When he saw the new Me-262 demonstrator, he immediately noticed a huge difference from the previous model, and Hoffmann understood why Speer said "a little later". According to the scheduled plan, the Me-262 will start trial production in March, and judging from the current situation, I am afraid it will be difficult to carry out in June. When Hoffmann frowned and threw the question to Dr. Messerschmidt, the latter vowed that "trial production will start in June according to the new model, and mass production will be guaranteed within two months." ”

In the face of Messerschmidt's rhetoric, Speer only smiled and remained silent.

As the Doctor turned to arrange a test flight, Hoffman said to Speer in confusion, "What's going on?" I noticed a particularly weird smile between the doctor and you...... There must be something in this that I don't know. ”

"Of course, Führer, there are many reasons involved, and the postponement of mass production was a decision made by a combination of many factors - and this is my agreement."

After Speer's detailed introduction, Hoffman learned that there were many changes hidden under the seemingly calm Me-262 project:

First of all, there was the issue of engines, the Me-262 originally had a BWM-003 jet engine, and was replaced with a Jumo-004 engine due to unreliability, which came in two types, one was 004A and the other was 004B. Class A is a standard type produced based on laboratory research results, using a large amount of rare metals such as cobalt, chromium, molybdenum, etc., while Class B is a simplified version of these metals that are rarely used. The results of simplification are mixed: the good news is that the manufacturing process is simplified, and the weight is lighter - the production type 004B is 100 kg lighter than the 004A, and the worry is that the life span is shortened - the practical trouble-free time is only 50 hours, which is much less than the level of 200 hours for class A, and the performance stability has also decreased.

Without Hoffmann's series of work on the mine, the Me-262 would have gone to the sky with a simplified version of 004B as it has historically been, but now that Germany has passed the stage of scarce rare metals (at least the important equipment is completely guaranteed), it has obtained another batch through the trade with Japan (it is not cost-effective to transport rare metals by air from an economic point of view, but the air transport is mainly for the exchange of personnel and drawings, the metal is only incidental, and the marginal cost is zero), including Speer and Messerschmidt, both advocate the use of all Class A. Coincidentally, because the Junkers company also happened to be studying the metal mechanism of Japanese aircraft, and at the same time saw Japan's exploration of superalloys -- although Japan's technology was not advanced, because they used nickel-based alloys and Germany used iron-based alloys, it was a completely different way, and after trying to use them, they found that the performance had been greatly improved: the thrust of a single unit had risen from 8.8 kN to 10,000 N, the weight had dropped by nearly 30 kilograms, and the average time between failures had risen to 250 hours.

Overjoyed, the company immediately set this model as Type 004C, and at the same time conducted in-depth research on the basis of the new alloy, hoping to find a better and more valuable superalloy formula. After the engine improvements, which meant that the Me-262 had a lot of adjustments, Dr. Messerschmidt made a lot of new design improvements, including nose length, wing sweep angle, pod layout, fuselage metal materials, etc., and the fragile nose landing gear was also significantly improved, and the Me-262 project was a new upgrade before it was officially implemented.

Especially in the field of swept wings, where Dr. Messerschmitt is himself an authoritative expert, and Germany's research in this field is second to none in the world, as the engine thrust rises and the weight of the aircraft decreases, the aircraft becomes faster, because he increases the angle of the swept wing to improve agility and overload limits during diving. The improved demonstrator has a sweep angle of nearly 25 degrees (originally 18.5 degrees), a maximum speed of 910 km / h, a maximum range of 1,250 km, and a maximum ceiling of 12,500 meters.

The reason why the doctor is obsessed with improving the Me-262 is also related to his recent stimulus - the fact that the Bf-109 is de facto discontinued in Germany and the fact that the new generation of fighters will fall on the head of the Fw-190C has greatly stimulated his competitive spirit, and he wants to develop a more mature and highly effective jet aircraft to overpower Dr. Tank.

Another important reason is the mass production of Bf-219, which Messerschmidt originally did not have much expectation, thinking that it was just that HNA needed a carrier-based fighter to save the emergency, but the market of a few hundred aircraft was better than nothing. Unexpectedly, it was well received on the Eastern Front, and the order jumped from a few hundred to 3,000 aircraft, which was not only needed by the Luftwaffe and the German Navy on a large scale, but also by the Italian, Romanian, and Hungarian air forces, and the strong demand even made up for the number of orders after the transfer of the Bf-109.

The doctor is an excellent aircraft designer, but first of all a successful businessman, he wants to seize the time to desperately produce some in order to recover the losses on the Bf-109, which Speer understands, anyway, Messerschmitt is also an important supporter of the party, he wants to give the doctor an explanation for the great changes in the 109 production line shutdown and moving to Italy, so he gave the Messerschmitt company an additional 5 months for further modification of the Me-262 on the condition of mass production of the Bf-219. As a result, starting in March, the monthly production of the Bf-219 will reach a staggering 800 aircraft - a small gap from the 1,200 aircraft produced in the FW-190 series.

Hoffman breathed a sigh of relief when he learned what had happened, and he didn't mind waiting more if he could get a better plane five months later - the Me-262 was put into combat in the middle of 1944.

"Doctor, one thing you need to be clear about is that no matter how it is modified, the Me-262 is purely designed to attack enemy aircraft at medium and high altitudes......"

"Understood!" Messerschmidt laughed, "I know the Führer's slogan - no kilogram of weight can be used for ground attack, and I promise to make changes to your satisfaction." ”

Sure enough, in the design of the Me-262B, the doctor frantically came up with a configuration equipped with 4 20mm MG213 cannons (200 rounds of ammunition each) and 48 R4M rockets, and also reserved the position of the auxiliary fuel tank, which can expand the maximum range when fully loaded to more than 1500 kilometers.

Hoffman nodded with satisfaction, this configuration is enough for the B-17 or the upcoming B-29 to have a headache, as long as the Me-262 has a sufficient scale, and then uses it with the Ta-152, air supremacy in 1944 is guaranteed, as long as there is air supremacy, the Third Reich will have to fight.

On the sidelines of the tour, Speer also briefed Hoffmann on production and development in the field of engines.

The long-backlog of DB-601E engines has all found a place, some of them are exported to Japan, and the rest are all installed on the He-218, once the Heinkel company successfully upgrades the He-218, the DB-605 series engine will also have the appropriate field of use, and the DB-603 is scheduled for the Ta-152 to use, Mercedes-Benz breathed a long sigh of relief from top to bottom.

The DB series engines survived the backlog of Bf-109 production cuts, and now it was Yomo's turn to worry about the future prospects of its Jumo-213E engines, but this concern was quickly dispelled, and three orders were placed in front of them in January:

One is the Ju-88 bomber upgrade request, the Air Force asks for 1,000 Ju-188 bombers (a new model upgraded from the Ju-88), and the unfulfilled Ju-88 order is automatically converted to the Ju-188. Historically, the aircraft used BMW801G engines, and now it is logical to replace them with Jumo-213E engines, a single engine has increased its power by 50 horsepower under the premise of slightly lighter weight, and at the same time improved high-altitude performance, with a bomb load of 3 tons, a speed of up to 505 km / h, and a range of nearly 2200 km, perfectly surpassing the American B-25 bomber, and the B-26 is in between, but the take-off and landing process is much easier and more reliable than the B-26.

Another place that uses the Jumo-213E engine is the Ju-290A transport aircraft, which is the successor to the Ju-52, and the Air Force asked to change to the Jumo series engine (originally also used the BMW-801), which is a big guy with 4 engines, and the last one is a business of 4 units. Junkers grabbed business and grabbed the addiction, in addition to the transport plane list refused to let go, but also further launched the Ju-290C (maritime patrol version), ready to sell to the HNA to replace the Atlantic Condor-Fw-200C, in the face of a maximum speed of 440 km / h and a range of up to 6000 km, Richthofen immediately moved his heart and asked for 100 planes.

Originally, the Junkers company wanted to take the Ju-290 to charge the tender for 4 heavy bombers, but the Ministry of Armaments explicitly refused, and the reason for the refusal was very interesting: "We think that the design is inferior to your company's Ju-488, in view of the requirements of the companies to concentrate on the declaration of one aircraft, do you confirm the withdrawal of the Ju-488 project application?" "The Junkers company can only give up on the dream of re-bombardment of the Ju-290 in a foolish way.

The last unexpected order came from the Me-323, a giant transport aircraft that had an outstanding performance in the North African landing battle, which won Hoffmann's favor, and instructed the Messerschmitt company to find a way to improve it, and the doctor immediately formed a crack team to study it, and initially decided to replace the original wings made of wood and fabric with all-aluminum - there is no shortage of materials in Germany, and at the same time replace six French Grome-Rhone 14R engines with Jumo-213E. (To be continued.) )