Iron Sonata of World War II

At the same time that BF-108 successfully made its first flight, Helena, who had been hiding at Eva's house recently, also welcomed an old acquaintance.

The author has something to say: BF-108 is just a sports aircraft, and some details of the aircraft will not be introduced in more detail here.I will talk about it in detail later on the fighter.

Chapter 112

That day, Helena just came out of Eva's house when she was blocked at the door by Hermann Göring, who had come all the way to Berlin.

"Why do you have to be so obsessed with air-cooled engines? Colonel Goering." After hearing Goering's explanation of her intentions, Helena spread her hands helplessly and said: "The current situation of our German aviation development is that liquid cooling is strong and air cooling is weak. There is only a half-level BMW company engaged in air-cooled aviation development, so why do you hang your future carrier-based aircraft on the tree of BMW?"

"Actually, I think BMW's air-cooled engine can still be salvaged." Goering insisted: "Didn't they just develop two new products recently? The performance is quite good. The engine is very satisfying."

"Those two engines are imitation products of the Yankees. BMW just changed the fuel injection method and cylinder arrangement on the basis of others." The company's air-cooled engine should be lifted down and buried properly, Colonel Goering. The technical background of BMW's air-cooled engine cannot keep up, and it will not be saved for a while."

"Before coming here, I went to the general manager's office. The general manager has just approved the plan to vigorously develop high-performance air-cooled engines. Are you sure Miss Seekert will not participate in the demonstration of BMW's plan?" Goring smiled. He said with a smile: "I know that Miss Sektor is not interested in developing air-cooled engines, so I have no choice but to make a bad move. I hope Miss Sektor will not be angry."

"You go directly to your boss to inform me when you have the resources. Is there any use for what I say now?" Let the air be cold. BMW’s new engine plan proves that I will take good care of it at that time, even if it’s a dead horse as a living horse doctor. Is Colonel Goering satisfied now?”

Goering hurriedly thanked Helena repeatedly, and Helena waved her hand and said, "Don't rush to thank me, I have something to say earlier, high-performance air-cooled engines are much more dependent on high-grade fuel than liquid-cooled engines I hope you can get enough high-grade fuel for your precious carrier aviation in the future."

"Don't worry, Miss Seekert. The air force will not be able to compete with me for high-grade fuel. As long as Germany has even a barrel of high-grade aviation gasoline, it must be stored in the navy's fuel depot." Both the German Air Force and the Luftwaffe are still in the preparatory stage before being established.But Göring spoke so confidently, in such a tone that it was hard to believe that his current military rank was nothing more than a captain of the navy.Helena thought maliciously: If Goering's words were transmitted to the ears of Colonel Albert Kesselring, who had just taken over as the head of the aviation munitions management department, would Kesselring come over and demand a duel with Goering?

Well, although Goering in this plane has not become as fat as the previous plane, his superb resource-holding ability has been perfectly inherited from the previous plane. This is probably why he was able to be promoted to the captain of the navy so quickly. s reason.You must know that before the expansion of the army in 1935, the German Navy had only an official staffing of 15000 people, and even the cooking soldiers in charge were trained as officers.During this period, the rank of a naval colonel was very rare. An old man like Doenitz, who was already a lieutenant in the Navy during the First World War, will now climb to the position of lieutenant colonel.

……

The reason why Goering insists on developing radial air-cooled engines for future carrier-based aircraft has a lot to do with the respective advantages and disadvantages of V-shaped liquid-cooled and radial air-cooled aero engines.

There are two biggest advantages of the V-shaped liquid-cooled engine. The first is high heat dissipation efficiency, and the second is low wind resistance.

Let me talk about the first advantage of liquid-cooled engines: high heat dissipation efficiency.Since the density of the coolant is hundreds of times that of the air, the thermal conductivity of the coolant is much higher than that of the air, and the heat dissipation efficiency of the liquid-cooled engine is naturally much higher than that of the air-cooled engine.In contrast, air-cooled engines are prone to overheating problems if the heat dissipation design is not good.As the flight altitude of the aircraft increases, the air density decreases, and the cooling efficiency of the air-cooled engine will further decrease, while the heat dissipation efficiency of the liquid-cooled engine is basically not affected by the flight altitude. From this perspective, the liquid-cooled engine is better than the air-cooled engine. The engine is more suitable as the power of a high-altitude fighter.

Besides, the second advantage of the liquid-cooled engine is that the wind resistance is small. The two rows of cylinders of the V-shaped liquid-cooled engine are arranged in series at a certain angle, and the shape of the entire engine is similar to a long and narrow triangular prism, with a small windward area.Therefore, fighter jets with V-shaped liquid-cooled engines can have a slender and slender nose, which reduces resistance and increases flight speed.The air-cooled engine is not the case. In order to improve the heat dissipation conditions, the star-shaped air-cooled engine has to design each row of cylinders on the windward plane (the star-shaped air-cooled engine generally has 5 cylinders, 7 cylinders or 9 cylinders in each row, In order to increase the power, multiple rows of cylinders can also be designed, but the number of rows is restricted by the cooling efficiency. Fighters generally use single or two rows of cylinders.), which makes the star-shaped air-cooled engine have a relatively large frontal area.Therefore, the head of a fighter jet using a star-shaped air-cooled engine is generally relatively thick and short, and the wind resistance is relatively large.

The V-shaped liquid-cooled engine has obvious advantages as a fighter jet power, but since the air-cooled engine can be evenly matched with the liquid-cooled engine, it naturally has its own unique features.There are three main unique features of the radial air-cooled engine.

The first unique feature of the radial air-cooled engine is its simple structure and light weight.Compared with a liquid-cooled engine that requires a complex coolant circulation system, the cooling of an air-cooled engine only needs to allow cold air to flow through the cooling fins on the cylinder and cylinder head at a sufficient speed.This makes the radial air-cooled engine about 10% lighter than the V-shaped liquid-cooled engine of the same power level, which can offset the disadvantage of the radial air-cooled engine in drag to a certain extent.

The second unique feature of the radial air-cooled engine is that it is easy to assemble and maintain.Liquid-cooled engines are relatively delicate, and the coolant level needs to be checked before each takeoff. Once the liquid level is too low, it needs to be replenished in time.When fighting in cold regions, liquid-cooled engines need to be filled with special antifreeze coolant; when fighting in deserts, liquid-cooled engines need to consume valuable cooling water.Air-cooled engines do not have these troubles at all.In addition, in a cold environment, the air-cooled engine warms up much faster than the liquid-cooled engine, which is conducive to the rapid attack of fighter jets.

The third unique feature of the radial air-cooled engine is its high reliability and strong damage resistance.Liquid-cooled engines are highly dependent on the circulation of coolant. Due to the complexity of the coolant circulation system, the inherent reliability of liquid-cooled engines is not as good as that of air-cooled engines that rely on simple fins to dissipate heat.In a fierce air battle, even if one or two cylinders of the air-cooled engine are damaged, it can still "slightly injure the line of fire". There are even examples where half of the cylinders are damaged and the aircraft can be driven back.In contrast, once the liquid-cooled engine is damaged in the battle, the coolant circulation system is damaged, causing the coolant to leak, and the eagle will immediately become a quail. If the engine continues to run at the original speed, the cylinder will soon be overheated. And burn out.At this time, the only option for the pilot is to immediately reduce the engine speed to the minimum, and then slowly swing back at the speed of an old cow pulling a broken car, but the opponent generally will not give you this opportunity.

The respective characteristics of the V-shaped liquid-cooled engine and the star-shaped air-cooled engine made the fighter jets form an overall pattern of "land liquid and sea wind" in the selection of engines in World War II on the last plane.That is to say, land-based combat aircraft mostly use liquid cooling and carrier-based combat aircraft mostly use air cooling.

The reason for this pattern has a lot to do with the special operating environment on the aircraft carrier.

First, the air-cooled engine is easy to maintain, which just adapts to the harsh maintenance conditions at sea.After all, the space on an aircraft carrier is limited, and the logistics support conditions cannot be compared with that of a land airport with complete facilities;

Second, the warm-up speed of the air-cooled engine is fast, and the carrier-based aircraft just emphasizes the rapid attack in the ever-changing naval battle;

Third, the high reliability of air-cooled engines is also of great help to improve the survival rate of carrier-based aircraft pilots.In the vast sea, once the plane crashes due to mechanical failure or battle, the probability of the pilot of the carrier-based aircraft being successfully rescued after parachuting in the sea is not as high as that on land.

Fourth, the shape of the air-cooled engine is relatively thick and short, and the length of the fighter jet with the air-cooled engine can also be made shorter than that of the fighter jet with the liquid-cooled engine.

Of course, "land liquid and sea breeze" and "high liquid and low wind" are relatively generalizations, which are not enough to be regarded as standards.After all, there are classic carrier-based aircraft with liquid-cooled engines in the last plane, such as the British "Sea Spitfire" and the Japanese "Searan"; there are more land-based fighters with air-cooled engines, such as German Fw-190A, American P-47, Soviet La-5/7, etc. Among them, the high-altitude performance of P-47 is not inferior to many liquid-cooled fighter jets.

In any case, Helena, who has been hesitating on the issue of whether to develop an air-cooled engine, was finally driven to the shelves because of Goering's inscription, and participated in the formulation of BMW's new generation of air-cooled engines.

Although Helena complained in her heart that this kind of action was simply a dead horse as a living horse doctor.But now that she has decided to develop a star-shaped air-cooled engine for carrier-based aircraft, Helena is still determined to do her best within her power!Even if it can't catch up with the air-cooled magic machine R-2800 that Pratt & Whitney will launch in the future, at least it can't leave obvious shortcomings in this new air-cooled engine!

Chapter 113 Success or Failure

Helena may not be able to make up for BMW's lack of experience in air-cooled engine development in a short period of time, but after all, Helena generally knows the shortcomings of BMW's engines in the previous plane.

Therefore, at the demonstration meeting of the new generation of air-cooled engines, Helena provided BMW with some forward-looking suggestions based on the experience and lessons learned during the development of the German air-cooled engines in the previous plane. Since then, BMW has made a big splash in the field of air-cooled engines, but it also allows BMW to avoid some detours in the development process.

In the last plane, since 1933, BMW has developed the improved bmw1690 series engine based on Pratt & Whitney's R-132 engine and its own technology, and has embarked on the independent development of air-cooled engines. journey.After several years of research and development efforts, in the late 30s, BMW's air-cooled engine development project began to enter the harvest period, and the results were the double-row 14-cylinder bmw139 engine and bmw801 engine.

Compared with the bmw139 with a relatively low output, bmw801 is the air-cooled engine with the largest number produced by Germany in the previous plane during World War II, and it is also the most typical representative of the star-shaped air-cooled engine of BMW in the previous plane.Helena thinks that if the BMW company in this plane wants to avoid detours in the development of star-shaped air-cooled engines, and to prescribe the right medicine, it has to analyze the design of the "royal heart" of bmw801, the Fw-190A fighter plane in the previous plane. success or failure.

In military forums of later generations, many military fans, including Helena, did not speak highly of this BMW engine.After all, if measured only by hard indicators, the performance parameters of bmw801 are indeed far behind the top level of air-cooled engines in the world at the same time.However, based on the principle of criticizing what should be criticized, and what should be praised, Helena believes that the bmw801 engine in the last plane still has some merits.

The biggest highlight of BMW's design on the bmw801 is undoubtedly its control system.From the appearance, the core of the control system of bmw801 is a small metal box, which contains a set of mechanical logic control system, we can understand it as a mechanical computer.Under the management of this control system, the speed adjustment, boost ratio adjustment, and pitch adjustment of bmw801 are all automatic, and the pilot only needs to rely on a single throttle lever to realize automatic control of the engine.

The automatic control system of bmw801 is conceptually very close to the ECU (Engine Control Unit) system that we are familiar with, except that the calculation unit is still mechanical. The probability of misoperation is reduced.

Although Helena can be regarded as a half black fan of BMW, even Helena has to admit BMW's innovative spirit in the engine control system.In Helena's eyes, the control system of the bmw801 engine can be regarded as one of the three pinnacle works of mechanical computers in the practical field during World War II!The other two are the pinnacle of the "Norton sight" on the B-17 bomber and the mechanical ballistic computer on the "Iowa" battleship.

Every time Helena thinks that it won't be long before these extremely exquisite designs representing the "beauty of machinery" created by human beings will be replaced by cold electronic computing units, she will feel a sense of melancholy from the bottom of her heart.However, the progress of science is relentless, and all Helena can do is cherish the gorgeous sunset of mechanical computers.

It has to be said that BMW built a smart mind for bmw801, but did not give bmw801 a strong body.During the service career on Fw190A, bmw801 engine has been plagued by two problems.

The first problem is insufficient high-altitude performance, which has been criticized by military fans in later generations. The lack of high-altitude performance of the bmw801 engine is related to the design of its mechanical single-stage supercharger. Compared with the two-stage supercharger that can still maintain high efficiency in thin air at high altitudes, the single-stage supercharger can be used at altitudes exceeding 6000 meters , the supercharging efficiency will be greatly reduced.

Although most of the models in the bmw801 series of the previous plane only have a first-stage supercharger, it is indeed cheating, but Helena thinks that although this problem is cheating, it is not difficult to solve, because the BMW company in the previous plane has many A good solution is the turbo/supercharged bmw801TJ.

bmw801TJ大体上就是在bmw801D的后面增加了一套倾斜20度放置的废气涡轮增压器外加一套环形中冷器，这一改进举措可以让bmw801TJ在11000米的高空仍然能拥有1490马力的动力输出。更难能可贵的是bmw801TJ的发动机本体和混合增压器都被整合成一个紧凑的动力单元，对机内空间的占用比美国的P-47这种将涡轮增压器放在飞行员后面的设计小得多（P-47将涡轮增压系统和发动机的其他部分分开布置，导致废气管路和增压空气管路必须穿过整个机身，这也是导致P-47胖成“飞行奶瓶”的罪魁祸首之一）！

It's a pity that bmw801TJ came out too late. At this time, Dr. Tan Ke, the chief designer of Fw190, had already turned his attention to liquid-cooled engines (so there was the Fw213D series equipped with Jumo190 liquid-cooled engines), and bmw801TJ could only go to the total output Only more than 100 Ju388 night fighter-bombers went to dawdle.And in fact, when BMW designed the bmw801TJ, it didn't consider installing a single engine, so the exhaust gas of the bmw801TJ exhaust gas turbine is discharged from the upper rear outlet. If a single engine is installed, the pilot will have to be sprayed with soot.

In addition to the turbo/mechanical hybrid supercharged bmw801TJ, BMW on the last plane also developed a two-stage turbocharged improvement model numbered P801 for the Fw190 on the basis of the bmw8028. The development was only started in 8028, and the fate is naturally worse than that of bmw1941TJ. Dr. Tan Ke, who empathizes with liquid cooling, doesn't even look at it.

In short, most of the bmw801 models in the last plane have neither a secondary supercharger nor an intercooler. due to R&D lag.If BMW had put bmw801TJ on the research and development agenda earlier, the high-altitude performance of bmw801 might not have suffered so much criticism.

The BMW company in this plane has set its sights on the hybrid supercharged model with an intercooler from the very beginning. This is not the result of Helena's direct intervention, but because the liquid cooling camp puts more pressure on BMW than in the previous plane. It's much bigger, and it can't compete with the liquid-cooled engines of Maybach and Junkers with only one stage of supercharging.

If the problem of high-altitude performance waste of BMW's star-shaped air-cooled engine in the previous plane is still a problem in BMW's concept, it is relatively easy to solve.Then another problem is particularly difficult. This problem can be regarded as the ancestral problem of BMW's air-cooled engine, and that is the problem of engine cooling efficiency.In fact, cooling efficiency is also the core issue that restricts the power improvement of air-cooled engines.

Chapter 114 Krypton Gold Changes Fate

In the last plane, from the first day when the Fw190 fighter was installed, the stubborn engine overheating problem has been plagued by BMW's star-shaped liquid-cooled engine.This is true of the early bmw139 engine, and so is the later bmw801 engine.

On June 1939, 6, driven by the bmw1 double-row 139-cylinder air-cooled engine provided by BMW, the Fw18 fighter designed by Dr. Tan Ke successfully achieved its first flight.The heat dissipation problem of BMW's star-shaped air-cooled engine was exposed from this day.In this first flight, the temperature in the cockpit next to the engine compartment was an unbearable 190 degrees, and the pilot's feet were almost cooked by the heat from the engine compartment.

In order to alleviate the problem of engine overheating, Dr. Tan Ke had to modify the original design.He removed the large drag-reducing ducted fairing on the propeller hub and designed a forced cooling system for the engine.The so-called forced cooling system means that after the propeller and before the engine, a small fan driven by the engine is installed to increase the flow rate of cooling air, thereby improving cooling efficiency.The design of fan forced cooling has achieved certain results, but the overheating problem of the bmw139 engine has not been fundamentally resolved.

At the beginning of 1940, Fw190A began to be replaced with a more advanced bmw801 engine for test flight. Unfortunately, the overheating problem on the bmw139 engine still existed on the bmw801.During the test flight, the bmw801 engine caught fire many times due to overheating, and even caused the machine gun ammunition on the machine to explode (Fw190 has two machine guns on the nose, very close to the engine).It took Dr. Tan Ke a lot of time to solve the engine overheating problem, and it was delayed until June 1941. After a series of improvements, the engine overheating problem of Fw6A barely reached an acceptable level, and it was officially put into mass production.

The engine overheating problem not only caused delays in the development of the Fw190A fighter jet using the BMW engine, but also added many obstacles to the power upgrade of the bmw801 engine in the future.

First of all, in order to prevent the engine from overheating, the speed and intake pressure increase potential of bmw801 are limited, which puts a shackle on the increase of engine power.Secondly, many fighter jets at that time used a simple afterburning device, that is, the method of injecting alcohol-water mixture (MW50) into the engine to allow the aircraft to obtain more power in a short time. However, BMW's bmw801 engine had This method cannot be used due to the risk of overheating.In fact, the most commonly used afterburning method for bmw801 in the last plane is C3 injection, that is, injecting a large amount of high-grade C3 fuel into the cylinder to cool the cylinder, allowing the engine to use higher intake pressure to increase the intake air for a period of time Gain stronger motivation within.

In order to alleviate the problem of cylinder overheating, the air-fuel ratio of the bmw801 engine (referring to the mass ratio between air and fuel in the engine mixture) will become very low under high power conditions.Theoretically speaking, an air-fuel ratio of 14.7 is needed to completely oxidize the fuel, but the air-fuel ratio of bmw801 under high power state is only 8.0.

That is to say, under high power, nearly half of the fuel consumption of bmw801 is used to cool the cylinder instead of combustion.I have to say that this cheating method of afterburner has made a major contribution to emptying Germany's not so rich high-grade fuel reserves. In fact, the high-grade aviation gasoline in Germany on the previous plane was basically taken away. Off to feed the BMW's engine.

Regarding the heat dissipation problem of BMW's star-shaped air-cooled engine, Helena actually has no specific medicine that can cure the disease. This seemingly simple problem actually tests the design skills of a company.In addition to allowing BMW to continue using the forced cooling design of the previous plane, Helena can only provide some improvement suggestions to BMW's new generation of engine solutions within the scope of her ability.

Helena's first suggestion was to moderately reduce the diameter of the cylinders while increasing the number of cylinders.Specifically, the originally planned 156mm cylinder diameter was reduced to 145mm, the piston stroke remained at 156mm, and the number of cylinders was increased from 14 to 18 cylinders.In this way, although the displacement has not changed much, it has only increased slightly from 41.7 liters to 46.3 liters, but the heat dissipation area corresponding to the unit displacement has increased a lot with the increase in the number of cylinders. shock.

Helena's second suggestion was to increase the number of valves per cylinder from two to four.BMW has adopted advanced sodium cooling technology on the engine valve, that is, the middle of the valve is hollow and filled with metal sodium.Because the temperature of the valve head is very high, the sodium in the valve head will absorb heat and vaporize and take away the heat. The gasified sodium rises along the hollow valve stem to the top of the valve stem to condense again, and the cycle goes on like this.Helena suggested changing the two valves to four valves, which not only improves the air circulation efficiency, but also makes the engine burn more fully under high power, and also enhances heat dissipation by the way.

Helena's third suggestion was to change the manufacturing process of the engine cooling fins from aluminum extrusion to precision machining.The commonly used heat sink processing technology is to heat the aluminum alloy ingot to above 520 degrees, then use mechanical pressure to let the aluminum liquid flow through the extrusion die, and then cool the aluminum liquid at the exit of the mold, and the aluminum liquid will solidify into The first embryo of the cooling fins, and then some simple modifications will be done.

The precision cutting process proposed by Helena is to directly cut a certain thickness of thin slices on a whole piece of aluminum alloy profile, and then bend it upwards into an upright state to become heat dissipation fins, and the cylinder head and cylinder liner are all integrated with heat dissipation. The integrated processing of the fins is completed. In this way, the heat dissipation fins can be made thinner and denser than the ordinary casting process, and the heat dissipation efficiency will naturally increase.

In short, all the suggestions Helena gave to BMW had two words clearly written on them: "krypton gold".That's right, metaphysics may not be able to save African chiefs, but krypton gold can indeed change lives.

Since the design level is not as good as others, then use more complex structures and more sophisticated craftsmanship to make up for the lack of design level. In addition to the above-mentioned measures, BMW is also planning to set up two quadrupoles for each cylinder of the new engine. Spark plugs to improve the anti-knock ability of the engine and improve ignition reliability.According to BMW's own estimate, the cost of each engine in this plane will at least increase from 801 marks in the previous plane bmw43000 to 60000 marks due to the increase in complexity, process upgrades and the cost of the hybrid supercharger.

Well, this design style is not Helena at all, but Helena really has no other way, so she came up with these non-solutions (BMW is not as good as people after all, and Helena can only rely on piles of materials to hold on) performance).

Fortunately, the total number of engines required by the German carrier-based aircraft force is not very large, so waste some production costs and man-hours. At least it can make up for the performance disadvantages of the German air-cooled engines in the previous plane to a large extent.

Chapter 115 Solvay Society

"This is an invitation letter? What? Mr. Lang Zhiwan invited me to attend the Solvay meeting in Brussels in October? Is the name wrong in this invitation letter?" Helena who visited Einstein's house After receiving the invitation letter from Einstein, he flipped through the contents and opened his mouth wide in surprise.

"There is no mistake, there is no mistake, this invitation letter is for our Miss Helena." Einstein said with a smile while refilling his pipe, "If you don't invite anyone, you can't help but invite me." Ms. Helena, what is the theme of this Solvay meeting? It is "the structure and properties of atomic nuclei". Miss Helena, as the discoverer of the neutron, if you don't go, this meeting will be less It's half wonderful." Lying on the sofa, Einstein took a puff of his pipe enjoying himself, and then mischievously spit a smoke ring into the air.

"From what you said, it seems to be the case." Helena scratched her head in embarrassment, "Okay, I accept this invitation." Helena carefully put away the invitation letter as she spoke.

The aforementioned Solvay Conference was founded in 1911 by the Belgian chemist and industrialist Ernest Solvay. The purpose of the conference was to discuss the key issues to be solved in the development of physics.It is precisely because the topics discussed at the Solvay conference are so important that a large number of the world's top physics circles will be gathered at each Solvay conference.Since the first Solvay Conference was held in Brussels in 1911, this physics event has been held every three to five years. As of 1933, the Solvay Conference has been held for the seventh time.

Well, in order to more effectively promote the process of peaceful use of nuclear energy by mankind, and make due contributions to the great cause of energy conservation and emission reduction in the world in the future (whether you believe it or not, I believe it anyway), Helena in 1932 At the beginning of the year, he "discovered" the existence of neutrons, thus proving the conjecture proposed by Rutherford in the British physicist circle in 1920, and lighting up the front-end technology for nuclear energy utilization.

At the end of 1931, the Joliot Curie couple obtained a very penetrating and uncharged radiation when they bombarded beryllium with alpha particles (actually helium nuclei) from a polonium radioactive source.When they irradiated the paraffin with this radiation, they found that the paraffin was knocked out of a large number of protons by this radiation.The Joliot Curie couple believed that this radiation was a kind of gamma ray (a high-energy electromagnetic wave with a very short wavelength), although it had never been found before that gamma rays had such a large momentum that they could knock out protons, but Joliot The Curies still suspect that this is an undiscovered property of gamma rays.

Helena, who has the knowledge of later generations, only glanced at the papers of Joliot Curie and his wife, and immediately understood that the radiation they discovered was actually a high-speed neutron flow.So Helena immediately "assumed" that this radiation was a stream of neutral particles, and determined the mass of this "neutral particle".The specific method is to use this radiation to bombard hydrogen-containing substances and nitrogen-containing substances respectively. By measuring the speed of hydrogen nuclei and nitrogen nuclei knocked out by the radiation, it is known that the mass ratio of nitrogen nuclei and hydrogen nuclei is about 14. It is easy to conclude that the mass of this "neutral particle" is approximately equal to the mass of the hydrogen nucleus, that is, the proton.

Then the conclusion is clear: the new type of radiation discovered by the Joliot Curie couple is composed of uncharged particles with a mass similar to that of the proton.Helena named this particle "neutron" and further conjectured that the nucleus is composed of protons and neutrons.Although this conclusion is so simple that middle school students of later generations can recite it back and forth, the discovery of neutrons is indeed of great significance, which means that the door to the mystery of the atomic nucleus has finally been opened.

"By the way, Uncle Einstein, you will go with me then." Helena asked.

"Of course." Einstein said with a smile: "Not only me, but Professor Schrödinger, the head of the physics department of the University of Berlin, also went to Brussels with us. The group of visionaries in Copenhagen only know how to talk about it all day long, talking about something. Crazy words to teach bad young people. This time, you and I, Uncle Schrödinger, must let them know that God, the old man can't roll dice!"

As soon as Helena heard that Einstein and Schrödinger were going to attack the Copenhagen School again, she immediately regained her spirits, and at the same time, she also looked forward to this trip to Brussels.After all, such a good opportunity to eat melons and watch a show is in front of you, if you don't seize it well, you will be sorry for this time travel!

In fact, at the fifth and sixth Solvay conferences held before this, Einstein, de Broglie and Schrödinger and the three generals of the Copenhagen school: Bohr, Born and Heinrich Semborg had two fierce confrontations.The cause of the confrontation is the interpretation of quantum mechanics.

Bohr's "complementarity principle" pointed out that whether the properties of elementary particles are particle or wave is completely determined by the detection method, and the different observation methods will affect the properties of particles.For example, we all know that elementary particles have wave-particle duality, but in Bohr’s view, when you use the properties of particles to detect an electron, such as letting it hit on the screen, it will appear as A property of a particle; when you probe it with the properties of a wave, say by making it interfere, it behaves as a property of a wave.Whether an electron is a particle or a wave depends on how you probe it.

Born's "probability interpretation" made a new interpretation of the Schrödinger equation. Born believed that the wave function represented the probability amplitude of a particle in a certain place in space, and the probability of a particle existing in a certain place was proportional to the square of the wave function's modulus.for example.We know that a hydrogen atom is composed of a proton and an electron surrounding it. According to Born, this electron has neither a definite position nor a definite orbit, but exists in a region outside the nucleus with a certain probability.At a certain moment, electrons may exist anywhere in this region, but the probability of existence in some places is high, while the probability of existence in other places is low.

Heisenberg used the "uncertainty principle" to show that it is impossible to measure the position and momentum of a microscopic particle accurately at the same time.Either the position of the microscopic particle is determined, but the momentum of the microscopic particle cannot be accurately measured; or the momentum is determined, but the position cannot be accurately measured.As you increase the accuracy of your measurement of one quantity, you cause greater uncertainty in the other quantity.

Bohr's "complementarity principle", Born's "probability interpretation" and Heisenberg's "uncertainty principle" undoubtedly shook the "realism", "causality" and "determinism" that have always been regarded as the pillars of natural science , and challenged Einstein's lifelong beliefs.So at the fifth and sixth Solvay Conferences, Einstein, de Broglie and Schrödinger bombed the positions of the Copenhagen School indiscriminately, but Bohr, Born and Heisenberg, etc. People are not vegetarians, not only keep the position tight, but also build the fortifications more and more perfect.

Seeing that the Copenhagen School is fighting more and more bravely, Einstein and others who failed to succeed in the two rounds of offensives naturally cannot be reconciled, so Einstein, Schrödinger and others are now gearing up after three years of preparation, trying to fight in the upcoming first round. Back at the Seventh Solvay Conference.

During the conversation with Helena, Einstein also asked Helena's attitude on the sidelines, trying to pull Helena into the "thief ship", but was beaten by Helena.The reason why Helena did not make a clear statement on this issue was because Helena knew that Lao Ai and Lao Xue still had a high probability of not being able to win the Copenhagen School this time. Quietly be a melon-eating crowd, while admiring the third Huashan Lunjian of the great gods.

Chapter 116 Rocket Light

When Helena received the invitation letter for the [-]th Solvay Conference, there were still more than two months before the official opening of the conference.Helena, who has been restless, decided to take advantage of this short window of time to go out, and her destination was Peenemunde, an unremarkable small fishing village on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea.

Peenemunde is located in northeastern Germany, where the Penne River, which meanders north, flows into the Baltic Sea.Peenemünde in August can be described as the sea, green sand and white sand, and the climate is pleasant, which is a good time for vacation.However, Helena did not come here for vacation. The reason why she came to Peenemünde is that after several years of advancement, the rocket research and development work here has reached a very critical technical node. Helena thinks that she needs to pay attention to the research progress. , to determine the direction of further research and development.

In fact, during World War II on the last plane, the main research and development base of German rockets was located in Peenemunde. The famous V-1 cruise missile and V-2 ballistic missile were all developed from the Peenemunde research and development base. born.After some investigation, Helena in this plane also set up the rocket research and development base in Peenemunde, which is far away from the central city, but the time is much earlier than the previous plane.

In the previous plane, when Peeneminde was in its heyday, the research and development base covered an area of ​​25 square kilometers, and the number of research and development personnel working in the base exceeded 1.2 at most.Peenemünde in this plane is naturally far from reaching such a grand scale at present. After all, the current rocket technology is still in a very early stage, and the main task is to complete the early technological exploration work.Since the current rockets basically do not see any practical value, the development of rockets seems to be a group of hot-headed science geeks playing games.Although it seemed like they were just playing around, compared to those geeks who could only clink and swing hammers in their garages, the rocket research and development team formed by Helena undoubtedly belonged to the kind of noble players dressed in magic clothes.

The reason why it is called "noble player" and not "tyrant player" here is because Helena has not only abundant research and development funds, but also first-class research and development talents.As early as 1925, before the outbreak of the world economic crisis, Helena invited the first technical officer from the United States, and his name was Robert Goddard.

In 1919, Dr. Robert Goddard, a researcher at Princeton University, published a very forward-looking paper entitled "Methods of Reaching Extremely High Altitudes".In the paper, Goddard elaborated the principle of multi-stage structure liquid rockets, and made many genius assumptions about future rocket technology.

However, what this paper of great significance brought to Dr. Goddard was not flowers and applause, but endless eyes and ridicule.When Goddard was about to put his dream into practice, a reporter from the "New York Times" even commented sharply that Dr. Goddard "doesn't even understand the basic physics common sense in high school."

The ridicule from the media and the indifference from his peers have dealt a great psychological blow to Goddard, who is naturally shy and introverted. However, Goddard is not ready to give up because of his persistence in his dream.As a result, Goddard, who had no money or manpower, was still preparing to continue his own rocket development on a farm in Massachusetts. At this time, Dr. Goddard felt that his wife might be his only supporter in the world. .

However, just when Dr. Goddard, like the Don Quixote knight, was about to single-handedly challenge the unknown field with his blood, an invitation from Germany made this tragic rocket pioneer in the last dimension... every dog ​​has his day.Someone is willing to provide up to $500 million in start-up capital to help Dr. Goddard realize his dream of flying.

After the ecstasy of just receiving the invitation, the introverted Dr. Goddard quickly regained his composure.Before signing an agreement with the inviter, he decided to go to Germany to see the details of the other party to prove that the other party is not playing himself.After all, in the United States, his ideals have always been regarded as nonsense, and Dr. Goddard does not believe that someone in Europe across the Atlantic is willing to spend 500 million US dollars on a rocket that obviously has no short-term return.

At the end of 1925, Dr. Goddard embarked on a cruise ship to Germany with some doubts and apprehensions.After arriving in Germany, Goddard was surprised to find that he was not the only one in the world struggling for the great ideal of stars and seas!What makes Dr. Goddard even more ashamed is that the blueprint for the rocket business that he has only dared to build in his dreams has already been implemented in Germany, and he is going to put it into practice!

The invitation letter to Dr. Goddard was of course sent by Helena. In fact, before inviting Dr. Goddard, Helena had already started to sponsor the research and development activities of liquid rockets.However, due to the lack of leading figures in this field, it is impossible for Helena to do everything by herself, so the research and development results have always remained at the level of a large monkey.

Before the arrival of Dr. Goddard, the best rocket test flight record in Germany was to let a liquid oxygen ethanol-fueled extrusion cycle rocket fly a pitiful 93 meters with a launch mass of only 578 kilograms. , not even the maximum range of the rifle!But even this shabby result is much higher than the first liquid rocket launched by Dr. Goddard in the previous plane in 1926. No wonder Dr. Goddard, who has just arrived in Germany, is surprised by everything here endlessly.

Facing the investigation results that far exceeded his expectations, Dr. Goddard's final doubts were also dispelled, and he very readily signed his name on the "deed of sale" prepared for him by Helena.

Shortly after Dr. Goddard joined the rocket research and development project, Dr. Goddard's scientific research results were valued by Dr. Theodore von Karmen, who was teaching at RWTH Aachen University at the time.Although the two have very different personalities: Dr. von Karman is humorous and cheerful, and Dr. Goddard is shy and introverted, but the extensive common language still makes these two great gods of similar ages quickly become good friends.Since the two have different areas of expertise, at the invitation of Dr. Goddard, Dr. von Karman readily agreed to join his rocket research and development project to provide aerodynamic support for the rocket development.

As more and more professionals joined the rocket research and development project, the German rocket quickly embarked on the fast track of development.But from the perspective of Helena from the future, these current rockets are very primitive.In fact, the rocket still needs to go through a technological nirvana before it can truly become a great force to change the world.

Chapter 117 The Pump Pressure Revolution

With ample financial support, top talent joining, and Helena, a traveler, making suggestions on the side, Germany's rocket business has made leaps and bounds in just five years.

In July 1925, before Dr. Goddard came to Germany, Germany had just tested a liquid rocket numbered A-7. The launch weight of this rocket was less than 1 kilograms, and the first flight distance was only 100 kilometers. How many meters away.However, only five years later, in 500, following the successful launch of the improved A-1930 rocket of the A-1927 rocket in 1, the research and development team led by Dr. Goddard and Dr. 2's liquid rocket was delivered to the launch pad.

Although ethanol and liquid oxygen are still used as propellants, and the cycle method is still a squeeze cycle, the launch weight of the A-3 rocket has increased to 910 kg, and the take-off thrust has reached 1.7 tons.In the launch test, the A-3 rocket took off from the launch site in Peenemunde with a long tail flame, and the flight distance reached an unprecedented 21 kilometers.Compared with the toy-like A-1 rocket five years ago, this range has increased by more than 30 times! The success of the A-3 rocket has greatly boosted the morale of the scientific research team, but regarding the development route of the next-generation rocket, there are quite a few differences within the research and development team: