Volume 23 Springboard for Progress Section 63 Crossing the Sea

Lin Yan boarded the plane around 1 a.m., and his landline was the third of two four-plane formations in the group. The plane's engines are already running, and ground crews are doing the final checks. Before getting on the plane, an airport attendant brought Wu Linchan and each of them a bag of hot pure coffee, probably considering that these pilots had not rested well, so he prepared some coffee for them to refresh themselves.

"This is the flight route map that was just sent down." The co-pilot gave Wu Linfang the waterproof flight route diagram that had been wrapped in plastic. "We only need to follow the flight of No. 06 in front of us without a problem, this time led by Lao Wang."

"That's good, he's more experienced than us, and there shouldn't be much of a problem flying with him." Wu Linyan glanced at the flight route map and roughly calculated the flight distance. Because it needed to bypass several dangerous areas, pass through two deserted islands to determine the route, and finally need to avoid the anti-aircraft artillery positions of the American army, the final one-way range reached 2,400 miles. The average speed of the bomber was 520 miles per hour, which means that it took about four hours and 37 minutes to fly above the target.

The flight range is not a problem, the "Peng" bomber is capable of flying 8 kilometers after carrying 5200 bombs, and now it is carrying only a weight 7+, and the range should exceed 5500 kilometers, which is enough to fly for time. Even if you don't count the bombing time, it will take more than nine hours to fly back and forth, and this will be a severe test of the pilot's physical fitness, and perhaps the "Peng" bomber should have been considered to be equipped with three pilots in the first place. So that the pilots can be rotated during the flight.

The rest of the crew also boarded the plane and immediately began to check the status of the bomber and the necessary items they had brought with them. At 1:25 a.m., the No. 01 bomber was the first to glide to the end of the runway, and the first batch of four bombers would take off in two groups, followed by the second batch of four, and Wu Linran's bombers were sent in the fourth group. He will take off with bomber No. 08. At 1:35 a.m., Wu Linran's bomber taxied to the end of the runway, and he first slammed on the brakes while allowing the engine to reach its maximum speed. Wu Linyan did not immediately release the brakes, but first let the engine idle for nearly two minutes, during which time. He and the co-pilot took turns checking the working condition of the four engines and made sure that there were no problems. Wu Linchan then released the brakes, and then the 70-ton bomber was like a big stupid goose, taxiing on the runway to accelerate, when the speedometer pointed to the position of 125, Wu Linchan pulled up the control stick, and the bomber took off the ground and flew towards the night sky.

After flying for a few months, Wu Linchan was still a little uncomfortable with the speedometer installed on the bomber according to naval standards. At that time, the Imperial Army used the unit of speed km/h, and .= used knots. Because the "Peng" bomber was originally developed for the Navy. Therefore, the above is the naval standard, and the speedometer on the first production model that leaves the factory is the navy, which makes the pilots of the army aviation very uncomfortable, because they always want to convert the knots into how many kilometers per hour, which is very troublesome.

"Old Wu, the 8th machine flew back, damn it, his No. 4 engine came out of Mars!"

Wu Linfang immediately turned back. The bomber that was following them to the left had just taken off when it swerved to the left. Moreover, the angle of inclination of the aircraft was very large, and the engine located on the outside of the right side not only sparks, but also flames soon burst out. It was clear that the engine failed, and the bomber not only could not take part in the operation, but also had to try to make a forced landing on the airfield.

The four bombers behind did not take off immediately, and the seven bombers that had already taken off also began to circle over the airfield, and all the pilots were nervously watching the 8 bombers who were preparing for a forced landing. Because the bomber takes off with the maximum weight, and its allowable maximum landing weight is much lower than the take-off weight, if the maximum landing weight is exceeded, the landing gear will not be able to bear it, and it will inevitably break, eventually leading to the destruction of the plane and the death of people. That is to say, the 8 bombers have only two options, one is to release most of the fuel before landing, reducing the landing weight, and this requires the bomber to stay in the air as much as possible, after all, the fuel in the aircraft is not to say that it can be released completely. If the fire is not extinguished in time, the pilot will not even have time to escape, the bomber will erupt, and the firefighters on the ground will also need time to prepare to extinguish the fire.

8 The bomber has been seriously tilted, the wingtips on its right side are almost touching the ground, the bomber has entered the stall range, it is difficult for the pilot to control the bomber in this situation, and it is impossible to continue hovering in the air, that is, at this time the pilot has only one choice, that is, to force the landing. However, there were still four bombers on the tarmac next to the end of the runway that had not taken off, and if they had made a forced landing on the runway, the runway would have been damaged, and the four bombers would not have been able to fly. It was also this that the 8 bombers did not force their landing on the runway, but flew towards the lawn on the perimeter of the airfield, preparing to land on the lawn. At this time, the fire brigade on the airport also took action, and several fire engines were all dispatched, all speeding towards the lawn outside the airport.

"Slow down, damn it, flatten, flatten the plane!"

The pilots of the 8 bombers had done their best, but in the end it was still the wingtips of the right wing that first touched the ground, and then the fuselage hit the ground sideways, and the right wing also quickly snapped, and the huge fuselage bounced twice on the grass, and then rolled forward, at this time the left wing had also been broken, several propellers flew into the sky, and the outermost engine on the left was first thrown out, and an explosion occurred more than a hundred meters behind the plane. Fortunately, the fuselage did not burn, and the fire engine also quickly arrived, using high-pressure water cannons to cool the fuselage, and several officers and soldiers wearing asbestos fireproof suits quickly rushed into the plane and transferred the injured pilot.

The news came quickly, only the co-pilot of the 8 bombers was seriously injured, the other 8 people were only slightly injured, the problem was not very big, and the runway was not damaged, and the other four bombers were to take off immediately. At this point, Wu Linyan breathed a sigh of relief, you must know that the 9 people on the bomber were his best comrades-in-arms and a part of this army, and there was no Ren

What an accident happened to us. Later, after inspection, it was found that the ground crew had made a mistake with a small part when they were on the I. plane, and the result was that a small part eventually caused a bomber to crash. And such maintenance accidents are common accidents in the aviation forces of any country.

Soon, the last four bombers also took off. Eleven bombers quickly formed a formation and left the airfield. At this point, it's already 1:50. If they had flown at a normal speed, they would have been able to reach the target at about 6:27 at the earliest, which was more than 10 minutes later than the scheduled arrival time, so after entering the predetermined route, the captain of the No. 01 bomber who led the team decided to increase the flight speed and gain this time back during the flight. This consumes more fuel, which is not a big problem, after all, these bombers carry enough fuel on board.

After the crash of the 8th plane, the other 11 crew members were a little worried, but fortunately, there were no other accidents during the flight. The first few hundred kilometers of route were flown over the mainland, and the bombers flew at an altitude of 7,500 meters, which was southwest of Progreso on the Catan Peninsula in >, and the group entered the sea and immediately reduced the cruising altitude to 5,500 meters. At 10:10 a.m., the group's flight altitude was lowered to 1500 again, and a navigation beacon on Araklan Reef appeared in front of them.

Wu Linyan also saw the faint light coming from the lighthouse. That was the first waypoint on the route. The lighthouse was originally built for fishing boats fishing in the Gulf of Mexico to warn them to avoid the shallow reef-strewn waters. The Alachlan Reef is uninhabited, but there are people who come every month to maintain the lighthouse's grounding equipment. The fleet also adjusted the course here, and the navigator on the 01 long plane was the best navigator in the unit, and even the best navigator in the heavy bomber unit of the Army Aviation.

Start here. The fleet flew in a northwesterly direction, mainly in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, where there was a large number of U.S. ships. It may be difficult for the pilot of the bomber to see the ship on the sea at night, but the sailors on the ship can easily see the flashes of the plane's navigation lights and hear the noise of the aircraft. Perhaps the sailors would not be alert, but to be on the safe side, they would have to avoid the main areas where the American ships were active and make a detour from the western Gulf to New Orleans.

After flying northwest for about an hour and a half. The fleet lowered its altitude again to 500 at around 4:40 a.m. This is already a rather dangerous flight altitude, and you can no longer rely on the autopilot to fly, you have to be controlled by the pilot, and the two pilots have to cooperate with each other to control the aircraft.

Before 4:50, the captain of the team leader first saw the desert island in front of him. This deserted island is located about 20 nautical miles off the continental United States. There are no names on the map. There are no inhabitants on the island, and there are no navigation facilities either. The pilot was only able to make out the outline of the island by the help of the moonlight. Fortunately, the night sky was very clear at that time, and the navigator quickly determined the new course of the group by comparing the photos taken by the reconnaissance plane, and then the group turned at a low altitude. This time the arrival time was five minutes earlier than the scheduled time, so the captain of the lead also adjusted the flight speed after the turn.

This is the second waypoint on the route and the last one before the fleet enters the skies over the continental United States. Next, the group flew directly in the direction of New Orleans. There will only be a few small-scale steering evasions on the way, mainly to avoid a few radars set up by the US military near the coastline. By 10 a.m., the altitude of the group had dropped to 150, and it was almost close to the sea.

By 5:55, Wu Linyan and the co-pilot had been driving in turn for nearly two hours, and both of them felt very tired, but now was by no means the time to relax. Soon, the two of them saw the gray continental shadow in front of them. According to the plan, the fleet will enter the skies over the continental United States at six o'clock, and the arrival time at this time is not much different from the plan. There are few deviations.

The most dangerous moment came, although when designing the route. Luo Yunchong had already asked the bomber group to bypass the antiaircraft gun positions set up by the US troops on the outskirts of New Orleans as much as possible according to the information obtained by the reconnaissance planes before, and the plane group entered from the direction of the swamps, but no one dared to guarantee that the US troops had not adjusted the deployment position of the antiaircraft guns. That is, it is quite possible that the US military strengthened its air defense in this direction, deployed more anti-aircraft guns, and also arranged air defense units where anti-aircraft guns were not deployed before. If this is the case, then the group will be intercepted by anti-aircraft guns after entering the skies over the continental United States, which is the last thing pilots want to see.

Before entering the skies over the continental United States, the altitude of the group was lowered again, until the index on the altimeter was already showing zero (below 100, which is often referred to as "zero altitude" by pilots), and the bomber continued to descend dozens of meters, and the pilot sitting in the cockpit even felt that the plane was about to hit the ground. If this was flying in the mountains, even Wu Linfang would not have the courage to fly so low. The most fortunate thing for their group of pilots is that the swamp is relatively flat terrain with no undulations, so as long as the flight altitude is controlled, it will not hit the ground.

After flying in this highly tense state for more than ten minutes, Wu Linfang and the co-pilot were sweating profusely, and they did not notice in their nervousness that from the very beginning, no anti-aircraft guns fired at them, that is, the US military did not adjust the air defense deployment of New Orleans and did not strengthen the air defense forces in the southwest direction. Just when the two of them were nervous and about to have a nervous breakdown, suddenly a silver river appeared in front of them, if you don't look carefully, you will think that it is the Milky Way in the sky, but the river is not in the sky, but on the ground. It was the Mississippi River that passed near New Orleans and then emptied into the Gulf of Mexico, and it was also their destination this time!

The lead aircraft was the first to accelerate and turn, and the three bombers behind immediately followed. Wu Linfang is turning with the No. 05 bomber, and at this point, the group will disperse, separate targets! Sea Soul Volume 23 Springboard for Progress Section 63 Running across the sea