In the process of developing the two bombs and one satellite in New China, too many scientists, soldiers, workers and other groups have made great sacrifices for the development of the country. At that time, many people knew that participating in these projects would take a lot of risks, but there were still many people who were willing to stand up, and Yang Guoxiang, a major general of the PLA Air Force, was one of them.
In 1929, Yang Guoxiang was born in a poor Yi mountain village in Yuxi City, Yunnan Province. In the spring of 1948, Yang Guoxiang was admitted to the Asan Middle School led by the Asan Underground Party and joined the Communist Party of China in 1949. In 1950, Yang Guoxiang was sent to study at the aviation school and was one of the first batch of pilots trained in New China. When I first arrived at the aviation school, because the Chinese air force was relatively weak, it was impossible to come up with decent planes for the aviation school cadets to study. The conditions for studying at the aviation school were also very difficult, and the aviation school was used for teaching a few backward trainer planes left behind by the Japanese and planes brought by the pilots of the Kuomintang army. Most of the instructors were surrendered personnel of the Japanese Kwantung Army Air Force and some of the Kuomintang insurgents.
In 1951, after graduating from the aviation school, Yang Guoxiang was assigned to a certain aviation regiment as a pilot, and in 1952, he joined the Air Force of the Chinese People's Volunteers and participated in the operation into Korea. On the National Day of 1952, Yang Guoxiang participated in the National Day military parade and flew a fighter plane over Tiananmen Square. In 1954, Yang Guoxiang participated in the task of modifying a certain type of jet fighter, and was awarded a third-class meritorious service and promoted to squadron leader. In 1956, Yang Guoxiang won the first place in the national air force competition in the national ** team competition.
In the 60s of the last century, after the successful development of atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs, our country lacked planes and pilots to drop atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs. In this case, after a series of experiments, the Second Aircraft Department and pilots of the Chinese National Defense Science and Technology Commission decided to use the Qiang-5 fighter to drop atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs. Because of his excellent performance and superb flying skills, Yang Guoxiang became a pilot who threw nuclear **. In 1970, after a two-month political review, Yang Guoxiang was appointed as the chief pilot for dropping China's first actual combat hydrogen bomb.
In November 1970, Yang Guoxiang arrived at the airfield of the Northwest Nuclear Test Base and conducted a year-long secret training. For more than a year, Yang Guoxiang flew the plane every day to conduct strict training in test dropping hydrogen bombs, continuously throwing 150 model hydrogen bombs of the same size as the hydrogen bombs, and finally throwing 3 telemetry hydrogen bombs with the same size as the hydrogen bombs, and finally reached the technical requirements.
On December 30, 1971, Yang Guoxiang piloted a brand-new supersonic "Qiang-5K" aircraft carrying a hydrogen bomb, standing quietly on the airport runway line with his wings outstretched, preparing to throw China's first actual combat hydrogen bomb. At 12:20, following the order of Song Zhanyuan, the commander of the nuclear test airport, Yang Guoxiang piloted the fighter plane to take off.
When the plane was 9 kilometers from the center of the target, the command of the nuclear test gave the order to drop the hydrogen bomb. Yang Guoxiang pulled the, the nose of the plane slowly rose up, and when the plane was tilted to 45 degrees, he pressed the bomb button hard, and quickly turned the nose of the plane and flew back. At this time, something happened that everyone did not expect, the device for throwing the hydrogen bomb did not start, and the hydrogen bomb was not successfully delivered. Yang Guoxiang quickly checked the throwing program and found that there was no problem, and then flew back to do two throws, but they were unsuccessful, and finally the plane was not full of fuel and could only fly for 40 minutes.
At that time, Yang Guoxiang might have survived if he parachuted by himself, but the plane did not know how to fly to **, which was likely to cause serious losses. Moreover, this hydrogen bomb has condensed the efforts of too many scientific and technological workers, and if he parachutes like this, the loss will be too great, so he decided to bring the hydrogen bomb back even if he was broken. The landing of an airplane with a hydrogen bomb was very dangerous at the time, and the slightest danger could cause unpredictable losses.
At that time, all the personnel of the entire airport were evacuated to a safe area, and only the division commander Song Zhanyuan and a staff officer remained, responsible for directing Yang Guoxiang to land. Fortunately, Yang Guoxiang piloted the plane to land safely, and the hydrogen bomb did not **. It was later found out that it was because of the rough processing industry of the factory at that time, which caused one of the electromagnetic switches of the bomb delivery system to not be turned on. On January 7, 1972, Yang Guoxiang dropped the bomb for the second time, this time the bomb was very successful, and the sound of the hydrogen bomb ** shook the entire Lop Nur.