Chapter 320 Jet Engine

Berlin Palace.

Anne hurried in with an excited look on her face and reported. "Your Highness, the ambassador to Switzerland sent a telegram, saying that the British envoy wants to discuss peace with us. Congratulations, Your Highness, the British have finally surrendered!"

"Oh, the British want to negotiate?" Yannick's face was not excited at all. "They just want to delay time." If the current British Prime Minister was Chamberlain, he might believe the British sincerity in the negotiations. But Churchill, even if this guy wrote a blood letter asking for peace, he would not believe it.

Anne was stunned. "Then call back to ask the ambassador to refuse?"

Yannick shook his head. "Why refuse? They delay time, and we also need time. Let our ambassador play with them. If they are really annoyed, let them cede a few battleships to us first, and then continue to talk."

Yannick felt that there was only one chance to land in Britain, and if the first landing failed, the consequences might be disastrous. Perhaps the German army from top to bottom would lose confidence in landing in Britain, while Britain would firmly resist. Aid from the United States will continue to be sent to the British mainland, and the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front may stab them in the back at any time. It's chilling to think about it!

So he has to be fully prepared, and it takes time to integrate the forces of France and Italy to land on the British mainland in one fell swoop.

Landing is an action that pays great attention to transportation capacity. In addition to the first wave of ships that hit the beach, three to four waves of troops must be prepared for follow-up. The number of landing ships not only determines the strength of the landing, but also ensures the continuation of the combat effectiveness of the landing troops. Once the problem of follow-up weakness occurs, the landing troops will face the danger of annihilation. This is a key issue that cannot be ignored.

It's a pity that current technology cannot produce ground-effect vehicles. If we can produce a "Caspian Monster" like the Soviet Union in later generations, it would be much easier. Soldiers can be transported as a whole division. As long as ten "Caspian Monsters" can transport a heavy tank brigade or a medium tank division at a time.

After sighing, Yannick picked up the phone. "Get Messerschmitt."

"Hi! Hohenzollern! Your Highness, what do you want?"

"How is the design I sent you last time?"

"Your Highness, you are a genius. We have made a prototype of the design you sent and conducted wind tunnel tests. There is no problem with the fuselage, but..."

"Is it just the engine problem that has not been solved?" Yannick couldn't help scratching his forehead. If he had known that he would travel here, he would have read more about this. He only remembered the principle of such a complicated thing as a jet engine, and he couldn't make a more detailed drawing.

The voice on the other side sounded a little ashamed. "Yes, the heat resistance of the main components of the engine is not enough. It will take until new materials are developed to meet your requirements."

In fact, the current German aviation department can already produce jet aircraft, but Yannick doesn't like jet aircraft like "ME262" which is nicknamed "one of the fighters that killed the most German air aces" by military fans in later generations; what's more terrible is that the Germans also formed the 44th Air Force, as if they were afraid that their aces would not die.

He needs a more mature and advanced jet.

When talking about the development of jets in World War II, I believe that many people first think of Me-262 and He-162; the Allies at that time also had fighters such as P-80 and Meteor, but they pale in comparison to the German jets that were actually put into World War II.

This also gives people a stereotype that German technology seems to have been ahead of the Allies such as Britain and the United States for a long time. However, in fact, as early as 1930, a prototype of a centrifugal turbojet engine appeared in Britain, and it was created by a 23-year-old student of the Central Flying School in Britain, Frank Whittle.

Frank Whittle was born in Coventry, England in 1907. At the age of 15, he applied for the Royal Air Force, hoping to become an aircraft maintainer. Although he was rejected twice by the Air Force during the application process because of his thin body, with his unremitting efforts, Frank finally successfully entered the Royal Air Force training school in the second half of 1923. In 1926, he was discovered for his unique flying talent and was admitted to the Royal Air Force Academy in Cromwell, obtaining the qualification of a flight cadet.

In the second year of Frank's entry into the Royal Air Force Academy, that is, the fourth semester of 1928, Frank published a paper entitled "The Future Development of Aircraft Design". The paper mentioned that for aircraft pursuing high speed, flying at high altitudes with low air resistance is the best way. The current propeller aircraft driven by traditional reciprocating engines has poor efficiency at high altitudes. If the performance of aircraft at high altitudes is to be improved, a gas turbine-driven propeller engine or even a rocket engine will be a better choice.

Whittell's paper was not the only one in the contemporary world that mentioned the limitations of propellers, but it hit the key points of future aviation development and also outlined a blueprint for the concept of a turbine engine in his mind. In the following two years, Frank, who served in the army as a pilot, did not give up this idea, but continued to study while serving. After continuous efforts, Frank proposed a jet engine concept in 1929 that uses a reciprocating engine to drive the compression section, sucking in the airflow, and burning in the jet at the tail of the fuselage to increase thrust. Coincidentally, this design called a hot jet engine appeared in the Italian peninsula thousands of miles away at the same time. It was proposed by a young engineer named Secondo Campini. But unlike Campini, Whittell eventually recognized the limitations of this engine. Affected by the heavy reciprocating engine that drives the compression section and the limited volume of the compression section, the overall power was extremely poor. He quickly abandoned the design of this type of engine and re-launched a gas turbine engine.

In late 1929 and early 1930, Frank got a chance to present the concept of centrifugal turbojet to the British Ministry of Air, recommended by his chief officer.

However, this design was criticized mercilessly by Griffith.

Griffith, who made the criticism, was a giant in the field of British turbine engines. In his paper in 1926, he clearly raised the design issues of aviation turbine blades, which made the development of turbine blade engines go further. In 1927, he received sponsorship from the British Ministry of Air and the Aeronautical Research Institute to develop an axial-flow turboprop engine.

In his comments, Griffith believed that this centrifugal engine had a large frontal area and poor efficiency, and was naturally not an engine that could be used as a power source for aircraft. In addition, the British aviation industry generally believed that the material requirements of this engine were too advanced and could not be applied by the technology at that time. In the end, not only did the Royal Air Force ignore Frank's design, but even Armstrong Siddeley Engine Company, Bristol Aircraft Company and British Thomson-Houston (BTH, a company that produces electrical turbines) were not interested in his turbojet design. This situation made it difficult for Frank to maintain the patent due to financial difficulties while he continued to conduct research from 1930 to 1936. In the end, he could only watch the patent for the centrifugal turbojet he had worked hard to design become invalid.

Just when Frank was discouraged, the Germans found him, bought his patent for a huge sum of money, and invited him to work in Germany.