At present, the idea of a decisive battle of the fleet still dominates the minds of most of the senior commanders of the Navy. They still insisted on winning the war in a decisive battle of the "Battle of the Sea", and mainly through the artillery of battleships to solve the enemy.

As a matter of fact, from the moment the Navy was preparing to build the "Yamato"-class super battleships, it gave them the status of "the core of the battleship force" and regarded them as the trump card and main force in the decisive battle of the fleet. Now that the Chinese Navy has plans to challenge and surpass the "Yamato"-class battleships, it is a natural thing for Prince Fushimi Miyahiro and other high-ranking figures in the Navy's top echelons to revise the construction plan.

After the participants reached a consensus, Prince Fushimi Miyahiro went directly to the palace to meet the emperor and report to the emperor on the results of the meeting.

And when Yamamoto 56, the deputy head of the aviation headquarters, learned the news, he couldn't help but sigh.

"Funding is limited, instead of building such a giant battleship, it is better to build a few more aircraft carriers!" Major General Inoue Narumi shouted, "Stupid! Stupidity! ”

"This can't be blamed on them, it's the ship-building plan of the people of China that poses too much of a threat to Yuben." Yamamoto Fifty-six shook his head and said, "It is also necessary to build super battleships, but at the same time, it is necessary to develop aviation forces, and there should be no one between the two." ”

"Ben's financial resources are limited! It's impossible to have both fish and bear's paws! Inoue Narumi said hatefully.

In fact, as early as the decision to build a super battleship, the radicals of the Naval Aviation Headquarters had the saying that "the pyramids of Egypt, the Great Wall of China, and the 'Yamato' of the Yamato are the world's three major red deer (stupid things)". Because according to the original construction plan, the cost of building a single ship of the "Yamato" class battleship is 137,802,000 yuan, which still does not take into account the factors of prices and inflation, and this cost does not include the investment in the reconstruction and transformation of the shipyard, which is 12.134 tons of pure gold according to the current gold content of the yuan. This money was 0.16% of the country's GDP and 1.5% of the total national budget at that time. To put it more intuitively, in 1937, the total investment in the construction of private houses in the whole country was 138 million yuan, and in the same year, the total investment in road construction in the whole country was 135 million yuan, which was equivalent to the total cost of three "Feilong" class aircraft carriers or 1.6 "Xianghe" class aircraft carriers. Now, if you want to build two "Yamato" class battleships with a displacement of more than 100,000 tons, the funds, materials, and manpower used are enough to build 16 "Flying Dragon" class or 10 "Xianghe" class aircraft carriers.

In Inoue's view, if the old guys of the Military Command Department can adopt the opinions of Isoroku Yamamoto and him of the Aviation Headquarters, even if there is a war with China and the United States at the same time in the future, the Navy will have 20 to 32 active aircraft carriers in the Pacific Ocean at that time, and will have the strength to overwhelm the aircraft carrier fleets of the US Navy and the Chinese Navy in the early stage of the war. If the Military Command Department and the Combined Fleet can combine this superiority in forces and change from defensive strategic thinking to offensive at the right time, then it is not impossible to push the front line of the Navy's Command to the line of the Alaska-West Coast of the United States and the Panama Canal, and the situation of the entire war will certainly change dramatically.

Although he was vice president of the Aviation Headquarters and a staunch supporter of the "aviation faction," Isoroku Yamamoto, who had participated in the Battle of Tsushima, had a serious imprint of the "fleet faction" on his body, because after hearing the news, he did not oppose the actions of the military command department in principle, but only felt sorry that this huge amount of money to build ships would affect the development of the naval aviation force.

"Let's do our best!" Yamamoto looked at the map on his desk with China's long coastline and vast inland areas, and his eyes suddenly radiated an aggressive and fierce light.

"Our existing '96 Ship Battle' has a very good surname and should be able to complete the current training mission. But we should also ask for more advanced aircraft! As long as we can surpass the surname of the plane, the branch will inevitably fail! ”

Sasebo, "Mitsubishi Heavy Industries" Naval Flight Test Site.

"This is the '96 Ship Battle'." Designer Jiro Tokoshi pointed to several fighters with pale green painted wings and red sun military insignia on the runway, and said to Iwasaki Yahisa, "The surname Noshi has surpassed the 'fat bird' (i.e., 'Aoho-123') of the Shina people." ”

"Good work." Iwasaki Yahisa looked at Jiro Katsukoshi, who was dark and thin, and looked extremely haggard, patted him on the shoulder, and said in a comforting tone.

"Nothing." Jiro said, "I'm going to build a better fighter than it." ”

The "96 Ship Battle" Mitsubishi Corporation manufactured the first carrier-based fighter with the surname that can comprehensively surpass land-based fighters, and it is also the most powerful fighter plane at present, although not many people have noticed the excellent surname of this aircraft now, so the reputation of the "96 Ship Battle" is not great in the country.

The wing area of the "96 Ship Battle" is 17.80 square meters, the weight is 1075 kg, the maximum weight is 1707 kg, the maximum speed is 432 kilometers per hour, the flight altitude is 3160 meters, the cruising range is 1200 kilometers, the ascent limit is not 9830 meters, the three-bladed fixed-moment propeller is used, the engine is a 610 horsepower Nakajima "Shou 41" air-cooled 9-cylinder engine, piloted by a pilot, and the weapon is two 7.7 mm machine guns.

After the successful development of the "96 Ship Battle," it began to equip the Naval Aviation Corps in 1937, and its surname was better than any type of fighter of the Army Aviation Corps at that time, but at present the number of "96 Ship Battles" equipped by the Navy's Navy, because the training level of the pilots has been greatly improved, and although the "96 Ship Battles" are circling very well, their speed is not very fast, so some people have taken advantage of the shortcomings of the "96 Ship Battles" to raise objections to the "96 Ship Battles." In order to strike at the navy, the army deliberately worked out a special tactic for dealing with the "96 warship battle," that is, it adopted the method of combining high-speed fighters with slow-speed biplanes to deal with the "96 warship battle," and during the battle, the slow-speed biplane entangled the "96 warship battle," and the high-speed monoplane waited for an opportunity to sneak attack and deal with the "96 warship battle." This method of operation achieved certain results in the air combat drill and boosted the arrogance of those who opposed the "96 ship battle." In addition, the "96 Ship Battle" has a limited range, and cannot escort the bombers of the Chinese army carrying out long-range bombing missions throughout the whole process, and the time spent in the air in the theater is limited, and it cannot fight for a long time with the enemy fighters that take off nearby, so although the "Type 96 Ship Battle" has an overall surname, it cannot solve the threat of the fighter strength of the enemy's [***] air force (mainly referring to the Chinese Air Force) in wartime. Despite all the controversies, the pilots of the naval aviation unit still quite approved of the "96 Ship Battle."

At present, most of the fighters equipped by the naval aviation of the Chinese army are still "96 ship battles," and the "96 ship battles" are the shipboard fighter training planes of the Japanese navy, which have played a considerable role in the training of the Japanese naval aviation units and various tactical exercises, and according to some intelligence, the surname of "96 ship battles" can have a considerable advantage compared with the various fighters of the US and British colonies in the Asia-Pacific region. However, neither the aviation headquarters, the top management of Mitsubishi Corporation, nor the designers were satisfied with this. Jiro Tsurutsu has an ambitious plan to build a more excellent shipboard fighter to replace the "96 Ship Battle" in service.

Born on June 22, 1903 in Gunma Prefecture, he graduated from the Department of Aeronautics of Tokyo Imperial University in 1927 and studied at the German "Junker" company and the American "Curtis" company from 1929 to 1930. In the design of the "96 Ship Battle", it can be said that Jiro Kietsu borrowed a lot of experience from German and American aircraft design.

"You've got a new design, don't you, Dig-Yue-kun?" Iwasaki Yahisa heard the subtext in Jiro Tsurugoshi's words and asked with a smile.

"Yes." Jiro Tsurugoshi said, and led Iwasaki Yahisa to a table, took out another design sketch, and spread it on the table.

"It will be an important milestone in the design of the aircraft, which has achieved several firsts, such as the first fully enclosed retractable landing gear; Electric thermal flight suits, machine guns, constant-speed propellers, ultra-duralumin load-bearing structure, large vision cockpit and discardable large auxiliary fuel tanks and other equipment, the engine can temporarily use the 950 horsepower Nakajima 'Rong 12' star-cooled engine, which will reach a speed of more than 500 kilometers per hour. It is also equipped with adjustable air combat flaps, which make it more agile in aerial dogfights. ”

"Do you mean that with new materials and new designs it can meet the contradictory requirements of the military?" Iwasaki's eyes lit up, and his voice trembled a little.

"Exactly." Jiro nodded with a smile.

During the design period of the "96 Ship Battle," military representatives had a fierce debate at a meeting held by Mitsubishi Corporation on the orientation of the new fighter with the surname of the fighter, and one faction held that according to the experience of fighting Chinese aircraft at the end of World War I, the air combat capability of the fighter mainly depends on the ability to turn and fight, and the range and speed must be sacrificed for the sake of the fighting ability. The other faction believes that the fighting surname of this fighter must be superior, enough to fight against any fighter in the world, but compared with Chinese aircraft, the difference is speed, and the new fighter should focus on solving the problem of speed and range, and as for the fighting surname can be appropriately sacrificed. At one point, two diametrically opposed ideas emerged at the meeting, and no one could convince anyone, so the meeting had to be adjourned. However, when the "96 Ship Battle" appeared, in a confrontation exercise with army planes, they were defeated by the tactics of combining high-speed fighters with slow-speed biplanes, which further aggravated this controversy. However, to Iwasaki Yahisa's surprise, Jiro Tsurutsu said that the surname of the new fighter could meet the needs of both the "high-speed faction" and the "combat mobile faction", how could he not be overjoyed.

"A key factor in the design of a new aircraft that successfully meets all requirements is the application of new materials. Did you know? Sumitomo Metals has synthesized a super aluminum alloy called '50 Arashi Metal', which is harder than steel and has unusually high strength, because with this metal, the new aircraft can be designed with a very thin aircraft frame, and we dare to drill holes in it to reduce weight, and the size of the rivets can also be designed to be very small, which can greatly reduce the weight of the aircraft while maintaining the strength of the fighter. ”

"Good! Good! It's just great! ”

"Because of the super-hard aluminum alloy, we can innovate the main truss of the aircraft, the new main truss has good tensile strength, better fatigue strength, and the weight of the fuselage is extremely light, I have calculated, the empty weight will not exceed 1600 kg. Therefore, the biggest source of the surname energy advantage of this new fighter is that it is light, especially light. It has an extremely small wing load and guarantees a maximum range of range. Because of its special metal construction, although it is lightweight, the fuselage structure is strong, and it can be easily mounted with 2 to 4 20 mm cannons without causing structural damage when fired. ”

"In other words, without this aluminum alloy from Sumitomo Metals, this new fighter would not have been produced at all."

"Yes."

"It's going to be an epoch-making aircraft." Iwasaki Yahisa excitedly looked at the design drawings of the plane and said, "Its appearance will change the fate of Masamoto." ”

"Yes!" Jiro was also in excitement and excitement at this time.

"By the way, I don't know if Shina will be able to make such a metal now." Iwasaki Yahisa suddenly seemed to remember something, and said to himself.

"The Chinese have also made great achievements in metal smelting, and they should also be able to apply aluminum alloy to aircraft manufacturing, however, as far as we know, the current fighter in China is still using the traditional steel tube skeleton structure and wooden fuselage, only the shell of the aircraft is made of aluminum, although the Chinese people use high-power engines for their fighters, but the strengthening of the power system can not change the reality of the heavy body. So we have reason to believe that their planes will certainly not be able to compare with our new planes in terms of surname. Jiro said.

"We will strive to surpass the people of China in every aspect!" Yahisa Iwasaki looked at the drawings and said, "You redesign the airframe, Kigoshi-kun, our new aircraft, don't use Nakajima's engine and our existing small 'Rising' engine, use a new engine with large size and high power!" ”

"Okay! No problem! Jiro said categorically.

With the conversation between the two, a new page in the history of aircraft design was opened, and the history of aviation warfare and even the wars that took place later also embarked on a new path.

China, Yanjing, suburb of the city.

On April 18, 1938, Yang Shuoming came to the meeting place early. Unlike the many guards in the past, this time he only brought Xi Xue and a few other entourages, and a strange light flashed in his eyes, indicating that he was looking forward to this event.

There were still about 10 minutes before the meeting time, and Yang Shuoming hurriedly closed the suitcase. In this box are the applications for the most important science fund projects of the year. This is the busiest time of the year, and there are almost 10,000 applications to be processed in his office.

"Hanzhi came early!"

Yang Shuoming turned his head and saw Dr. Fu Jing, an academician of the National Academy of Sciences who had just gotten out of the car to greet him, and couldn't help but smile and greet him.

"Among the people who came here today are famous people in the scientific community, of course I will be earlier."

"This trip is a recharge journey for you at best." Fu Jing said disapprerovingly, "Now is the time when you are busiest and most tired, in fact, you don't necessarily have to come in person." ”

"The more this happens, the more I should come." Yang Shuoming smiled and shook his head, "Go to the front line of your scientific research to understand the spirit of scientific research, understand the needs of scientific researchers, and after you come back, you can work more targeted, isn't it?" ”

"That's right." Fu Jing smiled, "Then you have to look carefully this time." The model airplane you've designed, but you're going to have to 'blow' it right here. ”

The two of them were talking, and the others also arrived one after another, about 20 people, old and young, Yang Shuoming smiled and greeted everyone, he was not surprised by the arrival of famous Chinese aircraft designers such as Ba Yuzao and Wang Zhu, who had not been seen for a long time.

After everyone greeted each other, they got on a bus, and the bus, escorted by armored vehicles, drove through a winding mountain road, and after a short time, the vision suddenly opened up, and a five-story long gray building rose from the ground among the verdant mountains and forests.

"Here we are, and this is the largest vertical wind tunnel in all of Asia."

Hearing the introduction of the accompanying technician, Xi Xue felt a little disappointed, because the scene in front of her was completely different from what she imagined. The newly built vertical wind tunnel is not very tall, nor does it look very imposing, and it is not even as good as the skyscrapers that are common in the city of Yanjing.

Outwardly, the only difference between this building and ordinary houses is that it has a thick iron pipe "on its back". At this time, the technician seemed to know what she was thinking, and introduced to her with a smile: "Don't underestimate this iron guy, it is the main channel that generates air currents. In fact, there is a magical 'heart' beneath the ordinary exterior of the wind tunnel. Only when you step into it, you will find that this artificial 'sky' is completely made of high-tech achievements. ”

Xi Xue smiled and nodded a little embarrassedly, at this time, among many scientists, she knew that with her own knowledge, it was better not to speak easily.

It wasn't long before everyone was inside the long gray building. Here, Yang Shuoming and a gray-haired old man shook hands.

This old man, who is over 70 years old, is Mr. Wang Hongsheng, director of the Chinese Institute of Mechanics and academician of the National Academy of Sciences. The steel body lying quietly next to everyone is based on Wang Hongsheng's successful development of China's first super-large shock wave wind tunnel that can reproduce difficult flight conditions.

(To be continued)