Chapter 37: 37, Potez 25 Fighter Reconnaissance Aircraft, Plan Details
Fang Wen’s line of sight fell upon a biplane.
In this era when monoplanes were gradually taking the stage, biplanes were being phased out of military aircraft ranks due to their bulkiness.
But this airplane was different.
It was the top biplane fighter of this era: Potez 25 fighter reconnaissance aircraft.
After the Rhine NYP-2 was destroyed in an air raid, Fang Wen lingered nearby whenever he had time, and learned a lot about it from the pilot and ground crew of this airplane.
The Potez 25 fighter reconnaissance aircraft was an airplane produced by the French Potez airline company, mainly used for reconnaissance and light bombing missions.
The company that produced it was Potez Avions Company, researched in 1925, with a total of more than 4000 produced successively.
Not only used in mainland France, but Poland, Japan, and the Soviet Union also procured it.
The reason it sold so well could be seen just from some data.
Maximum ceiling 5500M
Crew 2
Maximum takeoff weight 2560KG
Maximum speed 214KM/h
Tare weight 1490KG
Power 520 horsepower
Maximum range 600KM
Length 9.2M
Wingspan 14.14M
1-ton payload, speed not bad, and power reaching 520 horsepower.
To know, the power of transport aircraft like the Rhine NYP-2 was only 223 horsepower.
It could be said that this was a freak with fighter jet performance, capable of air combat, ground bombing, and power, endurance, and payload comparable to a transport aircraft.
Among domestic military aircraft, only the Guangdong Air Force’s k47 fighter jet could stand on the same starting line as it.
But the k47 was more suited for air combat; if this one was modified, it could carry large aerial bombs for bombing main warships of the Izumo class.
Several officers in the office also looked over following his line of sight.
An officer who didn’t quite understand asked: “Do you want to fly this old-style fighter jet to complete the bombing?”
“Yes.” Fang Wen nodded: “But this time I want to pilot it alone to complete the bombing, so the inside of the aircraft needs some modifications.”
The officer looked at Gui Hongyuan and asked in a low voice: “Where did this biplane come from?”
“Sent by the Northeast Army from the north. This is the mainstay fighter jet of the Northeast Army’s own aviation team, more than twenty in total, with good performance. Now the whole country is supporting Shanghai, and they also sent two over.” Gui Hongyuan replied.
“With so many fighter jets, yet they gave up the Northeast without firing a shot.” The officer suddenly shut up, realizing he had said the wrong thing, and quickly changed back to the main topic: “You go notify the pilot of this airplane; the airplane is temporarily under our control.”
After Gui Hongyuan went out, the officer looked at Fang Wen: “What modifications do you plan to make?”
Fang Wen, who had studied and practiced aircraft maintenance knowledge for over half a year, proposed his own modification suggestions.
“It won’t be very complicated. I need to adjust the rear pilot’s bombing mechanism and rotary machine gun firing mechanism to the front, so that while piloting, I can also perform bombing and shooting operations simultaneously. Additionally, the bomb weight for bombing the Izumo will definitely be very large, so I suggest modifying the bomb rack under the fuselage.”
The officer nodded. As the person in charge of this action, he knew quite a bit about airplanes and raised his own questions.
“Can you operate it?”
“Should be no problem, but it will need some time to practice.”
“The matter is urgent; it might have to be executed tomorrow. The modification, I’ll have someone do it immediately, striving to have time for training today. Now let’s discuss the details of this plan.”
The officer had his colleague go out to arrange the modification affairs, while he himself took out a kraft paper bag marked top secret from his military leather bag.
He untied the string clasp on the paper bag and took out a map and some information from inside.
“This matter was a joint suggestion from Shanghai Xinmin Machine Factory director Hu Juewen and Shanghai Arsenal director Ruan Shangjie to the 19th Army. They secretly made sea mines, wanting to sink the Izumo warship off the coastline. Later, this matter found Axe Gang leader Wang Yaqiao, who planned to send two daredevils good at swimming to carry sea mines and dive under the boat bottom to detonate them.”
“The success rate of this plan is not high, so the higher-ups decided to dispatch the air force to act together, striking from ground and air, perhaps for better results.”
“Therefore, the plan originally set for action today was paused, and that’s why we came to find you.”
“The air bombing isn’t just you; there are also three National Aviation Teams, and the Guangdong Air Force.”
“At that time, the National Aviation Team will deploy defenses in the nearshore area to intercept supporting enemy aircraft.”
“The Guangdong Air Force will conduct the bombing together with you.”
“But you know the power of the bombs they carry isn’t enough to damage the Izumo; the one that will truly achieve the bombing effect is the Jinling Arsenal new type aerial bomb carried by your piloted airplane.”
“The Jinling Arsenal new type aerial bomb is the same type you used to bomb the Japanese Army warship on the Huangpu River last time; they modified it again, making the bomb power greater and performance better.”
After the officer finished explaining the entire plan, he took out a stack of photographs.
Those were black-and-white photos of the Izumo.
“Japanese Army Izumo warship, displacement of ten thousand tons class, armored cruiser, a main warship built by the Japanese Navy with reparations from the Treaty of Shimonoseki signed with the Qing Government. Even now, it still holds the name of main fleet vessel.”
“If we sink it, not only will we achieve a military victory, but it will also create impact domestically in Japan.”
Fang Wen nodded.
The Izumo had special significance in the Imperial Japanese Navy; sinking it would indeed have great positive significance for the War of Resistance.
He agreed to join this action and seriously discussed more action details with the officer.
At the same time, outside, the aircraft mechanics were urgently beginning the airplane modifications.
Moving the rear pilot’s operating equipment to the front pilot required disassembling the connecting rod below and reinstalling it.
The bomb rack was a bit troublesome, because the bomb weighed 600 kilograms, and tin welding probably couldn’t achieve that load-bearing capacity.
Fortunately, these aircraft mechanics had their own solution; they adopted forging welding technology.
This technology involved heating iron sheets to extremely high temperatures and then welding through forging, making the welded bomb rack very sturdy.
One morning passed, and the officer outside came in to report.
“The airplane modification is complete; please inspect it, Mr. Fang.”
Fang Wen got up and went out, climbing up the boarding ladder to the pilot seat.
The equipment inside was roughly the same as the airplanes he had piloted before, and didn’t require relearning due to military-civilian differences.
And on the left and right, there were two new devices added.
The aircraft mechanic climbed up the other boarding ladder and pointed inside the pilot seat to introduce:
“The one on the left is the bomb release; down position is bomb rack closed state. For bombing, pull up the bomb release, and the bomb rack will release. Also, this time’s bomb has an impact fuse, so no need to worry about explosion delay.”
“The one on the right is the rotary machine gun. Due to limited space, we could only place it on the right-hand position, but this will turn dual-hand operation into single-hand operation, which may affect air combat. Suggest you try not to use it.”
Fang Wen nodded, turned into the cockpit, preparing to start test flight training and test various aspects after modification.
