Although this large purchase, which is rare in history, is largely for self-preservation, and due to the restrictions of the US government (for weapons and military equipment, the US side not only restricts the category, but also limits the total amount, and is only willing to release the quota of 500 million US dollars at most, of course, this number is actually not small) and the need to win over some shili, such as the farmer class with great influence in the US Congress, has to buy some goods that are not urgently needed, but after all, the total amount is there, There is no comparable example of its support and help to the country, except for the full-scale cooperation with Germany that will soon follow, the most valuable of which is naturally those "non-offensive weapons" and dual-use products and their production equipment purchased from the United States

At the end of 1938, the army weapons produced by the major arsenals in the Central Plains Border Region were already ahead of Shijie in terms of performance alone, so there was no need to purchase finished weapons from the United States. However, because the domestic military production capacity is still far from enough to support the expected large-scale expansion of the army, the relevant military equipment has been bought a lot, and the army is still the largest in terms of the total amount of purchases, exceeding 200 million US dollars.

The situation of the Air Force's equipment is similar to that of the Army, although China's aircraft manufacturing industry has just started, but because Hu Weidong, a traverser, has brought a very high starting point, so that the Central Plains Border Region will not lag too far behind Shijie in terms of vital engines, and the equally important turbocharged Jishu is even ahead of Shijie, plus there are Shijie's top aircraft designers like Sukhoi to help improve the excellent design scheme of the classic model in history. Therefore, although China's first self-developed fighter and tactical bomber have not yet begun mass production, Hu Weidong believes that within a year at most, both aircraft will be successfully put into service, leaving all the active aircraft of the same type on the Shijie at that time.

In the near future, American fighters and tactical bombers are in a state of scarcity, and the fighters in service are not as good as the Soviet Union, and the bombers are not as good as the German (before World War II, they were replaced with new aircraft [referring to the main models of the great powers in the early days of World War II, such as the British Spitfire, the American P40, the Japanese Zero, and so on. The earliest was in England. But the Red Party could not buy British planes, so they were only compared with the Soviet-German and German planes that could be bought. In addition, more than a thousand fighter jets bought from the Soviet side began to arrive one after another. Therefore, Hu Weidong really has little interest in the fighters and bombers in service in the United States.

As for several models developed in the United States, the performance is quite good, but when they are finalized and put into service, China's own aircraft will definitely begin mass production. Therefore, as with army weapons, there is no need to purchase finished products, and almost all the orders placed by Zhongfu International are production equipment, of course. This is also because the gap in aircraft production capacity is actually much larger than that of army weapons.

However, strictly speaking, the aircraft industry in the border region is not yet complete, for example, heavy bombers and large transport aircraft cannot be produced, the former is too luxurious for China, a poor country, and Hu Weidong feels that it is more realistic to replace strategic bombers with ballistic missiles for at least 20 years; However, large transport aircraft are very valuable, not to mention in wartime. After the war, it can still be handed over to civil aviation, and at the same time, the exchange of important personnel is relatively much more convenient, unlike the nine transport planes that have been captured now. Moreover, the production of large aircraft is common, as long as it is possible to build a large transport aircraft. Then the strategic bomber will not be too difficult. However, because the performance of the large transport aircraft currently equipped by the US military is not enough to satisfy Hu Weidong, what he wants to buy is actually the prototype DC-3 passenger plane of the best transport aircraft of World War II, the "Douglas C-47 Air Train".

December 21, 1935. The first test flight of a new passenger aircraft, the Douglas DC-3, which can carry 21 passengers at a cruising speed of nearly 260 kilometers per hour. On the basis of the DC-2 passenger aircraft, the fuselage was enlarged, the carrying capacity was increased, and the flight speed and cargo carrying records of various passenger aircraft were broken. The DC-3 was equipped with two 900-horsepower Curtis-Wright engines, which greatly exceeded the power of the engines used in the DC-2. American Airlines originally requested that the DC-3 be equipped with 14 beds to compete with the Pool-door train sleeper service on the railroad, but other airlines required the DC-3 to have 21 seats.

C.R. Smith, chairman of American Airlines, said, "The DC-3 was the first aircraft to make money by carrying passengers." In June 1936, the company relied on the DC-3 to launch its first non-landing shipping service between New York and Chicago. By 1938, the DC-3 was the workhorse of all the major American airlines. Due to its superior performance, the DC-3 was purchased in large quantities by airlines from various countries. According to reports, by the eve of World War II, more than 90% of the country's travel by plane was by DC-3 aircraft, a record that is almost unprecedented. The reason why the DC-3 is so popular is that its performance is more stable than its predecessor, the operating costs are lower, and the maintenance is easier.

Historically, after the outbreak of World War II, DC-3 was conscripted by the Allies to fight as military aircraft, and the military DC-3 was also the famous "Douglas C-47 Skytrain" transport aircraft. Due to the increased demand for transport aircraft by the Allies during the war, the C-47 transport aircraft was mass-produced and served on numerous missions, including the Hump route for China's battlefield transport missions, and the C-47 was regarded as one of the important contributors to the Allied victory

After the war, a large number of retired C-47 transport aircraft were retired from the military to civilian use, and small and medium-sized airlines have introduced these DC-3 to start a business or develop business. It also carried out several "humanitarian missions" during the post-war Cold War, and it can be said that DC-3s can be found at airports around the world at that time.

In Hu Weidong's memory, more than 11,000 DC-3 airliners and their various modifications were produced before they were discontinued in 1946, and until the beginning of the 21st century, there were more than 3,000 DC-3s in commercial, military, government and private service throughout Shijie. In fact, the DC-3 is arguably one of the most flown aircraft in history, with some reaching 70,000 hours or more, including the highest cumulative flight hours of the DC-3 reaching a staggering 84,875 hours (the aircraft was originally owned by North Central Airlines and later donated to the Dearburne Museum in Michigan). (To be continued.) )