Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Aircraft Manufacturing Plant.

The commander-in-chief of the Japanese Air Force, Yamaguchi Tatsuguchi, was accompanied by Mitsubishi Heavy Industry Corporation's second design section chief, Jiro Otsuki, fighter designers Hidemasaki Kimura, Takeo Doi and others, and visited the trial production workshop of the new fighter.

Jiro Otsuki introduced as he walked: "Genius General, what you are seeing now is the new high-altitude fighter aircraft that our Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is developing.

This high-altitude fighter jet is called Thunderbolt, and its weapons are 4 20mm aviation guns supplied with ammunition chains. Each carries 200 air shells and can also hang two 60 kilograms of bombs.

The main technical data are: the length of the aircraft is 9.7 meters, the wingspan is 10.8 meters, the height of the aircraft is 3.81 meters, and the important parts will cover bulletproof armor. The air weight of the aircraft reaches 2,839 kg, the maximum take-off weight is 3,211 kg, the maximum flight speed: 670 kilometers per hour, and the maximum range: 2,519 kilometers."

"This all-metal structure single-seat fighter, called the Liefeng fighter, will be equipped with four 20mm Type 99 Type 4 machine guns, each with 250 rounds of machine guns, and can carry 2 250 kilogram bombs or 1 500 kilogram bomb.

The empty weight is 3,226 kg, the maximum take-off weight is 4,720 kg, the maximum flight speed is 630 km per hour, the maximum range is 2,350 km,..."

...

Jiro Otsuki graduated from the Department of Aviation Engineering, the Imperial University of Tokyo. In 1927, he joined Mitsubishi Heavy Industries as a designer. The Type 7 ship fighter, Type 9 single-seat fighter, Type 96 ship fighter, and Type Zero ship fighter all came from his designs.

In particular, Zero fighter jets have now become the main fighter jets of the Japanese Air Force. From the battlefield of China until the end of World War II, it can be seen in the entire Pacific War Zone, making it the most famous fighter jet in Japan during World War II.

At present, due to the urgent needs of the war, Jiro Otsuki is ordered to step up the development of two new fighters, namely the Thunder and Lightning and Liefeng.

Both fighter jets have far surpassed the current main fighter of the Japanese Air Force - Zero fighter. Once the development is successful, the Japanese Air Force will definitely make a qualitative leap.

At the end of World War II in the original history, Japan really designed several advanced fighter jets and advanced armored tanks with excellent performance and pose a huge threat to the Allies.

But Japan has already ended its limits. Not only does it lack sufficient oil resources, but its local area has begun to be bombarded by the Allies and has no ability to convert research results into industrial products.

"Thank you for your hard work in Digging Yue!"

After listening to Jiro Yuki's story, Yamaguchi Tatsume nodded with satisfaction, and then said earnestly: "The Zero fighter you designed by Yuki Jun is very excellent, but its weakness in speed and defense has seriously affected its combat effectiveness!

Especially when facing the American Hellcat fighter, P-38 Blitzf, and P-51 Mustang fighter, it is difficult for the Empire's Zero fighter to gain a bargain.

In the recent major air battles, although the Empire's air warriors have done their best, the gap in combat losses is still very large!"

"Hayi!"

Jiro Otsuki blushed and lowered his head, saying ashamed: "I disappointed the general, and the Zero fighter is indeed behind."

"No, the Zero fighter is still a very good fighter."

Yamaguchi Tatsumeshi waved his hand quickly and asked with a smile: "But what I want to ask is, can Zero fighter still improve its speed and protection performance?"

Jiro Niuyuki shook his head with difficulty and said, "There is almost no possibility of major improvements on the original basis!"

When Mitsubishi designed Zero Warfare, due to military technical requirements and a series of accidents, she decided to limit the weight of the aircraft to 2 tons, and her size and engine selection were limited. All the tragedies of Zero Warfare were related to insufficient power.

Because the fuselage is too small, a larger engine cannot be installed. The aircraft's protection (protective steel plates and self-sealed fuel tanks), speed (engine power), firepower (weapon performance and wing strength) cannot be reached.

In general, this is an aircraft that reached its ideal state from the beginning, without the potential for improvement. The Navy took this aircraft with excellent performance to compete with the US aircraft with continuous leapfrog performance, and missed the opportunity to develop and change generations.

The high casualties of pilots caused by low protection became the main reason for the defeat of the Japanese Navy.

"Soga!"

Yamaguchi Daoshi sighed disappointedly. The inability to significantly improve the Zero fighter jets means that the Japanese Air Force will not be able to reverse the increasingly large-scale combat losses in the short term, which means that the Japanese Air Force will continue to work hard and need to use more casualties to fill the poor performance of the fighter jets.

This is really not a happy good news, although Japan has established an independent air force branch, it has also given enough resources to tilt.

The Japanese Air Force has now expanded its entire 7 flight divisions, with a total of more than 6,700 combat aircraft.

However, with the increasing fierce air combat on the Pacific battlefield, the Myanmar War Zone, and the Shandong Peninsula in China, the Japanese Air Force suffered extremely serious losses in both combat aircraft and pilots.

The combat aircraft produced and the pilots trained could not keep up with the loss speed. The Japanese Air Force is now getting weaker and weaker, and Yamaguchi Tomoto has already smelled extremely dangerous signals.

So Yamaguchi Tatsumega specially formed a group to Mitsubishi Heavy Industry to convey some information.

Withdrew his thoughts, Yamaguchi Tatsume looked at Niuyuki Jiro and others with extremely longing and hopeful eyes, and gave a heavy instruction:

"June Yu, then please complete the research and development and trial production of new fighter jets as soon as possible. The Great Japanese Empire needs more advanced fighter jets to complete the empire's great cause!"

"Please rest assured, General, we will do our best and will not let down the high expectations of the General and His Majesty the Emperor!"

Jiro Otsuki said with a heavy emphasis: "It will be one year later, and it will be half a year later. The two fighters of our Great Japanese Empire, Thunder and Rafale, will be successfully developed. They can completely fight against the current mainstream advanced fighters of the Americans. The Imperial Air Warriors will definitely be invincible. They will definitely reverse the situation in one fell swoop!"

"Yo Xi! It's great!"

Yamaguchi Tatsume nodded happily: "I believe that the Lord Natsuki and you guys can definitely design the best and most advanced fighter jets in the world. Please give me the future of the Great Japanese Empire!"

After saying that, Yamaguchi Tatsume bowed deeply to Niuyuki Jiro and others, and his expression seemed extremely serious.

"Hayi!"

"We will do our best!"

"The Great Japanese Empire has been around for thousands of years!"

Okiojiro, Kimura Hidemasaki, Doi Takeo and others bowed and nodded, then raised their arms and shouted slogans frantically.

The war room of the Presidential Palace in Chongqing.
Chapter completed!