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Volume Three Far East Stories Chapter 244 Aircraft, Cannons and Humvees

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    With the successful imitation of Xuanhua Arsenal's 75mm mountain cannon, 75mm field cannon, 150mm howitzer, and 60mm and 81mm mortars, Wang Geng's new topic for the arsenal is the 37mm used on the French Renault ft-17 light tank.  Based on the short-barreled gun, a 37mm caliber anti-aircraft/anti-tank dual-purpose gun was developed.

    At this time, the 37mm short-barreled howitzer used on the Renault ft-17 light tank had almost no penetration ability due to its low muzzle velocity, and could only cause damage to personnel and light fortifications exposed outside the fortifications. Wang Geng's request was, refer to  This 37mm short-barreled gun is based on the French Hotchkiss 37mm rapid-fire gun and the 75mm mountain gun (cannon).

    The artillery workshop of the Xuanhua Arsenal must develop a 37mm anti-aircraft/anti-tank dual-purpose gun based on the above. Lengthening the barrel and improving ammunition are obviously the keys to increasing the bore pressure, muzzle velocity and range. Wang Geng requested the 37mm under development  The anti-aircraft/anti-tank dual-purpose gun has a maximum firing height of no less than 5,000 meters and can penetrate 48mm thick armor within 1,500 meters on flat ground.

    In addition, the weight of the gun will not exceed 450 kilograms, and the rate of fire will not be less than 20 rounds per minute.  The main basis for Wang Geng's reference is the parameters of 37mm caliber anti-tank guns commonly equipped by various countries after World War I. At this moment in 1918, neither the Allied Powers nor the Central Powers had specialized tanks and anti-tank guns with armor-piercing as the main attack method.  Tank guns appear.

    If it weren't for the six-ton ??weight of the Chinese FD-18 light tank currently under development, Wang Geng would have wanted to directly design a 75mm caliber anti-aircraft/anti-tank dual-purpose gun. But in that case, the gun would weigh at least  It also has to be more than 1,000 tons. A tank gun that weighs 1,000,000 tons is installed on a tank with a total weight of only 6 tons. It is completely a small horse-drawn cart. For the participating armies that emphasize mobility, they can only put it aside first.

    As for the smaller caliber, Wang Geng is waiting for the M2-large-caliber heavy machine gun that Browning is still rushing to design. In the small arms laboratory in the United States, Browning and Garland, two of the world's most outstanding small arms designers, are completing the project.  Two projects that look like huge challenges:

    This is not a request from the U.S. side, it is a request from the Chinese side, or in other words, it is the request from Wang Geng, Browning¡¯s partner and Galland¡¯s boss. One of them is to convert the M1917A1 Browning water-cooled heavy-duty  The improved design of the machine gun is air-cooled. In its previous life, this gun was called the m1919 Browning air-cooled heavy machine gun.

    The second is to enlarge the M1917a1 heavy machine gun of the same caliber into a heavy machine gun of the same caliber. This gun will obviously become the trump card of Wang Geng¡¯s armored forces and aviation fleet equipment in the first place.

    Of course, at this time, the air-cooled m1918 Browning heavy machine gun is still in the process of testing and finalization. It is expected to be finalized and produced by the end of April, while the enlarged caliber version is not expected to be finalized until the end of May.

    At the end of March 1918, good news also came from the China Aircraft Manufacturing Company. At the end of January, the installation and commissioning of the electrolytic aluminum base began - the China Aluminum Company's Xiaoyi Electrolytic Company with an annual output of 10,000 tons in Xiaoyi County, Luliang District, Jinzhong, Shanxi  The aluminum factory has started mass production at the end of March, with a monthly production capacity of 30 tons, and an average of almost 1 ton of aluminum a day.

    The reason why the good news came from the China Aircraft Manufacturing Company is because in the past two months, the China Aircraft Manufacturing Company used the first batch of aluminum alloy materials that were imported together with the electrolytic aluminum equipment. According to the sketch drawn by Wang Geng,  Designed the first single-wing two-seat reconnaissance/fighter aircraft with aluminum alloy as wing structural parts and full metal skin, with both ground attack and bombing capabilities.

    This aircraft is named the prototype of the Zhonghua FR-18. The engine uses the mature Rolls-Royce Eagle VII V12 liquid-cooled aircraft engine. The entire aircraft structure is modified on the basis of the DH4 reconnaissance bomber.  .

    As an excellent reconnaissance/light bomber, dh4 was given a new life by Wang Geng with aluminum alloy and single-wing design.

    The core weight data of the previous dh4 aircraft is:

    Emptyweight:2,387lb1,085kg

    Loadedweight:3,472lb1,578kg

    The Rolls-Royce Eagle vii engine used weighs: 900lb408kg

    Since Wang Geng's design replaced all replaceable structural parts and wings with aluminum alloy, the newly designed Chinese fr-18 aircraft only has an aluminum alloy-skinned lower wing. After removing so many pulling steel cables and  After installing the wings, the weight of the new aircraft dropped from 2387 pounds to 1643lb, which is only less than 200 pounds heavier than the single-seat SE5 fighter.

    The surging power of the Rolls-Royce Eagle VII engine reaches 375 horsepower, which is much more powerful than the 200 horsepower of the Hispano-Suiza8b aircraft engine used in the SE5 fighter jet.

    In fact, Wang Geng's Chinese FR-18 prototype, which was improved on the basis of dh4, has no upper wings that block the view, and the structural weight has been adjusted. The gunner's seat was originally widely separated from the front and rear.  The driver's seat and the front seat are moved closer together in a high-low series.

    At the same time, the open-air cockpit was filled with water like the modified Handley Page 0/400 aircraft in civil aviation.With the drop-shaped glass hatch, Wang Geng gave this aircraft more missions of reconnaissance and ground attack, so the machine gun/bombing/radio operator in the back seat still plays an important role.

    Especially when fighting the opponent's fighter jets, this hybrid aircraft will become an out-and-out hedgehog in the air with its strong climbing and hovering capabilities and the 360-degree firepower of its rear-seat machine gun.

    The basic design parameters of the Chinese FR-18 reconnaissance/fighter-bomber are as follows:

    Members: 2 people

    Body length: 30ft8in

    Fuselage wingspan: 43feet4in

    Body height: 9ft|

    Aircraft unladen weight: 1,634lb741kg

    Maximum take-off weight: 3,212lb1,457kg

    Engine:1xrolls-royceeagleviiinlineliquidcooledpiston,375hp289kw

    Maximum flight speed:160mph260km/hatsealevel

    Maximum flight distance: 600mi965km

    Maximum flight time: 3?hr

    Practical ceiling: 22,000ft6,700m

    Climb rate:1,500ft/min457m/min

    Weapons:

    Guns:forward-vickemachinegun,lewisgunonscarffringatrear

    Bombs:4x75lbor8x38lb300kgofbombs

    The seemingly different-looking Chinese FR-18 prototype possesses the speed, altitude, climbing and fighting capabilities of a first-class fighter of this era. It also has the bomb carrying capacity and ground attack capabilities of a reconnaissance/light bomber. At the same time, its combat radius has also expanded to  480 kilometers, and the maximum flight distance is as high as 965 kilometers.

    The China FR-18 reconnaissance/fighter/bomber prototype successfully made a test flight at the end of March. It is expected that it will take another month to finalize. Three more prototypes will be produced in April for fatigue and long-range flight tests. When the prototype is officially finalized at the end of April, the monthly production capacity will be rapidly expanded.  The initial monthly production is expected to reach 30 aircraft, which will increase to 60 aircraft after three months, and the monthly production capacity will reach 100 aircraft after half a year!

    Of course, the research and development work on using aluminum alloy materials to partially replace the steel structural components in the Eagle vii and vii aircraft engines, as well as the steel structure in the Fuda automobile engine, is still proceeding slowly and arduously. After all, the engine has higher requirements for the strength of the aluminum alloy structure.  Although several aircraft and automobile engines have been domestically produced and copied successfully, improving and developing new engines that use a large number of aluminum alloy structural materials cannot be completed in a short time.

    The timetable given by Wang Zhu and Bayuzao is to have the prototype ready in the third quarter of 1918 and finalized production in the fourth quarter. This is a huge challenge for the engineers in the engine workshop of the China Aircraft Manufacturing Company. Of course, due to  Wang Geng could afford a high salary, and also because China was relatively far away from the cruel battlefield of the European War. At this time, more than half of the engineers in the hands of Wang Zhu and Bayusao were talents poached from Britain, France and the United States.

    As for the engineer R&D team of China Fuda Automobile Company, fully 75% are the original team brought from the United States by General Manager Frederic Haynes.  China Fudao Automobile Company's first Hummer version of the field off-road vehicle was created by this team at the request of Wang Geng's drawings. Aluminum alloy materials were also heavily used in the design of this vehicle.
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