Behind Zhu Ligong was the president of the flight club and several instructors, and the president replied busily: "There are six in total, three of these biplanes, and one of the other type, and one monoplane, and three instructors." ”

"How's it going? Would the students like to come? ”

"Come, of course, everyone's interest is high, and there is an endless stream."

"There are more monks and less porridge." Zhu Liqi commented on the four words, and then asked: "If you want to expand again, how much money do you need?" ”

The president couldn't help but be surprised, secretly happy in his heart, and hurriedly said: "This kind of biplane training machine can be won for 40,000 yuan, and in addition to the money for labor and parts, if you expand... I had to ask for 300,000 yuan first, and then I got no less than 150,000 yuan every year. ”

Hearing this, Zhu Liqi didn't say anything, he bowed his head slightly, and thought about it in his heart.

The past ten years have been a blowout period for the construction of Daming colleges and universities, and he remembers that last year's statistics were 979, with more than 870,000 students.

Even if only some colleges and universities have set up flight clubs, it is still a big expense to expand them, you must know that Daming's financial expenditure last year was only 24.2 billion yuan, of which the military expenditure was only 6.1 billion yuan.

After a short period of struggle, he quickly made up his mind about this plan, and this investment was very worthwhile.

The reason is that at the beginning of this year, the Metropolitan Governor's Office submitted a report on the assessment of the aviation reserves of Britain and the United States and other countries.

In addition to the aviation industry, the number of reserves and training potential of pilots is also quite critical.

After all, it's not enough to have a plane and no one to fly it.

Attached to the report is also a suggestion that the Ming may lack sufficient training bases to train new pilots, and if the war begins after a long period of heavy attrition, it may face a shortage of personnel, so it is proposed to invest funds in this area to strengthen it.

In this regard, the crown prince seemed to attach more importance to it than the emperor, and the latter directly ordered him to take full power.

This expectation can be said to be quite forward-looking, and this perception is completely correct.

Historically, the Germans planned to train 100,000 qualified pilots before the outbreak of war, but in the end they only had time to train 28,000.

Although their quality is good, they cannot withstand the losses of years of war. By the end of the war, although Germany produced more than 30,000 aircraft a year, it lacked enough qualified pilots and was severely short of fuel for training.

The land of Dongying is also facing such an embarrassment, because the resources and size are too small to take the elite route, they are extremely strict in the selection of pilots. For example, in the selection of aircraft carrier pilots, there were more than 1,500 applicants, only 70 were admitted, and only 25 successfully graduated.

Before the outbreak of the war, all of them had less than 7,000 qualified pilots, and these people were extremely skilled, fighter pilots were extremely capable of fighting, and the hit rate of horizontal bombers and dive bomber pilots was also very exaggerated.

However, after several rounds of battles had exhausted them, the combat power of the Japanese air force rapidly declined.

Although the current Ming Dynasty still seems to be in a comfortable and peaceful peace, all the meat eaters know very well that this is just the peace before the storm.

In response to this potential problem, the Air Force Division of the Ministry of War has proposed two new large pilot training bases.

It is planned to invest 300 million yuan in the preliminary construction of Jinan and Xi'an.

It is estimated that 60 primary trainer aircraft, 30 senior trainer aircraft, 20 active combat aircraft, and 250 flight instructors and theoretical instructors will be deployed at each base to maximize supply and support training work.

Pilot training is divided into two phases, seven months of theoretical study during the Advanced Behavior Period, followed by eleven months of flight training.

The former includes the history of aviation development, flight principles, aircraft structure, ballistics, aircraft type identification, flight regulations, etc.; At the same time, physical training is also required.

After that, the base will be based on the students' performance and personal wishes for the allocation of models, and then the formal flight training can be carried out, requiring each person to master two types of aircraft, a total of about 250 hours of flight time, graduation will be awarded the rank of second lieutenant.

This plan was approved by Zhu Likai.

But it's not over, he thinks it's not enough, since it's thinking about the bad side, then why not be more far-reaching?

The standard of living in developed industrial countries such as Britain and the United States is high, and there are many flying clubs among the people, so many civilians are experienced amateur pilots.

In wartime, if they are recruited, the training time will be shorter, which will allow for a rapid expansion of the size of the air force.

Daming, on the other hand, is not the case, going to a private flying club to fly a plane is only a high-end entertainment activity that can only be enjoyed by the children of a gentleman or a rich family.

Therefore, Zhu Likai plans to make a fuss in this regard, select some colleges and universities, and expand the flight club and establish those that do not.

Students with a higher level of education have a strong ability to accept and learn, and even if they only fly for a while in their free time, they will be able to get started at least in a few years.

In the future, if it really comes to the time when they are needed, they can directly carry out advanced flight training and combat training.

In this way, the number of potential pilots and reserve aviation forces of the Ming Dynasty can be expanded to a considerable extent.

"Your Highness, I have something important to ask for advice from the Air Force Department of the Ministry of War."

"Take a look."

At the place where he was staying, after taking the message and reading it carefully, Zhu Likai, who was worried, stood in front of the window and weighed it.

The Air Force Department has recently been considering the issue of aero engines, as one of the crystallization of human industry, aviation engine can be said to be a reference to symbolize a country's industrial level.

Weight, output, fuel consumption, reliability and so on must meet the requirements, which can be described as not undemanding.

As a late-developing country, Daming started late in this regard, at first, it was basically to introduce products from Western countries and imitate them, such as Nome Rhône in France, BMW in Germany, and Puhui in the United States.

After that, he began to try to design it by himself, and gradually caught up to the second echelon, but the aero engine is still the most obstructive of the two technical shortcomings of Daming.

The Air Force Department hopes to introduce several more of the most advanced aviation engines before the war, after all, this road will be broken in wartime.

Reverse imitation? Inefficient and unreliable, whether it is a last resort, or should you try to introduce complete drawings and engineering templates.

At present, everyone has fallen in love with the R-1830-76 "Double Wasp" of P&Whit, 14 cylinders, 1200 horsepower; and the Wright R-1820-25 "Whirlwind", 9-cylinder, 1000 hp.

If you ask directly, although the Americans will agree to sell the engine, it is unlikely that the introduction of a full set of production drawings will be possible.

This is today's first-class air-cooled radial engine, and the Americans will only sell old models if they want to sell drawings, and those seven or eight hundred horsepower engines have been produced by Daming himself, which is not uncommon.

Although the Germans also had a star engine with more than 1,000 horsepower, the overall performance was slightly inferior, and they were more proficient in liquid-cooled V-shaped engines.

"Do I have to decide these things? It's a trick. Zhu Liqi turned his head to the side and ordered his attendants: "In this way, when the embassy organizes a banquet in a few days, it pretends to inadvertently reveal false news to the Americans, and then prepares an empty shell aircraft company to directly purchase production licenses from those two companies on the pretext of building a new large passenger aircraft. ”

After speaking, he thought about it and felt that there was nothing missing, so he continued: "Okay, tomorrow's trip is ......"

(End of chapter)