Chapter 1522 A Sudden Thought (Second Update, Please Subscribe)

Facing the low setting sun, Ye Xinlin flew the bullet-riddled plane to the sky above the airport. He taxied the plane to the apron and shut down the engine.

After an hour of fighting, Ye Xinlin felt exhausted and unable to move. He didn't even have the strength to climb out of the cockpit. The air battle scene just now appeared in front of him again.

It seemed as if he could see the enemy plane that caught fire and fell after being hit by him, and his comrades' plane crashing into the ground with a long trail of smoke...

"Li Hao..."

As soon as he finished speaking, Ye Xinlin stopped talking. Li Hao was his machine gunner, who died in the previous air battle. He failed to protect him. Thinking of this, Ye Xinlin felt more and more depressed. While he was sitting in the cabin, the ground crew had already run over.

"Oh my god, why are there so many bullet holes in the back seat?"

Xie Chengde looked at the machine in amazement and asked.

"Li Hao..."

“Dead!”

He smashed the parachute lock with his hands, and after the safety belt came off, he jumped out of the cockpit.

Xie Chengde stood nearby, ready to reach out and take him off the wing.

"Captain Ye, it's good that you can fly back, it's good that you can fly back. Those damn Americans are like monkeys, always following us and learning from us. But we are still better. Commander Ye, please shoot down a few this time..."

American pilots, like the young American air force, were learning like monkeys. This was the consensus of all the imperial pilots. They were growing rapidly. In fact, air combat during this era was extremely brutal. Because flying an airplane was relatively simple, the time required to train a pilot was very short. It only took twenty hours of glider training to train a pilot, and then another 18 hours of flight training (1), before the pilot could "go into battle."

The battlefield is the classroom. Of course, this classroom teaches people air combat with blood. The loss rate is shockingly high. Sometimes the monthly loss rate of US military aircraft reaches 66%!

Although the high loss rate of the US Air Force led to the emergence of a group of ace pilots in the Imperial Air Force, the air combat skills of US pilots were also improving rapidly. After all, that class was paid for with blood.

Ye Xinlin said as he watched the ground crew take out Li Hao's body from the cabin, then sat on the grass and stared at his plane which was riddled with bullet holes.

“This is not a solution at all!”

"What?"

"I mean the machine gunner."

Ye Xinlin frowned and said.

"When we were fighting the Americans in the air, I was flying the plane and the machine gunner was in charge of shooting. We had two brains, and the opportunity for air combat and shooting was fleeting. It was possible that the opportunity I saw might not be seen by him. When he saw it, I turned and rolled, and thus missed the opportunity..."

Staring at the fuselage full of bullet holes and bloodstains on it, Ye Xinlin frowned.

"This won't work. We definitely can't go on like this. How can two people with two brains work?"

"Then I'll go alone."

Xie Chengde took a puff of cigarette and said while staring at the plane.

"What? One person can..."

Ye Xinlin's eyes lit up, and he stared at Xie Chengde and asked nervously.

"Sergeant, you are a mechanic, is there any way for me to control the machine gun..."

After staring at the plane for a while, Xie Chengde said.

"It's not impossible, but if you are the only one controlling the machine gun, you definitely can't shoot 360 degrees like the machine gunner. I'm afraid..."

After thinking about it, Xie Chengde said.

"The machine gun must be fixed and can only fire forward."

"Shoot forward..."

After staring at the plane for a while, Ye Xinlin said.

"That's no problem. After all, I don't have eyes on the back of my head. Besides, I have to fly the plane, so I don't have the time to look around..."

"That's true."

Xie Chengde nodded, then he stared at the plane and said.

"If we want to do it, we have to think carefully about where to put the machine gun. It's definitely not okay to put it in front of you. Although it's easier to aim, the bullets will break the propeller."

"That's true. The reason why the machine gun seat is raised is to avoid the propeller blades. Um... where to put the machine gun is a problem."

The more Xie Chengde talked, the more he felt that this matter was not as simple as he imagined.

"It's still a big problem. Not only do we have to consider the right position, but we also have to consider how to fire it. If it can't fire, it's just a decoration."

"In fact, the key is to avoid the propeller blades."

"Isn't it?"

The two men walked and talked, and they gestured the position of the machine gun and imagined where it should be placed.

"What if it's on the wing?"

Suddenly, Xie Chengde said.

"What's on the wing?"

"Yes, we have racks on the wings. We can put the machine gun in a box and mount it there."

"Oh, I see. That's a solution, but..."

After thinking about it, Ye Xinlin said.

"In this case, the planes won't be able to drop bombs, which will definitely affect combat effectiveness."

In fact, when Ye Xinlin said this, another thought came to his mind - planes are used for fighting. In other words, as the US Air Force becomes more and more powerful, they will definitely need planes specifically for fighting.

It's a fighter jet. As for bombing, it will definitely be carried out by special aircraft in the future. Of course, this is just an idea, but Ye Xinlin believes in his own judgment.

"That's true..."

Nodding, Xie Chengde said.

"In this case, we can only put the machine gun on the upper wing!"

As he spoke, he pointed to the upper wing of an airplane.

"When you attack head-on, the machine gunner's machine gun is located on the upper wing... Well, maybe it can be fixed on the back of the plane, where the machine gunner originally sat. In this way, we don't even need to modify the ammunition box. We just need to fix the machine gun there and connect the firing mechanism with a joystick... Yes, that's it, no..."

Xie Chengde seemed to have figured something out and suddenly spoke excitedly.

"We shouldn't keep the big barrel. We can fix it on the upper wing and remove the seat on the back of the plane. This way the plane will be more streamlined. I estimate that its speed may even exceed 200 kilometers per hour..."

When the drag is reduced, the speed will naturally increase, and the maneuverability will also improve. When the speed increases and the maneuverability increases, then this plane will definitely become the king of the sky.

Ten minutes later, in the commander's office, after listening to their report, commander Ding Haodong rubbed his forehead with his fingers and remained silent for a long time. After a long while, he said happily: "This is great! This means that in this way, we are likely to create a new way of air combat! However, we have to test it first. So...Sergeant Xie, you use an airplane to test it. Well, Lieutenant Ye, use your airplane. You will not be equipped with a machine gunner for the time being..."

Sometimes, we have to admit that a brilliant idea can really change everything. In the course of human progress, many things are recommended by occasional brilliant ideas.

A sudden inspiration can sometimes really change everything, but when this change happens, no one can predict it.

(End of this chapter)