Stalin was delighted! The technology of in-flight refueling can solve the most troublesome strategic bomber range problem in the future, and the strategic value of this is huge!

The fighters are not in a hurry, who makes the current situation on the Soviet-German battlefield "fight bayonets". Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

As soon as the boss is happy, someone will want to benefit: "I want to award the comrades who came up with this method!" ”

Ha, now Arkhipov and Lin Jun are dumbfounded!

Why?

Nowhere to find someone! The guy was a Russian, but a Tsarist Russia, and had emigrated to the United States long after the October Revolution.

Lin Jun and Al Xibo, two brothers, look at me, I look at you!

Forget it, let's talk about Lin Jun.

"Comrade Stalin, I still need to explain this air refueling. The concept began very early, as early as 1917, the concept of air refueling was proposed by the Russian naval pilot Alexander Seversky. However, this Seversky moved to the United States after the October Revolution and applied for the first patent for air refueling in the United States. ”

"And patents?"

It was the good old man Kalinin who asked.

"We don't need to pay attention to this, although this concept has existed, it has always been only an experiment, not put into practice, and the previous patent is worthless.

It's funny to say that the first aerial refueling in history was more of an acrobatic than an experiment.

I remember it was at the end of 1921 when aerial acrobat Wesley May strapped a barrel of aviation gasoline to his waist, climbed from the wing of one flying Lincoln "Standard" airplane, climbed onto the wing of another flying Curtis JN-4 airplane, and then unscrewed the refueling cap and drained! ”

As soon as they heard Comrade Andrei's words, almost all of the committee members smiled: That scene was interesting, and Comrade Andrei said it funny.

"It stands to reason that this technology should be popularized, but for almost 20 years, the new technology of in-flight refueling has been neglected and shelved."

Even if someone did an experiment, it didn't get strong support from the government!

Why is this happening?

Lin Jun knew very well in his heart: In those 20 years, the world was relatively peaceful, especially there was basically no direct military conflict between the major aviation powers, and even if there were, there was no need for strategic bombing. The previous contest between fighters was a sortie distance of one or two hundred kilometers, and the problem of "short legs" was not serious at all.

"The world's first recorded real aerial refueling experiment was in 1923, in the United States.

At that time, the test was carried out between two DH-4B biplanes of the US Army Air Corps: the tanker released a refueling hose in the air, and a person on the tanker climbed out of the cockpit, grabbed the flying oil pipe in the air with his bare hands, and then refueled.

After several in-flight refuelings, by the end of the year, the DH-4B biplane had set a record of 37 hours in the air.

By 1930, the record had reached an incredible 647.5 hours, almost a full 27 days in the air, eating, drinking, and sleeping in the cockpit.

Sadly, however, air forces did not directly invest in perfecting the idea, and in-flight refueling technology became a record-breaking game. ”

Lin Jun is telling the truth: the early in-flight refueling methods can be described as creative, such as the method that Major Richard Atcherly of the British Royal Air Force came up with, which is very strange in Lin Jun's opinion: the oil receiving aircraft flies smoothly forward in the air, and drags a guide cable behind the tail, and there is a counterweight at the end of the guide cable to make the guide cable stable in the air;

The refueling machine also drags a guide cable and also carries a counterweight, flies from one side of the oil receiving machine to the other side at a certain angle, so that the two guide cables meet and hang in the air, and then the oil receiving machine pulls the guide cable in, and drags the refueling hose of the fuel dispenser into the oil receiving machine.

Troublesome!

Or acrobatics! But that's it, has it really been used for a while?

But there will be one thing that Lin Jun and Arkhipov chose to deliberately forget, so as not to displease Stalin: the Soviet Union has already conducted air refueling tests, and then Comrade Andrei will still be working as an apprentice in distant Chukotka!

In addition to the "whimsy" of the Tsarist era, the Soviet Union began to study the problem of aerial refueling in 1931: the experiment was carried out by Pavel Glokovsky, and the early experiments he came up with were very rudimentary: that is, a Polyakov R5 reconnaissance aircraft was used as a tanker, and a Tupolev TB-1 twin-engine light bomber was used as a refueling engine, repeating the experiment of the US Army Air Corps in 1923.

The experiment was successful, and the TB-1 was kept in the air for 25 hours, but then it was discontinued, and this aerial refueling technology did not become mainstream, and was only valuable if it broke the record or some special scientific expeditions.

Lin Jun and Arkhipov did not know whether the other committee members had read the test report at that time, and it was better to have more than one thing.

Arkhipov could not always let the deputy commander be the commentator, and said: "At present, we are perfecting the air refueling method, which can be said to be a completely new attempt on the basis of various experiments of the original countries. ”

The system that Zhukov is currently working on can be called a conduit-cage system, inspired by the study of bomber towing escort fighters.

The jet fighter has a huge technical advantage, but it is an out-and-out oil tiger: the I-20 fighter has a large fuel load, but it is precisely because the fuel consumption of the jet engine is so staggering that it is impossible to escort strategic bombers in the future.

Some of Zhukov's comrades thought about working on the air towing system: towing the fighter in the back like a ******, and turning off the fighter's engine during the towing.

When put into battle, the fighter can easily disengage from the towing rope; After the battle, you can re-dock with the tow line in the air and continue to let the bombing drag away.

Fighters and bombers take off separately so that both can take off with their maximum take-off weight. During air cruise, the power requirements are much lower than during take-off and acceleration, so the towing has no special requirements for the bomber engine, which is very different from the real towing ****** take-off.

The ideal is very plump, and the reality is very skinny! Obviously, this method can only be used on jet planes, not on aircraft with a propeller on the front.

And judging from the experience of towing ******: when a bomber tows a fighter, the speed of the bomber must be significantly reduced, and the range is also affected.

Moreover, during the long towing process of the fighter, the cockpit will be extremely cold due to the shutdown of the engine and air conditioning system, and it is not very easy to start the engine in the air. ”

Work!

However, the researchers soon realized: the cone could tow a refueling hose along the towing rope and refuel the towed fighter in the air!

Then, the researchers were transferred to the design team of the "ghost" - they were unaware of the existence of the "ghost".

The most anxious thing for the USSR today is not to increase the range of fighters, but to strategic bombers! The "Ghost" is a top priority, and it doesn't need fighter escort at all, it can take care of everything on its own.

What is needed is ultra-remote!

"Did the Ghost of the test flight be equipped with an in-flight refueling system?"

Stalin asked.

"Not yet, the refueling device is not very perfect, but in a maximum of three months, we will be able to come up with a mature product."

Arkhipov tract.

"Within six months, the Phantom will need to have a reliable in-flight refueling system, but within a year, all Phantom pilots will need to be proficient in this technique."

"Yes, Comrade Stalin!"

At this time, Zhang Nan said to Arkhipov: "What are the difficulties? If there is, it will be brought up together. ”

"We need an old Pi-8 long-range bomber for tanker modifications, just give it to us in three.

At present, we only have the Li-2 transport aircraft on hand that can be converted into a tanker, but its load capacity and range are not very ideal, and even under the best conditions, it can only add 1400 liters of fuel to the Phantom at a time. In this case, the mile-2 itself will not be able to fly 2000 km.

Moreover, the tanker of the 2 modification is difficult to operate in the air, and it is inconvenient to observe the rear, so it can only use a periscope. And the flight altitude of air refueling must be below 6000 meters, which is very bad for the ghost.

In the case of the Pi-8, we can refill the Phantom at least 6,500 litres of fuel at a time, and the tanker can be on standby for at least an hour and a half at a distance of 2,000 kilometers from the airport.

Under extreme conditions, the oil-receiving airspace can be set at a distance of 2,300 km from the airport. ”

"Moreover, the Peter-8 is also convenient for refueling aircraft, especially in the arrangement of refueling devices, which has natural advantages and is also convenient for air operations."

Hearing the words of Comrade Dean, Stalin said to Lin Jun: "Andrey, give Zhukov two Pi-8s, its production line has been restarted, right?" ”

"Yes, Comrade Stalin. At present, it has been re-put into small batch production, mainly to replace the attrition of the existing heavy bomber unit, and two new ones can be directly given to the academy, removing all weapons and facilities. ”

Lin Jun clapped: Just use a heavy bomber to modify.

It doesn't matter if there are two new planes in the long-range bomber force, anyway, most of the time now, those Pi-8s are used as campaign bombers, and they are not to the point of being in a hurry.

However, the test of the tanker must be carried out quickly, and it will take time for the "bare machine" that has not even installed the bombing sight or bomb dropping device to arrive at the academy......

While he was talking here, Ilyushenko's call came from the intercom in the command room: "The speed of the plane has been reduced to a twin-engine cruise speed, ready to restart the engine!" ”

At an altitude of 10,000 meters, inside the ghost at a speed of 650 kilometers per hour, Ilyushenko pressed the ignition button of the two DP-1-2 turbojet engines in the middle.

The plane trembled slightly, "Engine No. 1 ignited successfully, but it has been automatically turned off, I will ignite again." ”

Ghosts are flying wings, symmetrical thrust is important, otherwise it will be miserable!

Press the ignition button again, the aircraft vibrates slightly again, and the twin engines are successfully ignited at the same time.

"Start with two engines, accelerate to four engines with the same power, and I will return home."

Ten minutes later, a loud roar appeared on the side of the runway: the ghost dragged four flames and landed smoothly on the runway indicated by the landing lights. (To be continued.) )