Chapter 213 Fokker Zero
"No, no, no, the 'Navy A-type' is not the best fighter in the world. Horikoshi, I'm not bragging, my D.31 is the best!"
"Yes, yes, the plane designed by you must be the best!"
"Of course, who am I? I'm Anthony Fokker! Those people don't understand fighters at all, the German Air Force and Navy, and General Hessman don't understand."
"Of course they are not as good as you, sir."
"They think fighters are divided into two categories: high altitude and low altitude, and they take it for granted that aircraft using air-cooled engines are positioned at low altitudes, and fighters using liquid-cooled engines are positioned at high altitudes."
"Is it... not Is that so? "
"Of course not! This classification method is outdated. It became outdated after the emergence of turbochargers! Future fighters should be divided into heavy and light, multi-purpose and single-purpose. It should be divided like this..."
"Oh..."
"My D.31 is the world's first heavy single-engine fighter! Don't look at it as a bit mediocre now. Once a high-powered turbocharged engine can be installed, it will be an all-round fighter, the best fighter in the world! But they just don't know the goods..."
The one who is now complaining in a very high-end tavern in Nagoya, Japan is Anthony Fokker, Hessman's brother-in-law.
The handsome guy is now a fat man weighing nearly 200 pounds, with a double chin and a beer belly, and no gentlemanly manners at all. In addition, he is an out-and-out local tyrant!
His Fokker Aircraft Company is now the world's largest aircraft company, accounting for 30% of the world's civil aviation market except the United States and the Soviet Union.
In addition, Fokker also owns 25% of BFW (a subsidiary of BMW), 20% of Focke-Wulf and 18% of Heinkel Aircraft. It formed an aircraft manufacturing consortium with Fokker as the core.
However, in the German Empire, which implemented National Socialism, no matter how rich the local tyrants were, they could not be more powerful than General Hessmann. So with the words of the general, he could only take his assistant Karl Irbitis, a local German in the Baltic, the chief engineer of the BF-FK consortium (an aircraft manufacturing plant controlled by Fokker), and the deputy chief designer of the Fokker D.31, to Nagoya, where the aircraft design institute of Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan was located.
However, he still had some complaints about the design requirements of the "Haihang A-type" fighter proposed by Hessmann, believing that it was far inferior to his masterpiece, the Fokker D.31. That's why he often drank wine and complained with several Japanese aircraft designers who had studied and interned in Germany.
"Mr. Fokker, the requirements for the '12-ship battle' are very high, and it seems that they want to pursue the best combat performance."
Jiro Horikoshi, a Japanese who is very thin and small, has a long head and small round glasses, once interned at the BF-FK consortium and knew Anthony Fokker. He is now an aircraft designer at Mitsubishi Corporation and has just accepted the task of designing the "12-ship battle".
The technical requirements of this "12-ship battle" are almost exactly the same as the German "Haihang A Type". Therefore, after studying with the heads of Mitsubishi Corporation, the Japanese Navy agreed to jointly develop with Germany - in fact, the designers of Mitsubishi Corporation in Japan are having a headache for the "12-ship battle".
Jiro Horikoshi, who designed the "Zero" in history, saw the "12-ship Test Battle" and his first thought was: "You want the best fighter in the world? Dream on!"
"Is it very demanding?" Anthony Fokker took a big sip of the bland Japanese sake and laughed, "It's nothing more than pursuing three items: speed, fighting and long range... It's actually not difficult to do."
"Not difficult?" Jiro Horikoshi and several colleagues looked at the half-drunk Anthony Fokker with admiration - a master is a master, and even when drunk he can solve problems that everyone can't solve.
"Of course it's not difficult!" Fokker shook his head, "Only my brother-in-law Hersman can come up with such a low requirement..."
Is this a low requirement? Several Japanese opened their mouths wide and looked at Fokker, whose face was flushed.
"First, he has no requirements for the aircraft's high-altitude and low-altitude performance... The practical altitude is 3,000-5,000 meters. There is no need to consider the decline in engine efficiency at high altitudes, nor the threat of ground and surface firepower."
"Yes, yes, yes..."
Several Japanese devils nodded repeatedly. The master's idea was indeed brilliant - not thinking about how to meet the requirements, but starting from what requirements do not need to be met!
"Secondly, he has no requirements for the aircraft's upgrade space... This is very confusing. My D.31 has a lot of upgrade space and can be used for at least 10 years! And this aircraft does not consider upgrades, which means that it only needs to maintain its advancedness within 2 to 3 years after it is put into use. This will reduce a lot of weight and volume reserved for upgrades."
Makes sense! Several Japanese nodded again. They have all seen the Fokker D.31, which is large and heavy, not like a fighter but more like a bomber. If it were not for the powerful engine, the air combat performance of this aircraft would be a tragedy. It turns out that Mr. Fokker designed this in consideration of equipping the aircraft with more powerful engines in the future...
I wonder what the Fokker D.31 will look like after being equipped with the legendary BMW 700 series high-horsepower engine with a turbocharger?
But when they think of Japanese aircraft engines, several designers can't help but sigh - if they also have engines like the BMW 700 series, why would they be so overwhelmed by the Navy's requirements?
"Third, this aircraft is an air superiority aircraft used for medium-altitude combat. It does not need any ground or sea attack capabilities. Although your 'Twelve Test Ship Battles' proposed to hang two 60-kilogram bombs , but what's the use of such a small bomb at sea? It's just to support the landing, just blow up something to scare people..."
Anthony Fokker snorted a few times: "So this aircraft does not need to consider armor protection, dive performance, high altitude performance, or upgrade performance, so it can be made light and small. Pursue flexibility and high speed when it is light and small.”
Light, small, flexible and fast... isn't this the ideal "Twelve Test Ship Battles"?
"It's easy to be light and small, but it's hard to have both flexibility and high speed." Jiro Horikoshi adjusted his glasses, "Currently in the aviation industry, it is generally believed that it is difficult to have both speed and flexibility of an aircraft..."
This was a common view in the aviation industry in the 1930s. It was difficult to have both speed and dogfighting. The mainstream fighter design pursued "one-hit disengagement", that is, hit and go, and did not pursue the combat performance of the aircraft.
"What can't be done both ways? Everything is relative." Anthony Fogg took the Japanese wine plate from a Japanese woman who was accompanying him and drank it all in one gulp. "Flexibility is nothing more than turning, climbing, somersaults, etc... This is a small and light aircraft. Small and light itself makes it easy to achieve flexibility. If it is coupled with a powerful enough engine, then the problem is Create the best aerodynamic shape.”
The direction is already there! Jiro Horikoshi suddenly had a feeling of clearing away the clouds and seeing the blue sky - although there are still many problems to be solved before the aircraft is really made, but after having a direction, he knows where to work hard.
As long as the three points of weight reduction, aerodynamic shape and more fuel are achieved to the extreme, and an engine with decent performance is available, an excellent medium-altitude air superiority fighter will be born!
In history, this aircraft is the famous Zero carrier-based fighter. And Hessmann, who was well aware of the performance of the Zero fighter, knew its value very well... It was the "escort fighter" that Germany needed most in the early days of World War II!
If Germany could have had hundreds or even thousands of Zeros in the early days of World War II, they would have been able to cover their bombers deep into the United Kingdom, and they could also fly rampant over the Mediterranean and the North Sea, escorting torpedo attack fleets modified from twin-engine medium bombers to strike. British naval fleet. It can even escort the Fw200C reconnaissance/patrol aircraft, known as the scourge of the Atlantic, to attack British merchant ships in the Atlantic.
The course of World War II may be very different!
…
Hersmann's adjutant, Lieutenant Colonel Hans Speidel, quickly walked into an office in the German Embassy in Moscow. Hersmann was sitting behind his desk looking at the telegram sent by the General Staff - the telegram. The content was that the German government agreed to start negotiations on an alliance treaty with the Soviet Union.
This was decided in 1935, when a secret treaty was concluded, and now it is time to turn the secret treaty into a formal alliance treaty.
Of course, there will be many negotiations before a formal contract is signed. Hitler will send his new Foreign Minister Ribbentrop to take charge of this matter. At the same time, Germany, Italy and Japan are also actively negotiating alliance matters.
"Your Excellency, General," Hans Speidel raised his hand in salute, and then handed a list to Hessmann, "This has just been sent by the People's Commissariat of Defense of the Soviet Union."
"Oh, let me take a look." Hersman took a look at the list. It was a technology exchange list issued by the Soviet People's Commissariat of Defense - they wanted to exchange Germany's "urgently needed" oil and non-ferrous metals for technology. Mainly aviation and naval shipbuilding technology.
The Soviets are obviously more confident about their army equipment, but their aviation and naval shipbuilding technology are still not up to par. And they are also eager to become fat in one bite, especially in the field of large naval surface ships. The Soviets did not follow Germany's suggestion and start building a 30,000-ton battleship together with Germany. Instead, they wanted to build an even larger battleship in one go. But now we are encountering great difficulties...