At the beginning of the 14th year of Guanghua, after eight months of negotiations, the Chinese Empire finally relented and approved the export of sophisticated weapons such as chariots to the Allied countries to help the Entente break the battlefield stalemate.

The Chinese Empire's Beiyang Ordnance Heavy Industry exported 500 M07 tanks to Britain and France on the Entente side, with a total price of 250 million dragon dollars. Although it was very expensive, the British and French [***] parties still reluctantly bought it. The main reason is that the impasse cannot be broken. A year ago, after seeing the penetration of the chariots during the Chinese Imperial Sword 1912 exercise, the British began to study the combat vehicles, but the British Mark-type chariots composed of tractor chassis, automobile engines, guns and armor were too large and heavy, and the surname Neng was even more backward, so it had to be imported from the Chinese Empire.

Originally, Britain only wanted to buy a few tanks to go back for research, but the Chinese Empire resolutely refused to let go, and demanded that Britain must purchase 1,000 M07 tanks, otherwise it would not transfer technology. After a year of war, Britain has consumed too much national strength, and it is really too much to import 1,000 expensive chariots from the Chinese Empire, and finally the procrastinating negotiations lasted for 8 months before finally convincing the Chinese Empire that Britain and France jointly imported 500 M07 chariots and obtained the technology of the chariot.

The first batch of 50 chariots was delivered to the British and French forces in February 1914, but the British and French had no experience in driving chariots, so they hired the Chinese Emperor [***] to teach British and French officers and soldiers in Toulon to use the M07 chariots, which were expected to be put into battle three months later.

Another 450 tanks will be delivered in the next six months, so the Anglo-French forces will have to wait at least a while to break through the German front.

Similarly, the Chinese Empire did not favor one over the other, and on the side of the Allies, it also exported 600 M07 tanks at the same unit price. Germany, like Britain, began to study combat vehicles after watching the Chinese Empire's 1912 Sharpening Sword exercise, but the European War soon broke out, and the German army was like a bamboo, thinking that it would not need combat vehicles, so the study of combat vehicles was also delayed. With the stalemate in the European theater, Germany wanted to break the deadlock as soon as possible, so it restarted the study of the tank project, but after learning the information that Britain and France imported 500 M07 tanks from the Chinese Empire (in fact, it was deliberately leaked by the Chinese Empire, the purpose was to force Germany to give up its own research and also import tanks from the Chinese Empire), worried that the Entente would quickly break through the German defense line after owning the tank, so it had to endure the sky-high price of the Chinese Empire's chariot export order, and also imported chariots from the Chinese Empire. In order to gain an advantage over the Entente, Germany imported 600 M07 vehicles at a cost of 300 million dragon dollars.

Britain was sacked by the Eight-Nation Coalition led by the Chinese Empire, so it was not as rich as Germany in terms of financial resources, which led to the Chinese Empire being more inclined to sell weapons and equipment to Germany.

The generosity of the Germans was appreciated by the political axes of the Chinese Empire, so the first batch of M07 tanks delivered to Germany was 100, and the remaining 500 would be delivered a month earlier than the Entente. For this reason, the German Emperor Wilhelm II specially called the Chinese Emperor Wang Chenhao to express his gratitude.

However, until the European belligerents officially used the chariots imported from the Chinese Empire to fight, the countries did not give up on finding a way to break the deadlock.

Since the late autumn of 1913, the battlefields on the Western Front have become quiet, especially in the Belgian province of Flanders, where German troops attempting to break through the Entente line of defense have been repulsed, and progress has been measured in meters. Often in a ferocious small battle, just to recapture a street, but soon recaptured by the other side, tug-of-war is constantly staged.

In the Belgian defensive zone was the old moated town of Ypre, which was located behind a Coalition front that formed a seventeen-mile-deep salient that began five miles northwest of Stonstrat and curved around Saint-Elois, about three miles south of Ypres. The Germans nearly destroyed the 500-year-old Cathedral of Kloes in Ypre, a 500-year-old cathedral that threatened the European Church, and the Germans defended the action by saying that the towers of these buildings were used as observation posts.

The tactics used by both sides were largely constrained by the Flemish terrain, which the Germans considered "unfavorable for an offensive from east to west." The low-lying land is destroyed by a half circle of hills. Mount Commel, five hundred feet high on the southwest ridge of Ypre, has a strategic value for determining surnames. If the Germans were able to capture this position, the town would have fallen. The ridge provided a place to observe and place concentrated artillery fire, making it easy to keep the artillery groups out of sight of the defenders at lower levels, while reinforcements and supplies were brought in from behind without being seen by the enemy.

In mid-August, a Canadian brigade moved to the Ypres salient, giving the French a much-needed recuperation, and in the opinion of the Canadian Army, the French trench fortifications left much to be desired. The long trenches had no parapet walls to provide defense against artillery fire. In lowland areas, high water levels make it impossible to dig more than two feet, and there is an urgent need to pile the breastwork walls up to four feet or more with sandbags or dirt. The breastworks built by the French were not thick enough to withstand bullets, and some of the trenches did not have such weak fortifications. None of the trenches were protected from the back wall of artillery fire behind.

The morale of France is also reflected in the sanitary facilities, which, according to the Imperial Chinese Field Observation Group, told the Ministry of Works: "These facilities are in a deplorable and very filthy condition, and all the small trenches that have collapsed underneath are used as public toilets and places for the burial of corpses...... The trenches and the ground behind them were littered with dead people, some buried, some unburied, and many shallow graves seriously hindered the digging of trenches. ”

At the reminder of the officers of the Imperial Chinese Field Observation Regiment, the Allied commanders approved the raising and thickening of the breastwork. Where possible, existing trenches were deepened, and parapets and new communication trenches were created. All the trenches communicated with each other, and the soldiers could go to any defensive zone without being exposed to enemy fire. In the center of the battlefield, according to the advice of the Chinese Emperor's [***] officials, the Entente [***] team arranged a large number of barbed wire fences to resist horses and defend the entire defense system.

Of course, the officers of the Chinese Empire did not teach the Entente [***] team the housekeeping skills and help the Entente [***] team build trenches and defense systems, mainly so that the two sides could continue to engage in positional warfare and continue to consume, only in this way could they consume more of the national strength of European countries and move the wealth of Europe to the treasury of the Chinese Empire.

At the same time that the Canadian army was transferred to defend Ypre, the Austro-German forces were concentrated in Galicia by order of the German Chief of Staff Falkenhain. In order to divert possible suspicions from the Entente, he ordered the German troops on the Western Front to carry out various activities. This caste-like programme does not imply a substantial advance, but a golden opportunity to experiment with new schemes or weapons.

The Empire of China Field Observation Group in the Allied Powers gave the German command a bad idea to let the German army use poison gas to fight, but the German army had no experience in using poison gas to fight, so the Chinese Empire secretly provided the German army with a batch of poison gas bombs for the purpose of testing new weapons.

On 22 February 1914, the salient in Ypre was far from quiet. Three days ago, the Germans fired a one-ton high-explosive shell from a huge 420-millimeter howitzer, shaking the surrounding land. The Germans targeted mostly non-military targets in Ypre and nearby villages. For example, streets, roads, and bridges were targeted, but the accuracy was too poor, and powerful shells also destroyed churches, public buildings, homes, and lives. The shelling area was mainly to the north and east of Ypre. The lull period lasted from late morning to 4 p.m., when the French defense zone north of the town was heavily bombarded and the barrage slowly moved to the Canadian front.

An hour and a half later, the German shelling stopped. Algerian sentries and African light infantry between Langemarc and the Yze Canal noticed a strange, slightly greenish-yellow cloud slowly approaching them. No one knows what is going on. As the cloud drifted before them, they began to suffocate, gasping for breath in agony, and many fell and suffocated, their eyes, noses, and throats burning as if they had been burned by a sour substance. More than 160 tons of chlorine gas were released from specially built cylinders in the German trenches. The gas, which was almost three times heavier than air, rolled along the ground and crashed into the trench by a slight northeasterly wind. The new weapon was first recognized by the British units when they saw the screaming survivors clutching their throats and running blindly in all directions. But the Canadian Army, which was suffocated by poison gas and did not completely lose its combat effectiveness, stubbornly held this front. The gas-struck French left a four-and-a-half-mile undefended gap, but the Germans advanced two miles and stopped, waiting for the gas to drift through.

Falkenhein asserted that it was more important to start the gas offensive early than to break through the enemy's line of advance. So he asked the German General Staff to get another batch of poison gas bombs as soon as possible. Germany also had a poison gas project, but it only stayed at the level of poison gas used during the Sino-Russian War in the Chinese Empire, and had not yet designed the poison gas into artillery shells, so it demanded that it continue to purchase from the Chinese Empire. However, the Chinese Empire hesitated to provide poison gas bombs to the Central Powers, and did not agree to Germany's demands again, for fear of completely offending Britain and France and cutting off the financial route.

As a result, Germany had no choice but to step up the development of poison gas bombs on its own.

Late at night on the first day of the gas operation, the Canadians worked frantically to fill the gaps opened by the German gas and pulled artillery into positions, which illuminated the night sky with German flares and exposed them to artillery fire. Despite the remnants of chlorine, the Canadians extended their left flank into the French defenses, forming a weak front.

A man named Frederick? Officer Fisher and three soldiers, in order to stop the German advance, brought a heavy machine gun to advance step by step, successfully scaring the German army and blocking the German advance. At the cost of their lives, they were awarded the Victoria Cross, Britain's highest award.

Afterwards, the Imperial Chinese Field Observation Group released a message saying: "If the Germans advance along this undefended gap, they can divide the Ypre salient and encircle 50,000 British and Canadian troops." ”

The intention of the German army to use poison gas was very clear, and the High Command of the Allied Powers had already obtained relevant information from the Chinese Empire, and immediately attached great importance to this.

The French had captured several prisoners a month earlier, and they mentioned the gas canisters, but did not know the type of chemicals used. After receiving the warnings of the Chinese Emperor's [***] officers, the French Fifth Army's "Intelligence Digest", which passed down from the division level to the battalion level, reported that "the pipes that the captives said were filled with suffocating gas had been placed in the artillery group, and there were twenty tubes every forty meters along the front line." ”

The Germans were very shameless, and after using poison gas to fight, they withheld the basin on the side of the Entente. Before committing any new atrocities, the German High Command tended to place their actions on the Entente in order to justify "morally" retaliation. In a radio broadcast the next day, they condemned the British, saying, "Yesterday to the east of Ypre, shells and bombs with asphyxiating gas were used. ”

The Entente side realized the seriousness of the poison gas and immediately appealed to the Chinese Empire for help. As a result, the Chinese Empire conveniently exported gas masks to the Entente countries, and claimed that the gas bombs stored by Germany could slaughter the 5 million troops of the Entente countries a hundred times, which frightened the Entente side into great tension, and immediately signed a contract with the merchants of the Chinese Empire for the purchase of 5 million gas masks. Seeing that the British were so generous, the Chinese Empire immediately sent 100 transport planes from the base in Cyprus to deliver 200,000 gas masks to the Allies at one time, and the rest of the gas masks will be delivered in the next six months. For the Chinese Empire's rapid efficiency, although the Entente countries gritted their teeth afterwards and scolded the Chinese Empire's merchants for their shameless sky-high asking price (the gas mask with a cost of only 12 dragon coins was sold at a high price of 90 dragon coins, and the buyer's egg pain was a must), but I have to admit that the Chinese Empire quickly provided these gas masks to the Entente countries, but it reduced the number of casualties of the Entente [***] team, so regarding the sky-high price of gas masks, the Entente only muttered for a few days before acquiescing.

On 24 February, the second German gas attack was thwarted by the Canadians using gas masks, who recognized that a slightly greenish-yellow gas was slowly wafting towards them, so they hurriedly put on gas masks marked Chinese-made and escaped.

Since the German High Command suspected that the self-made poison gas was not as effective as the poison gas bombs of the Chinese Empire, it believed that the initial use of poison gas against the entire enemy army had no strategic value. But they were not suitable for use in small theaters of war, so the effect was insignificant.

Immediately after the first gas war, the Allies also took out the gas as a-for-tat retaliation. The German [***] team did not know the composition of the Entente's gas bombs at first, and suffered a big loss. The Chinese Empire, on the other hand, obtained information through the internal lines of the Entente and discovered that the gas masks of the Chinese Empire could also protect against the gas bombs of the Entente countries, so it sold them to Germany on a large scale and made a lot of war money from them.

On the European battlefield, both sides use poison gas bombs to fight, although they can kill and injure a large number of enemies, but the release of poison gas cannot break through the opponent's defense line, because the poison gas lasts for too long, even if the other side withdraws from the position, the other side does not dare to easily enter the position of poison gas, so the gas war has not been able to break the stalemate in the European battlefield.

After the Chinese Empire went to war, although the European countries were too busy to care about the Sino-Chinese war. However, all countries are closely eyeing the advanced weapons and equipment of the Chinese Empire, and are especially interested in the H1N1 avian flu bomber and the J-4 Cat Demon fighter of the Chinese Empire.

At this time, over Europe, the combat aircraft of the Entente and the Allied countries have reached more than 10,000, and they are fighting every day, and dozens or even hundreds of fighters are lost every day, of which 95% are J-1, J-3 and J-5 fighters provided by the Chinese Empire, and the rest are fighters designed and produced by various countries, but the production capacity is insufficient, and most of them are copycat combat aircraft of the Chinese Empire.

The belligerents knew very well that in the air battle in Kyushu of the Chinese Empire, the Cat Demon fighters slaughtered the A-3 fighters and the F1 Camel fighters of the British copycat, which shocked the Entente very much, and immediately understood that the Chinese Empire only exported the eliminated fighters to Europe, and the Cat Demon fighters used by the Chinese Empire's Air Force, Army Aviation and Navy Airlines were the most advanced.

In order to seize air supremacy, the Entente immediately negotiated with the Chinese Empire and requested the introduction of the Chinese Empire's Cat Demon fighters and H1N1 bombers.

By this time, the Chinese Empire had provided more than 10,000 fighter jets to various belligerents in Europe, which was a huge amount of money. The Chinese Empire wanted to continue exporting such fighters to European countries, but it was clear that the countries were reluctant to buy obsolete fighters when they learned that the Chinese Empire had more advanced fighters.

As a result, the Chinese Empire proposed that the unit price of a cat demon fighter was 400,000 dragon coins, hoping to force countries to abandon the purchase at a high price. But the countries really want to get this advanced fighter, especially the Entente countries, they know that the F1 fighter and the Newport fighter they designed and developed are far from being the opponent of the Cat Demon fighter, so they are eager to get it, and they even agree to this price.

However, the Cat Demon fighter is an active fighter of the Chinese Imperial Air Force, and once it is exported to the outside world, it may affect the air supremacy of the Chinese Imperial Air Force, so the Chinese Imperial Congress does not agree to export.

However, the arms dealers of the Chinese Empire do not think so, the Cat Demon fighter with a cost of only 220,000 dragon coins is already very profitable to sell for 400,000 dragon coins, and European countries have privately expressed their willingness to buy at a higher price, they do not want to lose this order, so they also help politicians from various countries lobby the congressmen, hoping that Congress can let it go.

The Imperial Capitol, the Great Hall of 10,000 people, was full of quarrels, and the noise was like a vegetable market.

In the Forbidden City opposite the Parliament Building, in the imperial study, Minister of National Defense Wang Shizhen is asking Emperor Wang Chenhao for advice on countermeasures.

"The development of aircraft is very fast, even if we don't export to Europe, it won't take a year for European countries to develop fighter jets with surnames comparable to cat demons."

Wang Chenhao knows very well that war is a high-speed catalyst, and the first war in history has shown that fighter jets and bombers are developing extremely rapidly, and a more advanced aircraft will appear almost every six months.

"But Your Majesty!" Wang Shizhen worried: "The Cat Demon fighter is our active combat aircraft, and if it is exported to Europe, it will be a huge impact on the empire's hegemony in the aviation field." ”

Wang Chenhao smiled and said, "Don't worry! After this great war, even if Europe's military strength catches up with us, it will not be able to recover for more than a decade after the war, and we will be in an absolutely superior position economically. This war is fought economically, and post-war Europe will no longer be our biggest threat, but the United States, with its huge economic power, will be the only enemy of the empire after the war. Therefore, there is absolutely no need for us to worry about Europe, although it is good to export to them. ”

Then Wang Chenhao added: "But remember not to give the skill of climbing the tree to the tiger!" ”

"Wechen understands!" Wang Shizhen hurriedly said: "Even if it is exported, it can only be a foreign trade type that reduces the surname ability." ”

"That's good!" Wang Chenhao nodded, and suddenly asked: "I remember that the Cat Demon fighter and the H1N1 bomber were six or seven years ago, why haven't there been new combat planes in these years?" ”

"Your Majesty really remembers your surname! The Cat Demon fighter and the H1N1 bomber were finalized and produced in January of the 7th year of Guanghua, and now seven years have passed. ”

Wang Shizhen then explained: "At present, more than 100 reconnaissance planes, trainer planes, fighters, and bombers of various types have been developed in the field of imperial aviation. ”

Wang Chenhao asked curiously: "Is there a much more advanced aircraft developed?" ”

Wang Shizhen nodded and said, "Your Majesty, do you remember that nine years ago, you said that combat aircraft are the same as naval warships, and only fighters with armored protection can survive." ”

Nine years ago? Wang Chenhao rolled his eyes, obviously not remembering.

Wang Shizhen further explained: "Your Majesty, you must not remember everything. Wei Chen and Air Force Minister Liu Xiang remember it clearly. At that time, you said that our aviation industry should develop a lightweight, high-strength metal to replace the skeleton and shell of the aircraft, so that when our fighters are fighting in the air, the enemy's bullets cannot penetrate our aircraft, but the bullets of our fighters can easily damage the enemy's fighters. ”

Then Wang Shizhen reminded again: "Aluminum alloy! Does Your Majesty remember? ”

Only then did Wang Chenhao remember that he had indeed put forward a request to the Air Force to develop a suitable aluminum alloy fuselage for fighter jets. It's just that at that time, there was no industrial production of high-strength and light-weight aluminum alloy as an aviation material, because the cost was too high and the output was too low, and Wang Chenhao forgot about it in the following years.

Now that he mentioned it, Wang Chenhao suddenly became interested and asked, "How is it?" Did it work? ”

Wang Shizhen said with a smile: "Thanks to His Majesty's Hongfu, after 9 years of struggle, the imperial aviation industry department has finally developed an aluminum alloy material with light weight, high strength and easy stamping and forging, and not long ago we found a large-scale bauxite in the western part of the Australian province, which is easy to mine, and has high content and few impurities, and can finally achieve large-scale industrial aluminum alloy production." ”

Wang Chenhao nodded, then shook his head again, and asked, "What?" Don't we have a big bauxite in the country? ”

"Back to Your Majesty! Yes! Wang Shizhen said: "Over the years, our mineral resources exploration team has traveled all over the country and found hundreds of bauxite, including the most in Shanxi, but unfortunately there are too few for industrial mining, and the content is low, there are many impurities, our industrial refining is difficult, and the cost is too high." ”

Wang Chenhao nodded, he also understood that China's land is vast, but unfortunately 90% of the mineral deposits are high-impurity ores, the cost of industrial mining is too high, and the technical requirements for purifying impurities are too high. Even in the 21st century, only the technology of the United States can do it.

This is a real problem, and Wang Chenhao has to admit it.

"I remember that the electrolysis method for industrial production of aluminum is the best!"

Wang Shizhen looked at Wang Chenhao in surprise and said with admiration: "Your Majesty, the first large-scale aluminum factory we set up in Zhili used electrolysis to purify aluminum. This is all thanks to the construction of large thermal power stations, the cost of AC electricity is much lower than that of direct current, which has enabled us to achieve industrial production of aluminum, and the all-metal aircraft developed by our airlines have been able to reduce costs. ”

Subsequently, Wang Chenhao asked about the development of all-metal aircraft, and Wang Shizhen couldn't say clearly for a while, so he called Liu Xiang, minister of the air force, and Feng Ru, chief of the Ministry of Aviation, for questioning.

Liu Xiang and Feng Ru then explained to Wang Chenhao the current development of the aviation power of the Chinese Empire, with a focus on explaining to Wang Chenhao the situation of all-metal aircraft that he was most interested in.

In the 13th year of Guanghua, the first large-scale air war broke out in Europe, and among the military observers sent by the Chinese Empire to various belligerent countries, there were air force personnel, and the experience of air warfare in Europe and the surnames and advantages and disadvantages of the participating aircraft were sent back to the Imperial Air Force and the Ministry of Aviation for study.

According to the performance of the J-1, J-3 and J-5 fighters of the Chinese Empire in the European air war, the Imperial Air Force Command issued to the Ministry of Aviation the technical index requirements for the fighters needed for future air combat.

According to the requirements of the Air Department of the Imperial Chinese Empire, the air battle in Europe showed that the four main aspects of the aircraft's speed, crawling height, protection capability, and weapon system will seriously affect the effectiveness of air combat. Therefore, the specifications of the future fighter of the Chinese Empire require that at an altitude of 2,000 meters, the aircraft can reach a speed of more than 200 kilometers per hour, and be able to climb to an altitude of 3,000 meters in 10 minutes, mastering the commanding heights of air combat. Subsequently, the Ministry of Air Force of the Chinese Empire issued the specifications to the Imperial Aviation Industry Group and Nanyuan Airlines, requiring the two units to come up with a trial fighter (the name of the trial fighter is the J-6 Thunderbolt single-seat fighter) according to the requirements of the specification.

After Feng Ru got the trial production task, he chose one as the main target and the model of the Thunderbolt fighter among the dozens of various fighter models that have completed R&D design and wind tunnel testing.

The Thunderbolt fighter adopts an all-metal structure, and the design of the wing is the most important, which needs to meet the three most basic requirements: lift, control and space to carry people (objects). One of the most important is control, so building a wing that can fly as fast or slow as you want has always been the goal of aeronautical engineers.

The ability of an airplane to reach the sky is the result of the lift generated by the wings. However, after the plane goes into the sky, the wing also generates resistance, which affects the progress of the aircraft, so the shape and size of the wing are related to the speed of the aircraft. With the improvement of the field of aerodynamic theory, the improvement of manufacturing technology and the industrial production and application of new aluminum alloy materials in the Chinese Empire, the surname of the wing has been changed from wood to aluminum alloy after many improvements.

Current aircraft wings in countries around the world are basically rectangular wings because this is easy to make. However, due to its wide wing ends, it will bring drag to the aircraft, which seriously affects the flight speed of the aircraft. For this reason, the aircraft designers of the Chinese Empire designed an elliptical wing, a new wing with narrow wing ends, but its manufacturing process was very complex and difficult to make.

Feng Ru also consulted the emperor Wang Chenhao, and Wang Chenhao gave him a general description of the mainstream wing shape of modern aircraft, which greatly inspired Feng Ru.

Of course, Feng Ru automatically ignored Wang Chenhao's mention of the use of swept wings, delta wings, duckbill wings and other designs, because these wings basically need the aircraft to reach the speed of sound and supersonic speed to work, and the existing aircraft speed is far lower than the speed of sound, so Feng Ru adopted the trapezoidal straight wing design proposed by Wang Chenhao.

According to Wang Chenhao's prompts, Feng Ru combined with the existing theory, although there are still a few flaws, but it is already very good. He designed the wings of the Thunderbolt fighter to be trapezoidal straight wings. The trapezoidal wing has the length of both rectangular and oval wings, and is relatively easy to make, although it still has a small wingtip, but the drag is not too large.

The Thunderbolt fighter still has a fixed landing gear and uses a rideable all-metal skin technology, which nearly doubles the weight of the structure.

The first prototype was built in February of the 13th year of Guanghua, using a 400 hp Adel 6-cylinder star-cooled engine. Wind tunnel tests were carried out that month, and the first first flight was achieved three months later.

The aircraft was able to go far beyond the norms, reaching a top speed of 250 km / h. The second prototype was refined in various details to maximize durability and reduce drag, and the ecstatic Imperial Chinese Air Force demanded that the Ministry of Aviation use the second prototype as a standard for mass production and officially name it Thunderbolt.

As the first all-metal fighter of the Imperial Air Force of China and the world's first all-metal fighter, the Thunderbolt fighter has relatively thick high-strength wings, elliptical wing tips, and a streamlined fuselage that makes the aircraft look full of modernity. In order to reduce air resistance, the fuselage and wing skinning are fully installed with the most advanced countersunk rivet technology, after using the countersunk rivet, the surface of the aircraft skin will be very smooth and basically without protrusions, thus increasing the flight speed.

Although Feng Ru considered the retractable landing gear proposed by Wang Chenhao, due to the complex structure of the retractable landing gear and the large weight, and the design idea of the Thunderbolt fighter is to reduce the weight as much as possible, reduce the wing load, emphasize the horizontal maneuverability, and the landing gear retraction system still has problems such as poor reliability and insufficient strength, all retractable landing gear has been abandoned, which has to be said to be a pity.

In accordance with the requirements of the Imperial Air Force of China, fighter fighting techniques showed that the protection of pilots needed to be strengthened. To this end, in order to avoid the problem of head injury and death of the pilot caused by the overturning of the fuselage that often occurs when landing, the Thunderbolt fighter designed by Feng Ru strengthened the windshield structure in front of the pilot, and at the same time designed a steel protective seat behind the pilot, which has been blocking the pilot's head, so as to protect the rear of the pilot under the open cockpit and greatly reduce the probability of being killed or injured by enemy shooting, making the pilot safer.

Although Feng Ru also considered the concept of enclosed cockpit design proposed by Wang Chenhao, because the avionics equipment of this era was too poor, the pilots did not like this design that affected their field of vision to observe the enemy's situation, so they gave up installing a fully enclosed cockpit canopy.

In terms of armament, Feng Ru originally wanted to install two 7.92 mm Browning heavy machine guns, but considering that the opponent's speed was too fast in air combat, the trajectory of the 7.92 mm bullet was fluttering and shaking, and the ballistic dispersion point at a distance of 500 meters exceeded 1 meter, making it difficult to hit the enemy plane. Therefore, Feng Ru carried an M2 12.7 mm heavy machine gun on the plane for the first time, and used 12.7 mm heavy machine gun bullets to make the fighter shoot at a distance of 1,000 meters, the ballistic dispersion point was controlled within 0.5 meters, which greatly improved the shooting accuracy.

However, the bolt and bullets of the M2 heavy machine gun are very heavy, so the number of bullets can only be limited to 200 rounds, and it is not possible to reserve 500 rounds of ammunition like the Cat Demon fighter, which makes the technical requirements for the pilot higher, and also increases the time required for the pilot's usual training. Originally, the pilots of the Cat Demon fighter only needed to train for half a year before they could fly and fight, but the pilots of the Thunderbolt fighter needed to be trained for more than a year.

Fortunately, the Chinese Empire is a world leader in pilot training, and 90% of the world's outstanding pilots are from the Chinese Empire's aviation academies, so the Chinese Empire has no problems in pilot training and reserves.

After these drastic improvements, the Thunderbolt fighter has an empty weight of 1216 kg, a maximum take-off weight of 2022 kg, a maximum speed of 250 km / h, a range of 500 km, and a maximum ceiling of 3800 meters.

The only drawback is that the Air Force's Thunderbolt fighter jets can only carry two 50-kilogram bombs or one 100-kilogram bomb. Not like the Catdemon fighter, you can mount a torpedo and use it as a torpedo bomber.

However, although the Thunderbolt fighter was developed by the Air Force, when she developed it, the Imperial Chinese Navy and Army came to intervene and asked Feng Ru to develop the Thunderbolt fighter required by the Army Aviation and Naval Aviation.

The Army version of the Thunderbolt is basically the same as the Air Force's fighter and does not need to be changed.

The HNA version of the Thunderbolt requires major changes. The first is the carrier-based type, the wings of the aircraft need to be folded, and the belly needs to be mounted with torpedoes and heavy bombs, so the naval version of the Thunderbolt carrier-based fighter is changed to a 500-horsepower Adel 9-cylinder star-cooled engine to increase the maximum take-off weight, so that it can carry torpedoes and bombs for ship attacks.

Although Feng Ru's monoplane surname can be affirmed, the new bomber of the Chinese Imperial Air Force still did not choose a monoplane, and still adopted a biplane mode.

The main reason for this is that the Imperial Air Force's specification for bomber designers is to have a range of 1,200 kilometers, a endurance of at least 10 hours, and can take off from the Chinese Imperial Mainland, carry more than 5 tons of ammunition, and directly carry out strategic bombing on Tokyo. At the same time, in view of the defeat in the air battle of 11.31, the Imperial Air Ministry demanded that the bombers be equipped with weapons and have the ability to defend themselves.

The Imperial Air Ministry was too demanding, and there was only one company responsible for developing the bomber, the Imperial Royal Aeronautics (the Imperial Emperor had plenty of money to develop, so he didn't care how much money was spent on it).

The H2N1 bomber was developed at Imperial Royal Airlines. Due to the high requirements of the Imperial Air Force, at first the designers and engineers of the Royal Aeronautics of the Imperial Air Force thought it was impossible.

But then His Majesty the Emperor Wang Chenhao said: "If the engine doesn't work with a single engine, it will be double, if it can't be four, if it doesn't work, it will be six, if it still doesn't work, then you can buy a piece of tofu and kill yourself." ”

The designers and engineers of Royal Airlines suddenly came to inspiration, the H1N1 bomber uses a twin-engine engine, since it cannot carry 5 tons of bombs, then it is changed to 4 engines at the same time to tow, so that it will definitely be able to meet the thrust-to-weight ratio requirements.

As a result, the H2N1 bomber was eventually designed as a large four-engine bomber with a crew of up to 7 people, which could carry 6 and a half tons of ammunition, and the endurance exceeded the design requirements, reaching an astonishing 12 hours.

This type of aircraft was originally designed to allow the Royal Air Force of the Chinese Empire to have a long-range bomber capable of taking off from the mainland to attack Tokyo, the aircraft is much larger than its predecessor H1N1, but there is not much difference in the overall layout, the biggest difference is nothing more than that the H2N1 uses four 500 hp Adel 9-cylinder star-cooled engines in tandem.

Royal Airlines assembled the first prototype of the H2N1 bomber, which was tested in the wind tunnel in August of Guanghua 13 and made its first successful flight in September, equipped with four engines sharing a large radiator, while the subsequent standard production model was equipped with a six-sided radiator for each pair of engines, which was one of the main differences between the H2 and H1.

Of course, the H2N1 bomber also uses the metal fuselage of the Thunderbolt fighter, because it is lighter and stronger, and at the same time has the ability to protect.

Another major difference is that the H2 bomber has its own defense capability, that is, it is equipped with three M2 heavy machine guns, arranged above the nose and on both sides of the fuselage, and the firepower can be described as very powerful.

In general, the H2 bomber has an empty weight of 7.7 tons, a maximum take-off weight of 14.5 tons, a practical ceiling of 4000 meters, a maximum speed: 120 km / h, a cruising altitude of 2000 meters, a range of 1300 km, and a maximum bomb load: 6.6 tons. (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to come to the starting point (qidian) to vote for recommendation, monthly pass, your support, is my biggest motivation. )

(To be continued)