The Rise of the Third Reich

Zhukovsky, the father of Soviet aviation, was very old, in his seventies, and had a white beard like Santa Claus. Hersman saw him on the third day after arriving in Moscow. At this time, he was sitting with Hersman in a narrow car.

The two of them also included Junkers, Fokker, Stuart, Tupolev, and Sklyansky, who temporarily served as the director of the Air Force Directorate of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (he was also the deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Military Committee and the deputy people's commissar of the army and navy ) and others left the city of Moscow in several cars and went to an airport on the outskirts of the city for a drive. The car was filled with the strong smell of low-quality Russian gasoline. The sun shines through the gaps in the white clouds in the low sky. Under the dim sunlight, there are more than a dozen biplanes of various sizes parked on the airport runway. From the appearance point of view, there are the British DH series and Avro series as well as the German Fokker D series. The outer shells of these aircraft are painted with red star logos. Some of the aircraft are very old and the paint has peeled off.

This place is exactly like a front-line airport in Germany: repair sheds, hangars, and barracks are all available, located in a calm and desolate land, with the flowing Moskva River nearby.

According to Zhukovsky's introduction, this is a temporary test flight ground for the Red Air Force - a new dedicated test flight ground is under construction and will be completed this summer. Before that, the Petrograd and Duke factories that produce complete aircraft, as well as new models that are imitations of the Mars factory, will be tested here.

"Are these all aircraft produced by Russia?" Fokker glanced at the Fokker D series aircraft placed on the airport runway. "It's so well made, it almost fooled me."

Zhukovsky looked like a flattered Santa Claus, smiling happily and gently, showing off his sparse teeth. "We don't have drawings, so we copy them through reverse engineering. We have the best workers. They don't care about pay. They will work hard if they have black bread to eat. They are very serious. But the Fokker D series we built is still not as good as the Germans. genuine."

Deputy People's Commissar of the Army and Navy Sklyansky, who is very young and looks a bit like a primary school teacher, added: "The main reason is that the engine of the Mars factory is not good. It is not as good as the German product. It has insufficient horsepower and always stalls."

"It's just a workshop there." Junkers said to Hessmann from the side. "I have visited the Petersburg Aircraft Manufacturing Factory and the Mars Engine Factory. The conditions are very poor. Especially the latter is a small workshop. It can be produced there. The engine is a miracle. But their Central Institute of Aerodynamics is very good, well-equipped and has good teaching conditions, which is better than the aerodynamics department of any university in Germany.”

The Russians' basic research is very solid, Hersman thought, but Germany is not weak in this regard either.

The group began to visit the aircraft. Junkers, Fokker and Stuart were all experts. They looked at it very carefully and even climbed up the triangular ladder to see the inside of the cockpit and the engine.

Hirschman was also no stranger to interwar aviation. The knowledge of later generations told him that piston aircraft engines during World War II could be divided into in-line liquid-cooled engines and star-type air-cooled engines based on cylinder arrangement and cooling methods. Both have advantages and disadvantages:

Air-cooled engine: The structure is relatively simple and compact, and it is easy to maintain; but it has a large cross-section, a large wind resistance coefficient, and the high-power operation duration is not as good as that of water-cooling.

Water-cooled engine: small wind resistance coefficient and high continuous power; but the structure is complex and maintenance is relatively difficult.

Among them, most of those equipped with air-cooled engines are carrier-based aircraft and long-range bombers that pursue high power, long range, long-term reliable operation, and easy maintenance. Liquid-cooled engines are mostly equipped on air superiority fighters that pursue combat performance and bombers used at close range.

And as far as engine performance is concerned. During World War II, the United Kingdom was king in the field of liquid-cooled engines. Germany lagged slightly behind the United Kingdom due to poor turbocharging technology, but the overall gap was not large. Fighters using liquid-cooled engines were the mainstream of the German Air Force fighters in World War II.

The strongest player in the field of air-cooled engines is the United States. Although the German BMW company has also developed several very good air-cooled engines. But when it comes to the use of air-cooled engines, Germany is relatively bad. In addition to the famous Fw-190, the only other famous ones are the bi-wing Hs123 attack aircraft and the Ju290 bomber, which are the Junkers 52 and Fw-200, two civilian transport aircraft.

Although the Germans have air-cooled engines with superior performance - at least much better than the Japanese - they have not developed any fighter jets or tactical bombers with long range and large bomb load. The German air force technology tree seems to be missing something. Like a big piece.

In Hersman's view, the reason why Germany's piston engine technology lost its leading edge in World War II was because their air force technology tree was missing. The reason is the period from 1919 to 1933 when "the development of the air force was prohibited".

Although the Germans secretly did a lot of things that violated the Treaty of Versailles, when it comes to armaments, it is impossible to do it secretly - without large-scale production and use, many problems will not be discovered, and the cost of development will be high. There is no way to amortize it.

Therefore, Hessmann is now eyeing the big market of the Soviet Union! He wants to use the Soviet market to fill in Germany's missing technology tree.

"We now have a preliminary understanding of the level of the Russian aviation industry." In a conference room in a two-story building next to the airport runway, Hersman, Sklyansky and others began to discuss specific matters of cooperation - of course These are all matters of principle.

Hersman said: "Although there is a certain foundation, it is still relatively backward. Moreover, Russia as a whole is relatively backward at present. In Comrade Lenin's words, the socialist revolution first achieved victory in a backward country. . However, this does not affect Russia's development of its aviation industry, but we must develop its aviation industry based on Russia's actual conditions, rather than copying Germany's experience. "

He turned his head and said to Junkers and Fokker: "Russia is a very large market. In the future, the scale of joint production will reach thousands of aircraft every year! But our products must meet the characteristics of the Russian market.

Therefore, we need to develop for the Russian market and invite Russian experts to participate in the development. We must not only design an aircraft that can be assembled in Russia, but also enable this aircraft to use Russian raw materials—it does not necessarily have to be all-metal, but wood should be used as much as possible. It is also necessary to make the engine relatively easy to produce in Russia, which requires the design of an engine that is easy to produce and maintain.

In addition, this kind of aircraft must be easy to maintain and have a long range... After all, Russia is a big country, and an aircraft with a range of only three to four hundred kilometers is not suitable for Russia. "

Junkers and Fokker looked at each other and frowned slightly. Isn't Lieutenant Colonel Hessmann too down-to-earth? Where can one be so honest in doing business? Aren't you asking for trouble by being so honest?

Sklyansky was also looking at his two experts - Zhukovsky and Tupolev. The two Russian aviation experts were very excited. The conditions proposed by the other party are really considering Russia! This Hessman turns out to be a militarist with a conscience!

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