On 26 November, Speer presided over the second conference on the rearmament of aviation in Berlin, and a week before the meeting, all aircraft and aircraft engine manufacturers were ready to try.

In particular, the Heinkel Company, which had been cut down in the first armament reorganization case, such as the He-111 and He-177, and had been overstocked by the Junkers Company's run, had already made a statement in advance that it would fight a good turnaround, because this time they had good things in their hands -- Inspired by the Messerschmidt Company's snatching of the Zero fighters, the Heinkel and Junkers companies made great efforts to provide the Japanese Navy with the Comet and the Tien Shan two carrier-based attack planes, and the results did not disappoint them. In particular, the Comet, a Japanese dive bomber developed on the basis of the He-118 that was unsuccessful in the early years of the Heinkel company's bidding, had outstanding performance, and no one expected that this Japanese bastard would be able to shine, not only far exceeding the design indicators and development expectations when Heinkel was sold, but even better than the new design currently being developed by the company. The overjoyed Heinkel company immediately developed it as a pillar project, got the drawings and restored and improved it in three shifts, and after structural reinforcement (these were the first things that the Japanese aircraft did in the hands of German designers), the engine horsepower was increased (the Japanese copycat level was not as good as the original DB601), and at the same time fine-tuned the wingspan and fuselage according to the new weight and center of gravity, Heinkel came up with a new model of dive bomber codenamed He-218.

The latest model is too superior to Stuka's figures, and the engine is powered by the very mature DB601E (1450 hp). Although the nominal figures appear to be only 50 horsepower higher than the Japanese version of the Aichi Atsuta 32 engine, the Japanese themselves admit that the Atsuta 32's horsepower figures are very erratic and that the trouble-free time at maximum horsepower is very short. Far less reliable than DB601E, the weight increases slightly after the structure and body reinforcement, because of this, the maximum speed is reduced to 572 km / h, the total weight is 2.78 tons, the ceiling is 10,000 meters, and it can carry 1 500 kg aerial bomb, and 2 30 kg bombs can be mounted under the wing. The maximum range is 1200 km, and if the bomblet position is changed to a small drop tank, the maximum range will increase to more than 1350 km.

Compared to this, Stuka has a certain advantage in terms of bomb load. The He-218 is no match for speed, range, or ceiling, especially in the field of speed, and in the eyes of fighter pilots, Stuka is as clumsy as a big bear. And the He-218 is so fast that it hardly resembles a bomber. After dropping the bomb, it was as light as a swan, and he slipped away without paying attention (in the history of the Mariana Sea, the comet often rushed ahead of the Zero War), and the exposure to anti-aircraft fire was less than 35% of the Stuka's, although the Stuka's body structure and attack resistance were stronger than the He-218, but it really couldn't stand people running fast.

In the words of the representative of the Heinkel company, for bombing operations of more than 300 kilometers, one flight of Stuka was enough time for the He-218 to fly twice. But there are usually two sides to the story, and this speed makes the He-218 still operate poorly at low speeds. Except for skilled veterans, there is no way to get on the ship safely and reliably (slightly better than the Japanese version), but the company is not limited to carrier-based aircraft, but to the Eastern Front, Norway and North African theaters, intending to squeeze Stuka's living space, Heinkel, who was squeezed by Ju-88 in a large number of He-111 and He-177 orders at the last meeting, is determined to come back with a hard slap in the face.

In the face of facts and test pilots' evaluations, any justification of Junkers is weak, poor Ju-87 in 1943 production tasks were cut by 85% at once, the remaining orders are still the Army believes that Ju-87 can be reasonably modified into a ground attack aircraft under the premise of trying to retain, Heinkel got an order for 2000 aircraft, Speer asked them to freeze the technical indicators before December 31, and officially start mass production in February; If they solve the problem of shipbuilding, the order can continue to add 1,000 aircraft.

The representative of Heinkel breathed a sigh of relief, and the representative of Mercedes-Benz also breathed a sigh of relief, whether it was ship-based or not, at least 3,000 DB601 engines finally had a place to go, so that there would not be an embarrassing situation of backlog in the warehouse after production (Mercedes-Benz's production capacity also increased quickly after the general mobilization)

There are far more than one type of aircraft that are difficult to maneuver at low speeds, and the representative of the Wolf company was dejected to announce that the Fw-190A series of carrier-based mechanization had failed again, not only did the distance required for take-off exceed the requirements of the tender document, but the landing operation was also very difficult, and it was almost impossible to complete it on the Zeppelin aircraft carrier, Speer lost patience with this and announced on the spot that the project had been cut, and the representative of the Wolf company was not too disappointed, because his goal was not in the first place, but to his surprise, When he was about to give a lecture on the improvement plan for fighter-bombing and ground attack types, he was mercilessly interrupted by Hoffman: "The FW-190 is a heavy, medium-altitude fighter, which aims to seize air supremacy and destroy the enemy's main fighters and bombers, and does not allow a single kilogram of excess weight to be used for bombing and ground attack...... All multi-purpose retrofit programs have been discontinued, and we recommend that you work on reducing weight and increasing range......"

The atmosphere of the meeting cooled down suddenly, "But, the Führer ......" Dr. Tan Ke, the chief designer of the Wolf Company, seemed to want to fight for the company, but Hoffman's determination was unshakable, and he explained with a smile, "Wolf Company should not do anything that has little to do with the bank, there will be so many fighter orders that you can't finish it at all - how is the development of your liquid-cooled series of fighters?" ”

At the first aviation armaments conference, due to Hoffman's attention and support, Dr. Tan Ke accelerated the progress of the Fw-190D project, unlike the history of the DB601 series and was forced to switch to the Jumo213 series engine, due to the weakening of the status of the Bf-109 series and the surplus of DB601 series engine production, the current Dr. Tan Ke can be described as a spring breeze, whether it is Yumo company or Mercedes-Benz company are competing to please him, have launched the latest engine at his choice, Even the new engine that has just been successfully designed and is far from being finalized is also provided to him, only hoping to be able to use its own engine on this new modification, in order to fool Dr. Tanke, Yumo company came up with Jumo-213E (experimental), Mercedes-Benz is even more exaggerated, respectively came up with DB603L (experimental) and DB603N (design drawings), after being equipped with a liquid-cooled engine, the new Fw-190 nose cross-section is smaller than the use of BMW801 air-cooled engine, However, the length is protruding by one piece (the Fw-190D is known as Dora, the long nose), and in order to balance the weight of the nose, the vertical tail of the aircraft has been enlarged, making the overall appearance more slender and slender.

“…… After the replacement of the liquid-cooled engine, the wind resistance of the aircraft is reduced, the maximum speed is accelerated, and the performance at medium and high altitudes is particularly outstanding......"

"Stop!" Hoffman interrupted Dr. Tanker's introduction, "I don't want to hear the hype about how good the aircraft will be if these new engines are installed - we're at war, let's be realistic, what about a production engine that will be available right now?" ”

"Jumo-213D and DB603A."

"Which performs better?"

“Jumo-213D。”

"What if we use a pilot engine?"

"DB603L is better than Jumo-213E."

Now, the faces of the representatives of the two engine companies were very exciting, and they craned their necks and looked at Hoffman with a blank eye.

Hoffman is very clear about the design and manufacturing process of Fw-190D in real history: Dr. Tan Ke went to DB603 at the beginning, because he couldn't get the goods and switched to the Jumo series to delay the overall research and development time, and later the model with the DB603 engine was called Fw-190C, and the model with Jumo series engine was called Fw-190D, the difference is that the former only stayed in the experimental stage and the latter shined, but the competition between the two did not simply stay at this stage, At the end of 1944, the Fw-190C series developed into the ultimate German piston fighter model, the Ta-152. Therefore, if you want a quick solution, then the Fw-190D is a good transition, and if you want a complete solution, the Ta-152 is the way to go.

He sighed, and finally made a decision: "I hope to see the mass production of the liquid-cooled version of the FW-190 in half a year, Mercedes-Benz or Junkers engines can be considered, whose product technology is more mature, more outstanding, and more abundant, I hope you will work hard." ”

This is tantamount to inconclusive, and both Mercedes-Benz and Junkers representatives are secretly relieved - inconclusive means that there is still a chance, but Hoffman's next sentence makes them sit still: "I am very optimistic about the future of this new aircraft, given that our air defense tasks will be very heavy and the potential of the Bf-109 is about to be exhausted, so he will have a huge order." ”

Speer added: "I needed 5,000 in the second half of 1943, and 2-25,000 in 1944. ”

"What?" Everyone was almost speechless in shock - the figures for 1944 alone were almost equivalent to the entire production of the Bf-109 series so far! Whoever eats this order means a lot of money. (To be continued.) )