Diagonally behind Zhu Lizhen were the president and several instructors of the flying club. The president hurriedly replied: "There are six in total, three of these biplanes, one of another type, and one monoplane. The instructors Three people.”
"How is the situation? Are the students willing to come?"
"Come, of course, everyone is in high spirits and there is an endless stream of people."
"There are many monks but little rice." Zhu Lichi commented in four words, and then asked: "If we want to expand it again, how much will it cost?"
The president couldn't help being surprised, secretly happy in his heart, and quickly said: "This kind of bi-wing training machine can be purchased for 40,000 yuan. In addition, counting the cost of labor and parts, if it expands... it will cost 300,000 yuan first, and then every year No less than 150,000 yuan."
Hearing this, Zhu Li remained silent. He nodded slightly and thought about it in his mind.
The past ten years have been a period of explosive growth in the construction of Daming higher education institutions. He remembered that the statistics last year were 979, with more than 870,000 students enrolled.
Even if only some colleges and universities have established flying clubs, expanding them will still cost a lot of money. You must know that Ming Dynasty's financial expenditure last year was only 24.2 billion yuan, of which military expenditure was only 6.1 billion yuan.
After a brief struggle, he quickly decided on this plan in his mind. The investment was very worthwhile.
The reason is that at the beginning of this year, the Metropolitan Government submitted a report on the assessment of the aviation reserve forces of Britain, the United States and other countries.
In addition to the aviation industry, the reserve quantity and training potential of pilots are also critical.
After all, it’s not enough to just have a plane without anyone to fly it.
Attached to the report is a suggestion that Ming Dynasty may lack enough training bases to train new pilots. If the war begins and suffers a long period of heavy attrition, it may face a shortage of manpower, so it is proposed to invest in this area. be strengthened.
The crown prince seemed to pay more attention to this than the emperor, so the latter directly gave him full authority to handle it.
The prediction in this regard can be said to be quite forward-looking, and this perception is completely correct.
Historically, the Germans planned to train 100,000 qualified pilots before the war broke out, but in the end they only had time to train 28,000.
Although their quality was good, they could not withstand the losses of many years of war. By the end of the war, although Germany's annual aircraft production reached more than 30,000 aircraft, it already lacked enough qualified pilots and was seriously short of training fuel.
The land of Japan is also facing the same dilemma. Due to its small resources and size, it can only choose elite soldiers. They are extremely strict in the selection of pilots. For example, for the selection of aircraft carrier-based aircraft pilots, more than 1,500 applicants applied, only 70 were admitted, and only 25 successfully graduated.
Before the war broke out, their total number of qualified pilots was less than 7,000. These people were extremely skilled, the fighter pilots had extremely strong fighting abilities, and the hit rates of level bomber and dive bomber pilots were also exaggerated.
However, after several rounds of battles exhausted them, the combat effectiveness of Japan's aviation power declined rapidly.
Although the current Ming Dynasty still seems to be in a comfortable and peaceful peace, all the carnivores know that this is just the calm before the storm.
Regarding this potential problem, the Air Force Department of the Ministry of War proposed a draft for the construction of two large pilot training bases.
It is planned to invest 300 million yuan in preliminary construction, with locations in Jinan and Xi'an.
Each base is expected to deploy 60 junior trainer aircraft, 30 advanced trainer aircraft, 20 active combat aircraft, and 250 flight instructors and theoretical instructors to maximize supply and guarantee training work.
Pilot training is divided into two stages, with seven months of theoretical study first and then eleven months of flight training.
The former includes the history of aviation development, flight principles, aircraft structure, ballistics, aircraft model identification, flight doctrine, etc.; at the same time, physical training is also required.
After that, the base will allocate aircraft types based on the students' performance and personal wishes, and then formal flight training can be carried out. Each person is required to master two types of aircraft, with a total flight time of about 250 hours. Upon graduation, Awarded the rank of second lieutenant.
This plan was approved by Zhu Lizheng.
But it's not over yet. He thinks this is not enough. Since he is considering the worst, why not go deeper?
In developed industrial countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States, living standards are high and there are many private flying clubs, so many civilians are experienced amateur pilots.
During wartime, if they are recruited, the training time will be shorter, which will facilitate the rapid expansion of the size of the aviation force.
This was not the case in the Ming Dynasty. Going to a private flying club to fly a plane was only a high-end entertainment activity that could only be enjoyed by dandies or children from rich families.
Therefore, Zhu Lizheng planned to make a fuss in this area, select some colleges and universities, expand flight clubs if they exist, and establish those that do not.
Students with higher educational levels have strong acceptance and learning abilities. Even if they just fly for a while in their free time, they can at least get started in a few years.
If they are really needed in the future, they can go directly to advanced flight training and combat training.
In this way, the number of potential pilots and reserve aviation power of Ming Dynasty can be expanded to a considerable extent.
"Your Highness, the Air Force Department of the Ministry of War has something important to ask for instructions."
"Take it and take a look."
At the place where he stayed, after receiving the telegram and reading it carefully, a thoughtful Zhu Lizhen stood in front of the window and weighed it.
The Air Force Department is currently considering the issue of aviation engines. As one of the crystallizations of human industry, aviation engines can be said to be a reference symbol of a country's industrial level.
Weight, output, fuel consumption, reliability and other aspects must meet the requirements, which is not undemanding.
As a late-developing country, Ming Dynasty started late in this regard. At first, it basically introduced products from Western countries and copied them, such as France's Nome-Rhone, Germany's BMW, and the United States' Pratt & Whitney.
After that, they began to try to design on their own, and gradually caught up with the second echelon. However, the aerospace engine is still the most hindering of Daming's two technical shortcomings.
The Air Force hopes to introduce several more advanced aviation engines before the war. After all, this road was blocked during the war.
Reverse imitation? Inefficient and unreliable, it is a last resort. It is still necessary to introduce complete drawings and engineering samples as much as possible.
At present, everyone is interested in Pratt & Whitney's R-1830-76 "Double Wasp", 14 cylinders, 1,200 horsepower; and Wright's R-1820-25 "Tornado", 9 cylinders, 1,000 horsepower.
If the request is made directly, although the Americans will agree to sell engines, it is unlikely to introduce a complete set of production drawings.
This is today's first-class air-cooled radial engine. If Americans want to sell blueprints, they will only sell old models. And those engines with 700 or 800 horsepower have already been produced by Ming Dynasty in three types, so they are not uncommon.
Although the Germans also have a radial engine with more than a thousand horsepower, the overall performance is slightly inferior. They are more proficient in liquid-cooled V-shaped engines.
"Do I have to decide this kind of thing? Just use a little trick." Zhu Lizhen tilted his head and ordered the attendant: "In this case, when the embassy organizes a banquet a few days later, it will pretend to inadvertently reveal false news to the Americans, and then It's probably like setting up a shell aircraft company and directly purchasing production licenses from those two companies on the pretext of building a new large passenger aircraft."
After finishing speaking, he thought about it and felt that he had not missed anything, so he continued: "Okay, tomorrow's itinerary is..."
(End of chapter)
