Now that John has made up his mind to have a good relationship with Hoyt Vandenberg, it would be a bit too much to have his parents come forward to put on a "peace wine". Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 infoJohn took the initiative to call Senator Arthur Vandenberg and invite their uncle and nephew to dinner.

Arthur Vandenberg was the Republican leader in the Senate and had an excellent relationship with William. The two uncles were somewhat similar to those of the brothers John and William, whose uncle was a big advocate of isolationism in Congress, and his nephew, who was actively preparing for war at the War Office, and both had the idea of betting on both sides.

Historically, after Pearl Harbor, Arthur Vandenberg's turn was very rapid, and he suddenly changed from an isolationist to the main promoter of American world hegemony. Not only did he actively participate in the creation of the United Nations, but he later pushed for the implementation of the Marshall Plan and the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Congress, and was later called one of the 12 key figures in the creation of the Cold War.

In the face of such a "wise" bigwig of the party, John, as a junior, put his posture very low. Not only did he bring William to Washington, D.C., but he also hand-picked a restaurant known for serving Milwaukee Sprecher beers.

John specifically inquired about it, and the Vandenbergs were all from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. If you're entertaining a Milwaukee, there's nothing quite like a local specialty beer. Later, the four major beer companies in the United States: Le Cordon Bleu, Schlitz, Miller, and Bolez were all located in Milwaukee, and even their baseball teams were called the Brewers.

The dinner was enjoyable for both parties, and after a few beers, John and Hoyt quickly let go of their previous suspicions. They found that they shared a lot of common language with each other, such as an interest in long-range bombers and the theory of strategic air supremacy. By the time they leave the restaurant that night, the previous unpleasantness has managed to turn into an amusing episode in the process of getting to know each other.

Over the next few days, contact between John and Hoyt at the "Ammunition Building" in Washington Square, where the Army Air Corps headquarters is located, began to become more frequent. After having a few working meals together and going on a business trip to Seattle together, the two of them have become quite good friends.

Like Harold, Hoyt was a staunch supporter of Mitchell's doctrine of strategic air supremacy. Although the US Army's top brass still regards its subordinate army aviation as a force to support ground operations, the aircraft is also dominated by single-engine fighters. However, Hoyt has been actively exploring the feasibility of the long-range strategic bombing theory.

For example, on this business trip to Seattle with John, Hoyt's purpose was to urge Boeing to fulfill the order for 38 B-17C "Flying Fortresses" as soon as possible. Although this order from the military was placed only in August, and it was not possible to pick up the goods until at least 1940. But Hoyt can't wait to see these four-engine "big babes" capable of realizing their tactical ideas.

In his previous life, as a military fan, John couldn't be more familiar with the situation of the B-17. The origins of this aircraft can be traced back to 1934, when the U.S. Army Air Corps came up with an ambitious plan to design a new bomber that could cross the eastern and western oceans of the United States.

The tender, known as "Plan A," required aircraft manufacturers to design a bomber capable of carrying 2,000 kilograms of bombs and flying 8,045 kilometers at a speed of 322 kilometers per hour. The prototype of the B-17, the Boeing XB-15, was the product of this project, but due to lack of power, the XB-15 had to be converted into an XC-105 transport aircraft.

The U.S. Army Air Corps later realized that the performance indicators of "Plan A" were a bit out of reality, so they lowered the requirements and launched "Plan D". The requirements for this tender were: a multiple launch bomber capable of carrying 907 kg of bombs and flying 322 kilometers at a speed of 3218 kilometers per hour.

Boeing's four-engine "Flying Fortress" outperforms its rivals in terms of speed, climb rate, range and bomb load. However, in the end, the military purchased 133 twin-engine Douglas DB-1s, and only 13 "flying fortresses" for service testing. The reason for this is that the DB-1 is only half the cost of the Flying Fortress, and its basic design is derived from the DC-2 airliner, which looks much less risky.

Today, the "Flying Fortress" has been in service and testing with the Army Air Force for three years, and the 38 B-17Cs ordered this time are the result of the unremitting efforts of Hoyt's "strategic bombers" for many years.

John knew of course that the B-17 was a pretty good aircraft, but as a competitor (Hughes's D-2 was also a long-range bomber after the modification), he couldn't resist picking a thorn in the early "Flying Fortress" in front of Hoyt.

For example, if there is a serious blind spot in the rear of the aircraft, if the enemy aircraft enters the attack from the rear, the pilot of the B-17 can only immediately make a serpentine maneuver, so that the left and right waist gunners can fire at the enemy aircraft. But in a dense formation of strategic bombers, it is clearly impossible to make such a maneuver.

Another example is the early "shark fin" tail that not only made the entire aircraft look top-heavy, but also made the aircraft lack sufficient stability during bomb dropping.

However, John also knew that it was useless to just find fault with his opponents, and he had to prove that D-2 was good enough. Even if, in John's view, the D-2 of Hughes Aircraft is completely comparable to the "Challenger" of later generations, for the military, it is a big risk to purchase a new aircraft from a new aircraft manufacturer. Because no one knows if this aircraft has any hidden design flaws.

According to Tom Jr.'s report, the military's inspection of D-2 has reached its final moments. In order to impress the military delegation, John decided to show off his killer weapon for the D-2 long-range bomber - the "Norton Bomber Sight".

Unlike the British Royal Air Force, which advocates indiscriminate bombing, the US strategic bombing ideology highly advocates focused bombing of the enemy's vital areas. They believe that modern countries have more or less "bottlenecks" that are closely related to the country's backbone and will paralyze the entire industry once damaged.

The U.S. Army Air Force believes that by finding this "bottleneck" and destroying it, it can effectively reduce the enemy's ability to sustain warfare. As a result, precision bombing remained unshakable in the American ideology of bombing operations, and almost became a rigid religious creed that continued into the next century.

The "Norton Bomber Sight" that John took out was developed by Hughes Aircraft Company in cooperation with Norton Company in New York. It's a big 50-pound guy that's kind of similar to the original mechanical computer. The bombardier only needs to enter the target coordinates, aircraft altitude, speed, heading, and wind speed, and the sight will remind him when to drop the bomb.

You must know that at present, the pilots on bombers rely on visual inspection to estimate targets, and sometimes the deviation of bombing can reach more than one mile. But with the "Norton Bomber Sight", ideally, the bombardier could drop even one bomb into a pickle bucket. This is not an exaggeration, and someone did it during the test.

The inventor of this instrument, the Swiss engineer Norton, has been working on bomber sights since the end of World War I, and John has the 15th generation of the product he has developed. He firmly believed that if war was inevitable, his invention would at least save many innocent people from harm.

Honestly, this sight was the most sophisticated mechanical instrument John had ever seen. It is assembled from more than 2,000 precision parts and uses a large number of precision gears and ball bearings. If John hadn't known that American bombers had been equipped with this sight in history, he wouldn't have believed that such a sophisticated instrument could work in the harsh conditions of the battlefield.

Historically, this mechanical sight was gradually phased out until the 70s, when it remained a secret of the US military. Every bomber's crew had to swear an oath to keep the Norton bomb sight a secret. The US military has also equipped the planes equipped with the "Norton" with thermite guns, and if the bomber makes a forced landing in enemy-occupied areas, the first thing the crew members will do is to burn the "Norton" to a ball of scrap metal with this gun, which can release powerful heat.

John firmly believes that this sight is definitely a magical prop for the U.S. Army Air Corps, which pursues precision bombing. While it's true that $14,000 is a bit expensive, no one can refuse him.