As early as when the US military proposed to the Soviet side to invite a delegation of Soviet pilots to visit the United States in a friendly manner, the Soviets put forward a request for mutual understanding of each other's fighting methods so that they could cooperate with each other in the future. To put it more clearly, the Soviets meant that if the Americans wanted to understand the experience of the Soviets fighting the Germans at low altitudes, they had to exchange the Americans' experience in dealing with the Soviets at high altitudes.

At that time, General Arnold consulted many people on this issue. Among them were Li May and Ron.

It is said that General Li May expressed this when faced with this issue.

"Are you saying that letting the Soviets understand our tactics will lead to problems in the future? I don't think it's going to be too much of a problem. In the future, after the defeat of Germany, the Soviets will also be able to get what they want from the Germans they have captured. Moreover, our superiority is based on our comprehensive technological and national superiority. Now don't the Germans understand our tactics? But what can they do? The Soviets in the future will not make much difference.

Do I support this exchange, you ask? I am not in favor of this exchange, and certainly not against it. Because we don't really need experience in close ground attacks. We had enough heavy bombers to bomb the Germans straight back to the Stone Age. It is estimated that after we land, the ground troops will have nothing to do except complain that we have blown up the bridges and roads, and interfered with their march. …… Do you think that bombing alone can defeat Germany, you ask? Does this need to be asked? Isn't this something as obvious as lice on a bald head? ”

Ron, on the other hand, replied to General Arnold like this.

"General, that's how I see it. Our superiority at high altitudes is hard to shake. Because the Soviets could not make bombers and fighters as good as ours. They are inferior to us in terms of technology and national strength, and this advantage cannot be shaken by tactics. But the Soviets also had an advantage that could threaten us, and that was their ground forces. Their ground forces are much stronger than ours, at least for now. And their air force -- to be honest, I think they're more called the Army Air Force -- is closely coordinated with the Army and can effectively strike tactical targets such as artillery groups, forts, and opposing marching columns, assembly points, and material storage and transfer points, directly supporting the advance of ground forces. If we were to face such an army in the future, I could not expect our ground forces to be able to withstand these cattle...... And to show them our superiority at high altitudes, to show our muscles, is also conducive to maintaining peace after the war. So I think this deal is more beneficial for us. ”

In the end, General Arnold approved the exchange program. Therefore, the high-altitude drill has become the highlight of this exchange. After a series of low-altitude exercises, the high-altitude project was put on the agenda.

That's how the high-altitude project is arranged.

The first project is to get acquainted with the aircraft. The Soviets were to conduct general flight training at high altitudes in American fighters suitable for high-altitude combat. Or take a ride in an American heavy bomber and experience the attack training process of a heavy bomber.

The second project is a high-altitude confrontation between fighters and bombers. Soviet pilots will have the opportunity to fly their planes themselves and face the dense box formations of bombers.

Now, Project One is about to begin.

Early that morning, before the fog on the runway had completely lifted, a group of Soviet pilots arrived at the airport early. At this time there was a platoon of P-47 fighters parked on the tarmac.

This is not the first time that the Soviets have seen this kind of fighter, not to mention anything else, just a few days ago, when they arrived at the "reverse cross", they had seen this kind of aircraft. But the first time they saw it, the Soviets didn't like it very much. Nima's, this cargo is also called a fighter? Look at it, look at the body, it's as thick as a wine barrel. Look at that figure, it's like, well, it's like Comrade Valia in another 20 years. (What?) Don't understand this? Well, the figure of a Russian woman is similar to that of Coca-Cola, except that the figure of a young woman is like a Coca-Cola bottle, and the figure of a middle-aged woman is like a Coca-Cola jar) Or in other words, the whole plane looks like a large (river crab) bottle that has been put on a set of wings.

When they heard that the empty weight of this thing was as high as 5 tons, and the full reserve weight was close to 9 tons, the Soviet pilots shook their heads in their hearts, how stupid it must be to fly in the air with such a heavy thing. Although the existence of F6F tells them that heavy things are not necessarily stupid, F6F is not that heavy.

Still, the Yankees liked the planes very much. They even claim that this is the strongest fighter in the United States, and that it is an invincible king in the sky. This made the Soviets full of expectations for this kind of unsightly fighter.

According to the predetermined procedure, the experience flight would be carried out by American pilots as long planes and Soviet pilots as wingmen. Before takeoff, Ron gathered everyone together for a meeting. Although the flight manual had been distributed to the Soviets before this, Ron took the trouble to explain to the Soviets the precautions when flying the P-47 again.

After the meeting, everyone began to prepare for the flight according to the scheduled group.

The first group to take off were Ron and Valia. As soon as she sat in the cabin, Valia was taken aback. The space in the cabin of this plane is extravagant. The seats are also very high, and sitting on them is like riding on an airplane. Unlike some airplanes, the pilot can only expose his head and bury his whole person inside.

This arrangement makes the pilot's vision appear very good. As an ace player, Valia naturally knows how important this is for air combat.

Starting the engine, the plane began to glide down the runway, and as the speed gradually increased, Ron gently pulled the lever and the huge plane began to fly off the ground.

Immediately following Ron, Valia's P-47 also flew. The plane, as Valia had first anticipated, was clumsy and had a noticeably low rate of climb. And the operational response at low speeds is not very good.

"At low altitudes, this guy can't do F6F." Valia secretly labeled the P-47 as a low-altitude scrap in his mind.

However, after a period of climbing, the altitude had exceeded 5,000 meters, and Valia was surprised to find that the plane's climb rate had barely dropped much. At this altitude, if the P-39 had been replaced, the rate of climb would have fallen to a mess long ago.

Ron continued to climb with Valia, and by the time he reached 7,000-8,000 meters, Valia found that the plane had now completely outperformed the MiG-3 she had flown before.

"At such a height, there can still be such a performance. It's an amazing machine. ”

Eventually, Ron climbed to an altitude of 10,000 meters with her in one go, and by this time, they had flown out of the troposphere and into the stratosphere. Since 75 percent of the atmosphere was already underneath the plane, the color of the sky began to change from azure to a deep blue of almost black, and the sunlight was more intense than when it was below, but in the blackened blue sky, stars could be faintly seen.

"Alright, now let's do a hover that doesn't drop height." Ron said.

At such high altitudes, due to the thin air, the efficiency of the wing is much lower than at low altitudes. When hovering, if you are not careful, the hovering radius is a little smaller, and you will lose height.

"Okay." Valia replied. Just now at low altitude, Valia had experienced the hovering of the P-47. Overall, it sucks. But that's also to be expected, and you can't expect a 9-ton fat man to be able to dance a ballet on tiptoe. And at high altitudes, the hovering performance will definitely drop further. But considering the plane's ghostly engines, maybe its hovering at high altitude ratio is pretty good.

Ron tilted his wings slightly, and began to enter the circle, the wingtips pulling two long tracks in the thin air high in the air. Valia followed, and she noticed that the radius of this turn was smaller even than that of the MiG-47, which was much lighter than the P-3. Valia understood that the bulky aircraft could do so thanks to its powerful engine.

"The American aircraft designers are so happy," Valia couldn't help but sigh, "with such an engine, they can use the weight as much as they want, extravagantly." Look at this plane, it's so heavy. If the Soviet Union could have such good engine technology, how good the Soviet designers would have been able to design such good aircraft. ”

After completing a 360-degree circle, Ron was to take Valia to experience the P-47's greatest strength, the dive.

"None of the planes can compete with the P-47 in a dive." This is the praise of the P-47 that Valia hears the most from the Yankees. But when the dive began, Valia did not immediately feel how good the P-47's dive was.

"The acceleration during the dive is not too high, at least in this section, many planes can keep up with it. Of course, if they can fly to this height. ”

After a few moments, though, Valia knew how terrifying the P-47's dive was, and she stared at the speedometer as the needle on the speedometer swung wildly.

"It's already 750 kilometers, and this plane doesn't have much shaking!" You know, if you change to the Soviets' La-5FN, at a speed of 650 kilometers per hour, it will shake as if it is about to fall apart, and if it dives to a speed of 700 kilometers per hour, it will definitely fall apart.

By this time, the readings on the speedometer had already reached 850 km/h. Valia now needed a lot of willpower to restrain herself and keep herself diving after the crazy Yankee, rather than immediately changing out of the dive.

"Attention, now I'll show you a barrel roll, you don't have to do it." Ron's voice came out of the radio, and he could hear that he was still relaxed at this time.

Ron gently kicked the rudder and at the same time began to pull the rod and the plane began to do a downward barrel roll. Valia was tempted to make a barrel roll, but she hesitated, and her plane immediately rushed ahead of Ron.

"Okay, let's flatten it now, and move softly."

Valia carefully leveled the plane. Her face changed slightly. At a speed of 850 kilometers per hour, this aircraft can also complete some more intense maneuvers with relative agility, which is really unscientific. Valia wondered what would have happened if she had been flying a fascist plane and had bitten it tightly at 6 o'clock in Ron's room, and Ron had done a barrel roll like that.

No doubt. If the fascist plane had tried to make a barrel roll at such speeds, its wings would have broken in two at once. If you don't do such a barrel roll, you will rush to the front of others like you just did and become a live target.

Now, Valia is absolutely sure that the P-47, which looks silly and clumsy, and looks like a large (river crab) bottle, definitely lives up to the reputation of the king of the sky.