John picked up his rifle and brought his right eye closer to the crosshairs, aiming at a ram three hundred meters away. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 He held his breath and gently pulled the trigger. After the gunshots rang out, an Army Air Corps officer standing next to him raised his binoculars and confirmed that the target had been hit. This sturdy ram brought off a short but "very rewarding" hunting trip.

It's an inaccessible desert area in southern Nevada, full of gravel hills and low shrubs. It is now a military-affiliated weapons testing ground, less than 100 kilometers from the fledgling casino city of Las Vegas, and John has long suspected that the mysterious Area 51 may be nearby.

This morning, John and a group of colleagues from the Military Production Committee accompanied the Army Air Corps delegation here to watch a demonstration of the D-2 plane's use of the Norton bomb sight. The morning demonstration was a great success, and all military officials were impressed by the excellent performance of the D-2 long-range bomber and Norton bomber sights.

John was sure that the first military order from Hughes Aircraft was already beckoning to him. At his suggestion, this small hunt was held in the afternoon to celebrate the success of the airplane bombing demonstration in the morning.

In the evening, in the middle of several military tents, a roaring bonfire was lit. Chefs from Las Vegas prepared a sumptuous dinner: fresh trout, grilled chicken, grilled lamb chops, hot muffins, corn on the cob, lemon pie, and Scotch whisky and cigars.

Some sat around the campfire, chatting casually over a meal. John and the others set up a card table in the tent and started the game of cards tonight. Everyone is enjoying this rare relaxing time. Tomorrow morning, business jets will bring them back to the "civilized world" and start a new round of busyness.

John's bridge partner tonight is Carl Norton, the inventor of the Norton bomber sight. Norton was a Swiss, and in John's impression, there were generally two types of Swiss. One is the person who makes those delicate and expensive items, and the other is the one who helps those who can afford these delicate and expensive items to manage their wallets. Carl Norton is the best of these first kinds.

A graduate of the prestigious Zurich Institute of Technology, Norton immigrated to the United States during World War I and opened his own company on Galeries Lafayette Street in Manhattan. The Norton Bomber Sight is strictly his personal work in his spare time. As a devout Christian, he invented the sight with the intention of allowing the plane to bomb only the target it wanted to bomb, so as to prevent innocent people from being harmed.

Carl Norton was the most brilliant mechanical engineer John had ever met, always wearing a three-piece suit, with a small but well-groomed beard, a bright mind, quick thinking, confidence, conceit, and even some narcissism. He rarely drinks alcohol, but drinks a lot of coffee every day and works tirelessly 16 hours a day. Just give him a slide ruler and he can work alone for hours.

During the day today, military officials praised the Norton bomber sight to the Swiss engineer's delight. In the evening, he made an exception and drank a few more glasses of whiskey, and talked a lot more at the table than before.

John's opponents were his new friend, Captain Hoyt Vandenberg, and Vandenberg's friend, Major Heywood Hansel, a graduate of West Point. (Historically, Hansel served as commander of Europe's first B-17 combat wing officer.) At the end of World War II, Major General Bai commanded the B-29 Wing to bomb Tokyo. Vandenberg and Hansel, both "strategic bombers" in the Army Air Corps, praised the D-2 bomber, which could reach 2,300 miles with 5,000 pounds of bombs.

John told them that the D-2 was currently using four Pratt & Whitney R1830 air-cooled piston engines with a power of 883 kilowatts. In the future, when the cooperation between Hughes Aircraft and Rolls-Royce is successful, the overall performance of the aircraft can be greatly improved by replacing it with a 1037 kilowatt Merlin 61 engine.

Both Vandenberg and Hansel were very excited about this, and said that they would urge Lieutenant Colonel Hal (Harold George, nicknamed "Hall", chief of operations of the Army Air Corps Command) to complete the inspection report as soon as possible, and strive to submit the procurement plan to the War Department before the end of the year.

John drank so many more glasses for this good news that he kept making mistakes that night. If it weren't for his partner Carl Norton's best efforts to save it, John would have almost lost all the money in his pocket.

Early the next morning, John returned to Washington with several colleagues from the Military Industrial Production Committee. They were former executives of big business, such as John's current boss, Donald Nelson, who coordinates the procurement of weapons and equipment on the Munitions Review Board committee, is the general manager of Sears. The guy's owner, Robert Wood, chairman of Sears Department Store, is a well-known isolationist who recently became chairman of the "America First" committee.

Now John is no longer surprised by this kind of two-sided behavior. In fact, this is the normal practice of major families, companies, and consortia at present. Like Henry Ford, it's not uncommon for big entrepreneurs to jump headlong into the isolationist camp, but these well-informed old fellows usually send a cronie or relative to join the main battle camp to leave a way out for themselves.

But until now, Edsel, the son of Henry Ford Sr., has not shown any signs of taking sides, much to John's baffle. It stands to reason that the "main battle faction" could not have sent an invitation to Edsel. No wonder in the future, Ford cars will be scrutinized by Congress, such an unreasonable move, everyone will suspect that there is an ulterior relationship between them and the German Nazis.

Before the family left for Halloween at Grandma Susan's farm in North Carolina, John received the good news that the D-2 had passed the Army Air Corps' initial review. The Army Air Corps plans to purchase 15 D-2 bombers for service testing at first. It is estimated that by the end of the year, this final plan will be approved by the War Department and included in next year's military procurement list. While the service test typically takes two to three years, John is well aware that the impending war will significantly shorten the process.

For the sales of the D-2 bomber, John's psychological expectations were not too high. Historically, 19,000 Liberator B-24s have been produced, and the D-2, which is comparable to it and came out two years earlier, must not be less than it. Although it is not known what official name the military will give to D-2 in the end, John, who does not know much about names, has already begun to consider whether to snatch the historical code name "Liberator" from the B-24. At least it's a good lottery, isn't it?