Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

Chapter 321 Air-to-air missiles

At present, the German jet R\u0026D department has gathered the German Ernst Heinrich Henkel; the Italian Secondo Campini; the British Frank Whittle and others, and is working hard to develop the jet required by Yannick. engine.

Compared with the ME262 engine, which has a lifespan of less than 100 hours, Yannick hopes that the service life of Germany's first batch of jet fighters will be at least 300 hours. The compressor adopts centrifugal or axial flow type, with a total boost ratio of about 5, a single-tube combustion chamber, a single-stage turbine, a thrust of about 5 kN, a fuel consumption rate of 1 kg/N·h, and a thrust-to-weight ratio of 2~ Around 3.

As for the life of the engine, Yannick has set a hard target, stipulating that it must reach at least 300 hours. You must know that the life of piston engines currently in service is often thousands of hours. If a jet engine cannot even have a lifespan of 300 hours, it is simply worthless.

These data are not unrealistic requirements. They are the data of the first-generation jet engines of the United States and the Soviet Union after the war, and this engine was improved from German jet engine technology.

In other words, he hopes that the performance of the first batch of jet fighters in service will be as good as the Soviet MiG-15 or the American F-86 Saber.

As for the weapons configured in the jet fighter, the later MiG-15 was equipped with a 37mm (н-37 type) cannon and two 23mm (нс-23км) cannon, carrying 200 rounds of ammunition.

The F-86 Saber is equipped with six Browning 7mm machine guns or four 20mm caliber aircraft cannons. The later version can also carry 24 75-inch "Giant Rat" folding wing aviation rockets (FFAR) that can be launched in clusters. Using all rockets as weapons was very risky at the time, so a more traditional 20mm cannon solution was used as a backup.

Of course, advanced guided weapons are the general trend in the future, and it is impossible for Yannick not to study technology in this area. However, this did not require his special instruction. During World War II in the original time and space, Germany developed the world's first air-to-air missile, the X-4.

As World War II progressed to 1944 and neared the end of the war, the war situation became increasingly unfavorable to Germany. In particular, air supremacy, which was crucial to the war situation, was completely in the hands of the American and British air forces.

In particular, the large-scale strategic bombing carried out by the US and British air forces on the German mainland severely damaged Germany's industrial and economic foundation. Facing the powerful Allied bomber fleet, although the once arrogant German Air Force tried its best to intercept it, the Allies' new heavy-duty long-range strategic bombers such as the American B-17 bomber and the British Lancaster bomber themselves were unable to intercept them. It has powerful self-defense firepower and heavy armor protection; on the other hand, with the new long-range escort fighters of the Allies, the P-51D "Mustang" and the P-38 "Lightning" have been put into service in large numbers. The interception method of artillery fire on enemy large bombers was no longer effective. This made Air Force Commander Göring very anxious. In order to regain air supremacy, Göring pinned his hopes on new weapons. Including new fighter jets and new air-to-air long-range weapons. Among them, Göring himself feels that the most realistic and most effective one is the new air-to-air long-range weapon.

The airborne weapons carried by fighter jets at that time were basically large-caliber machine guns and cannons. At first, the German army began to try to use air-to-air rockets. At that time, the main fighter jets of the German Air Force, such as the FW190 and BF-1E-262, were equipped with air-to-air rockets to fight Allied aircraft. However, although the rockets were not much more powerful than aircraft cannons, Few, but the accuracy was greatly reduced, and it was still impossible to defeat the Allies.

Under tremendous pressure, in 1943, the German Ruhrstahl/Kramer company took on the X-4 project and began the development of air-to-air missiles. Under the leadership of Dr. Kramer, the plan progressed smoothly. In August 1944, the first batch of sample bombs were delivered for testing, and they were officially named RK-344 air-to-air missiles. The maximum speed is 1152 kilometers per hour; the maximum ultimate range is 5 kilometers, and the effective range is 5 kilometers; the missile wing width is 575 meters, the missile length is 907 meters, and the maximum diameter of the missile body is 222 meters.

The design of this missile was the prototype of modern air-to-air missiles, and its basic design was still used in later generations. First of all, there are four large wings in the middle of the missile body slightly forward. There are four small tail fins at the tail, which are exactly the same as those of later air-to-air missiles; in addition, its tapered head is also the same as that of modern air-to-air missiles.

The RK-344 air-to-air missile is powered by BMW's 109-548 liquid rocket engine. The missile warhead weighs 20 kilograms and has a killing radius of 5 meters. This could destroy any Allied aircraft at the time.

This air-to-air missile has three detonation methods: pilot detonation, impact fuze detonation, and acoustic proximity fuze detonation. Among them, the acoustic proximity fuze relies on the propeller noise of Allied bombers as the sound source to detonate, and the design is very clever.

Limited by the technical conditions at the time, the RK-344 air-to-air missile was guided by wired remote control. That is, the pilot used a remote controller to control the missile to fly to the target through a wire behind the missile, similar to today's anti-tank missiles. guidance mode.

On the morning of August 11, 2044, a two-seat FW190 fighter jet took off carrying two RK-344 air-to-air missiles. After launch, the RK-344 air-to-air missiles accurately hit the target aircraft under the guidance of the weapons control officer in the rear cockpit. This is an epoch-making moment in the history of human aviation! This is the first time in human history that a fighter jet launched an air-to-air guided weapon and accurately shot down the target! It kicked off the history of human air combat and entered the long-range guided attack!

At the end of 1944, the RK-344 air-to-air missile, which was still in the final testing stage at the time, was successfully intercepted by the British "Lancaster" and "Halifax" heavy bombers carrying out night strategic bombing missions, carried by German night fighters. A total of 7 enemy planes were shot down! This was the first time in human history that an air-to-air missile shot down an enemy aircraft. It can be said to have ushered in a new era in the history of air combat.

By the beginning of 1945, with its simple structure and ease of mass production, it could maintain high production efficiency even with unskilled workers. In just one and a half months, the Blackwade factory in the Ruhr was producing at one go. 1,300 RK-344 air-to-air missile bodies were released. All it needs is the matching rocket engine to be put into actual combat. Air Force Commander Goering seemed to have seen a moment of victory. However, at this time, the German rocket engine factory in Stuttgart was massively bombed by the Allies. All 1,300 RK-344 air-to-air missile rocket engines that had been produced and were waiting to be shipped were destroyed. Also destroyed were entire production systems.

As a result, the RK-344 air-to-air missile, the world's first air-to-air missile, achieved a small number of results in the test phase, but ultimately failed to be put into real large-scale actual combat. In fact, the Allied forces were already approaching Germany's home base at that time. At that time, the Luftwaffe had very few aircraft that could carry the bomb. The opponent Allied Air Force's total number of aircraft participating in the war had reached more than 20,000. Therefore, even if these 1,300 RK-344 air-to-air missiles can be produced and delivered, they will not be able to stop the progress of the war.

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