Mr. Situ blew his beard and glared: "What are you talking about? I have donated millions of dollars, and why do you still care about this little money? What I consider is that even in the club, they only learn civilian aircraft, not fighter jets. When I got the opportunity, I thought about buying a flying club and getting a few military aircraft for them to learn from."
Zhou Wen's eyes lit up, he patted his head and said: "That's right! Just buy a flying club and train a group of Chinese pilots ourselves. Not only my nephew, but also the National Army Air Force can also support some in the past. That's really better than donating money." The money works even better.”
Zhou Wen knew that during this period, there were not too many private flying clubs and flying schools in the United States.
On the one hand, most American youths advocate the spirit of adventure. Being able to fly freely in the sky is naturally loved by many young people. Moreover, aircraft of this period were not very expensive products in the United States. Some civilian gliders even cost about the same as a car, so the cost of learning was not very high.
Another reason is that the high-tech content of aircraft during this period was not much, and it was not necessary to learn much professional knowledge to start operating the aircraft.
Therefore, the United States has become the country with the largest number of pilot license holders and the largest number of private jets in the world.
In the famous movie "Pearl Harbor", the two protagonists, who were only five or six years old, took advantage of their father not paying attention and secretly flew the plane into the sky. Although there were dangers after flying into the sky, they finally landed the plane safely. Although this plot is a bit exaggerated, it shows that it was not difficult to fly an airplane at that time, and it was not uncommon for ordinary American families to own an airplane.
This is also the reason why in the Pacific War, the American pilots could withstand the exhaustion of the war and seemed to be an endless supply, while in Japan, there were fewer and fewer pilots, and the number of ace pilots was almost exhausted.
If you think about it, the average educational level of the Japanese is much lower than that of the United States. Those who can become pilots are carefully selected elites. Training an ace pilot is time-consuming and laborious.
According to Japanese official records, it takes at least two years for a Japanese pilot to learn the basics of theory and be able to independently fly an aircraft and undertake combat missions. But in a war, who will give you so much time to cultivate reserve talents. Therefore, one of the Japanese pilots died and one less one died, and soon there was a shortage of pilots.
So the crazy little Japan adopted a suicide ramming tactic, letting a large number of children who were still in aviation school fly planes to ram the US warships on the sea. Although these roaring "kamikaze attacks" can bring heavy psychological pressure to the American army, they also indirectly expose the lack of pilots.
The United States has a large number of civilian pilots with flying experience. As long as they are trained in a flight school for a short period of time and become familiar with the performance and operation of military aircraft, they can quickly go to the battlefield to fight. Therefore, the reserve force of the Air Force is endless.
Zhou Wen secretly praised that Mr. Situ's idea was truly far-sighted. It not only solved the problem of training pilot reserve personnel that Zhou Wen was worried about, but also solved the shortage of pilots in the National Army Air Force and was of great help.
You know, the road to training pilots in China is more difficult than in Japan. In the absence of flight schools in China, almost all pilots choose to study abroad. Not only does it cost a lot of money, but it also requires a high cultural foundation, which is simply unaffordable for ordinary families. Therefore, the pilots of the Republic of China Air Force are almost all highly educated wealthy children. They can be said to be the elite of the elite, and of course their number is even rarer.
This also caused the Air Force of the Republic of China to be basically exhausted not long after the war broke out. Most of these elite pilots died for the country. Later, it was not until the outbreak of the Pacific War that, with the help of the United States, the Air Force of the Republic of China gradually recovered some of its vitality.
And now if Mr. Situ can buy a flying club or flying school in the United States, it means that as long as there is targeted organization and selection, those patriotic young people overseas can voluntarily sign up for systematic flight training. After the war breaks out, it can continuously inject fresh blood into the Chinese Air Force.
Zhou Wen was thinking not only about his own air force at this time, but also that the lack of pilots in the entire Republic of China Air Force would be greatly changed.
The more Zhou Wen thought about it, the more he felt that Mr. Situ's idea was very brilliant, and he also knew that the control and approval of these flying clubs in the United States were not strict, so the feasibility of this matter was very high.
So he held Mr. Situ's hand with some excitement and said: "My uncle's idea is really far-sighted and lofty. My nephew deeply admires it. In comparison, my nephew's vision is still a bit short-sighted. This matter also makes me think I am willing to contribute part of the funds, but I cannot let my uncle bear it alone.”
Of course, Mr. Situ saw that Zhou Wen's words came from the heart, and he also saw that Zhou Wen was a little excited at this time.
He couldn't help but feel a little complacent in his heart. He wanted to show you that my anti-Japanese sentiment and determination are no worse than yours, and let you know what is more spicy than old.
Mr. Situ stroked his beard and laughed loudly, and said to Zhou Wen: "I have been flattered by countless people over the years, but the words "nephew" are the most flattering. It can make our famous anti-Japanese hero admire me, which makes me feel quite proud. a ha ha ha……"
"But, you don't have to pay for it." Mr. Situ laughed and waved his hand to Zhou Wen.
Seeing that Zhou Wen was still trying to fight for it, he raised his hand to stop him and explained: "Such a big thing cannot be accomplished by me alone. I have to go back to China to call on more overseas Chinese to participate. Moreover, there is a funding problem. You don’t have to worry, this time our North American Chinese joint donation is not just the more than three million US dollars I brought this time.”
Mr. Situ saw Zhou Wen's somewhat surprised expression and explained to him with a smile.
It turns out that Mr. Situ and the overseas Chinese in North America still dare not trust the current Nanjing government too much. In particular, the corruption of officials at all levels in the country has long been well-known, which made Mr. Situ quite afraid, fearing that the funds donated by overseas Chinese would not be used to fight against Japan in the end, but would be corrupted by those officials. So I only brought back more than half of the funds, and there were still nearly two million unused donations in the United States.
Mr. Situ first wants to see how the Nanjing government manages and uses this fund. If they are all used for the anti-Japanese cause, then follow-up funds will naturally be remitted.
Now that there are better and more direct ways to support the country, of course this fund must be used to train pilots for the country.
