The Soviets gave extra help by disassembling some of the Grayback Falcon 45 engines from the British Spitfire VB fighters on the Soviet battlefield. This 45 engine is roughly the same shape and volume as the 27 engine used in the Hurricane 4, but the power is slightly lower.

After replacing this engine, the maximum level flight speed of the aircraft was reduced to 610 kilometers. The rate of climb has also decreased somewhat. However, the capability of high-altitude combat has been greatly increased. Although the 200 third-hand engines were not satisfied, they finally accepted it.

The Spitfire was not popular on the battlefields of the Soviet Union, and its landing gear spacing was too narrow to fit into Soviet field airfields, and it was no match for the new German FW 190 fighter. The Soviets, who did not like this aircraft very much, thought that this kind of fighter used only as air superiority was not as useful as the Hurricane fighter, which could be used as a fighter-bomber.

This batch of Spitfires, which were obviously unsuitable in the Soviet Union, because the non-combat damage of the overly narrow landing gear in the Soviet Union was very high, the complete destruction of the airframe abounded, and the loss of pilots was very large. After the production of the new models of the Rak-5 FN and Yak-9 could completely make up for the war damage, the Soviets scrapped these aircraft directly. The engine was disassembled and given to the Anti-Union in exchange.

However, although these aircraft engines are third-hand goods, and most of them are disassembled from scrapped aircraft, although they have been refurbished, they are somewhat damaged. But the performance of this batch of engines is still quite good, and in any case, it can be regarded as partially filling the gap before self-production.

But despite the fact that there are detailed working drawings of the Soviets' surveying and mapping, as well as physical objects are available for reference. However, when it came time to manufacture the engines needed in large quantities, with the technical foundation of the Anti-Union, it was still very difficult to understand this kind of engine, which was relatively backward in Britain in a short period of time, but was still very advanced for the Asian battlefield, and the progress of imitation was still slow.

In the end, the first batch of 200 Yak-9 long-range fighters manufactured by the Anti-Union themselves, and when they left the factory in the second half of '43, all of them were used, and the British provided spare engines for the Hurricane-4 fighters. Even the second batch of 150 aircraft grounded the current Hurricane-4 fighters due to the insufficient number of spare engines, and dismantled the engines and modified them into this aircraft.

It was not until the beginning of the fourth year that the imitation of this engine was completely completed. However, although the process was a little more difficult, through the imitation of this engine, the British craftsmanship and production standards were mastered. The performance of the engine manufactured by the Anti-Union itself surpassed that of the imitation of the Soviets, and the turbocharging technology was mastered through surveying and imitation.

It is also relying on the imitation of this British engine to lay a good foundation, and it is generally a good foundation for the subsequent imitation of the engine used in the B24 bomber and the C47 transport aircraft. Let these two American-made engines receive drawings from the end of four or three years, and the manufacturing capacity can be formed in a short time.

It must be said that the British, as an old industrial power, have a solid foundation in terms of craftsmanship. Even if there are detailed reverse mapping drawings provided by the Soviets for this engine, as well as a physical prototype, the imitation work of the Anti-Union is still extremely difficult.

In the early stage of imitation, although the finished product was quickly produced. However, both the level of craftsmanship and the quality of the product are far from being comparable with the prototype. Not only is the structure overweight, but it is also full of problems after only a few dozen hours of use. Either you have to ground the flight, or you have to spend a lot of effort on repairs, or even have to endure the cost of the overall performance of the aircraft.

It took nearly half a year just to reduce weight and improve reliability, and this result is still the case with imported materials. By switching to mostly in-house materials, the average life of these engines is only a dozen hours. In desperation, I had to walk on two legs.

The first is to import as many raw materials as possible to manufacture qualified engines. On the other hand, it was developed from scratch from the raw material aspect. Continuously improve the raw material process formula, and make great efforts to solve the production process. However, when the foundation is too thin, when the qualified engine that completely uses its own materials leaves the factory, this battlefield has entered the final stage.

In order to concentrate the limited manpower to copy this engine, the Anti-United Nations even temporarily stopped the work of copying the engine of the American-made bomber. Fortunately, there are detailed working drawings and processes, and although this engine has been copied after a year, it has finally been imitated.

However, due to the limitation of raw material sources and manufacturing processes, the monthly output has not exceeded 500 units. Compared with the output of tens of thousands of engines of one model in other countries, such a small output is not even a fraction of others, and it can only be said that it has entered the threshold of production.

However, compared to the engines of the Il-2 attack aircraft and the Il-4 bomber, the performance of this Grayback Falcon engine far exceeded that of Soviet-made engines. When this engine was manufactured, the level of craftsmanship required far exceeded that of the Soviet-made engine. This is also the reason why it took so long for the anti-union to copy this engine.

Producing and manufacturing products for the aerospace industry requires more than just technology. It's not that people give you drawings that make it possible for you to produce and manufacture them. At the very least, a process standard for each component is an insurmountable obstacle. People don't give you process standards, even if there are drawings, you can't produce qualified products like you can't produce them.

If you want to completely produce a qualified product, you have to explore the parts one by one. Forged parts, how much quenching process is required. Fine parts, what needs to be done to prolong the life, this is the most important factor in the production of qualified products. Drawings are not the most critical, technology and craftsmanship are the most critical.

It is also through the experience accumulated in the imitation of this liquid-cooled engine that the Anti-Union solved the final imitation of the Pratt & Whitney Hornet engine used in the American-made bomber. To a certain extent, it has got rid of its dependence on imported aircraft engines, and improved its own technological level, as well as led the development of upstream and downstream industries such as non-ferrous metal metallurgy.

Although the imitation process is extremely difficult, the success of the imitation of this engine and the final quality appraisal of self-produced raw materials have really allowed the Chinese to enter the threshold of aircraft engine manufacturing. Moreover, through a high starting point, it has driven the sustainable development of the entire aero engine industry.

Through the technology accumulated by the subsequent imitation of American-made bombers, in a short period of time after the war, the imitation of the American B-29 bomber and the Wright engine used in it was completed. It's just that after the aluminum for the aviation industry given by the Americans during the war was used up, because they could not process the required ultra-thin aluminum alloy by themselves, they had to choose to stop producing all-metal bombers.

In the end, it was only with the assistance of the Soviet heavy bomber master that the problem of raw materials was finally solved. It's just that the premise of solving the problem is that the Anti-Union can only share this most advanced American heavy bomber that it has surveyed and mapped with the Soviets. Moreover, the only B-29 bomber that was pieced together from the wreckage of a modified aircraft that fell in the northeast was handed over to the Soviets for study.

But in any case, after the production of this aircraft, as well as the previous successful imitation of the Il-2 strike aircraft and the AM 38F engine used in it, the Chinese really entered the ranks of aircraft manufacturing countries for the first time. Although the quantity of production is very limited because the raw materials cannot be produced in-house, it can at least partially meet its own needs.

In the imitation process of this engine, Qian Xuequ, who was left by Yang Zhen to find a way, played an important role. It is also this scientist who specializes in the research of aviation materials, with a group of fledgling students, to start from the raw material process a little bit of backwards, to finally solve all the technical problems of the engine.

However, although this Yak-9 ultra-long-range fighter, except for some engines, windshields, and tires, all raw materials are basically self-produced, allowing the Chinese to truly master the production technology of semi-modern aircraft. But on the side, it also caused other consequences, making the people in the base area quite dissatisfied.

It's just that this aircraft and the Il-2 attack aircraft are mainly made of wood. Therefore, when manufacturing these aircraft, the Anti-Japanese Federation mobilized a large number of carpenters to participate in the manufacture of these aircraft throughout the northeast base area. Although there are not many skilled and qualified workers who manufacture airplanes, there are still many carpenters with strong abilities in the Tohoku base area.

And in order to repair Soviet-made aircraft, which were mainly wooden fuselages, the anti-United Nations aviation units mobilized many carpenters from the very beginning. No way, the rear fuselage of the MiG-3 and Yak-9 is wooden, and even the wings of the Il-2 are wooden. Without qualified carpenters, there is simply no way to repair these aircraft once they are damaged in battle.

In order to ensure the attendance of these wooden aircraft, the anti-United Nations air force had a group of salaried non-commissioned officers from the very beginning. These people received the standard technician salary of the anti-coalition military industry, but they were only awarded the rank of professional carpenter technical non-commissioned officer, and the rank was only two crossed pieces of wood with axes in place of gold non-commissioned officers, and there were a large number of troops equipped with Soviet-made aircraft.

After the start of production of this Yak-9 ultra-long-range fighter and the Il-2 fighter aircraft, the number of carpenters in the army alone was far from satisfying the needs. Under the slogan of everything for the front, in order to meet the needs of long-range escort of a large number of aircraft, a large number of qualified carpenters participated in the manufacture of anti-Japanese personnel.

This led to a serious consequence, as the common people in the base area could not find a better carpenter for a long time, when they needed it. And not only in the Northeast, but even in various base areas in North China, a large number of carpenters have been mobilized to work in the Northeast.

But as long as the conditions are acceptable, people in this era always have to wear one or two pieces of furniture as a dowry or dowry when they get married. Building a house in the countryside also requires a large number of skilled carpenters. Most of the skilled carpenters have been pulled by the Anti-Union to make airplanes, and the remaining half-pulled carpenters can they be satisfied with the things they have created?

It is undoubtedly a very shameful thing to marry a wife and a daughter who cannot create qualified furniture. This made the people in the base area, who did not know where these carpenters were mobilized by the government, naturally a little dissatisfied. There are even those who believe that these people were sent to the ** to make furniture for the Soviets in exchange for aircraft artillery.

However, many years later, the secrecy period set that year had expired, and many issues had been made public. These carpenters who were mobilized to go to the factory back then, but didn't know what they were doing, also had a lot to brag about: "Don't look at Lao Tzu as a carpenter, he built airplanes back then, and Lao Tzu's craftsmanship also made a great contribution to fighting devils." ”

It was only these carpenters who made themselves what they were doing at the time, and their careers in building airplanes were very short, and they mastered the technology of aluminum airframes in the Anti-Japanese Union, and with the recovery of Fushun, an important aluminum industrial base of the Japanese, the Fushun Aluminum Factory resumed production after all-out repairs, and the career of these carpenters as aircraft workers came to an end.