Iron Cross

"It's coming, it's coming, get on the plane and get ready." The sharp-eyed Schultz suddenly stopped his heated chat, reminded Wendell, and ran towards his plane quickly.

Wendell looked up and saw that a group of people had descended from the command center. The leader was the head of state, accompanied by Keitel and Speer, followed by a large number of people, all of whom were prominent figures in the aviation industry - including major leaders of the Air Force. The general, including the chief designers and production directors of various aircraft manufacturing companies, ran to his car without any hesitation, because he found that the head of state was coming for the Me-262 first.

Finally seeing and touching this legendary aircraft, Hoffman, standing next to the Me-262, felt very good about himself: Milch's biggest problem was the delay in the Me-262 due to the bad relationship with Messerschmitt. into service, and the fatal mistake Hitler made was to regard this revolutionary aircraft as a ridiculous high-speed bomber. He will correct this historic mistake and let the Me-262 shine earlier, allowing Britain and the United States to shine. The Lancasters and B-29s that carried out strategic bombing were powerful. Although he had chosen Me-262 deep down in his heart, out of politeness and fairness, he could not reveal this tendency on the surface prematurely.

Everyone could see that the Führer was in high spirits, and the haze after the treasonous group and the Göring incident had obviously been swept away. He was very interested in jets. Not only did he learn about the aerodynamic layout, weapons, and engines in detail, but he also happily sat in the cockpit to experience it. Later, he shook hands with Wendell cordially, took a photo with him, and asked: " What do you think of this aircraft? What’s special about it compared to traditional propeller aircraft?”

"This is a great airplane. Although it was a little difficult to get started at first because its controls are a bit special compared to traditional airplanes, it is not difficult once you get familiar with it." A flattered Wendell gestured and said, "His It is very fast and can travel about 200 kilometers faster than current fighter jets, which allows it to occupy an advantageous situation in battle. "

"Judging from the style of the wings, it seems that the low-altitude and hovering performance needs to be improved." Hoffman then pointed to the forward-protruding nose, "I just found in the cockpit that it seemed difficult to see the ground clearly because of the nose of the aircraft. Doesn’t this have any impact on the landing?”

Hearing Hoffman speak such professional words, the aviation professionals around him, especially the senior generals of the Air Force, were shocked. These are completely professional words that can only be said by an aviation expert. It seems that the Supreme Command privately said that the head of state may concurrently serve as The Air Force Commander-in-Chief’s rumors may be true.

The designers had no choice but to stand up and clarify: "The problems mentioned by the head of state do exist, and we are working hard to improve them."

Looking at the admiring eyes of the people around him, Hoffman felt a little proud, and continued to ask: "How about listening to the Heinkel Company's report that a He-280 can shoot down a dozen Fw-1262s in an air battle?"

Wendell shrugged and said disapprovingly: "I don't dare to brag so much. In a one-on-one duel, it is certain that the jet is stronger than the main fighter jets currently in service, but this does not mean that he is the only master of the sky. The head of state just now It also pointed out the fact that the aircraft's turning performance is poor, so it is absolutely forbidden to fight with propeller aircraft at low altitudes. Unless they rush to death one by one, if I really encounter a dozen Fw-190s, I will definitely hit and run, maybe. I can seize the opportunity to eat 3-4, but if I eat them all, I will be exhausted..."

Everyone laughed, only Dr. Heinkel's old face turned slightly red. In order to get the Air Force to pay attention to his project, he had arranged a duel with the Fw-190 and submitted an exaggerated report. I don't know how it reached the head of state. In the ears. Fortunately, the head of state who was very interested did not continue to delve deeper. Instead, he went to the He-280 prototype and visited it for a while before he felt relieved.

The test flight began soon. The take-off was carried out in the order of Me-262 and then He-280. At the same time, the Air Force also took off 8 conventional fighter jets to cooperate with the exercise, half of which were Bf-109 and half of which were Fw-190. The famous Air Force ace and current Major General Adolf Galland, the fighter director, personally stood next to Hoffman to explain to him. As the second recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Diamonds, Oak Leaves and Swords, he had been summoned by the head of state many times and was considered an old acquaintance.

The takeoff of the Me-262 was not smooth. Due to the arrangement of the rear tricycle landing gear, the horizontal tail blocked by the wings failed, and it was unable to fly for a long time, which made everyone sweat. Fortunately, the experienced Wendell quickly discovered the problem. When the taxiing speed reached 180 kilometers per hour, he cleverly stepped on the brakes and used the inertia to lift the tail of the aircraft, allowing the elevator to take effect and take off normally. Garland, who also had a trademark mustache, was keenly aware of this and gave an expert explanation to the Führer, which made Hoffman nod repeatedly. On the other hand, the He-280 took off very smoothly and took to the sky in no time.

Subsequently, the two aircraft continued to demonstrate their speed advantages and flight characteristics in the air, but in Hoffman's telescope, he only saw a few streaks of white smoke roaring in the sky. As eight aircraft simulating escort and bombing situations flew through the designated airspace, the two aircraft completed their maneuverability performance and prepared to engage in the most exciting air combat simulation with traditional fighter jets.

The advantage of jet aircraft is that they are fast. The two test pilots unanimously adopted the B\u0026Z tactic of one-shot separation. Garland's explanation was spot-on. He explained the advantages of this tactic in a simple and easy-to-understand manner. He was explaining how to judge a shoot-down in a simulated air battle. When the enemy plane hit, the crowd suddenly burst into exclamation - the He-280 that had just succeeded in a hit suddenly entered a spiral state when it rolled out of the tail lock of another aircraft. Hoffman could see clearly in the telescope, the silver The He-280 fell rapidly like a weight. Although the pilot kept trying to level off, several attempts failed.

"Danger, danger, parachute, parachute quickly." Garland exclaimed, "If you don't jump, the height will not be enough."

But parachuting from a falling aircraft at high speed is not easy. The altitude of the aircraft is getting lower and lower. In the blink of an eye, it is only a few hundred meters above the ground. It is still falling. Garland jumps anxiously and Hoffman closes his eyes. , couldn't bear to see the tragedy of the aircraft crashing and killing people, and sighed secretly in his heart, "It seems that it is not realistic for jet fighters to be put into combat in a short time." Suddenly, the plane suddenly made a "bang" sound, and Hoff Man couldn't help but opened his eyes again, only to see the test pilot's whole body ejected through the cockpit, and then the parachute behind him slowly opened. After a while, the plane fell to the ground, making a violent explosion and falling into countless pieces. One can't help but feel glad that the pilot escaped unhurt.

Fortunately, Wendell was not affected by the incident and landed safely after shooting down two Bf-109s and completing relevant test flight subjects. Hoffman, who recovered from the shock, spoke highly of the entire test flight and comforted the disappointed Dr. Heinkel, saying: "The design of the He-280 still has some merits, such as their first three Pointing the landing gear is more scientific and makes it easier to take off; another example is their original design of the ejection seat, which effectively solves the problem of high-speed life-saving and perfectly protects our flying heroes..." Although he did not mention a word about who won the bid, all Everyone knows that the next generation of jets can only be the Me-262 from Messerschmitt.

Dr. Messerschmitt, who had been highly nervous, finally smiled. Although the Me-262 was not his work, it was the future development direction of the company. He believed that after the implementation of the "Aviation Armament Reorganization Case", Messerschmitt would Mittel remained the leader in Imperial aviation.

I thought that the head of state's speech was enough to bring the test flight to an end, but I didn't expect that he suddenly signaled to his new air force adjutant, Major Heinrich Lehmann (the original air force adjutant was recommended by Goering, and he was replaced by Goering after Goering's fall). Fuman took advantage of the situation and sent him to run the concentration camp under Milch.) He took out two pieces of paper and showed them to everyone. Each piece of paper had an imaginary drawing of a jet fighter. Although it was temporarily sketched with a pencil, the proportions of the lines and the dark contrast showed that The description is very accurate, as if it was a sketch of the real thing.

"I just saw the jet prototypes of two companies. I think they are leading among the existing technologies, but we should also start the design of the next generation aircraft as soon as possible. Gentlemen, why can't we develop something similar to traditional single-engine propellers?" "What about the aircraft?" He pointed to the first drawing, "I considered placing the engine inside the fuselage and using the nose for air intake. In this way, the engine will naturally become a part of the aircraft body structure, which is much easier than the current hoisting method. It reduces flight resistance, makes it more fuel-efficient and faster, so we have this drawing.”

"Then a technician told me that if the existing jet engine uses a conventional fuselage structure with a nose air intake layout, it will inevitably cause the inlet duct to be too long and cause a loss of engine thrust. Since this is a problem, I Modified my plan." Hoffman pointed to the second drawing and showed it to everyone. The appearance of the drawing looked uglier than the first drawing. The short and thick fuselage made the whole aircraft look like a A stubby arrow, the cockpit almost rides directly on the engine compartment.

"I compared the designs of the He-280 and the Me-262. I think that if the engine power is about the same, the swept wing seems to bring faster speed, so the two drawings are not the traditional straight wing layout. As for what kind of backsweep angle is most suitable, it requires precise calculations and wind tunnel experiments by designers." Hoffman explained while indicating to Major Lyman to hand over the drawings to several major chief designers, "Maybe. At present, a single engine is not enough to drive an aircraft, but we need to take a longer-term view of the engines. Through gradual improvements, their thrust can be increased rapidly. In the future, single-engine aircraft will be inevitable - which means lower costs and easier control. flexible."

Several other people politely praised the head of state's genius idea, but Dr. Tank was stunned for a moment, and suddenly reacted and said: "Our company has a young aeronautical engineer named Hans Malthopp, headed by him. A design team is contemplating a high-speed interceptor, and the design almost coincides with the Führer’s second drawing—of course, the Führer’s drawing is much more beautiful than his.”

Nonsense, can't you be more different! Hoffman couldn't help but slander him. The first drawing was drawn based on the appearance of the Mig-15, and the second drawing was drawn based on the appearance of the Ta-183 - the work of your Focke-Wulf Company. , thanks to the painting skills of the Austrian corporal who aspired to become a painter, otherwise Hoffmann would not have been able to draw what he had seen.

"So, who is willing to take this drawing back and help me study it?"

"I want it!" "I want it!" Various companies including Messerschmitt and Heinkel expressed their opinions, and countless hands immediately reached out to the drawings - just kidding, the Führer's hand-painted paintings, except for the works that were circulated on the streets of Vienna before, are now something that you can't buy even if you pay a lot of money.

"If you all need them, then let the Air Force make a few more copies for you. As for the ones I drew." Hoffman signed his name and handed them to Tank with a smile, "I'll give them to your young designer. I hope he can give me a surprise."