Kurt Tank's words surprised Fang Lang. He had heard Ant Bollman introduce Professor Tank as a talented aircraft designer, but he had never felt anything about it.
It wasn't until they completed the T-1 trainer aircraft project in their own factory that they completely relaxed.
However, today I suddenly heard that Germany actually had a jet fighter project named after him during the war. This is really surprising.
With the urinary attitude of the German people, if you want a country's project to be named after an individual, it can only mean that this person's ability has reached the top position in an industry.
There was no need for Kurt Tank to answer Fang Lang's question. Ant Bollman on the side had already said directly:
"The boss is right. The ta in the "ta-183" number is Tan Ke's surname."
Fang Lang was so excited when he got the accurate answer that he grabbed Kurt Tank's arm and said:
"Then what are you waiting for? Come and show me this project named after you."
After saying that, he directly pulled Kurt Tank and walked towards the other party's design room.
Kurt Tank, who originally wanted to sell the project to Fang Lang, certainly would not refuse. He followed him directly and walked quickly to his design studio.
Ant Polman, who was following closely behind the two men, smiled slightly and quickly followed their footsteps.
After a group of people entered Kurt Tank's office in a hurry, Kurt Tank was not polite and pulled out a rectangular suitcase directly from the desk.
Place it gently on the desk, and carefully open it under the watchful eyes of Fang Lang and Ant Bollman.
There weren't many things inside, just drawings tied into tubes like scrolls.
The design drawings of an aircraft must be more than this, so Fang Lang was not in a hurry and waited quietly on the side.
Kurt Tank took out the drawings, looked at the marks on each drawing, and quickly pulled out one of the drawings. While unwinding the ties on the drawing, he turned around and came to a place behind the desk. In front of the display board.
Upon seeing this, Ant Polman took two quick steps forward, helped the other party unfold the drawing, and used a few small tools similar to magnets to stick the entire drawing on the display board.
As the drawing unfolded, the appearance drawing of the jet named "TA-183" was displayed in front of Fang Lang.
When he saw the drawing for the first time, Fang Lang couldn't help but frowned. This was different from the jet aircraft he had in mind! If Fang Lang was forced to use one word to describe this aircraft, Fang Lang could only think of one word, and that was ugly.
This is a single-engine jet aircraft. The air inlet is located directly in front of the nose. The wingspan and length are not more than ten meters, but the diameter of the entire fuselage is very large. This is different from Fang Lang's impression of the slender appearance. The appearance of a jet fighter is somewhat contradictory!
If Fang Lang had to find an animal to describe this aircraft, Fang Lang's first reaction would definitely not be a crow, but a pufferfish. Yes, it was the pufferfish with a round head.
However, Fang Lang quickly thought of the He178, the world's first aircraft that relied entirely on turbojet engines to fly into the sky. The shape seemed to be very similar to this aircraft.
Maybe this is the limitation of the single-engine turbojet engine on the airframe!
Fang Lang's reaction naturally could not escape the eyes of the other two people, which made Kurt Tank a little nervous. After all, if Fang Lang was satisfied, this aircraft would obviously not be able to be approved as a project.
Therefore, Kurt Tank quickly took the initiative and asked:
"Boss, I don't know if you are dissatisfied with this aircraft of mine."
When Fang Lang heard this, he knew that the two people had seen his reaction. He quickly waved his hands and took a step forward to get closer to the drawings. What he saw this time was no longer a front view of the plane, but a top view.
If it was Fang Lang who had just come to this world, he might not be able to tell the difference between this top view, but Fang Lang, who had experienced the Pacific War and studied airplane driving seriously, soon discovered something unusual.
Somewhat disbelievingly, he came directly to the front of the drawing, pointed at the wings of the plane on the overhead view, and said in a slightly trembling voice:
"Is this a swept wing?"
After Kurt Tank heard Fang Lang's words, he looked at Fang Lang in surprise and asked with a little doubt:
"Boss, have you ever heard of swept wings?"
"Of course, how could I not have seen the swept wing? Wait, let me take a look."
Fang Lang was now certain that Kurt Tank was definitely a genius. After discovering this swept wing, Fang Lang immediately put aside his first impression and began to study this aircraft carefully. every detail.
The more he looked at Fang Lang, the more surprised he became, because with closer observation, Fang Lang discovered that many of the designs of this aircraft, which at first impression made him think it was very ugly, were very advanced.
In addition to the swept wings that shocked Fang Lang, there was also his huge vertical tail sweep angle reaching 60 degrees. These aerodynamic layouts all illustrate one problem, that is, this is a very fast jet fighter.
As he watched, Fang Lang gradually noticed something was wrong, and then he almost jumped up and slapped himself on the thigh.
“After this damn slimming down, isn’t it just the MiG-15?
Wait, when did the MiG-15 come out? Damn it, no matter what, it must not have come out yet.
In other words, this may be the damn MiG-15! "
Fang Lang's sudden performance directly stunned Kurt Tank and Ant Bohrman beside him. Because Fang Lang spoke in Chinese, the two did not understand, but from Fang Lang's actions The two of them could see that Fang Lang was excited.
And, obviously very satisfied and excited with surprise.
Kurt Tank, who had not yet received an answer to the previous question, couldn't help but speak again:
"Boss, I don't know where you have seen this kind of swept wing design? This is a brand new layout that we discovered after many experiments in the wind tunnel!"
Fang Lang, who had already come back to his senses, looked at Kurt Tank with bright eyes, and after hearing his words, he said directly:
"Oh! Why did you choose this layout?"
This kind of question was of course an easy one for Kurt Tank, who personally designed this swept wing. He answered casually without hesitation:
"After our wind tunnel experiments, straight-wing aircraft will be strongly impacted by the compression effect at near sonic speeds, producing violent shock waves, while swept wings will delay the generation of shock waves, and the shock waves generated at supersonic speeds will The strength is much less than that of a straight wing, giving the aircraft better controllability at high speeds.
As a jet fighter, our TA-183 project has a top speed close to Mach 0.8. Only by using this swept-wing layout can our aircraft have better maneuverability in combat.
Where have you seen this layout? Could it be that besides us, who else also discovered this new layout at the same time? "
After Kurt Tank's explanation, Fang Lang knew that the Kurt Tank in front of him must be the inventor of the swept wing. The MiG 15 was obviously designed and manufactured inspired by the TA-183.
You must know that the MiG-15 was later introduced by his hometown, which is the J-2 we saw in the museum in later generations. This is why Fang Lang felt more and more familiar the more he looked at it.
Hearing Kurt Tank repeatedly ask where he had seen such a layout before, Fang Lang didn't know how to answer this question for a while. He couldn't tell him that he had seen it in later generations!
Seeing Ant Polman on the side, Fang Lang quickly thought of an answer and quickly said:
"Hi! The reason why I went to Germany to find Pohlman was because someone told me that someone in Germany had proposed a brand-new aircraft layout called a variable sweep wing.
Later, with Pohlman’s introduction, I learned what swept wings and variable swept wings actually meant.
Therefore, it was only when I saw your swept wing layout today that I could recognize it at a glance. "
This answer made Ant Pohlman blush slightly. After all, he had used this variable sweep wing technology to deceive the Bristol Company in the UK, and that was how Fang Lang came to visit him.
Hearing Fang Lang talk about this experience again, he couldn't help but blush.
Fortunately, Fang Lang didn't say anything about his deception.
After hearing this, Kurt Tank looked at Ant Bollman and asked with some confusion:
"Variable sweep wing? Which Hans Hornung came up with the me p.1101 project?"
As a famous German aircraft designer, of course he must have a certain understanding of the products of other companies. Therefore, when Fang Lang mentioned the variable sweep wing, he immediately thought of the earliest aircraft models with this technology. .
Hearing Kurt Tank's question, Ant Bollman didn't say much, but nodded slightly and confirmed the other party's question.
After receiving the affirmative answer, Kurt Tank also nodded seriously and said:
"To be honest, Hans Hornung's idea is very constructive, but using this variable sweep wing will increase the weight of the wing, which is not worth the gain."
We are all colleagues, and it is normal for each of us to have different opinions. Fang Lang and Ant Bollman do not want to continue to be entangled on this topic.
Fang Lang took the lead in raising his own question:
"Professor Tan Ke, why did you design such a short fuselage?
It seems that the whole plane seems... hmm! how to say? ....Something weird. "
Hearing this, Kurt Tank was not angry, but said with a smile on his face:
"Actually, the reason for this design is also for greater maneuverability. After all, the short fuselage means a smaller turning radius and more flexible maneuverability."
Fang Lang immediately reacted to these words. It seemed that this was designed for dog fighting! He quickly spoke to confirm:
"Then you don't know what the main weapon of this aircraft is...?"
Kurt Tank did not hide anything and said directly to Fang Lang:
"At the time of design, we had two sets of weapon plans: one was four 30mm mk108 cannons, plus carrying 500 kilograms of bombs. The second was four 20mm or two 30mm cannons, plus carrying five A 100-kilogram bomb."
As soon as he heard this weapon configuration, Fang Lang understood why he felt that the shape of this aircraft was so different from the shape of the aircraft in his impression.
Because the common fighter jets in later generations are advanced fighter jets that can launch missiles at high altitudes and at high speeds beyond visual range. The current jet fighter has still not gotten rid of the fighting method of using cannons to engage in close-range dogfights in the air.
If you want to be able to engage in close-range dog fighting, you must have excellent maneuverability, and the short body of this aircraft is obviously based on this consideration.
