Hatred can make people lose their minds, and the same is true for Tukhachevsky. The series of unsatisfactions and blows after 1933 made the too young Red Army Marshal a little angry.

Anger will make the rational people make the most wrong choice, and Tukhachevsky was influenced by the anger and made an absolutely wrong choice. He decided to take revenge on Li Xiaofeng. At that time, Tukhachevsky's idea was very simple: "Would you disturb my correct decision and make trouble for me? Well, I want to see who is afraid of whom, isn't it just a trouble? Who can't do it!"

If Tukhachevsky is determined to argue with Li Xiaofeng and make trouble, it will be very destructive. For example, to continue the previous topic of aviation construction, Tukhachevsky strongly recommends giving priority to the development of front-line aviation in order to maintain the status of the big brother of the army and its actual needs.

What is frontline aviation? To put it bluntly, it is an aviation force that is mainly used to perform close support tasks and battlefield interruption tasks on the battlefield. Specifically, it is to focus on the development of attack aircraft and light bombers.

If the main body of the Red Army Air Force is placed on these tasks, then first, this determines that the Air Force is the attack on the army. Secondly, it greatly limits the Air Force's attack on the enemy's depth. To put it bluntly, it turns the Air Force into a short-legged one.

Let’s see how the US Army Airlines became the US Air Force. It was the previous China Army Airlines that carried out excellent strategic strike missions in World War II, which greatly destroyed the strategic capabilities of the Axis powers. It was precisely because of the strong strategic lethality shown by China Airlines that the Air Force gained status.

Now, the Red Army Air Force is nominally on par with the army's elder brother, but in fact, no one felt that the status of the Air Force and the Army was really equal. There were quite a few people like Tukhachevsky who were ready to turn the Air Force into a flying artillery. In this case, outstanding air force generals like Alxnis naturally had to fight to protect the legitimate rights and interests of their services.

Moreover, judging from the later development trends, developing an offensive strategic air force is in line with the historical trend, and Tukhachevsky's approach is too narrow.

This is the fundamental reason why Li Xiaofeng firmly opposes Tukhachevsky's proposition. Fundamentally speaking, Li Xiaofeng is adhering to the correct principles, which is to deal with things and not with people. After suffering setbacks, Tukhachevsky did not think about the essential reasons for his setbacks. Instead, he took his anger at a certain immortal very narrowly, which has to be said to be very regretful.

So how is Tukhachevsky preparing to retaliate against Li Xiaofeng? It's very simple. That's when Li Xiaofeng supports him, he will oppose him, and when Li Xiaofeng opposes, he will strongly support him, which is commonly known as quarrels.

The confrontation between the two began quickly, and it was about building long-range aviation forces. At that time, the TB-3 had just entered service. As a bomber that first used the advanced structure of all metal semi-hard shells, the TB-3 was still very dazzling when it first appeared.

However, after taking aside the dazzling glitz, the tb-3 is actually still a strong "rustic style" in its bones. It is true that the tb-3 uses an advanced all-metal semi-hard shell structure, but at the same time, it must be seen that this product is still a "wood" aircraft. In essence, it is still an aircraft with a mixed structure of gold and wood!

In terms of structure and material characteristics, the tb-3 is indeed very rustic and very Soviet-style. The large-scale use of "wood" aircraft is really the biggest feature of the Red Army Air Force in World War II, but this feature was a last resort. It is not that the Red Army likes this "rustic style", but it is really because of the huge losses on the battlefield that forced the Red Army to be rustic.

In fact, the Red Army used light alloy materials very early, which can be seen from the TB-3. Moreover, for any aircraft, the relationship between structural weight and thrust is very important. The thrust-to-weight ratio is naturally greater, the better the maneuverability. Especially for long-range aviation troops, it is very precious to try to reduce the structural weight as much as possible, and allocate precious weight to the ammunition and oil load capacity.

Do you still remember the Dnieper Hydropower Station mentioned before? Why did the Soviet Union launch the world's largest hydropower project at that time? The reason is very simple, it is for steel and aluminum making. Ukraine's rapid fall also caused a heavy blow to the Soviet aluminum alloy industry. The inability to supply aviation aluminum materials was also an important reason why the Red Army had to use a mixed structure of gold and wood.

Of course, this is not said that Tukhachevsky opposes all-metal semi-hard shell structure, and he is not really crazy. Moreover, aluminum alloys and steel have always been the projects that Trotsky focuses on. Even if Xiaotu is crazy, he cannot oppose Trotsky, right?

So, in which aspect is Xiaotu planning to make a work? If you want the plane to fly faster, farther, higher and have a larger bomb load, in addition to reducing the weight of the structure, the fastest and easiest way is to increase the power of the engine.

In the 1920s and 1930s, during this period of great development of the aviation industry, the power sector was naturally changing with each passing day. There was a debate in the mainstream aviation community at that time on what power should aircraft use.

Of course, it is not a debate about whether to use a jet engine. At that time, the jet engine project was just beginning and it was far from practical. The key point of the debate is whether the aircraft uses an air-cooled or a liquid-cooled engine. To be specific, whether it is a star engine, a v-engine or an inline engine.

To put it simply, the so-called star engines, v-type engines or inline engines are essentially piston engines, and they generate power through the movement of pistons in the cylinder. The so-called star engines, v-type and inline refer to the arrangement of cylinders.

The cylinder arrangement of a star engine is similar to a five-pointed star, with one cylinder arranged at each "angle". The cylinders of a v-type engine are arranged in two rows, and the cylinders have an angle like the letter v. As for the inline engine, it is simple, with only one vertical exhaust cylinder.

In short, these three cylinder arrangements have disadvantages and advantages. For example, because the cylinders of the star engine have a "pentagram" shape, the front projection is relatively large and the natural resistance is relatively large. Objectively speaking, it is not conducive to increasing the flight speed. Therefore, you can see that the "body strip" of the fighter using the star engine is almost "cigar-shaped". It looks short, thick and fat, while the fighter using the V-type liquid-cooled engine is more "slim" and has a stronger sense of flow.

This disadvantage is still in terms of shape. The bigger disadvantage is that star engines can basically only be cooled by air. Because it is quite troublesome to use liquid cooling for star engines. Due to the cylinder layout, installing liquid cooling equipment for star engines is definitely a big test for engine designers!

The advantages of a v-type engine are exactly the opposite of a star engine, because the cylinders are arranged in two rows and the front projection is quite small, which makes the v-type or inline engine longitudinally arranged along the aircraft fuselage, which can make the aircraft design simpler and more streamlined. The resistance is naturally small, which is more conducive to high-speed flight.

Moreover, the cylinders of the V-type engine are arranged in two rows. They are all arranged in a row, so it is much simpler to arrange liquid cooling equipment. In short, star engines are more suitable for air cooling, while V-type and in-line engines are more suitable for liquid cooling.

So is it better to be liquid cooling or air cooling? This is a matter of opinion. Anyway, there were a large group of people in the aviation industry that supported liquid cooling and air cooling. Both sides kept making noises.

The same is true in the Soviet aviation community, but basically there are a little more liquid cooling support. Why? It's very simple, the power potential of liquid cooling engines is greater.

Let me put it this way, if only an engine with less than one thousand horsepower is needed, it is more practical to use air-cooled star engines. At this power density, the cylinder can generally withstand it without any cooling means. Although the star layout is a little larger in the wind, the production is simple, which saves the dead weight liquid-cooling equipment. It is conducive to improving the engine's power-to-weight ratio.

There is also a key problem with the liquid-cooled engine, that is, once the liquid-cooled equipment is damaged due to failure or is destroyed in battle, the engine will soon strike due to overheating. At that time, the plane will be turned into a brick immediately.

The air-cooled engine is not worried about this. From the actual results of World War II, it can be seen that the air-cooled engine is indeed more durable and very solid. For example, a French aircraft uses the Land God. If it is a liquid-cooled engine, it is estimated that it must be stopped.

For example, the Soviet Union introduced the US Hurricane Wright SGR1820-f-3 and the British Bristol Jupiter V1 engines. The domestic code names of the Soviet Union are m-25 and m-22 respectively. These two models are star engines. According to the reactions of Soviet pilots and aircrews, the evaluations of both engines are good. Especially the M-25, which is anti-Light, has a high evaluation (you should know that the Soviet version of the m-25 is worse than the original version because of the process not meeting the standards).

Now, according to the plan to develop long-range aviation, a new four-engine heavy bomber and a twin-engine medium bomber will be developed, which will be equipped with the same engine. According to the research of central fluid mechanics, it is believed that whether it is a twin-engine medium bomber or a four-engine heavy bomber, a high-power engine must be required to ensure sufficient speed, range and bomb load. It is even stated that the power of this engine must reach at least one thousand horsepower level, and it will ensure sufficient upgrade potential in the future.

So could the Soviet Union develop such a high-power engine under the industrial conditions at that time? The answer is no!

Let me put it this way, the counterfeit version of the m-25 mentioned above has only 750 horsepower, and the m-22 has only a pitiful 480 horsepower, especially the m-25 is the best engine that the Soviet Union could produce in 1933! The best m-25 is a gap of 250 horsepower, and this m-25 needs to be used in large quantities for the i-16, and there is no surplus production capacity left for the bomber.

So, the design work of the new bomber entered a dead end from the beginning and there was no motivation to use it. What should I do?

Thanks to the economic crisis in 1929 and the aggressive Hitler for coming to power, which caused much less obstacles to the introduction of foreign technology by the Soviet Union. For example, the United States, France and Britain were willing to provide a complete set of new engine technologies to the Soviet Union. It was the Soviets' turn to have a headache, and sometimes too many choices were also a problem. Who should I choose among the engines provided by these countries?

Anyway, after some selection and measurement, two opinions emerged within the Soviet Union. One was to develop a high-power engine based on the already introduced American and British technologies, although it took a long time to develop a high-power engine in the country. However, first of all, the demand for both twin-engine or four-engine bombers is not so urgent, and there is no need to waste money on foreign exchange.

Another opinion is that domestic technology is still too thin. Based on the existing technology, it is very clear how long it will take to create a high-power engine for publication. If the research and development is not smooth, wouldn’t it be useless to waste precious time?

Those who hold this opinion are Li Xiaofeng and the veteran aircraft designer Polykapov. The two agreed that they must walk on two legs. Domestic self-development can be done, but they cannot put all the treasures on it. Moreover, based on the experience in the middle and late stages of World War II, Li Xiaofeng believed that air-cooled engines are unable to do so when pursuing higher altitudes and speeds. He believed that it was necessary to introduce an advanced water-cooled engine as technical reserves.

Specifically, Li Xiaofeng followed Polykapov's suggestions, because Polykapov really appreciated this water-cooled engine. Li Xiaofeng still attached great importance to Lao Bo's suggestions.

However, once this proposal was proposed by the Military Commission, it was firmly opposed by Tukhachevsky: "What is the point of introducing the French 12ybrs engine? This engine has a power of only 760 horsepower. It has no advantage over the M-25. Since there is no advantage at all, why should such a useless engine be introduced? This is a waste of precious foreign exchange!"

Is Tukhachevsky right? From the perspective of power alone, the 12ybrs engine really seems useless. The 760-horsepower engine actually "weights" 470 kilograms. Both the power and weight seem too large. Objectively speaking, it does have no practical significance to the Red Army.

But the problem is that Li Xiaofeng and Polikapov are not interested in the practical significance of the 12ybrs engine, but the technical significance. Water-cooled engines are naturally advantageous than air-cooled engines in the field of high-altitude high-speed. Moreover, the development potential of the 12ybrs engine is still relatively large, and the introduction of the 12ybrs engine is just a stepping stone!

In fact, what Li Xiaofeng really wants is the 12ycrs engine, which is an improved version of the 12ybrs engine. The power has increased to 960 horsepower, but the stingy Frenchman is unwilling to sell the 12ycrs engine directly, but instead asks to sell it in packages. The Soviet Union had to buy a part of the finished 12ybrs engine before selling the 12ybrs engine and the technology of the Land God-Ronna 14.

In fact, the French have always been so petty in arms business. In the 1930s, the Soviet Union was originally planning to introduce a full set of destroyers and related artillery and fire control equipment from France. However, the Frenchman stinged and opened a high price. In the end, the Red Navy had to cooperate with Italy, which had a lower bid.

When the French were selling Leclerc tanks all over the world, the big dog owner Saudi Arabia had already taken a fancy to it. During the negotiations, Saudi Arabia asked to use some of the amx30 tanks purchased from France to pay for part of the payment. The proud Frenchman chose to reject it flatly, which resulted in a large order of hundreds of tanks being ruined.

In short, the French are really doing business because they lose the big picture, which makes Li Xiaofeng speechless. It is really painful to buy the 12ybrs engine, but if you don’t buy it, you can’t get the technology of the 12ybrs engine. After a bit of a problem, Li Xiaofeng chose to grit his teeth and accept it. Just buy it. Anyway, the 12ybrs engine is always stronger than the current Mikulin v-type engine (am-34). The maximum power of the product now barely reaches 750 horsepower, but the weight reaches an astonishing 765 kilograms (including cooling equipment). It is really overweight. Moreover, due to the unreasonable design of the liquid-cooling cooling system and the technical bottlenecks, the reliability is outrageous. It is okay to use the 12ycrs engine to temporarily push it? It can be considered as a way for Mikulin to improve the am-34 to buy time for the am-35.

However, Tukhachevsky refused to admit his conscience and refused to let go: "The Mikulin engine only encountered a little technical problem. I believe that the Mikulin Design Bureau will solve this problem soon. In the field of liquid-cooled engines, we do not need to introduce French technology at all, and we should base ourselves on our country!"

This made Li Xiaofeng speechless. If Mikulin could solve the problem of overweight and reliability of the am-34 in a short time, would he have to introduce the 12ycrs engine? And the technology of introducing the 12ycrs engine can also be used for the technical improvement of the am-34? I believe that with Mikulin's skills, he will definitely be inspired after seeing new foreign technologies, and he can turn the painful am-34 into the later series of am families that are easy to use.

Moreover, the French not only sold 12ycrs engine technology, but also introduced 12ybrs engines and 12ycrs engines, but also sold the Land God-Ronna 14 engine technology. It should be noted that in history, both the 12ycrs engine and the Land God-Ronna 14 engine played a huge role in the Patriotic War. The m-105 engine used in the Lager 3, Jacques-1, 3, 7, 9 series was developed based on the 12ycrs technology, and the Soviet development models m-71, 87, 88, 90 of the Land God-Ronna 14k were also widely used.

It can be said that these two engines almost cover more than half of the engines in the Soviet Patriotic War. In the long run, it can solve most engine problems in one go, and it is completely worth buying a part of the 12ybrs engine.

But Tukhachevsky said: "No! It's just not! This is a duplicate construction, it's a waste of resources. With Mikulin's am-34, there is no need for a 12ybrs engine! I firmly oppose it, and oppose it to the end!"

When things got to this point, it was really big. Li Xiaofeng could not unilaterally promote the introduction of 12ycrs and the land god Rona 14. The reason is very simple. Not only Tukhachevsky opposed it, but also Stalin's friend Orzhongnikize. At this time, he was a member of the People's Commissar of the Soviet Aviation Industry and strongly opposed the introduction of French engines. He not only opposed the introduction of French engines, but also strongly opposed the delivery of the design mission of the new bomber to Tupolev!

At this moment, Li Xiaofeng was in a dilemma. Trotsays and Stalin both strongly opposed it. Things were difficult to handle. Should we put the introduction of French engine technology for the time being? (To be continued)

ps: Bow to thank comrade Qiaohua and comrade Juventus!

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Chapter completed!