The comfort of the 24-seater Douglas DC-3 airliner is completely incomparable with that of later airliners, flying at an altitude of only 2,500 meters, it is like a tractor driving in the wilderness, from time to time because of the turbulence because of the air current, and even a few inexplicable creepy falls. Zhou Yingcong felt that something was wrong from the moment he got on www.biquge.info the plane, and he really didn't know how he spent his time on the plane when he chartered a plane with Chen Shaokuan to tour various countries in Europe last year. Afterwards, he said that when he was in Europe, there was land below, and once the plane crashed, it could still make a forced landing, and during the mileage from Venezuela to Cuba and from Cuba to the United States, there was a vast sea under the window, and once the plane crashed, there was nowhere to land.

In contrast to Mr. Chow, Mr. Li didn't care about the turbulence caused by the currents, but he took a great interest in the plane itself—after getting acquainted with the flight attendants, he quickly asked how much the new airliner would cost: $79,500, and then the price of jet gasoline: 35 cents per gallon. The price was extremely low, and he suddenly felt the need to recalculate the cost of training naval pilots proposed in Germany, which was extremely expensive, and he had calculated it at the price of domestic aviation gasoline: 1.6 yuan per gallon, which was roughly equal to 53 cents per gallon.

As a result, Lee Kong-wing on the plane appeared busy all the way - he needed to figure out the cost of pilot training more accurately, but for now, this is still unknown. For example, although we know the price and cost of using the TB-9 training aircraft, it is impossible for pilots to fly two or three hundred hours on the training aircraft and then directly go to the aircraft carrier to drive the carrier-based aircraft to fight, and they must fly the carrier-based aircraft for a period of training during this period. It is really difficult to predict how long this 'period of time' will be, compared with a veteran pilot like Japan, an average of 300 hours of flight time is certainly not enough, 300 hours can only be on the ship, and the ship's (at sea) training will have to toss two or three hundred hours, so that he can be regarded as a real carrier-based aircraft pilot.

Compared with a training aircraft with extremely durable engines and fuselages, the wartime life of a carrier-based aircraft's high-horsepower engine is only about 200 to 300 hours, which is equivalent to saying that actual combat training at sea must consume the cost of one engine and half a fuselage (the life of the fuselage of an actual combat aircraft is only about 500 or 600 hours).

A quarter of a trainer plus three-quarters of a carrier-based aircraft, plus 500 to 600 hours of gasoline, lubricants, and related expenses, plus the losses caused by various accidents, and finally divided by 60 percent of the pilot's pass rate (if the psychological test can provide a higher pilot pass rate), this is the cost of naval pilot training.

By the time Li Kongrong came to this conclusion from a pile of manuscript papers, the Douglas airliner had already flown out of the ocean and arrived on land, and the two-day journey was coming to an end, with New York in front of him. In the joyful words of the passengers on the same plane, Li Kongrong, who had packed his things, saw the famous statue of Lady Liberty on Bedro Island from the window of the plane, and he couldn't help but have a word in his heart: the banshee of foreigners.

Although this statue is no different from later generations, the city beneath your feet is very different from 80 years later. At this time, the population of New York was only more than 7 million, and the city's skyscrapers were not very dense, and the area was only 800 square kilometers. Of course, these are just numbers, but the city is still huge when viewed from an airplane, and it grows like a forest on both sides of the Hudson River and on the island of Manhattan.

"That's two Shanghais." Zhou Yingcong also looked at the world's first city under his feet and said so.

Under the roar of two 1,100-horsepower HP R-1820 air-cooled engines, the plane swept over the dense city of a checkerboard, slowly approached the airport runway, and finally landed safely in the slight turbulence. Li Kongrong glanced at his adjutant Zhong Qiangong in the back seat, and saw that he had already prepared his passport and the completed entry form, but did not speak.

Diplomatic passports do have priority, through the channel of diplomatic personnel, out of the airport Li Kongrong and Zhou Yingcong saw the New York Consulate General came to pick up the second secretary Gu Yurui, as soon as he saw Li Kongrong warmly shook hands and said: "It is really an honor for Yurui to meet Colonel Li in New York." ”

Li Kongrong and Zhou Yingcong and his entourage wore the regular uniform of the navy, both colonels, and Zhou Yingcong, who had consciously been to the United States (only the West Coast), walked in the front, but he did not expect that the embassy personnel would come up and hold Li Kongrong, and then shake hands with him. He was surprised, but he didn't want Gu Yurui to say: "My brother is Gu Yuxiu, who ...... at Tsinghua University."

As soon as Gu Yurui said Li Kongrong of Tsinghua University, he understood, and he smiled: "I am not familiar with the place when I first came here, so please take care of Brother Gu." ”

"Colonel Lee doesn't have to be polite, as long as I can help, just as I am told. Please get on the bus, please get on the bus. Consul General, Mr. Yu, and Mr. Zhang Pengchun are waiting for you. Gu Yurui smiled and invited Li Kongrong and Zhou Yingcong to the car, and when he went around and got into the car from the other side, Zhou Yingcong whispered: "How do you know these people?" Who is Mr. Zhang Pengchun? ”

"It's all ......" Li Kongrong pondered for a while, and finally said: "Mr. Zhang Pengchun is the younger brother of Mr. Zhang Boling, the president of Nankai University, and these are actually academics. The Navy now has close cooperation with Tsinghua University and other universities, so ......"

Li Kongrong briefly mentioned the relationship between these people, and then pulled out his notepad to check the to-do list on it. Getting to know the local Chinese through the Consulate General in New York was the first task, and finding a German-American Jew named Stern with a letter of introduction from Mr. Schwartz, a German Jew, was the second task, and there was also a trip to Connecticut and Massachusetts.

The former went to Igor Sikorsky, the founder of Sikorsky Aircraft Engineer - the inventor of the first helicopter in the United States, according to previous inquiries, he and his fellows still worked for the United Aircraft and Transportation Company, specializing in seaplanes, and did not set up their own business again (Sikorsky Aircraft Company was previously established, but was acquired by the United Company) to build VS-300 helicopters, and as for the improved version of this type of helicopter, the R-4 helicopter that went directly into World War II, it is even more missing.

Li Kongrong was sure to inject a certain amount of funds and technology to assist Sikorsky in manufacturing the R-4 helicopter ahead of schedule. This is just a matter of thinking, nothing more than adding a tail rotor to the tail of the helicopter, of course, the control of the main wing is also a problem, but since the R-4 helicopter can be put into practical use in history, then this problem must be solved. However, Li Kongrong was not satisfied with the R-4 helicopter with only 200 horsepower, which could only carry one or two people and carry more than one ton, he wanted an H-19 helicopter with a power of 700 horsepower, which could carry 10 soldiers and weigh 3 to 4 tons.

This is a model of piston engine helicopter before the turboshaft engine, the previous helicopter because the generator, the engine shaft to run through the entire fuselage like a barbecue, so that the helicopter carrying space is extremely limited, but the H-19 helicopter creatively installs the engine under the nose cockpit, and separates the cockpit and the passenger compartment through an oblique propeller shaft, which does not occupy additional space, which solves the problem that the engine room is occupied by the engine and the engine shaft, plus the improvement of engine horsepower. This greatly increases the capacity of the helicopter, which can only carry two people, and can carry a squad of soldiers.

Helicopters that could carry a squad of soldiers were extremely useful in World War II, and although the inherent vibration of the piston engine made the helicopter still not a good firing platform, and there was a lack of weapons to accompany the helicopter, it was still valuable to manufacture in large quantities. If you build 10,000 H-19 helicopters in the war, and each earns $10,000, that's $100 million, of course, the U.S. tax rate during the war is extremely scary, but in any case, helicopters are a money-making weapon, and they are an exclusive deal.

But what makes Li Kongrong unsure is whether the helicopter project will be hacked for various inexplicable reasons, after all, he is not an American citizen, and he does not know what kind of support German-American Jews can provide; And then there's Igor Sikorsky himself, will he agree to a yellow man injecting capital into his company and taking the lion's share of the company's profits? These are questions worth pondering.

In addition to Sikorsky in Connecticut, Li Kongrong also had to meet with Lin Shimo, who was studying for a doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which was not like Sikorsky had to worry about many such and such problems, but whether he could find a way to develop a liquid floating gyroscope with sufficient accuracy, which was a necessary instrument to greatly improve the accuracy of the V-1 missile.

V-1 missiles are valuable against city-sized targets only when the gyroscope drift angle is reduced to an accuracy of 1 degree per hour (1 degree for every hour of flight); If the drift angle can be reduced to 0.1 degrees/h, it will be valuable in the face of targets the size of the Japanese divisional position; The mechanical gyroscope used by the German V-1 missile in World War II had a drift angle of about 10 degrees per hour, and its accuracy was reduced from 19 miles in diameter to 7 miles in diameter during the war.

Four things, four groups of people, and finally one is the opening of the US office of the Swiss New China Defense Company, as well as related patent applications, but this matter is temporarily entrusted to Zhong Qiangong.

In the carriage, Li Kongrong was arranging the itinerary, Gu Yurui only talked to Zhou Yingcong very decently, and after Li Kongrong finished arranging, he said with a smile: "Colonel Li is very busy, it should be very hard to come from Europe." ”

With the relationship of Tsinghua professor, Gu Yurui is half of his own person, Li Kongrong said politely: "It's a bit rushed, New York is the center of the American economy, and the Navy has a lot of things to arrange in New York, so I will ask Gu Duoduo to help my brother ......when the time comes."

"It's easy to say, it's easy to say." Gu Yurui smiled and nodded, "Mr. Ambassador and Mr. Peng Chun learned that Colonel Li was coming, and held a simple welcome reception in the evening, during which many Chinese and foreign friendly people were invited. ”

Although he knew that Gu Yurui would inevitably mention the victory of Jinshanwei, Li Kongrong was still a little embarrassed, and he smiled: "The victory of Jinshanwei is the effort of the entire navy, I just came up with an idea." He said that he looked at Zhou Yingcong, who was smiling on the side, and said: "Actually, Brother Shuchun has a lot of stories here, at least he can tell about the Ninghai number." ”

From the beginning of the meeting, Zhou Yingcong felt that although he was a colonel, he had been reduced to a supporting role for Li Kongrong, and now seeing him supporting the scene for himself, the dry smile on his face turned into a sweet smile, and during Gu Yurui's questioning, Zhou Yingcong also said politely: "The navy is a whole, and what I do is very limited." ”

The atmosphere on the Cadillac sedan was full of smiles and harmony, and when the car arrived at the Consulate General in New York at the intersection of 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue, several people were still very interested. After the car stopped, the door was opened by Consul General Yu Yanji, and then there was a fierce applause: Li Kongrong saw Yu Yanji standing outside the car with a smile, and behind him was a man in a suit in his forties, who looked a little similar to Zhang Boling, and felt that this was Zhang Pengchun mentioned by Gu Yurui; Behind Zhang Pengchun was a wealthy middle-aged man dressed in Chinese clothes, and behind him was a welcoming crowd, including young students holding banners that read 'Welcome to Colonel Li Hansheng,' in addition to the many ladies in brightly colored cheongsams.

Li Kongrong was flattered, Yu Xuanji had already grabbed his right hand and raised it high, and said loudly to the crowd: "Everyone, this is the naval think tank that planned the great victory of Jinshanwei and annihilated the Japanese invaders: Colonel Li Hansheng!" ”

There were probably hundreds of people present, most of them Chinese, and a small number of foreigners. Yu Yanji personally greeted and introduced him, and he did his best to help Li Kongrong build momentum. When the camera's magnesium light was shining, Li Kongrong suddenly thought to himself: Those bastards in the academic world really can't be offended, and now they are warmly welcomed, and once they offend them, they will definitely scold themselves......

Yu Yanji warmly introduced in public, and then introduced Zhou Yingcong beside Li Kongrong, but the attention of the welcoming crowd had long been attracted by Li Kongrong, although he was not wearing a navy uniform, and he was tired of a long journey, but his shining eyes still gave people a wise impression, but this was only one of the impressions, all the women present felt that Colonel Li Hansheng himself was much more handsome than the newspaper.

"Colonel Lee, could you please say something?" A few young people at the front of the crowd said loudly, they are international students at Columbia University, and they came here to skip class today.

"yes, let's ask Colonel Lee to say something." The rich middle-aged man wearing Chinese clothes who was standing behind Zhang Pengchun just now also echoed loudly, he was Paul Lin, the chairman of the Chinese Federation in New York, and his clothes and name were a perfect match. (To be continued.) )