"However, let's not talk about whether the BF110 fighter can be on the ship, only from the perspective of fuel volume, although the BF110 has 4 fuel tanks, but the capacity is not large, two fuel tanks are 375 liters, and the other two are 260 liters. That's only about 1,300 liters. Because the development of this aircraft has not been completed, the range under heavy load conditions can only be estimated without measured data. Speller's face changed. As for weapons? The normal armament of this aircraft was not very powerful, with only two 20mm guns and 4 machine guns. ”

Sspeller was right. The amount of internal oil of 1300 liters is really not much for a twin-engine aircraft, not to mention those twin-engine aircraft in history, and the Japanese Type 97 torpedo aircraft in history have 1000L of internal oil. And if you supply two engines at the same time. 1300L is really not much. Not to mention the fact that there are also bombing missions.

"Well, I won't say much about the technical aspects, I just want to ask, can the maximum speed and cruising speed of this aircraft meet the requirements of high-speed flight with fighter jets?" Count Luknal asked.

"The aircraft has a theoretical top speed of around 550 km/h, while a theoretical top cruise speed of between 450 and 480 is between 450 and 480 km/h, of course, this condition can only be achieved at a high altitude and without plug-ins. If you put a bomb or torpedo on it, you can cruise at a speed close to 400 km/h. The take-off and landing performance is not too bad, after all, it is two engines, and the empty weight of the BF109 as a single-engine fighter is 2 tons, and the ratio of power and weight is not very low. Of course, it depends on the load. Spayler said.

Sspeller is right, from the point of view of power-to-weight ratio, the BF110 is a little worse than the fighter of the same period, and it may be able to win compared with historical attack aircraft. For example, the American TBD, its empty weight reached 2540kg. But the engine power is less than 1000 horsepower R1830. Moreover, this product is still an air-cooled engine, and the frontal area is definitely higher than that of a liquid-cooled engine. And the TBD doesn't have a lot of fuel to carry at just 180 gallons, which is about 680 liters. It's only about half the size of the BF110. The actual maximum speed is only 205 miles per hour, which can be described as extremely tragic.

"If that's the case. We can consider putting the BF110 fighter on board, in terms of volume, the length of this aircraft is as long as some attack aircraft, and the wingspan is only about 2 meters larger, which is nothing for an attack aircraft with a wingspan of more than 10 meters. And we can also make a folding wing in the engine position. The most important thing is that he can give us a great tactical advantage, a dive bomber can carry a maximum of one bomb, and the BF110 can carry 2 rounds! Attack power has been nearly doubled. Of course. In the case of torpedoes, you can only hang one shot, but I think it is possible to mount additional rockets on the wings. The increase in attack power will not be as noticeable as that of the bomber, but at least it will not suffer. The most important thing is that the BF110 can keep up with the fighter at a cruising speed of nearly 400km per hour, which greatly reduces the preparation time of the opponent. This tactical advantage far outweighs the trouble of getting it on board. Count Luknall said excitedly.

Earl Lucknar in World War 1 once relied on a sailing ship called the Sea Eagle to sneak out from under the nose of the British Empire's Grand Fleet, and then steal chickens and dogs in the Atlantic. As a result, he escaped from the opponent's encirclement again and again. In this plane, although Count Luknall failed to reproduce the glory of World War I, he was naturally creative and single-handedly promoted the twin-engine aircraft on board. In terms of time, it is much earlier than the Huaxia Navy. made Xu Jie, as a traverser, feel ashamed.

Of course, although it is possible for aircraft such as the BF110 to be on ships, in reality it is not as easy as it is said. If it is only an occasional take-off and landing on an aircraft carrier, then it is not difficult, but if it is to operate on an aircraft carrier in batches. The situation is different, firstly, the aircraft must fit in the hangar and can be reconditioned in the hangar, secondly, the lifts must be able to lift such a large aircraft, and thirdly, the landing gear strength of this aircraft can withstand the frequent takeoffs and landings living on aircraft carriers, and the fuselage structure can adapt to the harsh maritime environment. Humid and corrosive air is always the enemy of all kinds of precision machinery! The combination of various tragic reasons is very likely to lead to the death of this seemingly beautiful plan. …

Fortunately, Count Luknall was a student and right-hand man of Count Spee, the current commander of the German Navy. In addition, his idea was indeed very tempting, and the characteristics of the high-speed and high-attack power of the twin-engine attack aircraft made the German Navy top brass shine. Even Raeder, who was not very good with Count Luckner, expressed his support. Therefore, the entire aircraft carrier formation of the German Navy immediately carried out research and experiments around the issue of twin-engine aircraft on board.

The whole work was divided into two parts, one part of which was naturally the development and improvement of the aircraft for which the aviation technical department was responsible. In order to adapt the aircraft to the harsh sea conditions as much as possible, the other part is responsible for the maintenance and operation of the twin-engine aircraft on the warship. Although the aircraft has not yet been developed, it is still possible to make a full-scale model to advance and exit in the hangar and on the deck, and simulate the maintenance. The result is unexpected, the first problem encountered by the Luftwaffe is not that the aircraft cannot be made, nor that the aircraft is too heavy and too large to fit in the hangar, but the problem of maintenance!

Twin-engine planes look big, but in fact, if they can fold their wings, then their width will be narrower than the historical Japanese Navy's Zero fighters, for example, the British have made a carrier-based version of the Mosquito aircraft, its wingspan is about 16.4 meters, but when folded, the width is only 8.2 meters! It's cut in half, and the Zero is almost impossible to fold. Its wingspan reaches 11 meters! The Japanese could let the Zero operate in a relatively small double-decker hangar, so the Germans naturally allowed the BF110, which did not even have 9 meters after folding its wings, to operate in a relatively large single-storey hangar.

The key problem is that this thing weighs just too much! The positioning and supply of aircraft in World War II relied on manpower, especially positioning, and each aircraft was pushed to the designated position by people! A BF110 weighs 5.2 tons without ammunition and fuel, and it is really difficult to push such a heavy thing to the designated position! Especially when an aircraft carrier has a squadron of twin-engine aircraft on it that needs to take off, the pressure on the maintenance personnel is too great.

(What?) You don't believe it? Well, let's take an image example, everyone has pushed the car, and the empty weight of a Lavida is only 1200+ kilograms! And even the notoriously light Zero Type 52 fighter has an empty weight of more than 1,800 kilograms, which is equal to a semi-Lavida! And one BF110 is equal to 4 and a half Lavida empty weight! Plus nearly 1 ton of internal oil and about 1.5 tons of ammunition, auxiliary fuel tanks, lubricating oil or something. This take-off weight is close to more than 7 tons! It would be too much effort to rely solely on human power! ）

In this case, the Germans' solution was to get small cars on aircraft carriers, and the Volkswagen Beetle and barrel cars were both popular candidates, these two cars were originally small, and the horsepower was enough, so it was logical that they became the first generation of aircraft carrier maintenance vehicles. And as the research deepened, the Germans found that the take-off and running distance of the twin-engine aircraft was not as terrifying as people thought. If we take the example of a large aircraft carrier up to 270 meters long that Germany improved with merchant ships, there would be no difficulty in releasing a squadron of twin-engine aircraft from the aft of the deck.

(Not surprisingly, the historic sea-based version of the experimental Mosquito aircraft weighed up to 10.8 tons with one torpedo and two 100-gallon mailboxes.) With such a weight of 30 knots of deck wind, the running distance is only about 227 meters. Of course, the engine power of the Mosquito aircraft is relatively large, with a maximum output of up to 1640 horsepower. Judging by the actual situation, it is impossible for the sea to be windless. The BF110, despite its limited engine power, has a low take-off weight. With the addition of fuel and 1 ton of bombs, it is only a little over 7 tons. ）

Everything is proceeding step by step, and the improved carrier-based aircraft based on the BF110 twin-engine aircraft is being carried out in an orderly manner under the vigorous promotion of the German Navy, as technical difficulties are overcome one after another and test flight tests on land and ships are carried out again and again. The Germans, after studying and summing up, decided that it was feasible to carry a certain number of twin-engine aircraft on existing aircraft carriers. However, it is impossible to completely rely on twin-engine aircraft to provide combat effectiveness, because the take-off and landing distance of twin-engine aircraft is relatively large after all, and the general attack aircraft can take off with a heavy load at about 180 meters, while the heavy-load take-off distance of a twin-engine aircraft is at least 210 meters or more! If all twin-engine aircraft are used, then the number of attack aircraft taking off from the entire aircraft carrier battle group will inevitably be pitiful! …

"Even a large aircraft carrier of 30,000 tons has a deck length of between 250 and 270 meters. If twin-engine aircraft are arranged from 210 meters, then a maximum of 5 to 7 rows can be accommodated, and a maximum of 3 aircraft can be placed in each row, so the actual number of aircraft that can take off is only 15 to 21. Together with about 20 fighters in front, the actual number of takeoffs is only 35 to 41. This is a low number for a large aircraft carrier with a length of 270 meters. Not to mention that all this is a theoretical figure, and the number of twin-engine aircraft that can be used in practice will only be lower. So, we had to take a single-engine attack aircraft. Of course, in order to ensure that the single-engine aircraft can also accompany the fleet at a higher cruising speed, we have only two options, one is to reduce the load and increase the speed, and the other is to change the engine or further optimize the airframe design. At a regular meeting of the Navy, an officer in charge of technology said.

At this moment, the barrel principle once again showed its strength, and the Germans only solved the problem of the cruising speed of some attack aircraft, and the cruising speed of the entire formation was still not high. Unless the Germans are willing to abandon the large number of single-engine attack aircraft, they will have to solve this problem!

Thanks to the book friends zhouyu1976 and hukaikaka for their tips~~~, as well as the monthly ticket support of book friends Wang Baishi, Xiaoshen, and Rising Sun China~~~. (To be continued)