Vandenberg is telling the truth, the Army Air Corps has indeed never "discriminated" against liquid-cooled engines, and even has some preference for liquid-cooled engines. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info for the army, anyway, their airfield is large enough, there are enough maintenance personnel and equipment, and the problem of troublesome maintenance of liquid-cooled engines is completely acceptable. Naturally, whatever engine works well, you can use it.

Historically, the United States has walked on two legs when it comes to choosing fighter engines. Liquid-cooled engines with small drag coefficient and high continuous power for army fighters; Naval fighters use easy-to-maintain, survivable, air-cooled engines. Although this will put more pressure on the logistics work, it can't stand the fact that the Americans have a lot of money and don't care at all.

In the eyes of other countries, the so-called dispute between air and liquid cooling by the US military is nothing more than the "happy troubles" of the "rich people". Because this shows that the United States is capable of developing two engines at the same time, and has achieved certain technological achievements in both of them.

And other so-called "air powers" are not as "extravagant" as the United States. They can only give priority to the development of a certain type of engine according to their own national conditions. For example, the United Kingdom and Germany have a good industrial foundation and a thick technical foundation, and they are more focused on the development of liquid-cooled engines with higher technical requirements. The BF-109, Spitfire, and Hurricane all use liquid-cooled engines, and even when the Spitfire was equipped on the British aircraft carrier, it was not said that it would be replaced with an air-cooled engine.

For example, the Soviet Union and Japan, which have a relatively thin foundation in the aviation manufacturing industry, have been concentrating on the research of air-cooled engines with low threshold, simple structure and easy production. Therefore, the lager and the zero have always used air-cooled engines. Even if they knew that the high-altitude performance of air-cooled engines was not good (at that time, the power of air-cooled engines would drop rapidly at high altitudes), they had to bite the bullet because they could no longer afford to develop liquid-cooled engines.

Of course, none of this has much to do with John. He's just a businessman, and Hughes Aircraft doesn't make aero engines. On this issue, his attitude is very clear: your army likes liquid-cooled engines, then I will go to Rolls-Roy to buy "Merlin". Your navy likes air-cooled engines, then I'll go to Pratt & Whitney to buy a "Wasp". In short, the customer is God, as long as you buy my plane, I guarantee that it will be according to your wishes, and it will definitely satisfy you. As for which engine is better in the end, that's John's business!

Although John was ridiculed by Vandenberg for a long time that night and lost face, it was not without gain. He found that the new version of H1 still has a place to go. Judging by the reactions of Vandenberg and others, the new version of H1 seems to be quite an appetite for the Army Air Corps. That's great.

To be honest, even if the Navy places an order, how many carrier-based fighters can it buy? One or two thousand are up to the sky. In contrast, the Army is the real big customer, and during World War II, the Army ordered more than 10,000 fighter jets. The production of the P-47 Thunderbolt and the P-51 Mustang both exceeded 15,000.

Now, John couldn't bother with his previous "low-level mistakes". He called Remo overnight and asked him to prepare the materials and apply again to the military ordering authority at the Right Field Base. Because H1 had been "shot" by the right field base once before, and the new version of H1 has been greatly improved in terms of appearance and performance, John simply asked Remo to use the new number H2 in the material. Let's hope the new name brings good luck.

On the phone, John asked Remo to concentrate on the H1 and H2 declarations, and put aside the matter of replacing the liquid-cooled engine for the D-2 for the time being. After a day of "popular science" by "professionals" such as Remo and Vandenberg, John also knew that his previous idea of replacing all aircraft with Merlin engines was a bit too "taken for granted".

The Merlin engine is really good, but it's not a panacea either. For a long-range bomber, the D-2's greatest threat came from being intercepted by air and ground fire, and the weakness of the liquid-cooled engine was too deadly. Although the British "Lancaster" and "Halifax" all use Merlin, it is not that the British do not have air-cooled engines. John now has Pratt & Whitney's "Wasp" available, so why bother to change the liquid cooling, the extra power is not very useful.

Moreover, it seems that HP's "double hornets" are about to come out. (Pratt & Whitney double-row wasp R-2800, P-47 Thunderbolt is used in this) Compared with Rolly, who can't be beaten by eight poles, John himself has a much closer relationship with Pratt & Whitney.

On the surface, Pratt & Whitney was once an important part of the Boeing family. Prior to the enactment of the Air Postal Act in 1934, Pratt & Whitney's parent company, United Technologies Corporation (which started with the production of Otis elevators), formed a Rockefeller-like trust from engines to airplanes to airlines with Boeing Aircraft Company and United Airlines, which was one of the giants of the American aviation industry.

But John knew from a young age that any American company that wanted to become big would inevitably be mixed up by a big consortium in the end. The seemingly huge Boeing system is actually a kind of alliance of various consortiums investing in the aviation industry, and the old Boeing is just a "butler" who has been pushed to the front of the stage, and has never been the master of this aviation empire.

When it comes to Pratt & Whitney, who is behind it? As you can see from the name Pratt Whitney, there must be a shadow of the Whitney family in it. Speaking of which, the relationship between this family and the Vanderbilt family goes back a long way.

The Whitneys began as railroad owners (Henry Whitney founded the Boston West End Street Railroad), and later William Whitney, as Secretary of the Navy, presided over the rebuilding of the U.S. Navy, which had been shattered by the Civil War. The Whitney family also took advantage of this opportunity to infiltrate the US military industry and became one of the US arms giants.

But in John's circle, when talking about the Whitneys, the first things that come to mind are the "Skull and Bones Club", horse racing, and art collections. These three are the hallmarks of almost every member of the Whitney family.

The family first developed after William Whitney joined the "Skull and Bones Society" at Yale University, and the subsequent generations of male members of the Whitney family were members of the "Skull and Bones Society". There is not much to say about this, and the reason is not much like John's joining the "Freemasonry".

The tradition of horse racing also began with William Whitney, and it was first used as a means to break into high society. Over the generations, however, horse racing has become a family tradition. The family participated in or sponsored most of the equestrian competitions in the United States and even Europe, and even the polo league in the United States was later called the "Whitney Cup".

However, the investment in art was a hole dug for them by the Vanderbilt family. The first person to dig the pit was Mrs. Whitney, the founder of the famous Whitney Art Museum. Before she got married, her name was Gechu Vanderbert. Yes, this Mrs. Whitney was John's uncle, the only daughter of Cornelius Vanderbert II. Her husband is Harry Whitney, and her son is the current head of the Whitney family, Pan Am President Cornelius Vanderbert Whitney.

The name shows how close the Whitney and Vanderbilt families were. John's desire to deepen his cooperation with Pratt & Whitney is much easier than with Rolls-Royce.