At the Coanda aircraft manufacturing plant outside Bucharest, a group of military officers were visiting the aircraft produced by the plant. Among them, a yellow-skinned officer wearing a completely different uniform from the Romanian Air Force became the focus of the conversation.
"Gao, this is the Albatross fighter we are currently equipped with. The aircraft adopts a single-wing structure, with a total length of 7.53 meters, a wingspan of 11.31 meters, a height of 3.10 meters, a total weight of 1317 kilograms, and a maximum take-off weight of 1942 kilograms. It is equipped with an air-cooled 10-cylinder
The radial piston engine has a maximum output of 840 horsepower, a maximum speed of 440 kilometers per hour, a maximum range of 950 kilometers, and a maximum altitude of 11,200 meters. It is completely suitable for your country, and is compared with what your country is currently equipped with.
The Hawker III fighter jet is simply incomparable."
Gao Zhihang, a Romanian Air Force officer, listened to the chattering in his ears and introduced the aircraft's performance to himself. He looked at the Albatross parked at the test flight ground, and his heart felt hot.
"Can I drive it myself?"
As an ace pilot, there is nothing better than driving it yourself to understand its performance.
As for Gao Zhihang's request, the officer clearly understood the mood of a pilot, so he asked without hesitation, "Gao, can you operate this aircraft?"
"It can be learned, and I believe that the operation of this aircraft will not be too complicated. As long as it is an airplane, I can fly it."
This is also Gao Zhihang’s confidence as a pilot.
In fact, the operation of current piston aircraft is not very complicated. As long as you can fly a fighter jet, you can learn the operation of other aircraft very quickly. Of course, this is only limited to flying. If you want to make various extreme operations, you must be familiar with it.
Get more familiar with the aircraft.
Of course, after the emergence of jets, the operational requirements for pilots will be further strengthened. Otherwise, how to train tens of thousands of pilots in various countries, they only need to fly dozens or hundreds of hours before they can graduate.
Seeing Gao Zhihang's resolute attitude, the air force officer made a compromise. "Okay, Gao. I'll let someone teach you to avoid possible accidents."
After getting permission, Gao Zhihang boarded the plane. In the explanation of an accompanying pilot, he had great confidence in operating the Albatross because it was not much different from the Hawker III fighter he flew.
After starting the aircraft, Gao Zhihang clearly felt its surging power. Compared with the most advanced Hawker III model in the Republic of China, its power is more powerful.
After slowly releasing the handbrake, the plane began to accelerate. After a while of taxiing, Gao Zhihang felt that the speed was enough. He pulled hard and the plane immediately left the ground. Compared with the Hawker III's take-off distance, the Albatross was shorter.
There are many articles on it, and here he is giving an evaluation of his driving of the Albatross.
Then the next step is to test the performance of the aircraft. After Gao Zhihang performed the left and right circling test, he pulled hard and the Albatross immediately began to climb rapidly. It was faster than the climb of the Hawker III. He commented on this
.When it climbed to an altitude of 7,000 meters, the nose of the plane then started to dive.
Then Gao Zhihang performed a series of operations to fully demonstrate the performance of this Albatross in front of him. When Gao Zhihang drove the Albatross to perform various extreme operations, the officers below all showed stunned expressions.
"Are you sure this is the first time this person has touched this aircraft?"
"I'm a little doubtful of what you said. Has this senior officer served in the Romanian Air Force?"
Gao Zhihang, who had no idea that his operation had shocked the Romanian officer, was full of praise for the performance of this Albatross. "This is a good aircraft, really good."
And just in the distant sky, a plane flew by at high speed, but it caught his attention. The reason was very simple. This plane that he had never seen before was too fast. He bet that the speed of this plane must be 600 kilometers per hour.
Kilometers, as fast as lightning.
"What kind of plane is this?"
At this time, Gao Zhihang immediately focused on the newly emerged aircraft. "I heard that a lightning-fast aircraft also appeared in the Spanish War. I don't know if it has something to do with it."
However, the plane just flew by from a distance, and there was no way Gao Zhihang could catch up and ask questions.
After the next test, he was immediately surrounded by a group of officers as soon as he got off the plane.
"Gao, you must have flown over an albatross before."
"Gao, this can't be your first time flying."
"high……"
Facing the officers who gathered around him, Gao Zhihang had no choice but to speak truthfully. "This is really my first time flying, but the Hawker III I flew before was similar in operation to the Albatross, so I can fly so skillfully."
After hearing Gao Zhihang's explanation, the officers gathered around him and stopped asking further questions. In fact, the operation of the Hawker III was very different from that of the Albatross, but because not many countries purchased this aircraft, they were fooled.
And here, Gao Zhihang expressed the doubts he encountered in the sky. "I saw an airplane that I had never seen before. Its speed can reach 600 kilometers per hour. Do you know what's going on?"
His question immediately silenced the scene, and at this time an officer said, "That is the verification aircraft we are testing, and its only advantage is that it flies fast."
The officer's words immediately attracted the echo of other officers. "Yes, yes, this is a verification machine, it's no big deal."
Gao Zhihang stopped asking about the officers' explanation, because he thought it was in vain. If they wanted to tell him, they would have told him long ago.
And he suppressed the doubts in his mind and continued to discuss the purchase of Albatross fighter jets. He still very much recognized the main combat power of this Romanian equipment. But next, Minister Kong needed to discuss the loan issue with Romania. Otherwise, he
I don’t have the money to buy this fighter jet that I value so much.
While the officers accompanying the regiment were purchasing ordnance, negotiations on the loan were ongoing in Bucharest.
"Mr. Special Envoy, you know what your country plans to use as collateral for this loan."
As the Prime Minister of Romania, Mihalakai was the first to ask the question at the beginning. He had no choice but not to ask, because the loan amount requested by the Nanjing government this time was a bit high, which made him, the Prime Minister who has worked hard for Romania, feel angry. It was as high as 280 million.
Why wouldn't the Prime Minister be dissatisfied with Lei's loan request without sufficient collateral?
Regarding the dissatisfaction expressed by Prime Minister Mihalaka, Kong Xiangxi and Weng Wenhao both had a look of helplessness on their faces. Because there are too many things that need to be purchased in Romania this time, and if loans are not used, the Nanjing government will not be able to buy them at all.
As for the problem of insufficient collateral, it was also because the raw materials Romania needed had long been mortgaged by the Republic of China in exchange for weapons and equipment.
However, in the face of Prime Minister Mihalaka's question, Kong Xiangxi, as the special envoy, said, "Your Excellency, Prime Minister, the loan this time is indeed much larger than before. Regarding the issue of insufficient collateral, this is actually easy to solve.
As long as our country increases its export efforts, it will be able to repay the loan in a timely manner. Moreover, our country's first loan is almost repaid, and the collateral for the loan can be transferred to the name of the loan after the repayment is completed."
Kong Xiangxi's words caused a lot of discussion in Romania, because there is absolutely no problem with this model in terms of operation. However, considering the current situation in the Far East, many people are a little worried.
In fact, Romania has also made an assessment of the current tensions between China and Japan. It is a unanimous view that war between China and Japan is destined to break out in the future. However, there are differences on the time of the outbreak.
Optimistic people believe that the war between the two countries should break out around 1939 and no more than 40 years ago. However, pessimistic people believe that a war may break out between the two countries at any time. Especially this year, Japan's continuous actions in China have made many people feel that war is
It will start this year and next two years.
Romania's prediction of the outbreak of war between China and Japan is also closely related to Romania's current loans to China. Because if a war comes, it will cause heavy damage to its raw material exports, and its repayment ability is questionable.
After all, Romanian money is not blown by strong winds, and risks need to be controlled.
Therefore, it is impossible for Prime Minister Mihalaka to agree to what Kong Xiangxi said. "Mr. Special Envoy, even so, the amount of this loan is too large. The risks for our country are too alarming."
"We cannot deny the risk issues mentioned by the Prime Minister. But you must also see that our country's loans are used to purchase your country's products. This can help your country expand its sales and get rid of the current economic difficulties. And
Regarding our country’s repayment ability, I believe your country is also very clear in our previous cooperation.”
Kong Xiangxi talked about the Nanjing government's repayment credit from economic issues. He only expressed one idea: you must believe in the Nanjing government's integrity and repayment ability.
The Prime Minister was still hesitant about this, but after many discussions and with the vigorous promotion of a caring person (someone), the negotiations between Romania and Nanjing were finally concluded. This time Romania will provide a loan of 250 million lei.
, the Nanjing government can use it to purchase various items produced in Romania, and then return it with the raw materials produced, such as tungsten sand, antimony sand, etc. The annual interest on the loan is 5%, and no interest will be paid on the unused amount. The amount that has been returned will
No more interest payments.
After signing the loan terms, the delegation immediately purchased a large amount of weapons and equipment, including 180 Albatross fighter jets, 122 Jackal IV tanks, 84 wheeled armored vehicles, 118,000 rifles, and 150 million machine gun bullets.
248 75mm mountain field guns, 38 105mm howitzers, 8 150cm heavy cannons, 10,000 tons of various artillery shells. There are also a large number of weapons such as anti-aircraft machine guns, anti-aircraft guns, 37mm anti-tank guns. In addition, there are helmets
, raincoats, rain boots, medicines, field telephones, radio stations, vehicles and a series of supplies.
It took more than 20 ships to transport these supplies to Romania. Of course, many of the weapons were replaced by the Romanian military. The military who were replacing them were very happy that someone bought them, which meant that they could use them again.
New equipment. It is also because of the existence of these second-hand equipment that it can purchase so many military supplies.
These weapons and supplies greatly aided its operations after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, so much so that the Japanese government specifically issued a protest. Protesting against Romania's violation of the terms that countries were not allowed to provide large-caliber artillery to the Republic of China, caused it to suffer great losses.
