Chapter 265： Air-cooled spitfire

On the other side of the strait, the United Kingdom, Vickers-Super Marin. 【Full text reading】

This is a well-known aircraft design company. The outstanding S series aircraft won the "Schneider Cup" International Seaplane Racing Championship for three consecutive times in 1927, 1929, and 1931.

Therefore, 18 days after winning the Schneider Cup for the third time, the British Airways Department issued a development project numbered F.7/30, requiring the design of a monoplane fighter to replace the old biplane fighter. This is the first time that Super Marlin has obtained the opportunity to develop a single-seater fighter.

Designing fighter planes for the military is a huge honor for an aircraft company. Therefore, Super Marin takes it seriously. After half a year, the chief designer Reginald Mitchell finally came up with the design plan number 224.

It is a pity that this scheme is spiraling because no suitable engine can be found!

If you want an airplane to fly faster, you must minimize the flying resistance. As the champion of three-time racing airplanes, Mitchell knows this indicator deeply.

However, he could not find a suitable engine.

Historically, the engine he needed was a Merlin engine, but now, Rolls-Royce has closed down.

The Merlin engine came to an end without a problem. Mitchell looked around the country and discovered that he couldn't find a liquid-cooled engine with more than a thousand horsepower he needed! Without this kind of engine, he would not be able to design an advanced aircraft!

In this way, after a few years, Mitchell finally found an engine with more power than the powerful, the Sagittarius engine produced by the Bristol Company! However, this is an air-cooled engine.

Speaking of World War II, Britain’s industrial heritage is the strongest. It can be seen from the aviation industry that the British Merlin engine was even exported to the United States and became the Mustang engine.

This has also caused a misunderstanding to others that the British liquid cooling is strong and air cooling is weak. However, this weakness is also relatively liquid cooling.

But now, the Merlin engine has died out, and other engine manufacturers are still working hard to produce, so this advanced air-cooled engine finally appeared.

(East China is not an exaggeration. The Centaur engine in history also came out in 38 years, one year earlier than the German BMW801. Now, with Merlin gone, coming out a year earlier, is it possible?)

This engine, in the later generations, is the final development model, which can output more than 2500 horsepower, and the current initial model can already output 1800 horsepower stably!

It can be said that compared to Germany, the British engine has never been weaker.

This is the foundation of the old capitalist countries! Even after World War II, Britain has always been in a leading position in engines!

The engine is there. Although it is an air-cooled engine, it is not the type that Mitchell likes. After all, it can be used. So, on the basis of this engine, Mitchell rolled out the drawings and redesigned, launched the 300 fighter, and participated in the Ministry of Aviation. Bidding for the F37/34 high-speed single-seater fighter project.

In the process of designing this aircraft, the new BF109 aircraft has appeared in Germany. This aircraft is almost an epoch-making work! Mitchell had a profound foresight that new battles would inevitably appear, so he must go all out!

Now, it is the first test flight of the new aircraft. Compared to Germany, they are already behind.

"Mitchell, are you okay?" Assistant Josephine Smith asked as he watched Mitchell clutching his stomach and squatting aside in pain.

"It's okay, I'm okay." Mitchell stood up reluctantly. Last year, he knew he was suffering from cancer, and what he hopes most now is to see the test flight of this aircraft with his own eyes!

This is a brand new work that he has almost pushed back, just to suppress BF109!

At the same time, it is also the first all-metal load-bearing skin cantilever monoplane adopted by Ultramarin. All the fixed weapons and retractable main landing gear of the aircraft are installed in the wings.

At the same time, the wing adopts an elliptical plane-shaped cantilevered lower wing, which is very different from the rectangular wing used in other countries. Although the manufacturing process is complicated and time-consuming, it has good aerodynamic characteristics and a large lift-to-drag ratio.

From the outside, it is completely different from the Spitfire of later generations. Its nose is too large, and the front is quite thick, which is a compromise that has to be made to plug the air-cooled engine.

Looking at the chief designer squatting on the side of the runway, Super Marin's chief test pilot Matt Summers got into the plane.

This is the first flight, but Matt is not nervous at all. He believes this is a very good plane!

With the roar of the motor, the propeller turned quickly, Matt pushed the throttle, and the fighter jet quickly rolled on the runway.

Pull up the joystick and the plane flies easily, which is awesome!

Matt couldn't help cheering, he was very excited.

Put away the landing gear and test the climb! Relying on the outstanding high-horsepower engine, the climb rate of this aircraft is even higher than that of previous racing aircraft!

"The climb rate is 762 m/min." Matt yelled on the radio: "Now we are testing the level flight at maximum speed."

"Da..." A drop of sweat fell from Matt's forehead and onto his knees. Matt couldn't help but wipe his forehead with his gloved hand.

Something is wrong! Why is the temperature in the cockpit so high?

Matt has rich experience and he has found the problem. The air-cooled engine in front is constantly blowing hot air into the cockpit. Soon, he will become a roast chicken!

"The cockpit is overheated, terminate the test flight." Matt shouted through the radio, and he watched the water mist appear on his cockpit glass and the surroundings were blurred.

So he finally couldn't help but lifted the canopy above his head!

The current altitude is 2,000 meters It’s not a high altitude. Even a biplane without a closed cockpit can fly up. When the cockpit cover is lifted, the cold air swishes over. This time, finally It's cool!

The first flight of the Spitfire in history was smooth because it was a liquid-cooled engine! Now, after the air-cooled engine is equipped, the heat dissipation problem has always troubled designers!

Historically, the storm fighters with this air-cooled engine did not encounter these problems. That was because the British engineers inherited all the intelligence of the German engineers after the British had seized the Fw-190.

They learned about the technical measures used in high-horsepower air-cooled engines, arranged larger annular air intakes, and used the powerful slip flow of the propellers to forcibly cool the cylinder cooling fins; separate exhaust pipes for each cylinder were used to converge to the gill exhaust port of the aircraft The method of connecting with the engine rubber member and the engine bracket reduces vibration.

But now, they don't know anything, everything is being explored.

When the fighter plane with the open canopy landed back on the runway, everyone looked very ugly. Matt stepped off the plane and said to Mitchell: "I feel like it is spitting fire at me!"