78_78650 May 31, Republic 2758 (1917). Outfitting wharf of Guangzhou Shipbuilding Company.

Today, a handover ceremony for a new ship is being held here, because in recent years, China has exploded warships like dumplings, and there have been too many such handover ceremonies. In the past few years, it was the most lively, even if it was a small gunboat handover, everyone was enthusiastic to celebrate, and every time a large number of people came to watch. In the past few years, it has been different, so many ships are handed over every year, and everyone is a little used to numbness. Now, except for large warships such as battleships, aircraft carriers, and heavy cruisers, ordinary warships can no longer attract too many people's attention.

Compared with the solemnity of the handover ceremony of the battleship Wu Qi held here at the beginning of the month, the handover ceremony today is relatively deserted; except for the representatives of the Guangzhou Ship, the General Assembly, and the Navy, as well as some staff members of the Guangzhou Ship, officers and men of the Navy, and so on, the crowds of onlookers from outside may only be a thousand people, which is completely incomparable with the crowd of people at the Wu Qi handover ceremony.

No way, this warship, although it is not small and has a displacement of more than 10 thousand tons, is just an inconspicuous seaplane carrier, uh, at least in the current classification, it is indeed a seaplane carrier.

The onlookers present were all pointing at the new ship and talking about it. Because its shape is completely different from the seaplane carrier in everyone's impression, the island bridge and the direct deck, no matter how you look at it, it looks like an aircraft carrier, well, it is a shrunken version of the aircraft carrier. Of course, this shrunken version is only relative to the current large aircraft carriers of several major powers, and if it is placed in the world, it is not small. For example, China's Yu Dynasty and Japan's Fengxiang have less displacement than it.

Colonel Leon was also standing in the crowd at this time, but he did not come to attend the ceremony. He came to attend a ship design seminar a few days ago as one of the user representatives. I heard that there was a handover ceremony here today, so I stopped by to take a look.

Li Ang looked at the warship for a long time, and then asked the person next to him very uncertainly: "Xu Gong, this is our latest seaplane carrier......?

"Oh, compared with the previous Xu Guo-class and Yu-Guo-class, this Zhengguo-class is indeed different, it can be said that it is a ...... of two kinds of warships" Xu Wei pushed his glasses, nodded and said: "I think it is a brand new warship, but it is not easy to classify it now, so I have to temporarily row to a seaplane carrier." ”

They also met at this design seminar, and Li Ang, as a representative of the user, put forward a lot of suggestions and suggestions to several ship design institutes and shipyards. As we all know, the user, the builder and the designer can be said to have completely different positions, and the atmosphere of the three parties at the meeting was naturally very "warm", and everyone had a cordial and frank exchange, which deepened understanding and enhanced friendship...... At least Li Ang and Xu Wei are friends now, although they shoot each other at the meeting.

"Look at it like an aircraft carrier, it's also a straight deck, an island bridge, and a side lift......" Leon pinched his chin, his head full of question marks.

"Well, it's just the appearance, but it's actually quite different. There is no blocking cable on the through deck of the Zheng Guo-class, at least not now, so it cannot land conventional carrier-based aircraft, and can only use the crane on the side to recover small seaplanes......" Xu Wei pointed to the tail of the warship and said: "The biggest difference is in the back, there is a gate behind the Zhengguo-class, inside is the hangar for large seaplanes, this hangar is very large, almost throughout the entire hull, not only can accommodate large seaplanes, but also can park small ships......"

Li Ang said disapprerovingly: "Oh, I see. However, the performance of seaplanes is limited, and they are far inferior to conventional carrier-based aircraft. This kind of warship is really a waste of resources, so it is better to build an aircraft carrier......"

"Its positioning is an auxiliary ship, its mission is vigilance, patrol and maritime search and rescue, of course, its main role is to carry the landing craft, landing missions......" Xu Wei explained a few words, in fact, he is not very optimistic about this kind of ship.

The technology of aircraft carriers in this plane has developed much faster than that of the original space-time, and the warships used to carry aircraft have also developed much faster. By now, the aircraft carrier has been recognized by most countries, although most of the powers do not think that it can replace the battleship, but also think that it is a very useful battleship assistant, which can not only act as the eyes and ears of the fleet, but also drop bombs and torpedo assist.

And compared with the rapid development of aircraft carriers, seaplane carriers and airship carriers, as a transitional product, are embarrassing, they have only been around for almost a few years, and they already look outdated. Now, except for some small countries in the world, the great gangsters have stopped building new seaplane carriers and airship carriers. Among the big hooligans, Niu Niu and Rooster have built the most, Niu Niu has changed or built a dozen ships, and the rooster has also been reorganized ten, and now it seems that it is basically smashed in his hands, and these two are regretting it.

China, which is the most powerful aviation force and the most advanced aviation technology in this plane, although it has also built some seaplane carriers and airship carriers, but they are mainly for experimental and transitional use, and the number is not large. In total, only two Chen-class airship carriers (Chen Guo and Teng Guo), two Xu Guo-class (Xu Guo and Wei Guo) and two Yu Guo-class water engine carriers (Yu Guo and Yongguo) were built. Among them, the Chen Guo-class and Xu-class are still converted from merchant ships, and there are only two Yuguo-class water engine carriers that are really specially built.

Xu Wei, as the chief designer of the Guangzhou Shipyard Design Institute, is very clear about this information, so he does not support the construction of such outdated things. But this task was assigned by the above, and it is said that Mr. Wen personally made the decision, Xu Wei gave several opinions to the above at that time, and finally the above gave him a reasonable explanation: "This is mainly used to carry the landing craft to land, and the seaplane is just by the way."

It was not surprising that he and Li Ang would think so, because they didn't know that the prototype of the Zheng Guo-class was an amphibious assault ship from later generations. It is only in order to fool other powers that the sign of "seaplane carrier" will be hung. Of course, at present, China has not yet developed a practical helicopter, so it has temporarily replaced it with a water plane, and the amphibious assault ship cannot do it for the time being, but it can also act as a dock landing ship. Besides, in the event of an emergency, it only needs to be slightly modified and can be used as an aircraft carrier.

Zheng Guo-class thought that it was hung with the brand of a seaplane carrier, so it did not name lakes and islands like other amphibious ships, and still named the ancient country of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period like the seaplane carrier. The standard row of Zheng Guo-class is 18,000 tons, the full row is 22,500 tons, and the maximum speed is 27 knots, the upper hangar can carry 12-20 pontoon small seaplanes, and the lower hangar can carry 4-6 hull large seaplanes (all of which are models with foldable wings), and if you do not install large seaplanes, you can instead load 6-10 landing craft, as well as amphibious combat vehicles and transport boats.

A total of four ships of this new type were built, and the Zheng Guo and Song Guo started construction in May 1914 and have now been completed. Construction began in February 1915 and the final outfitting was still underway.

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After the handover ceremony was completed, Li Ang took Xu Wei to the dock area, and the battleship wanted to see the Yue Fei super dreadnought battleship that started construction in Guangzhou last month.

Seeing the keel that was about to be laid in the dock, Li Ang visually measured the length and said excitedly: "Is this the Yue Fei? It looks bigger than the Sun Wu class......

There are a total of four Yue Fei-class battleships that started construction this year, the first ship Yue Fei was built by Guangzhou Shipbuilding, the No. 2 ship Li Jing was built in Jiangnan Shipbuilding, the No. 3 ship Qi Jiguang started construction in Dalian, and the No. 4 ship Liu Renliang was built by Mawei Shipbuilding.

Xu Wei replied: "That's for sure, the standard row of the Sun Wu class is 44,280 tons, and the length of the waterline is 220 meters. The design standard row of the Yue Fei class is 51,000 tons and 255 meters long......"

"The 420 mm guns are good, but there are only nine guns, which is not too outstanding compared to the latest warships of other powers in the world. The British royal throne class is 9 17-inch, 432-mm guns with a displacement of 55,000 tons. The German Bismarck class is also 420 mm, but it has 12 doors and a displacement of about 60,000 tons. Li Ang said with some regret: "There should be no technical problems in my country, why not build a bigger one?"

Xu Wei spread his hands and said helplessly: "As for the larger battleships, there is no problem in design and construction. In fact, the original design of the Yue Fei class was 12 420 mm main guns, but after calculation, the construction cost and construction period could not satisfy the above, and it was later changed to the current nine main guns. ”

Li Ang sighed and said, "Hey, it's a pity. Now it seems that the world's cutting-edge battleships are the most powerful in the German Bismarck class, and the caliber of the main gun is the British royal power class. The South Dakota class, which started construction in the United States last year, and the North Carolina class, which started construction this year, are all 9 406mm guns. The Japanese Kaga-class battleships had ten 410-mm guns. In comparison, our Yue Fei class can only be regarded as a midstream ......"

"You are also an old navy, and the comparison of the strength of the ships should not only look at the number on paper. Xu Wei smiled: "Germany's Bismarck-level paper number jù is indeed very strong, but I estimate that when they are built, this war may be over." The same was true of the British, whose viability on home was greatly reduced by the impact of the war, and those major shipyards could be attacked by the Luftwaffe at any time. Moreover, I also heard that they had a lot of problems with their 17-inch guns. As for the Japanese Kaga class, there were too many turrets, the armor belt was too long, and the armor had to be reduced in order to control the displacement, so the defense was very poor. The two American battleships were more defensive than the Japanese, but they were still not ideal, and they were slower. ”

"And the defense of our Yue Fei-class battleship is very high, and it is able to withstand the blow of the main gun of the same caliber. And it has a speed of up to 26 to 27 knots. In addition, we have a complete fire control system and a reloading system, which surpass them in terms of projection power, rate of fire, and hit rate......," Xu Wei said with a smile.

While the two were talking, suddenly a technician from a wide ship ran over.

"Xu Gong, Xu Gong, the fight is on!" said excitedly, "At present, special news is broadcast on TV, and the United States and Germany have fought in the North Sea......