Iron Sonata of World War II

Helena's patient introduction made Hitler realize the strategic value of the very long wave radio station and its attached air defense tower, so with Hitler's strong support, the engineering project was raised to the highest priority level and soon entered the formal construction stage, while Hitler's Confidant construction engineer - Albert Speer logically became the overall director of the project.

For the important task entrusted by Hitler, after being flattered, Speer immediately devoted himself to this work, and soon completed the detail of the anti-aircraft tower together with another architect, Friedrich Tamms. design work.When Speer presented the meticulously crafted large-scale model of the anti-aircraft tower to Hitler, he really caught the attention of Mustache right away.

After staring intently at the exquisite model of the anti-aircraft tower for a long time, Hitler felt a little emotional.He feels that the neoclassical architectural aesthetics represented by simplicity, strength, solemnity and sublime that he has been pursuing have been perfectly displayed in the design of the anti-aircraft tower, so that the cost of each anti-aircraft tower is as high as 600 million marks. They all seemed kinder.Hitler even enthusiastically proposed to Speer that such air defense towers should also be built around important cities in the future.

If Helena knew Hitler's psychological activities at this moment, she would probably be so angry on the spot: I spent so much time explaining the value of air defense towers in sea and air strategy in detail before I dared to let this large-scale engineering project It was put on the agenda, but it turned out that Speer easily bought the mustache only by relying on the neoclassical architectural aesthetics...

Fortunately, Helena was unaware of Hitler's ideas. After completing the selection of anti-aircraft guns for air defense of key areas and the army's field air defense, the German anti-aircraft artillery equipment system roughly formed the Krupp company's occupation of the army's field high-level equipment. In the artillery market, Rheinmetall occupies the key anti-aircraft artillery market.The former mainly includes towed 60-fold diameter 90mm single-mounted high-level dual-purpose gun, and 70-fold diameter 40mm single-mounted Bofors anti-aircraft gun; while the latter mainly includes 60-fold diameter 130mm double-mounted anti-aircraft gun, and 72-fold diameter 60 mm twin anti-aircraft guns.

In addition to Krupp and Rheinmetall being quite proud of themselves, Mauser also got a slice of the highly competitive anti-aircraft gun market with a product design similar to the Flak38 20mm anti-aircraft gun in the previous plane.The 112.5 times diameter 20mm machine gun they designed has become a common low-altitude barrier for air defense and field air defense.

Compared with another 20mm anti-aircraft gun developed by Oerlikon in World War II, Mauser's products have advantages in both power and accuracy.Compared with Mauser's short-barreled automatic principle, the Oerlikon of the free bolt type sacrifices some design accuracy more or less.However, Mauser's products use 20-round magazines instead of Oerlikon's 60-round magazines, which leads to Mauser's products requiring more frequent replacement of magazines, which has a certain impact on the continuous rate of fire.

In any case, Mauser's 20mm anti-aircraft gun is still a very good work in Helena's eyes. The flexible configuration of the single unit is used for the army's field air defense.

In Helena's plan, the gun mounts used by Mauser's quadruple 112.5-caliber 20mm anti-aircraft gun and Bofors' single-tube 70-time caliber 40mm anti-aircraft gun are universal, and they are all standardized two-ton towed guns. The cross gun mount is of great significance to improving the equipment support level and mobility of the troops.

It is worth mentioning that in the last World War II, the Flak30/38 series of 20mm anti-aircraft guns had good performance and moderate cost, so the number of equipment in the German army was close to 14.You must know that in the U.S. military's weapon sequence, only about 2 M12.7HB 20mm heavy machine guns have been produced, and the production of German 20mm anti-aircraft guns has almost reached 70% of the U.S. "Laoganma" machine gun production. Its equipment is extensive It can be seen.

Many people are very puzzled by the fact that the German Army seldom used large-caliber machine guns in World War II. Of course, this abnormal phenomenon cannot be completely attributed to the constraints of the Treaty of Versailles. After all, aircraft, tanks, submarines and other weapons and equipment are also prohibited by the Treaty of Versailles. Owned, but also developed quickly after the shackles were lifted.

If the necessity of large-caliber machine guns for Germany is indeed high, it is not difficult to develop a qualified large-caliber machine gun in a short period of time by virtue of Germany's technical reserves in the field of firearms.However, the fact is that the German Army in World War II, in addition to being equipped with a small number of ZB60 15mm large-caliber machine guns developed by the Czech Republic, seems to have always been lacking in interest in large-caliber machine guns.

海伦娜分析后认为：德国不重视大口径机枪的真正原因，一方面是因为MG34/42这两款口径为7.92毫米的通用机枪的性能确实比较优秀，可以取代一部分大口径机枪的职能；另一方面则是因为Flak30/38型20毫米高射炮在德军中装备数量巨大，取代了大口径机枪的另一部分职能。

In this way, being double squeezed by the 7.92mm general-purpose machine gun and the 20mm machine gun, it is naturally difficult for large-caliber machine guns to find a suitable niche in the German army.After all, the Germans have an old tradition of firing 20mm anti-aircraft guns flat, especially the early Flak30 20mm anti-aircraft guns, which lacked the rate of fire. They were not popular as anti-aircraft guns, but they were very popular in occasions where large-caliber machine guns were used as cameos.In this way, the anti-aircraft guns of the Germans in the previous plane were not doing their job properly, and it is really not the patent of the 88 guns.

A very classic example of the 20mm anti-aircraft artillery anti-infantry appeared on the eve of the collapse of Nazi Germany. In February 1945, two companies of the German 2th Panzergrenadier Division were surrounded by the absolutely superior Soviet army in Courland. The eight Whirlwind self-propelled anti-aircraft guns that came to reinforce them used their quadruple Flak176 38mm anti-aircraft guns. The Soviet army fired flatly, and as a result, the Soviet army charging in groups killed more than 20 people within a few minutes. After that, the Soviet Union organized counterattacks many times, and they were all defeated by the firepower of the whirlwind self-propelled artillery.

In this way, until Germany officially surrendered, the Soviet army suffered heavy casualties and did not capture Courland.Helena estimated that the infantry who died under the intensive strafing of the "Shilka River" and other anti-aircraft guns in previous local wars in later generations would probably have to scold them viciously if they knew that the Whirlwind self-propelled anti-aircraft gun was one of the "instigators" of the self-propelled anti-aircraft gun's flat-fired infantry Say "there is no future".

在加上毛瑟公司的20毫米这块拼图之后，德国不管是要地防空还是野战防空，都形成了远中近的三层体系。其中要地防空是双联装130毫米高射炮、双联装60毫米高射炮和四联装20毫米高射炮的组合；陆军野战防空则是行军重量五吨级的单装90毫米高平两用炮、行军重量两吨级的单装博福斯40毫米高射炮、行军重量两吨级的四联装毛瑟20毫米高射炮再加上重量更轻的双联装和单联装20毫米高射炮的组合。

It's just that, with the general equipment of the Mauser 20mm machine gun, the ecological niche of the large-caliber machine gun will be squeezed again.Helena estimated that the German army on this plane is likely to embark on the "evil path" of substituting cannons for guns again. Whether Germany will continue to engage in large calibers in the future is really a head-scratching question.However, after completing the formulation of the anti-aircraft gun configuration, Helena's attention has not been here for the time being.

Chapter 200 The new eagle wants to fly

In the "Fourth International Tourist Aircraft Competition" held last year, the excellent performance of the BF-108B trainer/sport aircraft of the Bavarian Aircraft Factory not only won a large number of export orders for the company, but also attracted the attention of another aviation power, Britain. .Only a few months later, in November 1934, Vickers, the parent company of the British Supermarine, submitted to the RAF a plan drafted by self-taught aircraft designer Reginald J. Mitchell. A new fighter design.

The new solution adopts an all-metal semi-monocoque structure, an elegant streamlined body, a novel elliptical lower wing and the same fully enclosed canopy as the BF-108.According to Mr. Mitchell's calculations, after the new type of aircraft is equipped with the newly designed "Merlin" engine with a maximum power of 1000 horsepower by Rolls-Royce, it can reach a speed of 563 kilometers per hour, which can completely overwhelm the Bavarian aircraft manufacturer. The fastest model in the BF-108 family produced by the factory.

Mitchell's plan was quickly favored by the Royal Air Force. The following month, the aircraft was given the design number F37/34 and an initial development fund of 2 pounds was allocated. With the stimulation of the more outstanding BF-108, this initial appropriation is also twice as much as that of the previous plane.The news made Vickers boss Robert McClain overjoyed, and he gave this new aircraft that has not yet been released a rather explosive nickname "Spitfire".

The first prototype of the "Spitfire" was officially started in January 1935, but the Germans on the other side of the strait were not idle. As early as when the BF-1 was still in the final testing stage, the Bavarian Aircraft Factory had already made large Part of the research and development force has been invested in the research and development of the next generation of fighter jets.Other German aviation manufacturing companies, including Fokker/Wolf, Heinkel, and Junkers, have also stepped up research and development of new-generation aircraft.

Among the new-generation fighter plans submitted by major companies, Helena is still more interested in the works of the Bavarian Aircraft Factory.Based on the principle of extending the serial number of "BF-108", the new fighter was named "BF-109" by the Bavarian Aircraft Factory. In the last plane, this is a name familiar to all military fans.

Before and after World War II in the last plane, the total number of BF-109 fighter jets produced was as high as 34852, which is probably the single fighter model with the largest number of production in human history.Even if the attack aircraft is also included in the ranking list, the output of the BF-109 on the last plane can still rank No.2 among all military aircraft, second only to the Soviet Il-36183 attack aircraft that produced 2 aircraft .

In the last plane, the 109 BF-190 fighters and the 109 FW-[-] fighters of the Fokker/Wolf company basically constituted the absolute main force of the German Air Force fighter wing in World War II.Since the intervention of the Spanish Civil War, BF-[-] fighter jets have participated in almost every important air battle on the European battlefield, and have also witnessed the process of the German Air Force from its initial invincibility to its final exhaustion. An evergreen tree in the era of piston fighters.

In Helena's view, although the basic design of the BF-109 fighter plane in the previous plane had some shortcomings, coupled with the detours Germany took on the liquid-cooled engine, this old aircraft faced the Allies in the late World War II. The army's new fighter jets are no longer as brave as they used to be.However, as a model that first flew in 1935, it can still achieve some remarkable results on the battlefield ten years later, which shows that Dr. Messerschmidt's original design was quite forward-looking.

However, compared to its own combat performance, Helena thinks that the most commendable thing about the BF-109 fighter plane in the last plane is its excellent productivity.Dr. Messerschmidt has fully considered the needs of future industrialized mass production from the very beginning of the design. By adopting methods such as reducing complex curved surfaces as much as possible, reducing the number of parts and assembly processes as much as possible, the cost of BF-109 is only the same as that of the Allied Forces. One-half to one-third of the Zhandu machine can be called the Sten submachine gun among fighter jets.

Although in order to simplify the production process, Dr. Messerschmidt inevitably needs to make trade-offs in certain performances of the fighter. For example, the trapezoidal wing of the BF-109 will slightly increase the induction Resistance, but without the high-quality and low-cost attributes of BF-109 and the huge output of more than [-] aircraft, the Luftwaffe in the last plane may not be able to wait for the day when aviation gasoline is in short supply. At the same time, it was under pressure and completely collapsed.

Due to the influence of Helena in this plane, the main fuel of the German armored forces has changed from gasoline in the previous plane to diesel produced through the indirect coal liquefaction process, which means that the armored forces of the army will not compete with the air force for gasoline in the future reserve.And Helena's investment in the alkylation process will also have a huge benefit in improving the quality of gasoline used by the Luftwaffe in the future.

Although there will be some improvement in the fuel supply of the Luftwaffe on this plane, it does not affect Helena's requirements for the Luftwaffe fighter jets on this plane and the BF-109 from the previous plane have a lot in common, that is, to maximize the savings Under the conditions of scarce resources, manufacturing costs and man-hours, a high-performance fighter with relatively comprehensive performance was designed.

Of course, this does not mean that Helena will allow Germany on this plane to fully copy the design experience of BF-109 from the previous plane. In terms of the performance requirements of the new generation of fighter jets, Helena hopes to maintain the same level as the BF-109 from the previous plane. While being quite productive, with similar engine power output curves, the flight performance of the new aircraft must be able to overwhelm any piston fighter that appeared in World War II on the previous plane at any altitude.

Chapter 2 The Heart of Flying

The Bavarian Aircraft Factory on this plane selected an HL-109 inverted V360-cylinder liquid-cooled engine developed by Maybach on the prototype of the BF-12.Since Daimler-Benz failed in the bidding for aero engines, it has been focusing on the development of automotive diesel engines; and after Maybach lost the order for tank engines, it has also focused its main research and development efforts on aero engines. , and HL-360 is the proud work of Maybach's six-year development.

In this way, under Helena's series of erroneous operations, the engine business of the two companies was exactly reversed compared to the previous plane.However, Helena believes that this position reversal is beneficial to both the German Army and Air Force.After all, in the last plane, the maximum speed of Mercedes-Benz's aero-engine has been stuck at 2800 rpm, and the maximum speed of Maybach's tank engine has been stuck at 3000 rpm.

This is exactly the behavior of the German weapon designers in the last plane that confused Helena: they used the Mercedes-Benz engine with low speed, high torque, and low power for fighter jets, and used the relatively high speed, low torque, high power engine for fighter jets. The powerful Maybach engine is used for tanks.Isn't the correct way to open it is a high-torque engine for heavy vehicles, and an engine with high power density for aircraft?Helena is really puzzled by the brain circuit of the German designer in the previous plane.

For example, the naturally aspirated HL210 engine used in the early models of the last Plane Tiger tank can emit a powerful power of about 3000 horsepower per liter of displacement at a speed of 30 revolutions per minute. The number is already comparable to the engine (DB109A) with a supercharged first stage used by the BF-601E fighter.

Of course, this is not the ultimate of Maybach. Later, on the basis of the improved HL210 engine of the HL230 engine (this is also the later engine of the Tiger tank), Maybach developed an exhaust engine by adding a two-stage supercharger. The volume is only 23 liters, but the maximum power is as high as 1200 horsepower.This engine burns motor gasoline with a lower grade, and its power density actually exceeds that of the "Merlin III" engine that burns 100 aviation gasoline. Just ask if you are afraid.

Of course, because the heat dissipation problem could not be solved, Germany did not install this thing on the tank.But fortunately, this product has not been put into actual combat. After all, the HL700 naturally aspirated model with a power of 230 horsepower often overheats. When the road conditions are bad, the governor needs to be turned on to limit the engine speed.If it is boosted to 1200 horsepower, the cooling water tank will be boiled directly as long as the tank driver steps on the accelerator.

We know that whether an aircraft engine is liquid-cooled or air-cooled, it can use the high-speed airflow blowing head-on to enhance heat exchange efficiency during flight, and the cooling conditions are inherently much better than tanks.But the Maybach company in the last plane seems to have been designing tank engines as aero engines, and all the works developed are all high-speed, low-torque fire dragons.

For example, the HL295 engine, which was highly praised by some Harden fans in later generations, is said to be able to reach a maximum power of 1200 horsepower after using turbocharging.Then after the war, the French looked at the data and seemed to have found true love, and happily bought this engine back for imitation. It turned out that the cooling system had already begun to protest when the power was pulled to 750 horsepower.

于是法国人不得不重新设计散热系统才让HL295达到850马力的功率，这时的发动机转速已经达到了3200转每分钟，然而这距离迈巴赫公司的计划还差得远呢！迈巴赫公司可是期望让这款发动机在4300转每分钟的转速下输出1200马力的功率的。

We only need to take a look at the structural diagram of the French AMX295 tank using the HL50 engine, and look at the exaggerated engine radiator in the picture, to know how much the heat load of this engine has reached at a speed of 3200 rpm .Do you know why the butt of the AMX50 tank is so big?It is to cool down the German fire dragon HL295, so I dare not fully pull the power to the full state of 1200 horsepower.

If the Maybach's design goals of 1200 hp/4300 rpm were to be met, Helena doubted that the radiator would fill every available inch of space in the tank!Therefore, Helena believes that the E1200 tank equipped with 75 horsepower can only exist in the game and in the dream of Germany, but not in the real world.

But then again, the high-speed and low-torque dragon engines of the Maybach company made the German tanks of the previous plane unable to take care of themselves.But even Helena has to admit that the Maybach technicians are very good at increasing the power density of the engine. If they can provide good enough heat dissipation conditions, their pits in the previous plane will be transformed into huge monsters. technical advantages!

Therefore, in Helena's eyes, the reason why there are a large number of fake designers in Germany is largely because they have not found a suitable stage for them, resulting in the misallocation of a large number of scientific research resources.So part of Helena's job is to get these technologists and companies out of the fields they're not suited for, and back into the arena where they can shine.

Therefore, Dr. Walter in this plane stopped researching hydrogen peroxide AIP submarines, and instead researched turbo pumps for rockets and torpedoes; Dr. Porsche stopped researching electric transmission tanks, and instead researched electric transmission submarines.Both Mercedes-Benz and Maybach have found a suitable position in the engine field, which made Helena, who is behind the scenes, feel a sense of accomplishment.

Maybach has indeed lived up to Helena's hopes in the field of aero engines. Since the successful bid for the engine five years ago, Maybach has been perfecting its design.After all, there is a powerful Junkers company that won the bid with Maybach, and the competitive pressure between the two parties is still very high.After years of polishing, Maybach finally came up with a rather amazing design before BF-109 engine selection. This is the HL360 engine mentioned earlier.

The reason why it is called HL360 is because HL is the abbreviation of high-performance engine, and the latter 360 means that the displacement of the engine is about 36 liters, and the actual displacement is actually 36.25 liters.The engine uses an inverted V-shaped 60-cylinder layout with a cylinder angle of 12 degrees, that is, the crankcase is on the top and the cylinder head is on the bottom.In this way, the cross-section of the front of the aircraft can be approximated to a regular triangle with the base at the bottom, which is beneficial to reduce aerodynamic drag and expand the pilot's field of vision.

Compared with the 601 compression ratio of the previous DB6.9 engine, Maybach's HL360 engine uses a relatively mediocre compression ratio of 6.0, which is mainly to make room for the increase of intake pressure in the future.If the compression ratio is too high like the DB601 engine of Mercedes-Benz in the previous plane, the combustion pressure will be too high under the same intake pressure, which will not only increase the structural load of the engine, but also make the engine more prone to carbon accumulation .

In addition, Maybach removed the installation space for the engine center shaft gun at Helena's suggestion, so the supercharger intercooler and other accessories of the HL360 engine can be installed at the rear of the engine very naturally, instead of The DB601 on the one-dimensional plane was also squeezed to the side by the axis cannon.Therefore, compared with the DB601 engine in the previous plane, which only had a one-stage supercharger and no intercooler, the HL360 engine in this plane, in addition to the one-stage supercharger and intercooler, is also upgraded to a two-stage two-speed supercharger in the future. The compressor has reserved space.The two-stage two-speed supercharger can further improve the engine performance, especially the high-altitude performance, but now it is only 1935, and the one-stage supercharger is absolutely sufficient, and Helena does not want to add to the BF-109's first flight. additional risk.

It is worth mentioning that although the early models of the HL360 engine and the British "Merlin" engine in the previous plane both used a one-stage supercharger, the HL360 is quite unique in the transmission of the supercharger. With the technical support of HL360, after the power is extracted from the engine, the supercharging system of the HL[-] will first pass through a hydraulic torque converter to reduce the torque, and then drive the supercharger to rotate through further deceleration through the mechanical transmission device.

There are three advantages of doing this: first, to achieve stepless transmission, so that the power of the engine will become smooth at different heights, instead of having obvious steps like the "Merlin" engine, which greatly reduces the burden on the pilot; second, The reduction ratio of the mechanical device is reduced (the speed of the engine is about 10 times that of the supercharger, which is not a small burden on the mechanical device), which reduces the weight of the gearbox and reduces the volume of the mechanical transmission mechanism; the third is The rigid connection between the supercharger and the engine is eliminated, which greatly prolongs the service life of the supercharger gearbox and increases mechanical reliability.

The HL360 engine, like the DB601 in the previous plane, adopts the direct fuel injection technology in the cylinder, so there will be no fuel cut-off under the condition of negative overload.Although the carburetor of "Merlin" can also suppress the problem of overload and oil cut-off after setting the restrictor ring, Helena thinks that the effect of direct injection is better, and the weight of the direct injection system is also heavier than that of the carburetor. lighter.

HL360 has a cooler between the engine and the supercharger, which is used to cool the intake air that is compressed and heated by the supercharger.Compared with the DB601/605 series engines lacking intercoolers in the previous plane, the HL360 not only has a higher boost potential but also has an additional benefit, that is, it does not need to rely on injection like the DB601 in the previous plane Excess fuel is used to pre-cool the cylinders, which can increase the air/fuel ratio of the engine to a certain extent.

However, the air-fuel ratio of HL360 has been increased to 16.6, which is slightly leaning towards lean combustion.Compared with the fuel-rich combustion DB601 engine, this has two advantages. The first is that it can reduce fuel consumption, and the second is that it can reduce engine carbon deposits under the same combustion pressure. Especially important for engines with spray technology.

经过迈巴赫公司这五年持续不断的改进，装上BF-109原型机的HL360A型发动机性能相比当年最大功率只有1000马力的原型机已经有了相当大的提高，可以在2400转每分钟的转速和1.3千克每平方厘米的进气压力下，达到1350马力的最大功率。

虽然HL360A就最大功率而言，已经和上个位面英伦空战中BF-109家族中性能最好的BF-109F型战斗机所用的DB601E发动机相当了。但是海伦娜清醒地认识到，功率相当并不意味着现在德国的发动机技术就达到了上个位面1940年的水平。

This is because the power of the HL360A depends on its large displacement of 36.25 liters, which exceeds the 601 liters of the DB35.7 engine and is much higher than the 26.9-liter "Merlin" that the British are developing. If only in terms of power per liter, the power per liter of this engine is actually not higher than that of "Merlin".

The larger displacement and the extra intercooler make the dry weight of HL360 nearly 601kg more than DB[-], but Helena thinks these are necessary and worthwhile.

Because of the larger exhaust volume and lower intake temperature, it means greater upgrade potential.In fact, the Maybach company has now begun to develop an improved model with a maximum power of more than 1600 horsepower. Judging from the current progress, it is no problem to complete the development before 1940.

Chapter 2 Single and Double Wing Spars

The Bavarian Aircraft Factory's plan can get Helena's favor, which is inseparable from the substandard language comprehension ability of its competitors.In the bidding document for the new fighter jet, Helena made the following requirements in black and white: the manufacturers participating in the bidding should come up with a low-wing fighter design with a closed cockpit and retractable landing gear.

Helena originally thought that such a request was not difficult, but after reading the proposals submitted by these designers, she was almost so angry that she vomited blood for three liters. "Henkel! Arador! And Focke-Wolf! Couldn't the designers of your company understand the bidding documents? All of these people's Chinese were taught by physical education teachers, right?"

It's no wonder that Helena feels that her IQ has been insulted. We only need to look at the bidding proposals submitted by the three companies she complained about just now, and we can understand Helena's messy mood at this time: He-112 uses an open cockpit!Arrador's Ar-80 uses a fixed landing gear!The Fw-159 produced by Fokker-Wolf uses an umbrella-shaped single-wing layout!Are you sure you're not kidding me?

"Closed cockpit, retractable landing gear, and low-wing layout, are these three words really so difficult to understand?" Helena looked helplessly at the only Bavarian plan that met the requirements.He muttered to himself very puzzled.Therefore, as the only company among the four bidders who understood the bidding document, the Bavarian Aircraft Factory's BF-109 plan easily won a phased victory. It seems that improving the language level is really not just a matter for liberal arts students.

Although the Bavarian Aircraft Factory was identified as the lead development unit for the new fighter, this does not mean that other bidding companies have since lost the opportunity to participate.They can participate in the development project of the BF109 fighter as a cooperative development unit, or they can choose to continue to improve their own design, but they need to raise most of the funds themselves.

Since the German army adjusted its procurement system at the suggestion of Helena, although in order to prevent the chaos of the army purchasing multiple weapons with overlapping functions at the same time, in principle, only one proposal can pass the dragon gate for each bidding, but for each manufacturer The official has always adopted an encouraging attitude to cooperate around successful bidding schemes. After all, technical exchanges will bring about progress, while companies working behind closed doors may get into a dead end.

This kind of cooperation is actually quite beneficial to each company. For the successful bidders, it is equivalent to using the scientific research resources of other companies to help improve their own R&D projects without affecting their dominant position; For the losers of the bidding, it is also equivalent to exercising and maintaining their own R&D team by participating in the research projects led by the winning bidder, so as to save and accumulate strength for future projects.

As the most important scientific research project of Germany in the field of air force equipment in the near future, the Bavarian Aircraft Factory has obtained the participation of almost all well-known domestic aviation manufacturers in Germany during the development process of the BF-109 fighter jet, which has greatly enhanced the overall strength of the research and development team. , It also brought some troubles to the coordination of the project. Technicians with different design concepts often quarrel with each other for some design opinions.

However, since Helena is responsible for the selection of many major technical routes, and the coordination ability of Luzel, the chief designer in charge of the BF-109 fighter project, is quite good, most of the disputes on these technical routes are benign. Although it took some extra time, it also produced a lot of sparks of scientific ideas, some of which even exceeded Helena's expectations.The combination of these thought sparks and Helena's investment in the field of basic aerodynamics research over the years is gradually creating a magical and beneficial chemical reaction, which gradually improves the design of the BF-109 fighter.

Just as the BF-109 of the previous plane is a direct descendant of the BF-108, the BF-109 of this plane can also be regarded as a model further developed by the Bavarian Aircraft Factory on the basis of the BF-108.

However, under the influence of Helena on this plane, the chief designers of the two aircrafts BF108 and BF-109 were replaced by the original deputy chief designer Ruzel, and the original chief designer Messerschmidt Then he became the deputy chief designer of these two aircrafts. The exchange of positions between these two people in the project also caused some subtle effects on the design of BF-108 and BF-109 in the original plane. Messerschmidt’s The design style has been diluted a bit, while Ruzel's design style has been highlighted more clearly.

Compared with the BF-109 of the previous plane, the BF-109 fighter designed by Ruzel on this plane has the biggest difference in appearance in that it follows the retractable landing gear from the BF-108 on this plane. This change In fact, it is a by-product of the fighter's wing spar changing from a single spar in the previous plane to a double spar.After all, if the BF-109 fighter plane with a single spar on the last plane wants to arrange the landing gear under the wing, the installation point of the landing gear strut can only be placed near the spar, but the landing gear wheels must be avoided when recovering. The position of the spar.The double spar does not have this trouble, the landing gear strut is directly installed between the front and rear spars, and the landing gear wheels are also just stored between the front and rear spars when retracting.

Compared with the last plane BF-109 or the "Spitfire" fighter that installed the landing gear at the junction of the wing root and the fuselage, the BF-109 of this plane installed the landing gear on the two spars in the middle of the wing Between them, the wheel spacing of the main landing gear is greatly expanded, making the aircraft stable and not prone to rollover during take-off and landing.And because the main landing gear struts of the BF-109 in this plane are arranged perpendicular to the wings, instead of presenting a certain flare angle like the BF-109 or "Spitfire" fighter jets in the previous plane, the aircraft landing The direction of the impact force can basically coincide with the direction of the landing gear strut, so that the landing gear strut only needs to bear axial stress and not too much radial stress, which reduces a lot of trouble for the installation strength of the landing gear .

Although it seems that the direct gain of the landing gear to the combat power is relatively limited, the BF-109 and "Spitfire" fighter jets in the previous plane have a narrow wheel spacing and the retractable landing gear with inclined pillars is indeed a very pitiful existence for novices. , The more common accidents include the aircraft rolling and capsizing during landing, overrunning the runway, and breaking the landing gear.Among them, about 10% of the BF-109 fighter jets in Germany alone were damaged due to various take-off and landing accidents.Therefore, Helena believes that improving the safety of aircraft take-off and landing, in addition to reducing non-combat losses of aircraft and non-combat casualties of personnel, is also very helpful for novices to get through the rookie period faster.

In addition to facilitating the installation of fighter landing gear, the double spar actually has many additional benefits compared to the single spar.For example, improve the ability of the wing to resist torsion, and increase the critical speed of the aileron reaction.

Many military fans simply think that a single-wing spar is not as strong as a double-wing spar. Although this statement cannot be said to be wrong, it is not very accurate.As long as the spar is strong enough, the radial load-bearing capacity of the wing with a single spar can actually be very strong. This is why the BF-109 fighter jet with a single spar on the previous plane can dive very fast, and even reached it in actual combat. 1100 kilometers per hour.The real problem with a single-spar is that it is less able to resist torsional moments than a double-spar.

On the one hand, the chord length of the wing cannot be made too large, that is, the wing cannot be made too wide.The BF-109 of the last plane had a constant increase in the wing load during the improvement process, but the problem could not be alleviated by widening the wings.On the other hand, it will cause the efficiency of fighter ailerons to drop sharply as the speed of the aircraft increases, until the reverse effect occurs.

We know that the roll of the aircraft is controlled by the ailerons on the outside of the trailing edge of the wing.When the aileron on one side of the fighter plane is deflected downward and the aileron on the other side is deflected upward, the airflow will give an upward force to the downward deflected aileron and a downward force to the upward deflected aileron. On the contrary, the plane can roll like a top.

But all of the above are based on the fact that the wing is completely rigid. In fact, since the aileron is located at the trailing edge of the wing, when it is subjected to the force of the air, it will give the wing a twisting moment.That is to say, when the aileron is deflected downward, because the aileron surface is subjected to an upward force, when this force acts on the trailing edge of the wing, it will make the wing twist downward, that is, the angle of attack becomes smaller; anyway, when the aileron When deflecting upward, the wing twists upward, which means the angle of attack increases.

The twisting of the wing will cancel part of the effectiveness of the aileron. For example, when the aileron is deflected 10 degrees downward, if the angle of attack of the wing is reduced by 5 degrees under the action of the twisting force, the actual downward deflection angle of the aileron will be It's only 5 degrees.By analogy, when the speed of the aircraft reaches a certain critical point, the effectiveness of the ailerons will be completely offset by the twisting of the wings or even completely reversed. At this time, the ailerons will lose control of the aircraft. It is the so-called "critical speed of aileron reaction".

As we mentioned earlier, the torsion resistance of a single-spar is not as good as that of a double-spar. One of the obvious consequences is that the "critical speed of aileron reaction" is lower. That is, when the speed of the aircraft continues to increase, the aileron of the single-spar aircraft will Wings will fail earlier.So we can see that although the BF-109 fighter jets on the previous plane can reach very high speeds during a dive, at such high speeds, the ailerons tend to be overwhelmed, causing the nose of the aircraft to become directional at high speeds. Very weak, this is one of the important reasons why netizens complain that the BF-109 is like a flying brick at high speed.

In addition to improving the anti-twisting ability of the wing, preventing premature aileron reaction, and improving the high-speed maneuverability of the aircraft, the double-spar does not cut off the wing space from the middle like the single-spar, which is for the wing fuel tank. The arrangement provides excellent space, which is also of great benefit to increase the wing volume and increase the fuel capacity.This can increase the fuel loading space of the BF-109 while maintaining a small body, which can well relieve the pilot's range anxiety.At the same time, the double-wing spar design will also have a certain positive impact on the installation and mounting of weapons in the future, but this advantage will take a long time to emerge.

As for the shortcomings of the double spar, it is not as many military fans think that it will greatly increase the production man-hours and costs. This is because the main radial force is borne by the front main spar, while the rear auxiliary spar is mainly responsible. It is enough to resist torsional force, so the structure can be greatly simplified.

However, it is indeed a problem that the weight of the double-spar structure is greater than that of the single-spar. In the last plane, Dr. Messerschmidt turned into a single-spar madman, not only using a single-spar on a single-engine light fighter such as the BF-109 , and single-wing spars are also used on twin-engine heavy fighters such as BF-110 and Me410, and even single-wing spars are used on jet aircraft such as Me262, more for weight reduction considerations, not just for ease of production.

However, Helena believes that it is a completely acceptable option to bear the structural weight increase of nearly 109 kilograms for the benefits brought by the double spars.Therefore, after the BF-108 of this plane adopts the double spar, while adopting the trapezoidal wing with curved wing tips similar to the BF-109E of the previous plane, it also has the condition to slightly increase the wing chord at the root of the fighter wing. long.This small change not only slightly expands the wing area of ​​BF-109 on the original plane from 16.2 square meters in the previous plane BF-17.25E/F to [-] square meters, but also leaves more wings for possible weight gain in the future. It also makes the fighter’s root-to-tip ratio (the ratio of wing root to wing tip chord length) closer to the theoretical optimal value, reduces induced drag, and also makes the aerodynamic center of the wing closer to the body.

If the new fighter plane only takes the above optimization measures on the basis of the previous plane, then although the BF-109 in this plane will have better flight performance and greater upgrade potential than the previous plane.Even as long as the power can keep up, even if it is used in the mid-40s, it will not be suspected of falling behind.

But please pardon Helena's blunt words, if the BF-109 in this plane is only improved at the level of these shortcomings compared with the product of the same name in the previous plane, it is still far away from the last-generation piston fighters that suppressed the previous plane in all directions. There is a great distance.And if you want a fighter to achieve extraordinary performance, you must have extraordinary design!

In the past ten years, Helena has spared no expense in making uninterrupted investment in the basic research of German aerodynamics, and now it is time to test the achievements made in the past ten years.

Chapter 2 and Three

In the process of helping Germany develop military technology, Helena never worried that these technologies would be copied by opponents in the future.Although based on the experience of the last plane, under the great pressure of life and death brought about by the world war, even for heavy equipment like tanks and planes, an industrial power can complete the development work in a very short time.

For example, the development cycle of the "Black Panther" tank developed by Germany to deal with the Soviet T-34 was only 13 months; the development cycle of the "Pershing" tank developed by the United States to deal with tigers and leopards was only 19 months.Although the early models of these two tanks were criticized by military fans for being full of failures, they were able to complete the whole process of a heavy equipment from development to production in more than a year. This research efficiency itself is staggering. of.

The above facts mean that if we only rely on those conventional sophisticated design methods and use the "technical preemption" or "design stockpiling" methods carried out before the war to improve the performance indicators of weapons, even in the case of heavy-duty weapons with more complex technologies In the field of equipment, it is also difficult for you to maintain your technological advantage beyond two years. As for those weapons and equipment with relatively simple technology, the time to maintain your absolute advantage is even shorter.

This is what Helena sees as the biggest problem for many senior traversers.In the process of improving weapon design, they are often overly obsessed with using those flashy and isolated golden ideas, but they don't realize that these golden ideas are precisely the ones that are most likely to be imitated or even surpassed by their opponents.Everyone is an industrial country with a deep technical background. If your golden idea performs well on the battlefield, the opponent only needs to go back and conduct some quantitative analysis, and it will not take long to learn that it is almost the same.

Therefore, the isolated golden idea of ​​the traverser is of course also very important for weapon design, but the period of equipment advantage it can bring is destined to be relatively short. Among them, the period of advantage for heavy equipment on the ground and in the air is shorter than that of naval equipment. It is difficult to maintain an advantage cycle of more than two years.

The difference between Helena and ordinary traversers is that although she does not refuse to use those isolated golden ideas in the field of military technology, she will never build real technical barriers on these golden ideas.For Helena, the cycle of potential technological advantages brought about by those golden ideas is just an addition to the transaction, no matter how much is finally implemented, it is a net profit.

In Helena's eyes, if the technology she developed is likened to the examination papers given to allied military researchers.Then, her goal of drafting the test papers should be to let the scientific and technological personnel of the Allied Army have a high score in every course even though the exams are completely open-book.In layman's terms, it is to achieve such an effect: even if Germany provides the opponent with detailed technical drawings of weapons and equipment, and then attaches a few sets of samples to the opponent for technical analysis, the opponent still cannot effectively countermeasure.In order to achieve this goal, Helena had to choose ingenious points of force in the process of developing military technology.

The first type of Helena's focus on military technology is to use the differences in natural endowments between Germany and its opponents to vigorously develop technologies that have a great effect on Germany but have little effect on the opponent.

The most typical example of this type of technology is the submarine.Since the United Kingdom is much more dependent on maritime transportation than Germany, even if the United Kingdom can obtain all of Germany's submarine technology and build equally advanced submarines, the threat to Germany is still limited.If the UK wants to counter Germany's submarine tactics, it must develop equivalent anti-submarine technology, and this has almost no technical possibility under the existing crystal processing technology and electronic technology level.

The second focus of Helena's military technology is to build Germany's future weapon technology advantages in a huge networked space, rather than building it on a specific weapon.

The most typical examples of such technologies include small arms and armored vehicles.Take the chariot family planned by Helena as an example. Although one of the several armored combat vehicles currently developed in Germany is singled out, it can be regarded as a model of the times.But their real combat power is highly dependent on the entire networked system.This is because what Helena pursued from the very beginning was to maximize the effectiveness of the entire system including weapon production, maintenance, training, and combat, rather than to maximize the performance of a certain weapon.Once such a weapon is stripped from the system, it will immediately lose most of its highlights!

So even if the opponent has obtained all the technical information of this weapon, if they cannot replicate the network system that Helena spent many years building, they will not even be able to exert half of the performance gain.And in the chasing war, who would dare to overthrow all their original production, logistics, training, and tactical systems, and quickly build a new system?The time cost, capital cost and potential risks of this switch will make anyone daunting.

The third focus of Helena's military technology is to carry out long-term high-intensity technology accumulation in advance in areas where it is difficult for opponents to increase investment in scientific research resources to achieve decisive breakthroughs in a short period of time.

We know that in the field of production, if one slipway has enough workers, one ship can be built every year; then if there are enough workers, twelve slipways can build twelve ships every year.But even with more slipways and more workers, it is impossible to build a ship in a month!The same is true for some technical fields that rely on experience accumulation. If the first movers have accumulated a strong family background in these fields, it will be difficult for latecomers to bridge the technological gap through short-term resource investment, including optics, materials, etc. Science, fluid mechanics and other disciplines and a series of sub-disciplines under it.

In the past ten years, Helena has used her grasp of the development of future science and technology to make unremitting scientific research investment in many specific fields of these disciplines. This long-term investment has made Germany rich in these fields. theoretical achievements and practical experience.It is the achievements and experience in the field of aerodynamics that made the Bavarian Aircraft Factory stand at a height beyond the times when it designed the BF-109.

This story has to start with an academic overturn by Dr. Ludwig Prandtl, the father of modern aerodynamics, the founder of boundary layer theory and turbulence theory, and the teacher of Theodore von Karman.

That's right!It is the Prophet Prandt who made countless aircraft designers pay homage to later generations, and it is the patriarch Prandt of modern fluid mechanics!It is the great god Plant who trained such a great god as von Karman!When he described the mechanism of action of the aircraft's leading edge slats at high angles of attack, he stumbled in the theoretical framework he created!Helena always feels very aggrieved about the overturn of Planter. You old man is the creator of the theory of boundary layer separation...