Chapter 373 The Jet Age (fourth update, please subscribe)
“Experts from Germany are spread across all walks of life in Nanyang, and they play an extremely important role in various fields. Today’s science in Nanyang Most of the achievements are directly related to these German experts.”
Whether it is the analysis of the intelligence agencies of major countries or external news reports, most of them mention this when mentioning Nanyang, and even mention some. Experts, in addition to several Nobel Prize winners, Kirk Tank, the designer of the famous FW190 fighter jet, has also been mentioned frequently.
As early as 1946, Kurk led his team to Nanyang. Although the equipment dismantled from Italy and France had not yet been installed, with the efforts of Kurk and others, it had been Basic preparations for the aviation industry began, such as the establishment of wind tunnels and other research facilities. Finally, after two years of hard work, a large wind tunnel was finally built - driven by a pair of counter-rotating wind turbines with a power of up to 88 megawatts. The test section has a diameter of 8 meters and the maximum wind speed can reach Mach 1.
As the first supersonic wind tunnel in Asia, it played an extremely important role immediately after its completion, and the most important one was the design of the FX-1 fighter jet.
"...The prototype of the FX-1 fighter jet is the Ta-183 Raven developed at the end of the war,"
In the Tank Center, a design institution named after himself, Kurk told the visiting Air Force Commander Lukwu introduced the research progress. Last year, the design center received a research request from the military to develop a jet fighter.
Tan Ke is very familiar with the design of jet fighters. Starting from the end of 1944, he and his colleagues at the Focke-Wulff Design Bureau began to develop a second-generation jet aircraft for the Nazi Luftwaffe - the Ta-183 Raven. Although the Ta-183 failed to create a prototype, the finalized data was all in Tank's mind. All Tank had to do was to restore the data with his colleagues and build the prototype as usual.
This is almost equivalent to the continuation of the Ta-183 development work that they were forced to interrupt in 1945. Because Nanyang Aviation Industry has invested in Rolls-Royce's Neen engine project, Kurk used the Neen-II centrifugal jet engine provided by the British Rolls-Royce Company to replace the HeS-011A. The Nien turbojet engine has a greater power output than the HeS-011A, but uses a centrifuge instead of an axial compressor, so it is larger and longer, requiring a completely new airframe to accommodate it. This determines their working procedure - designing the fuselage around the engine, and then designing the entire aircraft with the fuselage as the core.
The result is... basically a redesign.
But it cannot be said completely. After all, there is the early design of Ta-183 as a basic template. Therefore, in theory, it is still a further development of Ta-183. Thanks to the early design based on Ta-183, They quickly completed a preliminary design, which was further refined through extensive wind tunnel testing using wooden models.
“…The wing is a thin airfoil upper monoplane with a sweep angle of 40°. It also adopts a thin wing design. This is the research result of the German aviation industry during the war. We found that reducing the airfoil The thickness not only reduces the drag, but also delays the occurrence of shock waves. Shock waves have an important impact on transonic and supersonic flight..."
When Kurk introduced the wing design of FX1, he did not say so. I don’t know that after the war, the United States, Russia and other countries only introduced swept wing technology when developing the first generation of jet fighters, instead of thin airfoil designs. Later, they had to go back to achieve higher flight speeds.
Thanks to the Malthorpe design team brought by Kurke, the development of the FX1 fighter has been at the forefront of the world from the beginning. This is just a detail, but it is also a good one. beginning.
Lukewu, who was a pilot, looked at the full-size model in front of him, observed it carefully for a while, thought for a while, and then said.
"Although I am a bomber pilot, I have also flown fighter jets. Theoretically speaking, the upper monoplane is better than the lower monoplane. In fact, the layout will have a serious impact on the pilot's downward field of vision. Therefore, can we use the wing Has it been modified? After all, in air combat, line of sight is very important."
His suggestion made Kurk frown slightly. In fact, the Ta-183 originally used a mid-wing. After the first blowing test, it was changed to a high-wing monoplane. Now the air force commander said that the high-monoplane wing would affect the line of sight.
Although I am a little dissatisfied with the general's intervention, Party A's father has always been Party A's father since ancient times. This has been true at all times and in all countries. Moreover, whether the FX1 fighter jet can be mass-produced in the future will mainly depend on it. It still depends on the support of the Air Force, and developing aircraft itself requires a lot of funds.
So, after thinking for a moment, Kurk said.
"This requires further research, General. Now we are building the No. 1 prototype. If the test pilot reacts in this regard during the test flight, then we will make further modifications. After all, there is still no In the design stage.”
Kirk's answer made Lukwu laugh. "I'm just making some personal suggestions. You are still responsible for the design of the aircraft, but the military's requirements are very simple, which is jet type, good maneuverability, and long range. Of course, the specific design is completed by you. The military only cares about the specific parameters. . ”
Although Lukwu was full of expectations for jet fighters, he did not supervise the progress. After all, everyone is the first to use jet fighters. For once, it is better to advance steadily. Moreover, the authorized production of Nien engines has only just begun. According to the schedule, the first batch of domestic engines will not be delivered until the end of next year.
The Air Force is not anxious about this. After all, propeller aircraft are still used all over the world. The performance of the Air Force's FW190 and P51D is still very good. With more than 800 aircraft, There is absolutely no problem in bullying the surrounding small countries.
In fact, let alone a small country, even if you encounter a big country, you can give it a try. And judging from the current situation, the Nanyang Air Force is definitely the most powerful air force in Asia.
At the end of the inspection, Kurk couldn't help but ask.
"General, there is a question that we are all concerned about. The newspaper said that the Air Force will participate in the Berlin Airlift and deliver supplies to Berlin. How many planes will we send there? What kind of planes will we send?"
"Giant and Super Giant, they are our best transport aircraft with large load capacity. The Giant transport aircraft can transport 18 tons of supplies at a time, and the Super Giant can transport 35 tons at a time. In addition to leaving the necessary few, we will send all "The giant" in Lukwu's words is the Me323 transport aircraft, which was Germany's largest transport aircraft during World War II. When it acquired France's Southwest Airlines, there were twenty-six of them nearly completed in the factory. Because the aircraft body has no engine, it was replaced with an American R1820 engine. Due to the large increase in power, the performance has been amazingly improved. The maximum take-off weight has increased to 58.1 tons, and the maximum carrying capacity has reached 18.3 tons.
Because the structure is simple and easy to manufacture, the Air Force equips 78 "Giant" transport aircraft, and the "Super Giant" is the Me323 transport aircraft developed by Zeppelin Company in cooperation with French Southwest Airlines during the war. It was used by the German Army from Before the defeat of France, the basic design had been completed. Its design was further improved at Nanyang Aviation Industry. It uses 6 R2800 engines with a power of 2200 horsepower, a wingspan of 70 meters, a length of 40.25 meters, and a load capacity of an astonishing 35 meters. ton. As the world's largest transport aircraft, it can definitely play an amazing role in air transportation.
As an aircraft engineer, Kurk certainly knew the powerful transport capacity of the Giant transport aircraft, so he said with words full of gratitude.
"General, I think every German will be full of gratitude to you. Please convey our gratitude to the soldiers of the Air Force."
For such gratitude, Lukwu has long since After all, there are many consultants, instructors and pilots from Germany in the Air Force. Their gratitude is beyond words, and some pilots even expressed their hope to participate in the operation. After all, they are all Germans, so how can they cover the mission of rescuing their compatriots?
While feeling their concern for the motherland, Lukwu could also feel the changes in those people. They truly identified with Nanyang. After announcing their participation in the airlift, a succession of German pilots were naturalized.
On the way out of Tanke Design Bureau, Lukwu couldn't help but said to himself when he thought about the changes in the mentality of the Germans in recent times.
"Humans, after all, are all emotional animals..."
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(End of this chapter)