The Iron and Steel Frenzy of the Republic of China

During this period of time in Japan, if you want to say who has had the most beautiful life, there is no doubt that Jiro Horikoshi of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and the entire Junji Fukao team responsible for the design and research of advanced fighters. &&

The successful maiden flight of the "Nine Test Single Battle" experimental aircraft coincided with another shameful defeat of the Imperial Air Force. Both the Navy and the Army were eager to suppress the Chinese Air Force with a single-wing fighter with high speed and high firepower. And they are undoubtedly in a good time!

When Jiming returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in disgrace to hand over the task, and was comforted by Hirota Koki, a group of generals from the Ministry of the Navy and major aviation chiefs specially visited the third floor of their research institute and praised Mitsubishi for its contribution at the critical moment.

In the temporary venue on the third floor, there were a lot of relevant people. The commander of the First Air Fleet, Yamamoto 56, who presided over the speech, had a big belly, his eyes were shining, his hands were dancing, and he had been yelling for half an hour!

"...From the first attack in the Yellow Sea of ​​China in the winter of Showa 200 to today's three air battles, our heroic naval flight team has paid the loss of nearly 150 fighter planes, and as many as [-] soldiers died What is the reason for such a heroic and fearless sacrifice? The key is that we do not have an excellent fighter that can completely defeat the China Air Force! How can the majestic Japanese Empire and the excellent Yamato nation be given to a group of people who have lost even their ancestral civilization? The stupid nation was defeated?! The empire has countless smart and wise people who have created the most powerful and advanced fighter plane in the world to completely and mercilessly overwhelm them. Let the flying wings of the imperial naval aviation unit cover The entire sky of Asia! This is your mission, and you must fulfill it without compromise and without hesitation!"

Speaking of which.It must have been shouting for a long time, and the tone of his voice was slightly changed. Yamamoto 56 had to stop temporarily, picked up the teacup and "gulped" and took a big gulp.

At this time, among the researchers of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, who were standing upright and trying to put on an attitude of listening respectfully, Jun Fukao, the team leader in charge of engine research and development, frowned, trying to suppress the impatience in his heart, and peeked at Look at the other great hero Horikoshi Jiro next to him.But seeing that guy's eyes wandering and absent-minded, he couldn't help secretly laughing.

Yamamoto 56 didn't notice it at all, he finished his throat and continued: "It is gratifying that everyone from Mitsubishi has made admirable achievements after hard work in the past two years! Today's 'Nine Trials' The test flight was successful. It will be the beginning of a new history of Imperial Air Force combat! I earnestly hope that you will continue to work tirelessly. In the shortest possible time, come up with a mature and powerful fighter and hand it over to our warriors! Those The souls of the warriors who were broken due to lack of fighters will also be relieved!"

Looking at the low eyebrows of the group of people below, Yamamoto thought that his speech had shocked them from the heart, and nodded in satisfaction. The commander of the Sasebo Naval Air Force, Onishi Takijiro, then stood up, with a pair of fierce eyes. He stared at the group of engineers at Quail below.With a broken voice like a jackal, he shouted dryly and harshly: "Commander Yamamoto has already made it very specific! Here I will make a little more request. The fighter planes we need must be able to reach a maximum speed of 500 kilometers, and 1500 kilometers. Range, the firepower of at least two 20 machine guns, and at least two 50 kg bombs can be carried! Otherwise, it is not enough to compete with the fighters of China, everyone, can you do it?!"

He glared fiercely at Mitsubishi, and Hattori, the section chief in charge of Mitsubishi, shivered all over his body. He stood up bravely and said hesitantly, "This...we will do our best!"

Onishi Takijiro waved his hand violently: "No! We don't need such uncertain excuses, you must do it at any cost! There is no discount to talk about! If you do it, you will be the heroes of the great cause of the empire. If you can't do it Come on, you are the sinners of the empire!"

"Hey, hey!" Hattori nodded in a boneless way, Junji Fukao lowered his head and couldn't stop crooking his mouth, sneering secretly, what an unreasonable bastard!How can research and invention be treated like a war?Something like this is sure to cause trouble.

Onishi Takijiro pursed his mouth, and snorted, "Don't think this is embarrassing you! You have to be clear, there is no order from the Ministry of the Navy, and there are job opportunities for you! This is a deal that is related to the future of the empire and the future of your company." Don’t miss out on this important business! You are not the only ones who can produce fighter jets!”

In addition to Mitsubishi, there is also Nakajima.And so far, the main fighters in the navy and army are all products of Nakajima. Although they are still beaten to pieces in the Chinese battlefield, they are much better than the old models before, aren't they?

Hattori Joe nodded again: "Hi! We will try our best to seize this opportunity! Please rest assured, Commander!"

"Hmph, don't just talk about it, you have to make it! Now that the prototype has been successfully tested, the official product should be produced soon?! Our naval aviation force is waiting for a thorough attack on China. The arrogance of people!"

Hattori made some quick calculations in his mind, and replied: "If everything goes well, we should come up with a completely successful fighter within two years..."

Before he could finish speaking, Onishi Takijiro raised his voice abruptly, with veins protruding from his neck, and roared: "Two years!? How could you be so procrastinating! Do you think that after two years, will there be new opportunities for the Chinese? Empire Thousands of warriors who sacrificed, can't wait that long! One year! You have at most one year to come up with a formal fighter, and the end of this year at the earliest, this is non-negotiable!"

The arm he swung vigorously was like a sharp sword, and that posture seemed to split the person in front of him in half, which made Hattori's heart skip a beat.

It is difficult for Section Chief Hattori to understand why Commander Onishi is so eager and gaffe.He didn't know, just a few days ago, Onishi Takijiro, as the deputy captain of the "Kaga" aircraft carrier, followed the fleet to attack Zhu Bin's task force. As a result, the first wave of more than 50 fighters took off for four hours. A total of 34 planes were wiped out!But the opponent had no casualties.

The next day's group attack was even worse, being attacked by the opponent's various weird weapons.More than 20 more were hung up, so that when returning, the deck of the entire aircraft carrier was empty.It looked so bleak and shabby.

Such a disgrace is a lifelong stain on the proud and arrogant Onishi Takijiro. If you don't wash it off quickly, he won't be happy drinking flower wine!

Hattori Rangji didn't know what to say, he kept nodding his head and said "Hi Hei" repeatedly, in short, he dealt with the situation first.After fooling all the bird people away, Section Chief Hattori looked at the crowd with an embarrassing face, and sighed softly: "Everyone has seen it, so what should we do?"

Horikoshi Jiro couldn't help it anymore, Ma stood up and sneered, "It's a dream for these guys to build the world's most advanced fighter jet! Don't they know that our starting time and investment are compared with the Americans and Germans?" Even the Chinese are much worse?!" In my heart, I spit out a sentence that I didn't dare to say, "These guys in the Admiralty are all bastards!"

Inventing airplanes is a job with a large investment and slow results.Horikoshi Jiro has worked for Junkers in Germany and Curtiss in the United States for a long time, and he is well aware of the difficulties.From the year before last to the present, it took only two years to come up with a relatively mature test machine. They have worked very hard and succeeded.In terms of results alone, it is even better than American companies such as Boeing, Grumman, and Lockheed!

Junji Fukao, who has been in charge of the engine research team, said lazily: "It is impossible to complete the design of the most advanced fighter within a year. All the engines, even the latest guy in Nakajima, have less than 50 horsepower, and we researched it ourselves. The "Venus 3" of China only has 00 horsepower, and its weight and size are much larger than that of Nakajima's "Shou 3". Why do we use such a guy?! You know, the current quality is not completely reliable! "

In his heart, Fukao Junji even thanked Zhu Bin for giving the air force a stick two years ago, which made those self-righteous guys finally wake up a little bit. If it weren't for the urgent need since then, the research on Mitsubishi fighter jets would not have been known. When will it be delayed until the results are produced, and the amount of capital invested by the company will not reach today's 500 million yuan... In other words, the time for those bastards in the Navy to laugh at themselves is not short.

In any case, Mitsubishi and Nakajima are both competitors, and the Mitsubishi gang, who are full of intentions to wash away shame and snatch the market, are unwilling to use Nakajima's engine in their hearts.That basically accounted for the main cost, and Mitsubishi didn't want to make wedding clothes for others.

Hattori Rangji frowned and thought for a long time, then gritted his teeth and said: "It's really not possible, first try installing a single-stage single-action supercharger, maybe you can get a power close to 500 horsepower, then reach [-] kilometers. The flying speed can be expected.”

Nakajima first got the supercharger technology last year, Mitsubishi also got it later, and then found that this thing is not as mature as imagined, the quality of the engine is not stable, and the power of this thing is high, but It is even more unreliable. If the plane breaks down suddenly while flying in the sky, it will fall down like a stone.

Horikoshi Jiro shook his head uncertainly: "It's still not right! Our 'Venus' engine is too heavy and too big, which will make the plane look bloated. Even if the flight speed goes up, the rate of climb and range will be limited. Those guys are not necessarily willing to accept it."

Hattori Rangji sneered and said: "They have no better choice. This is when they come to the door and need our support, not when we beg them to buy! There is pressure from the Chinese fighter jets, the top priority It is to solve the problem of whether there is any, and it does not take into account the requirement of being too delicate. But, the material of the fuselage is a trouble!"

The Japanese navy is very interesting. For warships, no matter how big they are, they think they are too small. They wish they could make 500 cannon barrels. The battleships should be as big as the Japanese island to be enjoyable.But for fighter jets, probably due to the need to save space on board, the size has been reduced again and again. Now the prototype is only 7.56 meters long, with a wingspan of 11 meters, and an empty weight of only 1300 kg. We can talk about the engine and aluminum alloys. The alloy skeleton, the whole plane is no different from paper, it has no protection at all!

If the "Venus 3" engine is installed, at least 1700 kilograms or more will be added in the air, and the fuselage and width will have to be lengthened. The total empty weight will exceed 1700 kilograms, and the take-off weight will exceed the current 2300 kilograms. 20 kg, it is hard to say whether the speed can be guaranteed.This does not include the firepower of the [-] machine guns they need, which is not enough!

Horikoshi Jiro bit his finger and pondered for a while, then paced back and forth a little anxiously for a dozen times, and finally said decisively as if he had made up his mind: "It's useless to think so much now. Let's make the plane first. Aluminum Alloy frame, if it doesn’t work, use the German one first. I heard that Curtis’s colleagues in the past accidentally mentioned that they are using cast aluminum engine blocks and adding high-temperature resistant cylinder liners to achieve the effect of weight reduction, and they still come from China. If the technology doesn’t work, we can try it.”

Fukao Junji quickly waved his hand: "Forget it! We have suffered enough in the engine! From Showa 2 to now, we have failed more than 50 times. We can't mess around anymore. We should feel at ease and finish the 'Venus' well. Although the volume is a bit larger, I think there is a lot of room for improvement, and it may not be much worse than Nakajima's "Shou" in the future."

Hattori nodded approvingly, he was really afraid of tossing.Now that the military has finally waited for the order, it can be said to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. In any case, let the aircraft meet several indicators first.

After thinking about it, I finally made a decision: "Then let's make a decision first, complete the important indicators of 500 kilometers per hour, two 20 cannons, and 6 hours of cruising, and reduce the fuselage as much as possible! The successful prototype must be produced first. Some of them come out for emergency, anyway, the speed of 450 kilometers is capable of fighting with Chinese fighter jets..."

No matter how you listen to the last sentence, it is so unfounded!Now the whole world knows that the Chinese-made 21 fighter has a maximum speed of 45 kilometers, which doesn't seem to be too high, and its ceiling, climb speed, and flexibility are not as good as the current experimental model.Don't forget, they have armor protection, and the all-aluminum body is much stronger than their paper shell!And it carries two 20mm machine guns, which are much larger than their 7.7 heavy machine guns, and the range of ammunition loads is all kinds of surpassing... Pulling this fighter away, can it really resist it?Unless the pilots are all aces, they are only allowed to hit others, and they don't suffer, otherwise even if they get hit once, the consequences will be dire!

As for the on-board radio, bullet-proof seats, fully enclosed cabin and so on, there is no need to think about it at all. The 21 empty weight is a circle larger than their take-off weight. In terms of power alone, their first version has 950 horsepower. Change to the 1100 horsepower version, all kinds of pressure!

For some reason, Horikoshi Jiro always had a feeling of unreliability. Thinking about it carefully, um, probably because the thin and scary body has no defense at all after it is manufactured?It was forced out, but you can't blame me...To be continued. .