In its first test flight, the Tiger was a success, with a maximum level flight speed of 300 km/h and a cruising speed of 250 km/h in the first flight. In addition, it climbed to an altitude of 5,000 meters and hovered at the same degree of 1,000 meters. This series of test flight actions made everyone very excited.

This is another major project of the Dragon Soul Ordnance Complex after the gunboat and submarine projects, and it is also an epoch-making work. Throughout the history of helicopter development, we can see that helicopter gunships are an inevitable trend. The retrofitting of weapons to helicopters began in the 40s. Germany added a machine gun to the Fa-223 transport helicopter. In the 50s, the United States, the Soviet Union, France and other countries installed weapons in helicopters, which were mainly used for self-defense at first, and later also used to carry out bombing, strafing and other missions. In the early 60s, the United States massively used helicopters in the Vietnam War. During the war, its helicopters suffered heavy losses, so it was decided to develop a special helicopter gunship. The first specially designed helicopter gunship was the American AH-IG, which began to equip troops in 1967 and was used on the battlefield in Vietnam.

Messerschmidt said excitedly: "I didn't expect that in my lifetime, I could participate in such an advanced aircraft project, and the Flying Tiger gunship will definitely sell well in the world like the Weilong jet fighter!" ”

Xiao Weiguo said with a smile: "The gunship helicopter flies fast; Flexible response and good mobility; Good concealment and strong survivability; Airborne weapons are highly lethal. Helicopter gunships are a very effective weapon against tank and armored targets. According to my research, the probability of a tank against a helicopter is 12:1 to 19:1. That is, a helicopter gunship can achieve the results of a dozen tanks before it loses itself, and this loss is more likely to be shot down by enemy anti-aircraft fire. The second major function of helicopter gunships is to support landing operations. There is also a cover for the landing. Helicopter gunships are the main fire support weapon to cover transport aircraft and transport helicopters for landing. And then there's fire support. Helicopter gunships can effectively provide fire support to ground forces in their operations. ”

In the late 50s of the 20th century, France was the first country to equip anti-tank missiles on helicopters. 1966 year. The first mass-produced full-time attack helicopter AH-1 Cobra was born. Some people thought that helicopters would be able to attack the weakest top of a tank's armor more easily, so the advent of anti-tank helicopters heralded the tank's retirement. However, since the birth of anti-tank helicopters, there has never been an evenly matched confrontation between tanks and helicopters.

But in any case, anti-tank helicopters equipped with rocket launchers and cannons are always one of the biggest threats to tanks. Tanks often make it difficult to spot helicopters because of their limited viewing angles, while helicopters can hover in the air and attack the most vulnerable parts of the tank from any angle. Furthermore. Helicopters are often equipped with weapons that have a greater range than tank anti-aircraft machine guns, which allows helicopters to often attack outside the range of the tank's fire.

Juncker also sighed: "It has become a good thing that Hitler has kicked me out of the company he founded, otherwise how could I have participated in the development of helicopter gunships?" I think the Flying Tiger helicopter gunship, not only capable of anti-tank, fire support, if it is put on a warship, it will definitely play a very good role. ”

Xiao Weiguo laughed and said: "That's right, the helicopter has strong anti-submarine capabilities. Because the speed of helicopters is much higher than that of anti-submarine ships and submarines. It is also mobile and flexible, and can not only search a large sea area in a short period of time, but also quickly fly to the sea area where the submarine is swimming, and lose no time in searching, tracking, and attacking the target, so as to complete the antisubmarine mission on call. The helicopter uses a sonar probe to be put into the water during anti-submarine operation, which is not easy to be detected by enemy submarines and will not interfere with the detection effect due to its own noise. Especially when passive detection materials are used, they are more difficult to be detected by submarines. This will improve the accuracy of detecting the position of the submarine. It can also carry out a surprise attack over the submarine. A variety of detection devices can also be used, and the search effect is good. The helicopter can use a variety of acoustic and non-acoustic detection equipment in the search area. For example, the search for submarines is carried out by hoisting sonar, sonar cursors, magnetic anomaly detectors, etc. In particular, when using hanging sonar, the sonar can be placed below the thermocline, which increases the distance of sonar, effectively exerts sonar performance, and thus improves the probability of finding the target. ”

Bai Wanrou looked very interested. She said excitedly: "Since it is a helicopter gunship, it must be able to carry weapons to fight submarines, right?" It's just that rockets don't seem to work! ”

Xiao Weiguo smiled: "Of course ordinary rockets can't. However, helicopters can use a variety of offensive weapons, and can stealthily approach the target to carry out surprise attacks, whether it is dropping anti-submarine torpedoes or dropping depth charges. Its dispersion is small and the accuracy of its hits is high. Although anti-aircraft weapons such as artillery and machine guns are also available on submarines, they cannot yet pose a threat to anti-submarine helicopters. In addition, carrier-based anti-submarine helicopters can take advantage of the endurance of the carrier ship to undertake anti-submarine missions in distant sea areas, thus effectively increasing the radius of anti-submarine operations. Carrier-based anti-submarine helicopters have both anti-submarine and anti-submarine capabilities, and can not only complete anti-submarine tasks alone, but also cooperate with carriers to carry out anti-submarine operations. ”

Hearing Xiao Weiguo say this, everyone understands that the development prospects of helicopters, especially armed helicopters, are too broad!

After the successful first flight of the Flying Tiger helicopter gunship, its transport model also began trial production, and the transport model was codenamed Hippo. It has 20 pairs of foldable seats with a row of 70 to 75 cm spacing and a 30 cm wide middle aisle, as well as a locker and luggage compartment. The cockpit is equipped with a winch and a block of pulleys with a carrying capacity of 200 kg for loading and unloading cargo and vehicles. The exterior of the cockpit is equipped with a rigging system, which can be used to transport large cargo. There are 2 external fuel tanks on both sides of the fuselage. In addition, there is also an armed transport model, which is designed with two external short wings on both sides of the fuselage, each of which can carry one 19-tube 90mm rocket launcher, or a 20mm cannon/12.7mm machine gun pod.

Shipborne models are also being developed simultaneously. Of course, there are many differences in shipboard models, because they are used at sea, it is necessary to take into account the corrosion of the body by the salt at sea, as well as the adaptability of the engine, and there are also different designs in terms of landing safety.

As soon as the Flying Tiger helicopter of the Dragon Soul Ordnance Complex was launched, it attracted the attention of various countries in the world, and some people were really happy and some were worried. Of course, the sorrowful person is none other than Hitler, the head of state of Germany, Mussolini, the head of state, Italy, and the prime minister of Japan. Because they know that as long as the Dragon Soul Ordnance Industrial Complex sells this kind of armed helicopter to Britain, France, the United States and other countries, then they will fall behind in future wars, especially their tanks will become the target of the Flying Tiger armed helicopters. (To be continued.) )