

This makes it very difficult to enclose the cylinder, and air leakage is inevitable. As long as the air leakage is leaking, more energy will be further leaked.

Therefore, when the electromagnetic catapult is working, the energy consumed by the electromagnetic catapult is far lower than that of the steam catapult.

Therefore, electromagnetic catapults can naturally be used to catapult more than steam catapults.

At the same time, the so-called electromagnetic catapult has high energy consumption and must be affordable with nuclear power and needs to be supported by all-electric systems. It is a brainless nonsense at three levels.

The first level is that it subconsciously believes that the power system power of a nuclear-powered ship will be much higher than conventional power, and even instinctively believes that both sides are not the same order of magnitude.

In fact, this is not the case. Nuclear-powered ships only have stronger endurance, and their power is not much higher than conventional-powered ships.

The two reactors of Nimitz, which are 100,000 tons, have a total power of about 300,000 horsepower.

The 80,000-ton Kitty Hawk-class four steam turbines have a total power of about 280,000 horsepower.

The 60,000-ton Liaoning four steam turbines have a total power of about 200,000 horsepower.

The 12,000-ton 055 four ignition turbines have a total power of about 136,000 horsepower.

The power of the new Ford-class reactor has been greatly upgraded, and the total output power of the two new AIB reactors has reached about 400,000 horsepower.

This is a huge improvement, equivalent to three 055s, or two Liaoning numbers.

However, there has not been a gap of order of magnitude, and the limit of conventional power is not 200,000 horsepower, it is nothing more than a multi-installation of boilers and turbines.

The second level is the understanding of all-electric systems.

Due to immature comprehensive electrical system and motor technology, the first three Ford-class ships are still in traditional power modes.

Ford, Kennedy, the three Ford-class aircraft carriers, the nuclear reactors have about two-thirds of the power, or about 280,000 horsepower, which will directly push traditional steam turbines in the form of steam, and then push the transmission shaft and propeller, which will directly use it to drive the hull to sail.

The turbine model used is probably the optimized version of the Kitty Hawk. From Kitty Hawk to Nimitz to Ford, the turbine power of American aircraft carriers is always the same. It can meet the maximum speed requirements of 33 knots, so there is no need to redesign it.

It's just that Kitty Hawk uses heavy oil to boil water and Nimitz and Ford uses reactors to boil water.

The remaining one-third of the power, almost 130,000 horsepower, is supplied to all the electrical equipment on the hull after it is formed through the steam turbine generator.

The electromagnetic catapult accounts for almost 27,000 horsepower, and has a set of special generators provided, which have been clearly cut from other equipment.

In other words, the four electromagnetic catapults used in Ford's 100,000-ton super aircraft carrier can meet the power consumption of daily work by just a 27,000 horsepower (20,000 kilowatts) generator.

The total power of the Type 055 destroyer is 136,000 horsepower, which is provided by four GT25,000 gas turbines.

Take out a GT25,000 to use as power source to generate power, and you can drive an electromagnetic catapult of a 100,000-ton aircraft carrier.

At the same time, the 052 series destroyer and the 053 series frigate used diesel generator auxiliary engines have a power of about 7,000 to 10,000 horsepower.

As long as four such diesel generators are installed, the energy demand of these four sets of catapults can also be provided.

So the nonsense of that sentence at the third level is ignorance of the energy consumption level of electromagnetic catapults.

In fact, the use of electromagnetic catapults has nothing to do with nuclear power energy and is not bound to the integrated all-electric system.

A traditional aircraft carrier can use electromagnetic catapults as long as it is specially equipped with several generators and equipped with supporting energy storage systems.

Then, electromagnetic catapulting is more stable than steam catapulting, the ejection process is more uniform, and the ejection control is more flexible.

As mentioned earlier, steam catapults are sold in one go, and the plane is broken.

At first, there was a strong push, and then it became smaller and smaller until it disappeared.

The electromagnetic catapult continues to push forward with force, distributing the force to the entire track length.

Therefore, during electromagnetic catapult takeoff, the overload level of the aircraft is lower, the pressure on the pilot is smaller, and the structural strength requirements are smaller.

For this reason, the force of steam ejection can only be adjusted at several relatively fixed gears through the injected steam density.

As long as the electromagnetic catapult is adjusted, the output of the catapult can be changed at will, and it can eject aircraft of various types and sizes.

Finally, electromagnetic catapults have lower requirements for production machinery processes, simpler maintenance, lower failure rate and maintenance time in ideal state, and longer working time without faults.

The steam catapult is a mechanical cylinder. With the piston and steam pipeline, most of which are mechanically deconstructed. Sealing work is the top priority and requires extremely high process indicators.

Normal wear caused by continuous work of equipment produced under extreme process standards will lead to rapid weakening of the strength of the mechanical structure and must be fixedly inspected at a relatively high frequency.

As a giant cylinder, the main body of the catapult is very troublesome to inspect and repair the equipment. The simple weight and size make people lose their temper.

Relatively speaking, electromagnetic catapults are all motors and electromagnetic equipment, and their requirements for production processes are far less than those of large sealed cylinders of steam catapults.

If the key catapult itself is modular, it can be installed and maintained relatively simply, and the maintenance is less difficult than that of the steam cylinder, and can also be replaced in a modular manner.

The biggest shooting difficulty of electromagnetic catapults actually lies in energy storage and release equipment and control systems, which are in line with electromagnetic guns.

Xu Xingchen did not take the initiative to develop this thing, but he knew that the difficulty of the research and development of this technology was actually not low at all, but the direction of the difficulty was different.

The difficulties in the production and design of equipment in the traditional machinery era often lie in production processes and materials.

Steam catapults and various aircraft engines are typical representatives of this category.

Their logic and principles are relatively simple, but they need to accumulate experience and build up craftsmanship to achieve ideal results.

However, without the corresponding industrial technology foundation, it will be outrageously difficult to develop such equipment.

However, after the era of science and technology, the difficulty in researching and developing new equipment is often no longer in technology, but gradually shifts to ideas and procedures.

If you cannot find the angle and entry point, you cannot find it. After you find the entry point, you may be able to create a product soon.

In addition, Xu Xingchen already has a primary steam catapult, so the demand for new electromagnetic catapults is not particularly high.

So in fact, like the early warning aircraft, Xu Xingchen was actually waiting silently to see if he could pull it out.
Chapter completed!