"It's coming, it's coming, hurry up and get on the plane and get ready." The sharp-eyed Schultz suddenly stopped chatting enthusiastically, and while reminding Wendell, he sped towards his plane.

Wendell looked up, and sure enough, a bunch of people came down from the command center, led by the Führer, accompanied by Keitel and Speer, followed by a large number of people, all prominent figures in the aviation industry, including the main generals of the Air Force, as well as the chief designers and production directors of various aircraft manufacturing companies, and he did not hesitate to rush to his car, because he found that the Führer had come to the Me-262 first.

Finally seeing and touching this legendary plane, Hoffman standing next to the Me-262 felt good about himself: Milch's biggest problem was that the Me-262 was delayed because of his bad relationship with Messerschmidt, and Hitler's fatal mistake was to treat this revolutionary aircraft as a ridiculous high-speed bomber, and he was going to correct this historic mistake, let the Me-262 shine earlier, and let the Lancaster and B-29 who carried out strategic bombing by Britain and the United States taste the greatness. Although he had chosen Me-262 deep down, out of politeness and fairness, he could not prematurely reveal this inclination.

Everyone could see that the Führer was in high spirits, and the gloom of the traitorous bloc and the aftermath of the Goering affair had clearly been swept away. He was very interested in jets, not only learned more about the aerodynamic layout, weapons, and engines, but also sat in the cockpit with great interest to experience it, and then shook hands with Wendell and took a group photo, asking, "What do you think of this plane?" What is special about traditional propeller aircraft? ”

"It's a great aircraft, and although it was a little difficult at first because it was a little special compared to a traditional aircraft, it wasn't difficult to get used to." Flattered, Wendell gestured and said, "He's fast, about 200 kilometers faster than the fighter jet in service, which gives him an advantage in battle." ”

"Judging by the style of the wing, it seems that the low-altitude and hovering performance needs to be improved." Hoffman then pointed to the nose of the protruding plane, "I found in the cockpit just now that it seems difficult to see the ground due to the obstruction of the nose, so this has no effect on landing?" ”

Listening to Hoffman speak such a professional sermon, the surrounding aviation professionals, especially the high-ranking generals of the Air Force, were shocked, and this was a completely professional remark that only an aviation expert could utter, and it seemed that the rumor that the Supreme High Command had privately briefed that the Führer might concurrently serve as the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force might be true.

The designers had no choice but to stand up and clarify: "The problems that the Führer said do exist, and we are working hard to improve them." ”

Looking at the reverent eyes of the people around him, Hoffman felt a little proud in his heart, and continued to ask: "Listening to the report of the Heinkel company that a He-280 can take down a dozen Fw-190s in air combat, what do you think of the Me-262?" ”

Wendell shrugged his shoulders and said disappreciatively: "I don't dare to brag about such a big bull, it's certain that the jet is stronger than the main fighter in the current service in a one-on-one duel, but that doesn't mean that he is the only master of the sky." Just now, the Führer also pointed out the fact that the maneuver performance of the aircraft is not good, so it must not be dogged with propeller aircraft at low altitudes. Unless they pounce on them one by one and send them to their deaths, if they really encounter a dozen Fw-190s, I will definitely hit and run, maybe I can take the opportunity to eat 3-4 fights, but eating them all will break me......"

Everyone laughed, only Dr. Henkel's old face was slightly red, in order to get the Air Force to pay attention to his project, he had arranged a showdown with the Fw-190 and submitted an exaggerated report, I don't know how it could reach the Führer's ears. Fortunately, the Führer, who was very interested, did not continue to delve into it, but went to the side of the He-280 prototype to visit it before he was relieved.

The test flight began soon, and the take-off was carried out in the order of first Me-262 and then He-280, and at the same time, the Air Force also took off 8 conventional fighter jets to cooperate with the exercise, half of them were Bf-109, half of them were Fw-190, and the famous Air Force ace and current fighter commander Major General Adolf Garland personally stood next to Hoffman to explain to him, as the second recipient of the Knight of the Iron Cross with a Diamond Oak Leaf Sword, he was summoned by the Führer many times, and he can be regarded as an old acquaintance.

The take-off of the Me-262 was not very smooth, because of the arrangement of the rear three-point landing gear, the flat tail blocked by the wings failed, and it could not fly for a long time, which made everyone pinch a cold sweat. Fortunately, the experienced Wendell quickly spotted the problem, cleverly applied the brakes when the run reached 180 km/h, and used inertia to lift the tail up, allowing the elevator to take off normally. Garand, who also had a handful of his trademark mustache, was keenly aware of this and explained it to the Führer, hearing Hoffman nod his head repeatedly. On the other hand, the take-off of the He-280 went very smoothly and flew into the sky all at once.

Subsequently, the two planes continued to demonstrate their speed superiority and flight characteristics in the air, but only a few white smoke were seen in Hoffman's telescope. With eight aircraft simulating escort and bombing scenarios arriving in the airspace, the two planes finished their maneuvering demonstrations and prepared for the most exciting air combat simulations against conventional fighters.

The advantage of jet aircraft is that it is fast, and the two test pilots coincidentally adopted the B&Z tactic of one-hit disengagement, and Garland's explanation is very good, explaining in simple terms the superiority of this tactic, and is explaining how to judge the downing of an enemy plane in a simulated air battle, when the crowd suddenly erupts into an exclamation - the He-280, which has just won a blow, suddenly enters a spiral state when it rolls out of the rear-end lock of another aircraft, and Hoffman can clearly see in the telescope, the silver He-280 is falling rapidly like a scale. While the pilots have been trying to level up, several attempts have ended in failure.

"Danger, danger, skydive, fast skydive." Garland exclaimed, "It's not enough to jump high." ”

But it is not easy to parachute from a plane falling at high speed, the plane is getting lower and lower, and in a blink of an eye it is only a few hundred meters from the ground, and it is still falling down vigorously, Garland is so anxious that he jumps to his feet, Hoffman closed his eyes, he couldn't bear to see the tragedy of the plane crashing and dying, and sighed secretly in his heart, "It seems that it is not realistic for jet fighters to be put into combat in a short period of time." Suddenly, the plane suddenly made a "bang" explosion, Hoffman couldn't help but open his eyes again, only to see the test pilot through the cockpit to pop up, and then the parachute behind the back slowly opened, and the plane fell to the ground after a few moments, making a violent explosion and falling into countless pieces, which made people rejoice that the pilot escaped.

Fortunately, Wendell was not affected by the incident, and landed safely after shooting down 2 Bf-109s and completing the relevant flight test subjects. Hofmann, who recovered from the shock, spoke highly of the entire test flight and comforted the lost Dr. Heinkel, saying: "The design of the He-280 still has quite merits, such as their first three-point landing gear is more scientific and easy to take off; Another example is their original design of ejection seats, which effectively solves the problem of high-speed life-saving and perfectly protects our flight heroes...... "Although he did not say a word about who won the bid, everyone knew that the next generation of jets could only be the Me-262 from Messerschmidt."

Dr. Messerschmidt, who had been on high nerves, finally smiled, although the Me-262 was not his work, but it was the future direction of the company, and he believed that after the implementation of the "Aviation Rearmament Case", Messerschmidt was still the leader of the imperial aviation industry.

I thought that the Führer's speech would be enough to draw an end to the test flight, but I suddenly signaled to his new Air Force adjutant, Major Heinrich Lehmann (the original Air Force Adjutant was recommended by Göring, and after Göring's downfall, he was sent by Hoffmann to run the concentration camp under Milch) took out two pieces of paper for everyone to see, each with an imaginary drawing of a jet fighter, although it was improvised with a pencil, but the proportions of the lines and the dark contrast seemed to be depicted in place, as if it had been sketched from the real thing.

"I just looked at the two jet prototypes, and I think they are ahead of the curve, but we should also start designing the next generation of aircraft as soon as possible. Gentlemen, why can't we develop an aircraft similar to a conventional single-engine propeller? He pointed to the first drawing, "I thought about putting the engine in the fuselage and using the nose air intake, so that the engine would naturally be internalized as part of the airplane structure, which would greatly reduce flight resistance and be more fuel-efficient and faster than the current hoisting method, so I had this drawing." ”

"Then I was told by a technician that if the existing jet engine adopts a conventional fuselage structure under the layout of the nose air intake, it will inevitably cause the air intake tract to be too long and cause the engine thrust to be lost, since this is a problem, I modified my plan." Hoffman pointed to the second drawing, which looked uglier than the first, with a short, stout fuselage that made the plane look like a stubby arrow, and the cockpit sat almost directly on the engine compartment.

"I compared the designs of the He-280 and Me-262, and I think that the swept wing seems to bring more speed under the premise of similar engine power, so both drawings are not traditional straight wing layouts, as for the specific sweep angle is most appropriate, it requires precise calculations and wind tunnel experiments by the designers." "Maybe a single engine is not enough to drive an aircraft now, but we have to take a long-term view of the engines, and through gradual improvements, they can increase their thrust rapidly, and in the future single-engine aircraft will be necessary - which means lower costs and more flexible maneuvering." ”

Several others politely praised the Führer's genius idea, but Dr. Tank was stunned for a moment, and then suddenly reacted and said: "We have a young aeronautical engineer named Hans Malthope in our company, and a design team headed by him is conceiving a high-speed interceptor, and the design almost identical to the Führer's second drawing—of course, the Führer's drawing is much more beautiful than his. ”

Nonsense, can't it be like that! Hoffman couldn't help but reproach, the first drawing was drawn in the shape of Mig-15, and the second drawing was drawn in the shape of Ta-183 - the work of your Focke Wolf Company, thanks to the painting skills of the Austrian corporal who aspired to become a painter, otherwise Hoffman would not have been able to draw what he saw.

"So, who wants to take this drawing back and help me study it?"

"I want it!" "I want it!" Companies, including Messerschmitt and Henkel, took a stand, and countless hands immediately reached for the drawings - jokingly, the Führer's handwriting, in addition to the works that had previously circulated on the streets of Vienna, was now something that could not be bought for a fortune.

"If you all need it, then let the Air Force give you a few more copies, as for the ones I painted." Hoffman smiled and signed his name and handed it to Tanck, "It's for your young designer, I hope he can surprise me." ”