Fang Lang was shocked by what Kurt Tank said. He had heard from Anter Bolman that Professor Tank was a talented aircraft designer, but he had never felt anything about him.

It was not until they completed the T-1 trainer aircraft project in their own factory that they were able to completely put their minds at ease.

But today I suddenly heard that Germany had a jet fighter project named after him during the war, which is really a surprise.

Given the nature of the Germans, wanting a national project to be named after an individual can only mean that this person's ability has reached the top level in an industry.

There was no need for Kurt Tank to answer Fang Lang's question. Ante Bollman on the side spoke directly:

"Boss, you're right. The ta in the number ta-183 is Tan Ke's last name."

Fang Lang was very excited after getting the correct answer. He grabbed Kurt Tank's arm and said:

"So what are you waiting for? Take me to see this project named after you."

After saying that, he directly pulled Kurt Tank and walked towards the other party's design studio.

...

...

Kurt Tank, who originally wanted to sell the project to Fang Lang, of course would not refuse. He followed closely behind him and walked quickly to his own design studio.

Ant Bolman, who was following closely behind the two men, smiled slightly and quickly followed in their footsteps.

After the group rushed into Kurt Tank's office, Kurt Tank did not hesitate to pull out a rectangular suitcase from his desk.

He placed it gently on the desk and opened it carefully under the watchful eyes of Fang Lang and Ante Bolman.

There wasn't much inside, just some drawings bundled into a tube like scrolls.

There must be more than just these few design drawings for an airplane, so Fang Lang was not in a hurry and waited quietly by the side.

Kurt Tank took out the drawings, checked the marks on each drawing, and quickly pulled out one of the drawings. While untying the cable ties on the drawing, he turned and walked to a display board behind the desk.

Seeing this, Ant Polman took two quick steps forward, helped the other party unfold the drawing, and used a few small tools similar to magnets to stick the entire drawing to the display board.

As the drawing unfolded, the appearance drawing of the jet named "TA-183" appeared in front of Fang Lang.

When Fang Lang saw the blueprint for the first time, he couldn't help but frown. This was not the same as the jet plane he had imagined! If Fang Lang had to use one word to describe this plane, he could only think of one word: ugly.

This is a single-engine jet aircraft with the air intake located right in front of the nose. The wingspan and length are no more than ten meters, but the diameter of the entire fuselage is very large. This is somewhat contrary to Fang Lang's impression of the slender appearance of a jet fighter!

If Fang Lang had to find an animal to describe this plane, his first reaction would definitely not be a crow, but a pufferfish. Yes, the pufferfish with a bulging head.

However, Fang Lang quickly thought of the He178, the world's first aircraft that relied entirely on turbojet engines to fly, and its shape seemed to be very similar to this aircraft.

Maybe this is the limitation of the single-engine turbojet engine on the aircraft!

Fang Lang's reaction naturally could not escape the attention of the other two people, which made Kurt Tank a little nervous. After all, if Fang Lang could not be satisfied in this way, this aircraft project would obviously not be approved.

Therefore, Kurt Tank immediately took the initiative to ask:

"Boss, I wonder if you are dissatisfied with my airplane."

Fang Lang heard this and knew that the two had seen his reaction, so he waved his hand and took a step forward to get closer to the drawing. This time he no longer saw the front view of the plane, but a top view.

If Fang Lang had just arrived in this world, he might not be able to see any difference in this bird's-eye view, but Fang Lang, who had experienced the Pacific War and studied airplane flying seriously, soon discovered something unusual.

He walked directly to the front of the drawing in disbelief, pointed at the wing of the plane in the bird's-eye view, and said in a trembling voice:

“Is this a swept wing?”

After hearing Fang Lang's words, Kurt Tank looked at Fang Lang in surprise and asked with a little confusion:

"Boss, have you ever heard of swept wings?"

"Of course, how could I not have seen swept wings? Wait, let me take a look."

Fang Lang is now certain that Kurt Tank is definitely a genius. After discovering the swept wing, Fang Lang immediately threw away his first impression and began to carefully study every detail of the aircraft.

The more Fang Lang looked at it, the more surprised he was, because as he looked closely, he found that many of the designs of this aircraft, which he thought was very ugly at first glance, were very advanced.

In addition to the swept wings that shocked Fang Lang, there was also a huge vertical tail with a sweep angle of 60 degrees. These aerodynamic layouts all indicated one thing, that is, this was a very fast jet fighter.

As he watched, Fang Lang gradually realized that something was wrong, and then he almost jumped up and slapped his thigh.

“After losing weight, isn’t this a MiG-15?

Wait, when did the MiG-15 come out? Fuck, never mind, it definitely hasn’t come out yet.

That means this could be a fucking MiG-15!"

Fang Lang's sudden behavior made Kurt Tank and Anter Polman beside him stunned, because Fang Lang was speaking Chinese and they didn't understand, but they could tell from Fang Lang's actions that he was excited.

Moreover, he was obviously very satisfied and surprised.

Kurt Tank, who had not yet received an answer to the previous question, could not help but speak again:

"Boss, where have you seen this swept-wing design? This is a brand new layout that we discovered after many experiments in the wind tunnel!"

Fang Lang, who had come to his senses, looked at Kurt Tank with shining eyes. After hearing his words, he spoke directly:

"Oh! Why did you choose this layout?"

This question was, of course, a very simple one for Kurt Tank, who designed the swept wing himself. He answered without hesitation:

"Our wind tunnel experiments have shown that straight-wing aircraft will be strongly impacted by the compression effect at near-sonic speeds, generating violent shock waves, while swept wings will delay the generation of shock waves, and the intensity of shock waves generated at supersonic speeds is much smaller than that of straight wings, making the aircraft more maneuverable at high speeds.

As a jet fighter, our TA-183 project has a maximum speed of nearly Mach 0.8. Only by using this swept-wing layout can our aircraft have better maneuverability in combat.

Where did you see this layout? Did anyone else discover this new layout at the same time as us? "

After Kurt Tank's explanation, Fang Lang knew that Kurt Tank was definitely the inventor of the swept wing. The MiG-15 was obviously designed and manufactured with inspiration from the TA-183.

You should know that the MiG-15 was later introduced to our country, which is the J-2 we see in museums in later generations. This is why Fang Lang felt it was more and more familiar.

Hearing Kurt Tank repeatedly asking him where he had seen this kind of layout before, Fang Lang didn't know how to answer this question for a moment. He couldn't tell him that he had seen it in later generations!

Seeing Ante Bolman standing aside, Fang Lang quickly thought of an answer and said:

“Hey! The reason why I went to Germany to find Pollmann was because someone told me that someone in Germany had proposed a new aircraft layout called variable sweep wing.

Later, with the introduction of Pollman, I understood what swept wings and variable swept wings meant.

So, today when I saw your swept-wing layout, I was able to recognize it at a glance."

This answer made Ant Polman blush slightly. After all, he had used this variable sweep wing technology to defraud the Bristol Company in the UK, which led Fang Lang to come to him.

Hearing Fang Lang talking about this experience again, he couldn't help but blush.

Fortunately, Fang Lang did not tell anyone about his fraud.

Hearing this, Kurt Tank looked at Ante Bollman and asked with some doubt:

"Variable-sweep wings? Is that the Me P.1101 project that Hans Hornung came up with?"

As a famous German aircraft designer, he must have a certain understanding of other companies' products. So when Fang Lang mentioned variable sweep wing, he thought of the earliest model that used this technology.

Hearing Kurt Tank's question, Anter Bolman didn't say much, but just nodded slightly to confirm the other party's question.

After receiving a positive reply, Kurt Tank nodded seriously and said:

"To be honest, Hans Hornung's idea is very constructive, but the use of this variable-sweep wing will increase the weight of the wing, which is not worth the cost."

We are all in the same industry, so it is normal for us to have different opinions. Fang Lang and Ant Polman do not want to continue to dwell on this topic.

Fang Lang was the first to raise his own question:

"Professor Tan Ke, why did you design such a short fuselage?

It looked like the whole plane seemed... well, how should I put it? ... a little weird."

Hearing this, Kurt Tank was not angry, but said with a smile on his face:

"In fact, the reason for this design is also for greater maneuverability. After all, a short fuselage means a smaller turning radius and more flexible maneuverability."

Fang Lang immediately realized that this was designed for dogfighting! He quickly opened his mouth to confirm:

"Then I wonder what the main weapon of this plane is...?"

Kurt Tank did not hide anything and said directly to Fang Lang:

"When we were designing it, we had two weapon options: one was four 30mm MK108 cannons, plus 500kg bombs. The other was four 20mm or two 30mm cannons, plus 500kg bombs."

Upon hearing this weapon configuration, Fang Lang understood why he felt that the shape of this aircraft was so different from the shape of aircraft in his impression.

Because the fighter planes commonly seen in later generations are advanced fighter planes that fly at high altitudes and speeds and launch missiles beyond visual range. However, this jet fighter still has not gotten rid of the combat method of using machine guns for close-range dogfights in the air.

In order to be able to engage in close-range dogfights, it is necessary to have excellent maneuverability, and the short fuselage of this aircraft is obviously based on this consideration.