Mediterranean hegemon

On December 12, Contini and Antonio arrived in Berlin and met Douhet again.

"Galais, you are late!" Douhet was not in a good mood when they met. "I said I would give you a week, but you were late for three days. Although Italians are famous for being late, you are different from others. You will do great things in the future. I hope you have a sense of time and discipline!"

Contini smiled slightly: "Teacher, although I was late for a few days, it did not delay your work. I have completed the visit and exchange with the Bavarian aircraft manufacturing plant and wrote an investigation report."

Seeing the pieces of paper handed over by Contini, Douhet was stunned for a moment, then reacted and said: "I hope you don't be perfunctory. Explain your lateness and I will accept it. But if I am careless in research and investigation, I will...”

“Teacher, since you have me as your student, you should have a basic understanding of me. Can't you evaluate me after reading the report?”

“Wait for me for a few minutes.”

Antonio smiled and sat down casually: the young master did visit the aircraft factory, because the aircraft factory is now part of BMW's business, but it is obvious that the young master is very interested in BMW's motorcycle business and sneers at the concept of aircraft manufacturing. He spends more time chatting with others. As for what they talk about, it is unknown. After all, he is busy with closing positions and transferring money, and it is impossible for him to watch him all the time.

Sure enough, after reading the report, Du Hei raised his eyebrows and asked in a surprised tone: "Do you think BMW has no future in the field of aircraft manufacturing in the next five years?"

"Yes." Contini said calmly, "This company was the largest aircraft manufacturer in Bavaria (BFW for short) during the last war, with a monthly output of 200 aircraft. The end of the war completely changed everything. Orders disappeared, production capacity was idle, and more than 3,000 people became a huge burden for the company. It has been losing money since 1919. Last year, Mr. Camillo Castiglioni, an Austrian financier born in Italy, bought the controlling stake in the company and changed its name to BMW. Their current focus is on the production of furniture and kitchen equipment. It is said that they will also enter the motorcycle and automobile business. Aircraft manufacturing ranks relatively behind..."

Contini's words are not fabricated. Most of the fighter planes produced in World War I used wood as the main raw material, so BFW also has the most advanced wood factory. Now Germany is prohibited from equipping military aircraft, and the civil aviation market has not yet released its potential, so there is no way out for aircraft manufacturing in the short term, otherwise the company would not change hands. More importantly, after the war, the company still had raw materials in stock to produce hundreds of aircraft. It seemed like a good idea to use existing resources to produce furniture and kitchen equipment...

"You sound disgusted with using wood to build aircraft, but most aircraft are now made of wood. If you can't build aircraft, isn't it normal to use wood to build furniture and kitchen equipment?"

"I'm not looking at the present, but the future. I had an in-depth exchange with a young aircraft designer. He fully agreed with my understanding and only disagreed on some technical issues."

"Tell me where you have reached a consensus."

"First, the horsepower of aircraft engines will increase rapidly. This year's mainstream engine horsepower is still 200-250 horsepower. Next year and the year after, there will be 300-400 horsepower engines. He and I expect that by 1930, there will be more than 100 horsepower engines. 0 horsepower mature products;

Second, biplanes and even triplanes will quickly become obsolete due to the increase in engine horsepower. In the future, aircraft will mainly be single-winged, which means faster speed and better vision;

Third, the material of the aircraft will quickly transition from the current wood and cloth to metal-based or even all-metal structure-not steel, but aluminum alloy, duralumin, which can allow the aircraft to obtain better performance and perform more dangerous actions, such as dive bombing;

Fourth, aircraft equipment will be further upgraded, and sealed cockpits, radio stations, and bombing sights will emerge and be equipped on the aircraft. "

Du Hei was stunned. Some of these views were quite close to his own, but he was not as optimistic as Contini expected. He thought that this change would take another 20 years. From this tone, his students believed that there would be earth-shaking changes in 10 years.

He couldn't help but get interested and asked, "What's your disagreement?"

"It's about the choice of future mainstream aircraft engines. He prefers liquid-cooled engines, which are compact and have high power per unit weight. I think liquid cooling and air cooling have their own strengths and should not be neglected. In a sense, air cooling can basically accomplish what liquid cooling can accomplish, but the advantages of air cooling cannot be replaced by liquid cooling..."

"This view is very interesting. Let me hear it in detail."

"The simplest example is that naval aviation needs air-cooled engines more... In fierce combat confrontations, liquid-cooled engines are likely to be damaged by the enemy's cooling system and cause crashes. It is equal to death on the vast sea, and air-cooled engines Even if 1-2 cylinders are destroyed, you can still barely fly back - the pilot is much more valuable than the aircraft; it is very troublesome to replenish the coolant of the liquid-cooled engine at sea, but there is no such concern with air cooling; finally, relatively speaking It is said that air-cooled engines are more fuel-efficient than liquid-cooled engines and are conducive to supporting longer ranges." Contini smiled, "For example, we in Italy need an engine with a range of more than 1,500 kilometers that can take off from Sicily to Tripoli and then turn back. Single-engine fighter! Without the full protection of this kind of fighter, the bomber group that the teacher admired would be beaten down one by one. "

"What are you talking about? When am I going to bomb Tripoli?"

"You don't believe that this day will come?"

"Uh..." Duhey was speechless. Although Libya was an Italian colony, it had always been very unsettled and revolted one after another. It was said that the leader was very dissatisfied with the status quo and was planning a big move! Of course, he had heard Contini's inference that instead of equipping this long-range fighter jet to attack Libya, it would be better to say that it was to deal with the British Mediterranean Fleet and Malta!

Embarrassed, Douhet immediately changed the subject and asked: "There must be something extraordinary about this designer and you who hit it off immediately. What is his name?"

"Willy Messerschmitt, who is five years older than me, is still unknown, but I think he has great potential."

"Don't you want to start an aviation company? You can invite him to Italy. The development space in Italy is better than that in Germany? At least we can build military aircraft."

"Please, I'm not willing at the moment. He wants to make a name for himself. I even brought up your name, teacher. He said that he would go to Italy to meet you if he had the chance, but he has not come to Italy to work for the time being. Intend."

"Well, I can only blame him for missing the opportunity... I'm sorry!"

Contini smiled: "I'm sorry too."

Douhet meant it politely, but Contini was really sorry - Messerschmitt was the chief designer of the Bf-109 and one of the two great aircraft designers of the German Third Reich! (Another person is Kurt Tank, who designed the Fw-190. He is the same age as Messerschmitt because he served in the Army in World War I and has not yet graduated from college.)

Having said this, Du Hei's expression finally softened. It seemed that this student had indeed done a lot of work. What's more rare was that he did not stay on the surface and listen to introductions, but went down to the grassroots and workshops to see. This is much better than most young Italians.