As the result of the Japanese discussion, Longxi Airport can meet most of the requirements of "Pull 5".
To say "all" is too much. Longxi Airport has the aviation fuel needed for "La 5". This aviation fuel is even better than the Eighth Route Army's own production... The Eighth Route Army's aviation fuel also meets the standards despite the efforts of scientific researchers.
, but it only barely meets the standard. Due to industrial level reasons, aviation fuel is always unstable and contains more impurities, which directly affects the combustion value and the life of the aircraft engine.
Fortunately, the lifespan of the "La 5" aviation engine is not long, and the impact of fuel on it is almost negligible.
For example, the life of the "La 5" aircraft engine is only 50 hours. To be precise, it should be overhauled after 30 hours. Fuel shortens its life by one percent...that is, less than half an hour.
Of course, machine gun bullets are not a problem. The main equipment of the Japanese 98 light explosive is the aviation machine gun, so the machine gun bullets are piled up in the warehouse, enough to "pull 5" for a month.
What cannot meet the needs of "Pull 5" are the parts of "Pull 5" and the second is the x2 used in "Pull 5".
The demand for parts is not particularly large.
In this regard, it should be said that Mao Xiong's considerations are reasonable. The engines of wartime fighter aircraft do not need such a long life.
Based on a conservative calculation, the life of the "La 5" aircraft engine is 30 hours.
This time seems very short, but the "La 5" has a maximum flight speed of 650 kilometers per hour and a maximum range of 990 kilometers. Based on this calculation, it can be concluded that the time for each "La 5" to take off for combat is about one and a half hours.
The actual combat time will be much shorter than this theoretical combat time, because it is impossible to consume all the fuel every time a mission is launched, and it is impossible to be within the maximum combat radius every time a mission is launched.
According to this calculation, the "Pull 5" only has a lifespan of 30 hours, and can carry out at least 20 missions on the battlefield.
What is the concept of giving out 20 missions?
Air combat is different from land combat. Almost every dispatch is targeted, either to carry out bombing missions or reconnaissance missions, or to intercept or engage in air combat.
As long as there are one or two air battles, if you can survive, you will have earned it.
By the time these 20 missions are completed, I am afraid that the wooden fuselage will have been damaged by bullet holes here and there, and there will be problems everywhere.
Is it necessary to repair "Pull 5" at this time?
Can an engine overhaul barely extend the motorcycle time by 20 hours?
Then the fuselage will be fully repaired and key components will be inspected... Even so, there is no guarantee that there are invisible damages that will suddenly appear during fierce air combat.
In this case, it is better to give up the maintenance and directly replace it with a new "La 5".
Therefore, the rougher the fighter aircraft, the shorter the motorcycle time, and the lower the ground handling and technical requirements. On the contrary, the longer the motorcycle time is, that is, the staff with various skills must prepare a lot of various parts.
, be prepared for "three years of the new, three years of the old, and three more years of mending."
The latter obviously does not meet the requirements of "simplification" on the battlefield during wartime.
This is also the main reason why Wang Xuexin likes "Pull 5".
For example, Longxi Airport's ground support for the "La 5" is completely blank. There are neither maintenance personnel nor replacement parts and tools for this type of aircraft.
If the Eighth Route Army wants to take off and land the "Hawker 81" here, it will have a headache, unless it is not repaired. If it wants to be repaired, it will first have to airlift a large number of equipment and ground crews.
"La 5" is not that complicated. It has a wooden fuselage, and the repairs that need to be made can usually be done by carpenters. So just fly in a group of carpenters and let them bring their own tools. The wood can be obtained locally.
But of course, these carpenters came off the "La 5" production line, otherwise they would not know how to repair it at all.
Regarding the use of x2, it caused a lot of discussion at the Eighth Route Army headquarters.
This topic was raised by Yu Ping, captain of the Second Air Force. After the air battle at the steel plant, he immediately reported to Wang Xuexin: "Captain, the Japanese seem to have developed a tactic to avoid X2. The specific operation is like this, like this, like this..."
After listening to Yu Ping's explanation, Wang Xuexin quickly understood that the Japanese had seized on the characteristics of the proximity fuze and detonated the air-to-air missile in advance by temporarily increasing the distance.
This method is quite standard.
Thinking of this, Wang Xuexin despised Yingjiang. The reason why the Japs were able to develop this tactic had something to do with Yingjiang intentionally revealing the information about the melee fuse.
If Yingjiang hadn't revealed the information, the Japanese wouldn't have known about the proximity fuze at all, so they wouldn't have known that the proximity fuze automatically explodes when it's closest to the target.
If they didn't know how the proximity fuze worked, how could the Japanese develop such targeted "evasion tactics"?
But this can’t be blamed on Yingjiang.
Countries only care about interests, and the so-called "allies" are all based on interest relationships.
If something is in Yingjiang's interest, even if it harms the interests of allies, Yingjiang will do it without hesitation or even by hook or by crook.
It was like that before, and it is like that now.
Yu Ping said: "Commander, look... if the enemy has this kind of evasion tactic, should we cancel carrying x2 in combat?"
Yu Ping's considerations make sense.
Because the x2 is not light, and the missiles are externally mounted under the wooden wings, which increases air resistance and affects the speed. It is also possible to break the wings when taking it to perform large maneuvers at high speeds...
Previously, it was because the combat efficiency of x2 was very high. On average, two x2s could usually damage or destroy an enemy aircraft.
But now, the enemy has developed "evasive tactics" that greatly reduce the efficiency of x2. Is it still necessary to carry x2?
But Wang Xuexin had other ideas.
"If we don't carry x2!" Wang Xuexin said: "Then the enemy can safely engage in dogfights with our fighter planes? Will the enemy not have long-range pressure? Will the enemy not need to use evasion tactics?
’?”
Yu Ping was stunned for a moment, and then he realized that he had not thought about the problem from the enemy's perspective.
After Wang Xuexin said this, Yu Ping felt that it was right. It was just a matter of psychological pressure, and the x2 had carrying value.
This was not the only thing that Wang Xuexin thought of. He pointed to the diagram drawn by Yu Ping on the paper and said: "Captain Yu, what do you mean...for the Japanese's 'evasive tactics', they need to fly the fighter plane sideways first?"
"Yes!" Yu Ping replied: "If it does not fly sideways, the Japanese fighter plane will be heading towards our fighter plane. In this case, no matter how fast or turned the Japanese fighter plane is, it is impossible to instantly distance itself and detonate x2!"
Wang Xuexin smiled and said: "This is easy to handle!"