The Rise of the Third Reich

"No, no, no, the HNA Type A is not the best fighter in the world. Horikoshi, I am not bragging, my D.31 is the best!"

"Yes, yes, the aircraft designed by Mr. must be the best!"

"Of course, who am I? I am Anthony Fokker! Those people don't understand fighter jets at all, not even the German Air Force and Navy, nor General Hessmann."

"Of course they are not as good as you, sir."

"They believe that fighter jets are divided into two categories: high-altitude and low-altitude. They also take it for granted that aircraft using air-cooled engines are positioned at low altitudes, and fighter jets using liquid-cooled engines are positioned at high altitudes."

"Is it not?"

"Of course not! This division method is outdated. It has been outdated since the advent of turbochargers! Future fighter jets 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-duty single-engine fighter! Even though it is a little bit inferior now, once a high-power 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 person currently complaining in a very high-end bistro in Nagoya, Japan is Hersman's brother-in-law Anthony Falk.

The once handsome young man is now a fat man weighing almost 200 pounds, with a double chin, a beer belly, and no gentlemanly demeanor at all. In addition, he is still an out-and-out tycoon!

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 Fokker-Wulf and 18% of Heinkel Aircraft Company. An aircraft manufacturing consortium with Fokker as the core was formed.

However, in the German Empire that implemented national socialism, no matter how big a local tycoon was, he could not be as wealthy as General Hessmann. Therefore, the general said that he could only bring his assistant Carl Ilbitis - he is a local German in Baltica and a member of the BF-FK consortium (an aircraft manufacturing plant controlled by Fokker) The chief engineer, who is also the deputy chief designer of the Fokker D.31, went to Nagoya, where Mitsubishi Corporation's aircraft design office is located.

However, he still criticized the design requirements of the "Hainan A-type" fighter proposed by Hessman, believing that it was far inferior to his proud work, the Fokker D.31. That's why he often drinks wine and complains with several Japanese aircraft designers who studied abroad and interned in Germany.

"Mr. Fokker, the requirements of the 'Twelve Ship Test Battles' are very high. It seems that they want to pursue the best combat performance."

Jiro Horikoshi, a Japanese who is very thin and small, with a long head and small round eyes, once interned at the BF-FK joint and met Anthony Falk. He is now an aircraft designer for Mitsubishi Corporation and has just accepted the task of designing the "Twelve Test Ship Battles".

The technical requirements of this "Twelve Test Ship Battles" are almost exactly the same as those of Germany's "Haihang Type A". Therefore, after studying with the leaders of Mitsubishi Company, the Japanese Navy agreed to jointly develop it with Germany. In fact, the designers of Japanese Mitsubishi Company were having a headache over the "Twelve Test Ship Battles".

In history, Jiro Horikoshi, who designed the "Type Zero", first thought when he saw the "Twelve Test Ship Battles" was: "If you want the best fighter in the world, just dream about it!"

"Are the requirements very high?" Anthony Fokker took a sip of bland Japanese sake and laughed. "It's just the pursuit of three projects: speed, combat and long range... It's actually not difficult to do."

"Isn't it difficult?" Jiro Horikoshi and several colleagues looked at the half-drunk Anthony Falk with admiration - a master is a master, and when drunk he can solve problems that everyone can't solve even if they think hard.

"Of course it's not difficult!" Fokker shook his head, "Only my brother-in-law Hessmann can raise such a low requirement..."

Is this requirement low enough? Several Japanese people opened their mouths wide and looked at Fokker, whose face was red.

"First of all, he has no requirements for the aircraft's high-altitude and low-altitude performance... The practical altitude is 3,000 meters to 5,000 meters. There is no need to consider the decrease in engine efficiency at high altitudes, and there is no need to consider too much the threat of ground and surface firepower."

"Yeah……"

Several Japanese soldiers nodded repeatedly, and the master's idea was indeed brilliant - not how to meet the requirements, but to start thinking about what requirements do not need to be met!

"Secondly, he does not have any requirements for the upgrade space of the aircraft... 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, that is, It is said that it only needs to remain advanced within 2 to 3 years after it is put into use. This can reduce a lot of weight and volume reserved for upgrades.”

Makes sense! Several Japanese nodded again. They had all seen the Fokker D.31. It was big and heavy, and looked more like a bomber than a fighter. If it weren't for its powerful engine, the aircraft's air combat performance would have been a tragedy. It turns out that Mr. Fokker designed this design considering equipping aircraft with more powerful engines in the future...

I don’t know what the Fokker D.31 will look like if it is 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-shot 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 the hands of a Japanese woman who was accompanying him, and drank it all in one gulp. "Flexibility means nothing more than turning, climbing, somersaults, etc... This is a small and light aircraft. Being small and light 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 had hundreds or even thousands of Zeros in the early days of World War II, it would have been able to cover their bombers deep into the United Kingdom, fly rampant over the Mediterranean and the North Sea, and protect a group of torpedo attack aircraft 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...