After the afternoon session, John followed General William Lee to the lounge next door to the lecture hall, accompanied by Lieutenant Colonel Willis and Captain Gavin. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

"I wonder if Colonel Vanderbilt is interested in military gliders?" William Lee had been a professional soldier for most of his life, and his words and deeds were obviously far from the standard of a "good businessman." After a brief pleasantries, he got straight to the point.

"Of course there is interest, but I don't know what kind of glider the general wants?" John was most afraid of talking to people like William Lee about business, and he was too straightforward to leave him no room at all.

"The wingspan is 20 meters, the length is 12 meters, the height is 3 meters, the wing area is 40 square meters, the air is less than 1 ton, the maximum take-off load is 3 tons, the maximum gliding speed is more than 220 km / h, in addition to carrying 2 crew members, it must also be able to adapt to 13 infantry, 1 jeep plus 7 infantry, 1 75 howitzer plus 1 artillery group three load combinations."

The answer for William Lee was Lieutenant Colonel Willis, who, as the chief training officer of the airborne, knew very well what kind of gliders the 503 Brigade needed. As soon as John finished speaking, he reported a long list of design parameters and requirements.

John nodded, and judging by the data, William Lee was looking for a vehicle with similar performance to the German DFS 230 light assault glider. The development of such an aircraft was too pediatric for Hughes Aircraft Company.

"Light glider, has the bidding started at the right field base?" John continued.

"It started last week, but only a few small companies applied. We urgently need 80 gliders now, the sooner the better. William Lee said with some eagerness.

80 was just enough for a glider infantry regiment to train on, and John immediately knew why no one had applied for the bid. What are you kidding, what aircraft company would design and develop a new aircraft for an order of less than $100,000? The small company that William Lee is talking about is probably the kind of small workshop with only a few people.

William Lee also knew that John was too little, and hurriedly said: "You also know that 80 is just the beginning. At present, the 503 Brigade is only an experimental unit, and it will definitely be expanded in the future. Military gliders are also disposable consumables, and the demand will not be small. ”

Without William Lee painting him a cake, John also knew how much "money" the business would have in the future. However, John didn't want to talk to William Lee about it today, because it was useless to talk to them.

Although the "Air Infantry Program" was assigned to the Infantry Bureau of the War Department, the establishment of the 503 Brigade was also assigned to the Army. But the aircraft they use is still from the Army Air Corps. In other words, the U.S. Airborne Forces themselves do not have aircraft, whether it is a C-47 transport aircraft or a CG-4 military glider, they are all subordinate to the Army Air Corps, and they are only assigned to fight with them.

So even if John had negotiated with William Lee today, it would be useless, because he was not in charge of the procurement at all. To put it bluntly, if the U.S. military wants to order military gliders, it should also be the Army Air Corps' Right Field Base that is responsible for bidding, acceptance, and procurement. He was in such a hurry to find John, purely because the emperor was not in a hurry, and the eunuch was in a hurry.

"Well, I'll call Hughes and ask him if he's interested." John didn't say anything to death, and gave an ambiguous answer.

Gavin tried to help his boss continue to persuade him, but was interrupted by John: "Forgive me, General. In my opinion, gliders are not necessarily suitable for our Airborne Forces. ”

"Why do you say that?" William Lee's expression suddenly became serious. Willis and Gavin on the side sat up a little nervously, it seemed that this old man was still very prestigious in the 503rd Brigade.

However, in front of Roosevelt and Churchill, John could talk eloquently, and naturally it was impossible to be intimidated by the "tiger might" of a brigadier general. He smiled slightly, and began to lay out the facts and reason with William Lee.

"Gliders are slow, poorly handled, and have low protection, and there is simply no way to break through the interception of dense anti-aircraft fire on the ground. I think all three of us should be very clear about this. "John criticized the glider as useless as soon as he came up, and William Lee, although they had the heart to refute it, had to admit that what he said was the truth.

"Yes, gliders have the advantage of being flexible and sudden, but they are only suitable for local skirmishes. For example, the battle of the Germans to capture the fortress of Eben-Emer. John continued: "They used a total of 40 gliders and parachuted a small force of a few hundred men. The suddenness of the attack was the key to the success or failure of that airborne operation. ”

"But for our Airborne Forces, such skirmish operations are not the main combat mission. The air infantry program was designed to be a large-scale airborne operation from the beginning, right? John said confidently: "Although I don't know what the War Department is planning, but the experimental unit is at the brigade level, and the size of the airborne troops in the future will certainly not be less than one division, and there may even be an airborne army." How can such a large-scale airborne force ensure the suddenness of the action when it is carried out by airborne? ”

"Moreover, it was no different than in 1940, when airborne tactics had just appeared, and everyone had no sense of precaution. In the future, the methods of anti-airborne operations will inevitably be constantly supplemented and improved. When the time comes, if we still use gliders on a large scale in the process of airborne, we will definitely suffer heavy losses. John is not alarmist, the performance of gliders in large-scale airborne operations in World War II has been lackluster historically.

During the Battle of Sicily in July 1943, a British brigade flew in 144 military gliders to capture the Pendgerand Bridge. As a result, 69 gliders fell into the sea, 605 parachutes were killed in the sea, 49 landed within 10 kilometers of the target, and only 26 landed at the intended location.

In the Normandy landings of 1944, more than 500 military gliders were even more severely damaged. At that time, under the pressure of intensive ground anti-aircraft artillery fire, many transport pilots dishooked ahead of time before they could fly to the designated position, so that the gliders did not have enough range to go deep behind enemy lines. Even if they barely flew to their destination, the poor landing state caused huge damage to the personnel and weapons and equipment on board.

"But there's no better way than a glider. The formation of combat effectiveness after parachute landing is much slower than that of aircraft landing, and the combat capability of the airborne troops will also be greatly reduced due to the lack of necessary vehicles and heavy weapons. Gavin retorted that he was more "familiar" with John.

"Wrong, I knew that there was a flying machine that was more suitable for the Airborne Forces than a glider." John began to buy the guanzi again.

William Lee and Willis immediately lit up and eagerly asked, "What flying machine?" What is better than a glider? ”

John smiled smugly and whispered mysteriously, "I wonder if you've heard of helicopters?" ”