Chapter 12: Yi-5 Fighter Jet
In the mid-1920s, the Soviet country was still a country primarily based on agriculture, with most of the civilians being almost all farmers.
The situation with the citizens on the China side was also at a similar level.
Engineers, technical personnel from various industries, as well as scientists, chemists, physicists, although they existed, their numbers were not large, only accounting for a small portion of the entire country,
Wanting to compare with the industrial development of Western Europe and the United States was impossible.
Especially in all related infrastructure for aircraft manufacturing, such as non-ferrous metals, carburetors, electronic equipment, ball bearings, none of these existed,
Even the raw materials for manufacturing airplanes, such as rubber, aluminum, copper, needed to be imported from abroad,
Therefore, the Soviet aircraft industry could be said to have started from scratch,
And the time it started was from the October Revolution to the period of the great war, within these short twenty-odd years.
The Soviet Air Force also went from having nothing to forming the world’s largest flight troops, and even produced some relatively outstanding fighter jets and bombers.
However, during this development period, the Soviet Air Force development also encountered quite a few problems that needed to be solved.
For example, at the beginning, to accelerate the formation of the Air Force, they adopted cheap aircraft manufacturing technology and raw materials that had not undergone fine processing to research and produce airplanes.
Moreover, at that time, the Soviet aircraft industry was also extremely short of various related technologies for researching airplanes, scientific research talents, equipment for aircraft technology, and the industrial system during the startup phase.
For instance, the design and manufacturing of aircraft engines, the manufacturing of radios, the manufacturing of electronic equipment, even the manufacturing of precision molds were all problems,
Finally, even aluminum and magnesium, these most important raw materials for aircraft manufacturing, were in short supply at Soviet aircraft manufacturing factories, so to solve this problem, they used plywood, wood, and crudely made steel to replace aluminum and magnesium, the main raw materials for airplanes, to roughly manufacture their domestically produced airplanes.
The consequence of doing this was that the weight of the fuselage became particularly heavy, so to solve this problem, Soviet aircraft factories adopted more powerful aircraft engines for assembling airplanes.
However, for the Soviet simple process flow and low-tech content method of manufacturing airplanes, it also greatly reduced their manpower, material resources, and financial resources.
At the very least, in terms of electricity consumption, raw materials, and manpower, it was completely several times less than that of the German Army, Western Europe, and the US military.
Moreover, it could still carry out large-scale production and manufacturing.
The most important point, however, was that the Soviets could actually use such a simple aircraft manufacturing process, and in the later period of the great war, they were even able to research and produce a series of relatively excellent airplanes, such as the Yak-38 fighter jet, Yak-9 fighter jet, La-7 fighter jet, and the Defending Eagle Il-2 fighter jet.
Among these fighter jets, Zhou Wenhua was quite familiar with them, especially the wooden “Soviet War Eagle” Yak-9 fighter jet, which almost completely suppressed the German Air Force and became the highest production Soviet fighter jet of that period.
However, Soviet fighter jets in air combat were known for mid- and low-altitude dogfighting, and they lacked the capability for high-altitude combat, which was a shortcoming of their wooden manufacturing.
As for the training of Soviet pilots, before the mid-1930s, it was all conducted at flying clubs,
And the funding sources for these flying clubs mainly came from donations by the main flying members and semi-official Soviet organizations like the Defense Aviation Support Society Flying School and other organizations,
And the training time for these early Soviet pilots was basically in their spare time after work, rather than organized full-time training time like during the war.
So before Zhou Wenhua arrived at the gate of the Shanghai Aviation Factory, he was already planning in his mind how to learn the Soviet simple aircraft manufacturing processes and technology, starting from scratch.
While Zhou Wenhua was thinking about these things, his car convoy unknowingly arrived outside the gate of the Shanghai Aviation Factory, and he also saw the smiling new Factory Director Fan Zhifei, leading a large group of technical backbones and management, warmly welcoming his arrival.
Seeing this, Zhou Wenhua also gathered his thoughts, showed a mild smile, got out of the car, shook hands with the new Factory Director Fan Zhifei, and greeted each other.
Seeing Zhou Wenhua’s such young appearance, the new Factory Director Fan Zhifei was taken aback upon first meeting, worrying if he had gotten the wrong person, but after greeting Zhou Wenhua,
He also confirmed that the other party was Zhou Wenhua, the latest person in charge of the Zhou Family who was coming to talk business with him today.
In response, the new Factory Director Fan Zhifei couldn’t help but sigh that having money is great, being so young yet possessing so much money, and also having the power to operate and manage the family business.
However, no matter what,
After the surprise, the new Factory Director Fan Zhifei still enthusiastically and hospitably received Zhou Wenhua, and also brought his subordinates, those technical backbone personnel and management who were equally surprised, to the reception room to entertain Zhou Wenhua.
And Zhou Wenhua also openly followed them into the reception place, while his bodyguards behind him followed at the rear,
However, they did not enter the reception place but guarded Zhou Wenhua’s safety outside the gate of the reception place.
Inside the reception room,
After Zhou Wenhua and the new Factory Director Fan Zhifei casually chatted about off-topic matters for a while,
He also got straight to the point, handing over the design drawings of the Soviet airplanes he had prepared in advance for manufacturing here to the new Factory Director Fan Zhifei.
“This is the Soviet-style airplane I want your aircraft factory to imitate and assemble for me!”
“Bomber TB-1（ANT-4）, the first heavy bomber researched and produced by the Soviet military in 1925, equipped with 2 M-17 engines, power of 500 horsepower, imitating the German BMW-6 type, liquid-cooled, using takeoff boosters, and configured with 4 machine guns.”
“Additionally, there is the I-5 fighter jet, the latest fighter jet produced by the Soviet military in 1930!”
“Equipped with 2 M-22 engines, power of 480 horsepower, imitating the British BRISTOL company’s JUPITER ‘Jupiter’ type, 9-cylinder air-cooled, additionally configured with 2 machine guns.”
“I temporarily want to imitate these two Soviet airplanes, produce one imitation of each for me. As for the raw materials, imported goods can be used for assembly, and during the imitation and assembly process, research and learn others’ airplane process technology!”
“As for me, I will also come personally to supervise your assembly and imitation process, and the work!”
“As for the money needed for imitation, I can pay in advance. Even if you have channels, you can directly purchase the original Bomber TB-1 and I-5 fighter jet for me, then disassemble them for research, and imitate additional ones for me!”
“All funds, I will pay entirely!”
After the new Factory Director Fan Zhifei took the aircraft design drawings handed to him by Zhou Wenhua, Zhou Wenhua very directly got straight to the point again.
In his previous life, he was an entrepreneur in high-tech, and had also spent many years researching aircraft manufacturing technology and processes during the Soviet-German War, so he could draw the design drawings.
However, due to the current domestic aircraft manufacturing technology and industrial capabilities being basically zero, basically all aircraft manufacturing raw materials needed to be purchased and imported for assembly.
It was also because of this that Zhou Wenhua directly told them to purchase and import the raw materials for the Soviet-style airplanes he wanted for imitation.
He even allowed them to find ways, using their own channels to purchase original Soviet airplanes, then disassemble them for research and imitation.
Regarding Zhou Wenhua’s every word and action, after the new Factory Director Fan Zhifei finished looking at the Soviet airplane design drawings he provided, he was immediately wide-eyed and shocked.
These were confidential design drawings, and he couldn’t figure out where the young Zhou Wenhua got them from.
At the very least, the I-5 fighter jet had only been researched for a little over a year, yet now Zhou Wenhua had the complete and detailed design drawings, even specifying what types of raw materials to use for manufacturing.
So it was imaginable how splendid the shocked expression of the new Factory Director Fan Zhifei was.
Because these confidential airplane design drawings and manufacturing processes were unobtainable by him.
