The next morning, John was accompanied by Randolph to Rolls-Royce's headquarters in Derby, a small town north London. Although John was a shareholder www.biquge.info in Rolls-Royce (the family foundation owns 1.2% of Rolls-Royce), he was released despite previous appointments

John didn't even meet Rolls-Royce's top brass and the head of the engine department, who had gone to the RAF test site in Derbyshire that day to take part in a military-organised acceptance of new equipment.

A sales manager named Hayes received John and Randolph. Hayes took John and them around the engine assembly shop and test bench before leading them into a conference room. There, Hayes began to aggressively sell them the Grayback Falcon engine.

He told John that the Greyback Falcon engine had been selected for several of the Royal Air Force's main models, and that production orders had been placed until 1940. If John wanted to buy the Falcon engines in large quantities, he could find a way to get the company to revise the production plan and guarantee delivery by the end of 1939.

But when John offered to buy a production license for the engine, Hayes's attitude changed for a moment. He told John that it was about Rolls-Royce's partnership with the RAF and that it needed to be consulted with the military, which they could not decide unilaterally.

John didn't believe his nonsense. When did Rolls-Royce need the military's consent to sell something? But his attitude also made John realize that sometimes it's not a good thing to be too far ahead.

Historically, Rolls-Royce has indeed licensed the American automaker Packard to produce the Greyback Falcon. But at that time, during the critical period of the Battle of Britain, the Spitfire produced by the British in a month was exhausted in less than a week. I'm really in a hurry, I can't do anything.

At that time, the British Purchasing Committee was crying and begging the Americans to help them produce the aircraft, and even the useless Bell P-39 and Curtis P-40 were packed and brought home.

None of these aircraft could compete with the German BF-109, and could only be used as a second-line force to do ground attack work. Later, most of the P-39s and P-40s were sent to North Africa, and the main job was to give the German ace pilots such as the "Star of Africa" (Marseilleu, 158 shot down).

At that time, the treatment of Britain and the United States was exactly the opposite of what it is now. The British discovered the combination of the Greyback Falcon and the Mustang and were bent on producing more in the United States, but the United States was not very happy.

Boeing, Curtis, Bell, North America, these big aircraft manufacturing companies are trying their best to promote their products and compete for market resources, and no one is willing to accept this "new aircraft" with impure blood.

The generals of the Army Aviation were more optimistic about the P-38 "Lightning" and P-47 "Thunderbolt", insisting that the P-51 "Mustang" be a mediocre mid-range low-altitude fighter and did not believe the British evaluation.

They found fault with the plane in one way or another, and these faults boiled up in one sentence: "This is not an American plane." At that time, someone said of the "Mustang": its father was an American, its mother was British, but it had no "parents" in the US Army.

And in the high-ranking American Supplies Committee, many high-ranking people have a certain amount of anti-British sentiment. They were convinced that the Americans were better at flying planes than the British, and that the planes they produced were better. They just want to proudly show 100% pure American products and don't care how well the aircraft actually performs.

In fact, the performance of American aircraft at the beginning of World War II was really not comparable to that of Europe. In the 30s, there were many patent wars between major aircraft companies in the United States, and everyone was preemptively registering various patents, and there was limited technical exchange between them.

In addition, after the implementation of the "Air Post Act" in the United States in 1934, many aviation giants were busy with asset splitting and reorganization, and the overall technical level of the industry was much worse than that of Europe. The level of the main fighter of the United States at that time was about the same as that of the old Hurricane.

Historically, the first batch of P-51s with modified Greyback Falcon engines ordered by the British Royal Air Force did not even enter the engineering review process of the Materials Committee because of this bias on the part of the United States. In the end, even Churchill wrote to Roosevelt several times on this matter, hoping to reverse this erroneous perception on the part of the United States.

Later historians commented: "What happened to the P-51 was the most costly mistake the U.S. Army made during World War II." ”

It's good now, the British are sitting firmly in the Diaoyutai, but it was John who took the initiative to come to the door to ask for cooperation, but the hot face was attached to the cold buttocks, which is really feng shui in turn.

But think about it, this is not yet a fight in Europe, and the senior management of Rolls-Royce is not stupid, so why should they hand over the profitable business to someone else.

After leaving Rolls-Royce, John was reluctant. It's not his style to give up so easily. After thinking about it, he decided to give it another try. Even if you can't get the production authorization in the end, you must at least win the sales agency right of the grayback falcon in North America.

However, John was not familiar with the place in England, and he would definitely not be able to do it alone. One of his old friends, Assistant Air Force Attache at the U.S. Embassy in the United Kingdom, Thomas Hitchcock, first came to mind.

John and Thomas are old acquaintances, they have known each other since college. This guy is a bohemian playboy who likes to attract bees and butterflies.

At the time, Thomas was also a member of John's flying club. But he just participated in it to be handsome, and his interest in picking up girls is far greater than flying a plane.

After graduating, Thomas worked as a professional polo player for a while and won several medals in international competitions. Later, somehow he blended into the military world.

John thought of him, on the one hand, because this guy has a wide network in the United States and is related to the White House. On the other hand, because he is a Rolls-Royce enthusiast. Thomas not only has his own collection of Rolls-Royce cars, but also acts as an agent for the sales rights of Rolls-Royce cars in the United States, and has a good personal relationship with the senior management of Rolls-Royce.

As for the other help that John thought of, he didn't have the energy to "hook up" himself. Randolph had to be asked to probe and see if he could get Churchill to help pull the strings.

The man John wanted to "hook up" with was the future British Air Marshal, Sir Wilfried Freeman, who is currently a member of the Royal Air Force Commission and in charge of research and development and aircraft production.

Sir Freeman's track record in the development of new aircraft for the British Air Force was impressive. "Hurricane", "Spitfire", "Lancaster", "Wellington", "Halifax", "Mosquito" and other famous aircraft of World War II are all his eyes.

In particular, the success of the "Mosquito" aircraft allowed the knight to gain a reputation as the "Eye of God" in the aviation industry.

At that time, everyone thought that the design of the twin-engine "mosquito" bomber was very ridiculous. Isn't it crazy to invest resources in the development of an unarmored bomber made of wood plywood in the context of a serious shortage of resources in wartime? How does it fly to Germany and back safely?

Sir Freeman's decision to develop the Mosquito bomber was called "Freeman's stupidity".

However, the Mosquito later became the most flexible and versatile military aircraft of World War II. With the addition of weapons, it can be turned into a night fighter, an anti-submarine aircraft, a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft (flying too high for any German fighter to reach), a bomber (with a modified bomb load more than the B-17).

Arguably, Sir Freeman was the most influential figure in the British military to the aviation industry. Such a "high-powered" big man, it would have been difficult for John to get involved with it.

Fortunately, he was promoted by Churchill when he was Secretary of State for the Air Force, and the two men have historically worked well together during World War II. John could only ask Randolph to go to Churchill to see if he could "get some light".

Thomas's response was quick, and he received a call from John in the afternoon, and the next day he brought Rolls-Royce's vice president in charge of sales to John.

This time, Rolls-Royce was much more cheerful. They agreed to have John act as an agent for the sale of the Greyback Falcon engine in North America, and could even provide John with four prototypes for free.

But for the production authorization, Rolls-Royce is not relenting. It doesn't matter whether John buys the patent or the production line directly. They didn't even want to sell the repair line, and only promised to send John an after-sales technical service team.

John waited for a few more days, but Randolph never answered. It is estimated that the plan to touch Churchill's light is out of play. But think about it, what kind of character is Churchill, where would he help John do such a small thing of "flies and dogs".

Besides, John is not his person, the cousin of his cousin's ex-wife, this relationship is not even a distant relative.

Seeing that Hughes's preparations for the round-the-world flight were all in place, John decided not to wait any longer. After a phone call with Hughes, he signed a letter of intent with Rolls-Royce on behalf of Hughes Aircraft Company to represent the North American sales of the Falcon family of engines.

This time, John kept an eye on it, and in the letter of intent, he rounded up the follow-up improved models of the Grayback Falcon. You must know that there is still a lot of room for improvement in the booster system and fuel injection system of the Grayback Falcon, and the Grayback Falcon 61, which has not yet come out, is a good match for the P-51 in John's mind.

After signing the letter of intent, John finally completed the last task of his trip to Europe. A whole month of travel, really informative. not only did business, met relatives, made friends, but also made a cameo appearance in 007. Although it was not very successful, it was a surprise to meet De Gaulle, Hitler, and Churchill.

On July 10, John's family boarded the cruise ship "Queen Mary" and traveled from Southampton to New York. On the ship, he unexpectedly met an "old acquaintance".