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203 World War I - the rise of the aviation industry!

Under the prayers of old Leland, Arnold's second test flight was finally a complete success. While there are still some minor issues to improve, there is no doubt that this is a superior aircraft.

In Arnold's words, he was the best plane he had ever flown and a complete representation of American aviation, and he had already carried the exciting news back to his headquarters in Washington.

Situ Nan called the aircraft the F1 fighter, hoping to make the F1 the main fighter of the U.S. Army Air Force. This goal is not difficult to achieve, the US Army Aviation has only been established for a long time, and the main fighter model has not yet been determined, and the Cummins-Lincoln Aircraft Company has caught up with the good time. With the superiority of F1 fighters, Situ Nan did not believe that any aircraft company in the United States could produce aircraft comparable to F1 fighters.

At present, there are not many aircraft manufacturers in the United States, and the competition is not too fierce, as long as a person like Situ Nan is willing to burn money, it is not difficult to develop an advanced aircraft.

But neither the Curtis Aircraft Company, which is now the largest, nor the "long-standing" Wright Aircraft Company, will be no match for Cummins-Lincoln Aircraft Company, because Cummins-Lincoln Aircraft Company has a significant advantage that others cannot match, that is, Cummins Power Company and Cummins Power Research Institute.

The best Cummins R101 engine equipped on the F1 fighter is the result of the research and development of the Cummins Power Research Institute for more than two years and a lot of manpower and material resources.

This is completely piled up with money, and it is also Situ Nan University of Finance and Economics, and aircraft companies that are generally in the accumulation stage do not have so much money to invest tens of millions of dollars in research and development.

The $350,000 wind tunnel that just cost Cummins Power alone has left most aircraft companies in a difficult position.

The Cummins Power Research Institute has taken the University of California, Berkeley as its technology base, bringing together a group of advanced scientific and technological talents in the United States, especially after digesting the engine manufacturing technology of the original Lincoln Aircraft Company, and finally developed the Cummins R101 engine after painstaking research.

Success is not something that can be obtained casually, and the Cummins Power Research Institute, which costs a lot of money, has finally come up with its first convincing results

Although the Cummins R101 engine is undoubtedly rubbish from the eyes of later generations, and Cummins Power, which has a total of only 50 people, is only a little better than a copycat factory, the success of the F1 fighter has encouraged Situ Nan.

In his opinion, Cummins Power or Cummins-Lincoln Aircraft Company is a seed, and if it is carefully cared for, it may not be able to become General Dynamics or General Dynamics in the future. A towering tree like Hui Company?

"By the way, why didn't that guy Xu Zhouyang come? Today is an important day, the success of the F1 fighter is not only the success of Cummins-Lincoln Aircraft Company, but also the success of Cummins Power. Situ Nan asked.

"Xu was supposed to come, but there was a real yàn who couldn't come temporarily. He told me that on the basis of the Cummins R101, they had developed a more powerful engine, which was said to have reached 250 horsepower, which is probably what made them miss today's excitement. Leland Sr. said.

"Oh. That's the case" Situ Nan nodded, and said, "Since the plane has been successfully test-flown and you also saw Arnold's performance just now, our plane can go to the battlefield after being loaded with machine guns, now it's time to strike while the iron is hot, take out mature products, and let the officers of the army see how powerful we are."

"Well, I'm sure the Army boys will love these new toys." Old Leland said with a smile, not only fighters, but also saw the prospect of transport aircraft, opening an additional bomber production line.

The Cummins R101 engine gave Leland Sr. a lot of confidence, and it was also suitable to install this powerful engine on a transport aircraft. Whether it is a fighter or a bomber (transport aircraft), as long as it has sufficient power, then it is slightly inferior in other aspects, and it is also an excellent aircraft.

In this regard, the elder Leland had to admire Situ Nan's foresight, which began to invest heavily in the Dow Cummins Power Company before the establishment of an aircraft company, and now with its leading position in the field of engines, the Cummins-Lincoln Aircraft Company will achieve twice the result with half the effort in developing both fighters and bombers. It's like a person with deep internal skills, no matter what kind of moves he learns, his power is incomparable.

"By the way, the young designer Douglas today is very interesting, and we need to catch such a talented person. The so-called leading technology is actually the leading talent, and I hope the company can make more efforts in talent training. Situ Nan mentioned it intentionally or unintentionally.

After Arnold returned, the Army Aviation Department (probably the increasingly fierce air war in Europe affected the Hillbilly US Army, thanks to the war, the original Army Aviation Communications Office was upgraded to the Aviation Agency, directly under the Secretary of the Army, which laid the foundation for the future Air Force to become an independent army. It was decided to expand the original 24 flying squadron into 24 flying squadrons, two-thirds of which were sent to Europe.

To achieve this goal, the Army Aviation Agency plans to purchase 500 aircraft from Cummins-Lincoln Aircraft Company. Among them, 400 F1 fighters and 100 F1 fighters converted into reconnaissance aircraft.

In order to train pilots, the Army Aviation Administration has set up a pilot training base in Los Angeles in the western region and offers related majors at the University of California, Berkeley. A year later, after the initial construction of the Stuto-William University, it joined the project. One is that the two schools are close to each other, and the other is that the University of Situ William is a large place that can provide a venue for pilots to train in peacetime.

Later, his aviation major became the most popular major in the United States, and it was also one of the best aviation majors in the United States, so that countless young talents who were interested in the aviation industry flocked to it, and every year students who graduated from William University became the object of competition from aviation giants such as Cummins-Lincoln Aircraft Company.

At the request of the Army Aviation Agency, the first Cummins-Lincoln aircraft company to produce 1,000 two-seat trainer aircraft, which is actually a "downgraded version" of the F1 fighter for the simple reason that it is cheap.

After receiving the order from the Army, Cummins-Lincoln Aircraft Company added two production lines, expanding the number of employees from 1,000 to 8,000. In addition to producing F1 fighter jets, transport aircraft and seaplanes were later produced, and the factory expanded from Long Beach, California, to San Francisco in the north and San Diego in the south.

In addition to the Cummins-Lincoln Aircraft Company's major expansion, Cummins Power is not far behind, and the scope of expansion is even larger, in addition to its headquarters in Long Beach, it has also set up branches in New York's Buffalo, Detroit, Houston and other major cities, employing up to 5,000 people.

The Cummins R101 engine produced not only satisfies the needs of Cummins-Lincoln Aircraft Company, but also supplies it to Curtis, Wright and other aircraft companies. Between 1917 and 1918, Cummins Power produced more than 4,500 engines, most of which were Cummins R101 engines, and almost monopolized the high-end engine market in the United States.

The Lafayette Flying Team was honored to be one of the first users of F1, and in order to advertise and open up the international market, Cummins-Lincoln Aircraft Company sponsored 20 F1 fighter jets.

In November 1918, before the onset of the icy winter, the 20 new F1 fighters were finally delivered to the front.

A week later, without fully acquainting himself with the aircraft's performance, a member of the Lafayette Flying Squad named Vince ? Carter's American cowboy pilots shot down two German Fokker planes in one fell swoop, a result that shocked people.

You know, three months ago, the American cowboy was still picking up cow after the herd in Texas, and he didn't know anything about flying except for participating in the rodeo competition.

The battlefield is the best place to test weapons and equipment. The magical watch of the American cowboy attracted the attention of the French Air Force, and after the proud Gallic chicken pilots personally tested the F1 fighter, they immediately realized that this aircraft made by the American hillbilly, which they had previously looked down on, was not inferior to the current most advanced Newport 28 fighter in France.

(Actually, the F1 fighter has already surpassed the Newport aircraft, but the French will not admit that they lost to the Americans in aircraft manufacturing, in fact, they lost to Situan.) ）

Having seen the power of the F1 fighter jet, the shrewd Frenchman made a pragmatic decision to place an order with Cummins-Lincoln for 200 F1 fighters and a production license for 300 F1 fighters.

To obtain a production license, it is to ask Cummins Power to transfer the production technology of the Cummins R101 engine.

Regarding the matter of Cummins Power Company, old Leland was not sure of his mind, so he put the demands of the French in front of Situ Nan.

There is money to be made, Situ Nan naturally readily agreed, anyway, Cummins Power will soon have a more advanced Cummins R201 engine, and it is not a big deal to sell it to the French after taking advantage of the price.

After getting Situ Nan's consent, the cunning old Leland, after fishing the French side for a period of time, finally sold the relevant technology of the F1 fighter to the French Newport company for 2.5 million US dollars, and the 200 F1 fighters were also sold for a sky-high price of 3 million US dollars.

After receiving a total of $5.5 million from the French, Leland Sr. and Xu Zhouyang laughed. In addition to the $2.8 million after the cost, the net income of $2.7 million can not only make up for the large amount of research funds in the past, but also have a slight surplus, which can be used for the expansion of the company.

There is a reason why the French are so refreshing, mainly because the F1 aircraft are of good quality and the French Air Force urgently needs them, and the second is that they don't have to pay for it themselves, the French can use the loan of the US government to buy the American ** fire, although it will be repaid after the war, but there are still Germans? After defeating the Germans, naturally someone paid the bill.

Oh, maybe some of these funds came from the debt issued by the U.S. government to Robles Securities

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203 World War I - the rise of the aviation industry!

203 World War I - the rise of the aviation industry! ，

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