Just an AK47 assault rifle has allowed the Tang Empire to earn enough foreign exchange, and advanced aircraft such as the Raptor and Hellfire are also among the exports, and the value is even greater.

According to the Tang Army's export principle, exports are restricted unless the military uses higher-grade and more advanced weapons and equipment.

Previously, the Tang Army only exported the reduced version of the Raptor and Hellfire series fighters in terms of fighters, but in the past few years since the outbreak of World War II, countries have been copying them, and there is a trend of blue out of blue.

Fighters such as the Raptor and Hellfire were retired after ten years of service in the Tang Army and turned to export, while the replacement aircraft were a number of new jet engines.

According to the algebraic classification, jet aircraft belong to the third generation, and all countries have researched them, but only the Tang Empire is at the forefront and has developed a real jet fighter.

Whether it is Germany's ME262, the Soviet Union's MiG-3, or the United States' XP86, although they have turned the aircraft into a jet, which can theoretically fly 700 kilometers per hour, the actual test flight speed has not exceeded 600 kilometers per hour.

For the efficiency of propeller and jet aircraft, the aircraft speed is 700 kilometers per hour lower, and the efficiency of a pure jet engine is lower than that of a propeller-type engine, as its propulsion efficiency is largely determined by the speed at which it flies. Thus, pure turbojet engines are best suited for higher flight speeds. However, due to the turbulence caused by the high blade tip speed of the propeller, the propeller efficiency decreases rapidly above 500 km/h. These characteristics have led some medium-speed aircraft to use a combination of propeller and gas turbine engines - turboprop engines instead of pure turbojets.

This is the real reason for the hybrid turboprop engine used in the first generation of Raptor fighters in the Tang Empire, and at this time Germany, the Soviet Union and the United States did not jump out of this circle of thinking. However, after a long period of research and experimentation, the Tang Empire finally broke through this barrier in 1941 with the help of a large number of data tests in the world's top super wind tunnel. A jet engine was developed that allowed the Raptor fighter to reach speeds of up to 850 km/h.

The second generation of the Raptor, the Tang Army continued to use this code name and distinguished it from the second generation.

The new generation of Raptor fighters benefited from the rapid development of the Tang Empire's air compressor Jishu and gas turbine Jishu, which combined to form the most critical core components of the jet engine.

In terms of aerodynamic layout, the Tang Empire took a shortcut, and Zhang Meng personally drew a sketch of the layout of the swept wing aircraft, which was handed over to the aircraft designers of the Aviation Administration to re-study the design. After the top-level super wind tunnel group test, the Raptor II jet fighter of the Tang Empire was able to achieve its first flight at the end of 1942, and was officially delivered to the Royal Air Force of the Tang Empire in March 1943 for verification.

When the Tang Empire and the Soviet Union signed an agreement on the export of Raptor generation fighters. The Tang Army began mass production of Raptor II fighters to replace the Raptor generation fighters in service with the Tang Army.

The appearance of the second-generation Raptor fighter of the Tang Army has undergone revolutionary changes, which is completely different from the first-generation Raptor fighter. Due to the installation of a single-engine jet engine, a swept wing was adopted. The layout of the aircraft's wheels has also changed from the previous front two and one back one to the front one and the back two.

A long spear protrudes from the nose. It is a new generation of radio antenna system. Underneath the pilot's cockpit is a large circular air intake with a connected air compressor, gas turbine, afterburner and circular tail nozzle.

The second-generation Raptor still attaches great importance to weapons and armor protection, and is equipped with two 30 mm caliber cannons, but the aluminum alloy armor is no longer fully protected, but according to the combat experience since World War II, the armor is mainly front-mounted to resist frontal shells.

Of course, at this time, the Datang Air Force no longer developed only one type of fighter. Instead, fighters are divided into different categories according to their operational use. It also derives the Raptor interceptor used to intercept bombers, and the Raptor Attack Aircraft used to cover ground battles, etc., and is equipped with armor protection of different parts according to different uses, such as the Raptor's main strengthening of the belly armor protection.

The Tang Empire was founded on high technology, and the development of electronic jishu was the most rapid, and the airborne small radar system has been realized, which can be installed in the second-generation Raptor fighter, so that the pilots of the Tang Army can be discovered by the enemy first, occupy a favorable position in advance to attack the enemy, and greatly improve the probability of winning the battle.

At the same time, the second generation of the Raptor fighter carrier-based version was also developed, and the large aircraft carriers of the Tang Army were successively replaced with more powerful steam catapults and blocking cables and other supporting devices.

The steam catapult used by the Tang Army before was two slide rails to tow the two front wheels of the fighter, and now the second generation aircraft of the Tang Army use swept wings, the wheel layout of the front one and the rear two, so the catapult also had to be replaced with a single slide rail, which greatly reduces the operation process of the catapult and improves the success rate of the catapult.

However, the carrier-based jet aircraft has a long taxiing distance, which is only suitable for the second-generation large aircraft carriers of the Tang Army, and only the flight deck length of the second-generation aircraft carrier is sufficient, and the success rate of take-off can be ensured after assisting the catapult, and as a generation of Tianwang-class aircraft carriers, because it is a straight-through flight deck, it still uses the first-generation Raptor as a carrier-based aircraft.

Of course, the Tang Army is ready to retire the Tianwang-class aircraft carriers, because they firmly believe that the jet fighters on the second-generation aircraft carriers are enough to defeat the carrier-based aircraft of any country, because whether it is Germany, the Soviet Union or the United States, their jet fighters are land-based, and the speed does not exceed 600 kilometers per hour, while the Tang Army's second-generation fighters have a minimum speed of more than 800 kilometers per hour, and with the strongest 30 mm cannon firepower and the most advanced radar system, they have an advantage in battle. Victory is almost certain.

Therefore, the Tang Army not only wants to retire the first-generation aircraft carriers ahead of schedule, but also cancels the escort aircraft carriers, because the 20 second-generation aircraft carriers of the Tang Army alone are enough to seize overwhelming sea and air superiority.

However, the Datang Ministry of Defense was still very cautious and did not agree to the Navy's request to continue to retain a generation of aircraft carriers and escort aircraft carriers for service.

In addition to the Raptor series, the Tang Army also replaced jet engines with bombers and reconnaissance aircraft.

Among them, the Hellfire II continues to be used, and the land-based Hellfire II bomber has increased its weight by several tons after installing a jet engine, and the payload has not changed much, and it can still carry 1,000 kg of aerial bombs. However, the weapon system has changed greatly, and instead of installing a cannon weapon system for close combat, two sets of rocket launchers are installed under the wings, equipped with 12 30 mm caliber rockets, which can be used to control the enemy in the air, and can also be used to attack ground and sea target ships.

The second-generation Thunder bomber equipped with a jet engine has greatly increased its power, although its range has not changed much, with a combat radius of 1,500 kilometers, but its size has doubled, the fuselage alone weighs 37 tons, the normal take-off weight reaches 72 tons, the normal bomb load reaches 3.5 tons, and the maximum bomb load reaches 9 tons, which has surpassed the Great White Crane strategic bomber.

In this way, the Tang Army's definition of the category of bombers has also changed, light bombers can be loaded with 3~5 tons of bombs, medium bombers can be loaded with 5~10 tons of bombs, and heavy bombers can be loaded with 10~30 tons of bombs.

As a result, the Great White Crane heavy bomber of the Tang Army was reduced to a medium bomber, but among the Western shijie, the Great White Crane was still a heavy bomber. (To be continued......)