In addition to the army, the development of the air force is also not satisfactory, the Sichuan aircraft factory was developed from the Mawei Engineering Department, before the internal relocation was a small factory, not even a factory, but this workshop, produced coastal patrol aircraft, torpedo attack aircraft, so that China oil a group of valuable talents.

When Zhuang Jihua heard that they had produced torpedo attack aircraft, his eyes almost fell, and he was deeply glad for himself and China and felt sorry at the same time, because there were too few such talents, and many key technologies were not in their hands, such as engines, so they could only buy them from abroad.

With Boeing's cooperation, the aircraft factory has developed rapidly, and in two years, from the engine to the electronic instrument, it has all been domestically produced, which is required by Zhuang Jihua, and the things that come from abroad must be localized, which is worried that after being blocked, the parts and components will not come in; Moreover, in the past two years, Zhuang Jihua has not put forward any production requirements for them, only one of them, training skilled workers, and the order to Wang Zhu was also changed last year, requiring him to design a single-wing flexible high-speed fighter as soon as possible.

After receiving the order, Wang Zhu did a very simple thing, investigated the current combat manufacturers in the United States, and finally chose the North American company and the Curtis company and bought them. The two companies belong to the same company, North American Airlines, a holding company that holds a long list of well-known aircraft manufacturing and shipping companies, including Curtis Aircraft and Engines and Curtis-Robert Aircraft Manufacturing. Curtis-Caproni Company, Wright Aeronautical Industries, Travel Shipping, Northern Aircraft Company, and Giston Aircraft Company. Later, taking advantage of the low stock price during the Great Depression, he bought Sperry) Gyroscope Company, Pitcern Shipping Company, Berliner-Joyce Aircraft Company, Ford Instruments, Universal Shipping Company, and Intercontinental Shipping Company. Even holds a large number of shares in the Douglas Aircraft Company.

But the Great Depression put the company in trouble, and Roosevelt's Airmail Act made it illegal to control both aircraft manufacturing and airlines, and North American Airlines had to be dismantled, and the company's founder, Clement Kiss, was as disheartened as William Boeing, but he persevered for more than a year before finally selling off his stock. As a result, Curtis became independent, and North American companies were left with aircraft manufacturing, which had been greatly reduced, and the company was in trouble. / Wang Zhu's acquisition came at the right time.

Wang Zhu chose these two companies because he liked the design team of the former, and Wang Zhu himself was a technician. He appreciates the phrase "the design team is the lifeblood of an aircraft company", and New North American Airlines has a group of outstanding designers, and Wang Zhu is very satisfied with them after communicating with them. He once wanted to dig these people into Boeing, but these people refused, because they were all discovered by the old E Bridge of the North American company. So Wang Zhu simply bought the North American company. For the latter, it is because the Hawk 3 fighter they produce is currently the main fighter of the Chinese Air Force. After Wang Zhu acquired these two companies. They weren't merged, they were left as they were. Let them compete with each other.

After the acquisition, Curtis's designers quickly came up with a new type of aircraft, the Tomahawk. The designers of the North American company, on the other hand, came up with the idea of a new aircraft, but it was only an idea. Wang Zhu supported their idea. Then it was decided to introduce the P40 to China.

The introduction of the P40 into China is a risky move, and the United States will never interfere, so Mr. Mei and Wang Zhu discussed a set of complicated processes, first in the name of Sino-US joint venture to build an aircraft factory, ask the US Department of Commerce to let go, and then send American engineers to Sichuan to help build the factory, after more than a year of hard work, the aircraft factory in Zigong has all the ability to produce engines, aviation guns, rapid-fire machine guns, aircraft communication equipment, and so on.

But the most important thing is how to get the P40 to China, if the drawings are taken like this, Wang Zhu will undoubtedly face the trial of espionage in the United States, but if he does not take it, Wang Zhu and the money invested by Zhuang Jihua in the United States will become meaningless.

Then it was the turn of the Nationalist Government, and Chiang Kai-shek asked Yu Dawei and Wang Geng to lead a delegation to the United States in February, ordering 50 P40 fighters and 24 B17 Flying Fortresses from the United States. At the same time, the U.S. Army Department of war certainly did not want to approve the transfer of P40 manufacturing technology to the U.S. government, but Roosevelt intervened, and he approved the technology transfer, on the condition that it could only be equipped with the Chinese Air Force and not exported to the country, and that the P40 should be increased to 100 planes in the purchase area, and this condition was naturally accepted. /

As soon as the agreement was announced, it immediately aroused strong protests from the Japanese side, holding that the United States was arming China and that the United States was biased in favor of China on the Sino-Japanese issue, and the US Government rejected Japan's protest, believing that it was just normal trade, and that Japan also sent a large number of weapons and ammunition to Chen Jitang from Guangdong and Li Zongren from Guangxi last year. In the face of cross-examination by the US side, the Japanese ambassador was speechless.

Another objection came from within Boeing, which was relatively small and confined to Boeing, arguing that it would never be possible to make money from China by selling the P40 so easily and so thoroughly. Wang Zhu did not dare to slack off, and personally summoned those middle-level cadres and technicians who had opinions, explained to them in detail the tense relations between China and Japan, and pointed out that a war would soon break out between the two countries, and if the US government declared neutrality at that time and banned the export of weapons to the two countries, then Boeing would no longer be able to make money in this war, and the Sichuan Aircraft Manufacturing Company would have Boeing shares and use it to produce P40, and Boeing would not only not lose money, but would make money on the contrary. This argument persuaded the opposition within Boeing, and Wang Zhu took the opportunity to send more than 100 engineers to China to direct the production of the P40. /

One hundred P40s and twenty-four air fortresses thrilled the Nationalist Air Force, but in the end they only had half of them, and the other half was handed over to the Southwest Pacification Office.

The Air Force School in Sichuan was established as early as 34 years, and the school is divided into flight, ground support, and maintenance, and has trained nearly 100 flight and ground crews, and more than 200 overseas Chinese have returned from the United States, and these overseas Chinese have received flight training, but they are all conducted in non-governmental flying clubs, and have not received formal air combat training.

In recent years, 12 airfields have been built in Liangping, Changshou, Qijiang, Longchang, Jiangjin and other places around Chongqing, but the trouble is that there are no large bombers that can take off and land B17, and Zhuang Jihua immediately ordered the expansion of the airfield in Longchang, Qijiang.

The plane is a tiger that eats oil, but fortunately, in the past two years, the Southwest Development Team has stockpiled some aviation gasoline, vehicle gasoline, and diesel. However, out of the idea of prolonging the war, Zhuang Jihua still asked Hong Junqi to buy stored gasoline, and all kinds of gasoline should be purchased in large quantities. Hong Junqi was so anxious that he had to build a large number of warehouses again.

It is not that there are no planes in the southwest, Liu Xiang has an air force, when all the planes are old-fashioned planes, and there are no bombs, there was an interesting incident during the Sichuan Civil War. This time, Zhuang Jihua also took advantage of the situation to incorporate his small flying team.

However, there were planes and pilots, but experienced air force commanders did not, so Zhuang Jihua had no choice but to turn his attention to the central government and ask Chiang Kai-shek for help. Chiang Kai-shek asked Wang Shuming in confusion, and Wang Shuming recommended Gao Zhihang.

Gao Zhihang, a native of Northeast China, entered the customs after 918 and transferred to the central government, where he studied flight and destroyer tactics in France, and is one of the few professionals in the Chinese Air Force. In 1934, he went to Italy for a year of study and inspection, and after returning to China in 1935, he was responsible for training all destroyer pilots in Nanchang. Wang Shuming can recommend him, also because of the fifty P40 and twelve B17.

At the end of April, Gao Zhihang arrived in Chongqing with Li Guidan and Le Yiqin, and took up the post of the newly established Sixth Flight Group, which was under the jurisdiction of the 2nd Aviation Squadron and the 27th Squadron, with Li Guidan and Le Yiqin as the squadron leaders, and each squadron had 24 aircraft.

Zhuang Jihua was very happy with Gao Zhihang's arrival, he rushed back from the longevity Yang Sen army and personally received Gao Zhihang and the three.

"Colonel Gao, I have heard about you for a long time, you can suppress Mussolini, you give the Chinese a long face." Zhuang Jihua looked at the tall and heroic young soldier in front of him.

When Gao Zhihang was in Italy, he participated in the Italian air show, when Italian Prime Minister Mussolini was there to watch, and thought it was an Italian pilot, so he praised it, but he did not expect that it was actually a Chinese, which surprised him, but he could not take back his previous words, so he had to withdraw the medal that was ready to be issued, and only praised a few words in his mouth, but the matter was still spread by the reporters on the scene, and the more it spread, the more God, Gao Zhihang's reputation in China became more and more famous.

"The deputy director is overrated, and I'd rather not be in that show." Gao Zhihang replied neither humbly nor arrogantly, Mussolini took back the medal, Zhuang Jihua was looking at him, and he was also looking at Zhuang Jihua.

This deputy director doesn't look a few years older than him, but he is such a person, who takes one-fifth of China into his arms; The Great Wall War of Resistance forced the elite Kwantung Army to sue for peace; In the blink of an eye, China's first aircraft factory was built, and in recent years, newspapers have repeatedly boasted of the great success of southwest development; The Xi'an Incident has the merit of protecting the sky and becoming a rising star in the officialdom.

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