Chapter 1180 From Land to Sky (First Update, Please Subscribe)
Tactics!
In order to maximize the performance of weapons, you must have appropriate tactics.
In fact, tanks are the most obvious example.
In another world, in the first twenty years after the birth of the tank, the tank was nothing more than a support weapon for infantry attacks.
The role of tanks on the battlefield is only to support infantry, and tanks are regarded as a kind of "machine gun destroyer" and auxiliary cavalry offensive firepower. Based on this understanding, many countries simply disperse tanks in infantry companies, which has become a common practice.
It was not until Sandezi successfully implemented the "blitzkrieg" that tanks became the main offensive platform for mechanized warfare and one of the sharp weapons for breaking through barriers.
“When the technological wave surges around us, what is most needed are newer and braver minds.”
When Emperor Zhu repeated these words said by a certain mentor, he deeply realized that he had fallen into a certain misunderstanding - the misunderstanding of weapon theory!
Advanced weapons are important, but what really matters is tactics.
If you want to unleash the full power of new weapons, you must use advanced tactics. Compared to weapons, tactics themselves are the most important.
"Air-ground integration? Blitzkrieg..."
On this day, Emperor Zhu was thinking a lot, and naturally he thought of airplanes. After several years of development, although the empire's aircraft technology had become increasingly mature, airplanes were still like toys.
For the aviation forces, those toy-like aircraft have no other advantages over airships except for their flexibility. Their use is at most to counter airships and conduct close-range reconnaissance - even in reconnaissance missions, they cannot catch up with airships. After all, airships can float at an altitude of several thousand meters and stay in the air for a long time to conduct reconnaissance. In addition, the airships have a large ammunition carrying capacity, which is also something that those "little toys" cannot catch up with.
Similarly, before World War I, major European military powers generally believed that the role of aircraft was mainly to conduct aerial reconnaissance and support ground operations, so they were only used as aerial observation posts. French military strategist Foch even said that aircraft "are of no use to the army."
"Is it really useless?"
Emperor Zhu smiled slightly, his smile full of sarcasm.
Like tanks, the role of airplanes was underestimated in the first decade or so after their invention.
Even in this world, the role of aircraft is not only not taken seriously, but is even ignored to some extent.
Because compared to airplanes, airship technology is more mature and has been tested in actual combat. In this case, how many people would pay attention to an airplane that is like a toy?
Even though Emperor Zhu attached great importance to airplanes, the empire's attention to airplanes was very general.
After all, airships are truly time-tested weapons.
…
In the early morning, dozens of small aircraft, including a dozen monoplanes, were parked on the apron of an airport inside the Patagonia High Army Base.
This is the only air force in the Ming Empire and also the only air force in the world.
Unlike the floating troops, its weapon is an airplane - a heavier-than-air aircraft. In the past few years, the Empire's aviation researchers have developed many types of aircraft and even several generations of engines.
Perhaps it is a historical coincidence that although the empire's first aircraft was developed based on a monoplane glider, with the in-depth research on maneuverability and aerodynamics, a biplane was eventually chosen.
Compared with monoplanes and biplanes, it is more flexible, has better maneuverability and controllability, and is not prone to stalling, which is why it was chosen.
On the take-off lawn of the airport, several young officers were practicing flying formations. They were riding bicycles on the grass to maintain formation. This was part of the training for junior cadets, and the purpose was to train their body coordination.
Three bicycles were arranged in an "A" formation, which was the most basic flying formation. Although they had already completed dozens of hours of flight training in the airplane, they still needed to conduct tactical training with bicycles on the ground.
If you want to become a pilot, you must first learn to ride a bicycle - this is to keep your body balanced.
All of the Empire's pilots are converted from glider pilots, and they know the importance of maintaining body balance.
Sun Guowei, on the far left, was concentrating on controlling his movements to maintain his position with the "friendly aircraft".
Li Zekai, who was flying in front of the "formation" as the leader, had already seen another "formation" coming towards him, and the captain of the formation was none other than Xu Wende, the captain of the second team.
"Pay attention to maintaining formation, pay attention to the distance between you and your wingman, and prepare to intersect with the second squadron."
Li Zekai, who was leading the flight, gave orders calmly, as if they were already in the air.
"clear!"
Peng Kunlun and Ding Haodong agreed in unison. In the air, such conversations between wingmen are conducted using gestures, signal guns and small blackboards. It is inconvenient on the ground, so they use talking instead. In fact, when in the air, they can occasionally rely on "shouting".
While he was speaking, the "second team" on the opposite side had already "flown" in front of him.
Li Zekai wanted to fly through the gap between the formations, but the two pilots on the opposite side were "flying" unsteadily, making it difficult to aim. At the moment of crossing, when he was about to hit the one on the right, he quickly turned left and let it pass.
Done!
Before he could cheer and celebrate, he heard a clanging sound from behind. When he turned around, he saw a group of people and horses falling to the ground behind him.
The pilot that Li Zekai avoided lost his balance in his haste to dodge and crashed into Peng Kunlun behind him, causing a domino effect - a whole bunch of dominoes fell down.
"Oh, it's a good thing we're on the ground. If we were in the air, we would all be dead."
"Yeah yeah……"
Everyone lay on the grass, and while they were "rejoicing", they just looked up at the sky.
The sky belongs to them!
At this moment, a black dot appeared in the sky. When they vaguely heard the roar of the engine, they saw a plane approaching from afar, and then dived towards the airport at a large angle.
At the same time, a shrill whistle was heard in the air.
A sharp sound cut through the sky above the airport.
"Um……"
The shrill whistle compressed the air and stimulated everyone's auditory nerves. Li Zekai and others who were lying on the grass stood up one after another at the stimulation of the whistle. They looked up at the diving plane in the sky.
"That kid again!"
Amid the shrill whistles, Li Zekai and others took out their wallets from their pockets and spoke.
"I bet he will fail again this time."
"I bet he might hit the target this time. The angle is good this time..."
Just by hearing this special whistle, everyone knew who it was. It was Cheng Kewei from the Second Squadron, a very creative pilot. In the past few months, he had been studying how to use dives to increase bombing accuracy.
In order to increase the deterrence of the dive, this guy even specially designed a wind whistle. The wind whistle will sound when the plane dives. It must be said that the sharp whistle really sounds thrilling...
(End of this chapter)
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