There is nothing wrong with the jet fighter and transport aircraft project, the Dragon Soul Ordnance Complex already has a blueprint, and it only needs to be slightly improved in accordance with the requirements of the German Ministry of Defense to meet the requirements. However, the large bomber is a big challenge for any German aircraft manufacturing enterprise, and the maximum take-off weight of more than 20 tons not only requires a lot of technological breakthroughs in the fuselage structure and aerodynamic layout, but also needs to be studied from scratch in terms of bomb delivery accuracy.

The Horton brothers, who received the news, took a keen interest in the German large bomber project, believing that the flying-wing aircraft had an inherent advantage in flight efficiency and range due to the absence of a tail section that generated huge drag, and the brothers were convinced that only a flying-wing bomber could meet the demanding requirements of the German Ministry of Defense.

Xiao Weiguo decided to vigorously support the idea of the Horton brothers, and Messerschmidt was worried about it, and when he saw someone standing up and taking the initiative to ask for help, he was naturally happy to push the boat, because he believed that with Xiao Weiguo's support behind the Horton brothers, the Dragon Soul Ordnance Consortium would definitely be able to succeed in the flying wing bomber.

With Xiao Weiguo's support, the Holden brothers began to work on the preliminary design, and a few days later, Rema and Walter, together with the designers of the Dragon Soul Aircraft Manufacturing Company, and the designers of the BFW company, were also invited to attend the flying wing bomber program seminar held at the headquarters of the Dragon Soul Ordnance Complex.

At the meeting, BFW's designers had a serious disagreement with the Holden brothers, and five of BFW's six designers agreed that the Holden brothers' scheme had serious shortcomings in aerodynamic control, and that the lifting aileron on the trailing edge of the flying wing could not effectively control the aircraft, and they insisted on installing a huge vertical tail through the head and tail on the flying wing bomber. This time for the design of the bomber for the German Ministry of Defense, the designers of the BFW company hoped that they would be able to play a more important role, after all, they believed that the Holden brothers were too young and had no real design experience.

Rema? Horton was puzzled. In his view, such a change would not only mean more man-hours and a much greater uncontrollability of the overall project, but would also have a devastating effect on the aerodynamic shape of the original design - the increased vertical tail would bring enormous air resistance, which in turn would lead to a reduction in the range of the aircraft.

At this time, Xiao Weiguo had to stand up, and he said loudly: "We have estimated the aerodynamic layout of the bomber by designing it as a flying wing." In the case of carrying the same load, this flying wing layout bomber can be about 10% lighter than the normal layout in the weight of the fuselage, the wind resistance can be reduced by about 40%, and the range is about 20% larger than the normal layout bomber in the case of comparable engine fuel consumption, in other words, at the same range, the fuel consumption of the flying wing layout is 20% lower, and the performance is much better than the normal layout of the bomber. ”

"But. The flying wing layout does have serious aerodynamic control problems. The so-called flying wing layout means that the whole aircraft does not have obvious fuselage wing distinction, the whole aircraft looks like a bat, it has no flat tail and no vertical tail, and the pitch control and direction control of the whole aircraft are all realized by the differential ailerons behind the flying wings. In addition to the large lift-to-drag ratio and light structural weight mentioned above, it also has the advantages of large effective loading space and small radar reflection area. Of course, it also has its inherent drawbacks. This tailless layout requires a variety of control surfaces on the wing to generate the required torque. Therefore, it increases the difficulty of flight control system design, and this problem must be solved in order to realize the application of flying wing bombers. ”

"The designers of the BFW just now are indeed very thoughtful, and without reliable pneumatic controls, it is indeed impossible to effectively control this large flying wing bomber. These days I have come up with a solution. However, it is only theoretical, and I am not sure whether it can be realized, and I will only know if I can build a real machine. This approach is to use a combination of multiple sets of lifting ailerons and a set of cracked rudders to achieve effective maneuvering, this kind of flying wing must be designed with a large aspect ratio flying wing, we need more than 20 tons of flying wing bombers. The lifting ailerons need at least 3 groups, and at the outermost end of the trailing edge of the flying wing, a group of cracked rudders can be arranged to achieve pitch, roll and longitudinal maneuvering. ”

Rema asked in surprise: "What, it's so complicated, and what kind of device is the cracked rudder?" ”

Xiao Weiguo replied with a smile: "This is indeed difficult to describe in words. Let's put it this way, the cracked rudder is installed on the trailing edge of the flying wing, which can be split into two wing surfaces, one facing up and one facing down, and the yaw control moment is generated by the asymmetrical drag on the two wings, which is a relatively efficient heading steering rudder surface for aircraft with large aspect ratio. It comes at the cost of greater drag, but it opens up only during yaw maneuvers and creates greater drag, with no adverse effect on flight performance. ”

Messerschmidt slapped his thigh and said excitedly: "This design is wonderful!" I believe that with this cracked rudder, the flying wing bomber will definitely be able to fly, and I think it is a very good choice for us to develop this flying wing bomber! Although there is a certain amount of risk, once successful, the significance is even greater than that of a jet engine! With the flying wing bomber, I think we can win this competition. ”

Of course, Xiao Weiguo knew that there were still many problems with the flying wing design of the Horton brothers, and they encountered a similar situation in another time and space. At a program meeting of the German Ministry of Aviation in 1945, despite the strong opposition of the Horton brothers, the two men were single-handed, and the engineers of Junkers and Messerschmitt overwhelmingly approved the proposal with a huge vertical tail. As can be seen in the sketches that can be found later, the pilot's cockpit is located with the leading edge of the tail down, with six Jumo-004 turbojet engines suspended under the wings, and three on each side housed in one engine compartment. Both the bomb bay and the landing gear compartment were located between the engine compartments.

Rema? Enraged, Horton decided to leave the others alone and redesigned Ho-XVIIIB. The Ho-XVIIIB has a crew of 3 and a bubble-shaped cockpit located at the top of the leading edge of the wings. Its powertrain and landing gear configuration is quirky, with two huge fixed pylons flown under the wings, one engine on each side of each pylon, and a hollow landing gear bay inside the pylon. Reima did not design the nose landing gear because it was believed that the two main landing gears consisting of four main wheels arranged in tandem would be able to perform all the tasks. According to draft estimates, the maximum take-off weight of the aircraft is about 35 tons. All fuel is stored in the wing tanks, and there are no drop-off tanks designed to be disposable. It is estimated that the Ho-XVIIIB has a range of up to 11,000 kilometers, a ceiling of 16,000 meters, and a cruising range of up to 27 hours.

In the end, of course, none of these options were successful. Including the flying wing aircraft developed by Northrop in the United States at the same time, they all failed. This is all because there are still problems in the aerodynamic control of the flying wing aircraft that have not been effectively solved. It was only a few decades later, with the development of aviation technology, that the problem of aerodynamic control of the layout of the flying wing was solved, and a large number of flying wing aircraft appeared, with the exception of the B2 bomber, of course, all UAVs. (To be continued.) )