Chapter 593: 593 Radio Navigation
Chapter 593 593 Radio Navigation
“Damn it, I haven’t received sea flight training at all.” A Datang pilot was dressed neatly, holding his hat and said as he walked towards the plane.
“It doesn’t matter, your lead aircraft can pilot, and we will send radio signals to guide you to land, don’t worry.” An air force commander comforted him.
Nearly all the ground attack pilots of the Tang Army are within the territory of Qi State, and most of the pilots left behind on Longdao have no training experience in flying at sea.
It's not completely absent. There are still instructor pilots left behind who are familiar with naval operations, but they all have to fly precious Stuka dive bombers now.
There is no way. In order to guide more fighter jets to participate in the battle, experienced pilots must fly two-seater aircraft to command and guide the battle.
In other words, these experienced instructors are responsible for leading the way, and the novice pilots are responsible for flying fighter jets to attack.
This is an optimal choice, which can ensure that in complex actual combat situations, the most fighter jets can be dispatched at one go. Moreover, even if novice pilots lack sea flight experience, they can fly back with the instructor after the attack is completed.
This time, the assistant shooter sitting in the back row of the Stuka cockpit is responsible for navigation. They have to mark their own route and receive radio navigation signals.
In short, the mission of the old pilots is not to attack, but to bring these young pilots back from the sea safely.
Beside the runway of the airport, a group of flight instructors were checking their maps with the commander of the operation.
There is a huge circle on everyone's chart. The commander pointed at this circle and said: "The enemy's marching range is probably within this oval range."
“Are you sure?” an instructor asked, staring at the circle.
The commander nodded and replied: "I'm very sure. This is calculated based on the airship data we have. If the enemy wants to reach Long Island at night, they must not leave this range! Because once they leave this range , we can only carry out bombing during the day.”
“Calculated based on the speed of our airship? In other words, the actual range may be smaller?” An instructor frowned, thinking that the search range could be narrowed down.
The leading officer shook his head and explained: "Not sure, because the bomb load and air bag filling cannot be ignored. We have consulted the relevant airship engineers, and they gave us a lot of relevant data."
As he spoke, he took a piece of calculation paper provided to him by the engineer during the previous meeting: "A fully loaded airship cannot set off from the edge of the Endless Sea and reach Dragon Island, so they must have reduced the number of bombs they can carry." quantity to carry more gas containers.”
The airbag of an airship cannot leak forever. With such a huge volume, even if the material is extremely good, it will leak slowly. This is also the biggest problem that prevents the airship from being further practical.
The air leakage needs to be replenished. As the airship flies all the way, they can only rely on the equipment they carry to fill the air bag, so they must reduce the bomb load, which can also further reduce their own weight.
They will throw away the used cylinders, so that they can further reduce weight, achieve higher speeds, and reduce the pressure caused by insufficient buoyancy due to gas leakage.
“So?” The instructors looked at the commander.
"So their speed may be faster than expected." The commander concluded: "They may appear at any point within this oval, so...can't be careless!"
After speaking, he looked at the barrel of the anti-aircraft gun raised high next to the airport runway: "If you fail, then His Majesty's castle will have to be defended by them."
"I understand!" "I understand." "Understood!" Upon hearing this, all the veteran pilots immediately nodded in agreement.
They don’t want to give such credit to the ground air defense forces, let alone be blamed for missing the fighter plane in a wasteful battle. Putting Dragon Cave in danger is not an easy task to carry.
“Disband!” The commander waved his hand: “All troops, search according to the route that has been circled in advance!”
"Take off! Take off!" All the veteran pilots began to rush to their planes. These Stuka dive bombers were all "new products" that had just been produced by Longdao and had not yet had time to fly to the front line of Qi.
To carry out this mission, all Stukas had their howling devices removed and no bombs were mounted on them. This is done to increase the range and allow the Stuka's speed to keep up with those butcher fighters.
The Butcher fighter jets looked much more professional this time. All aircraft were equipped with auxiliary fuel tanks. This technology was quite advanced for this era. It can significantly increase the range of the fighter jet without affecting the fighter's flexibility during combat.
One after another, the Butcher fighter jets taxied on the runway, then broke away from the shackles of gravity and climbed into a high-altitude formation. Immediately afterwards, these aircraft began to rush south, following the Stuka dive bombers in the lead, with murderous intent.
Those airship troops from Cyric did not know that their disaster was coming. In fact, even if they knew, it was too late to do anything to change their fate at this time.
Compared to the Butcher fighter's speed of over 400 kilometers per hour, the slow speed of the airship is basically the same as standing still.
Had it not been for the time required to formulate a combat plan after obtaining the intelligence, calculate the direction and other messy things, the search area would actually be smaller.
Flying on the vast sea, the novice pilot became nervous after flying out of the land of Dragon Island. There was a wave under their feet, and everyone was a little frightened because they couldn't see any reference points.
This is human instinct and needs training to overcome. While training, you also need technical support! Without radio navigation technology, such an attack would be almost the same as committing suicide.
Basically, road-based pilots perform sea attack missions much like night bombing missions. They have no ground reference to identify their heading, and can only rely on routes and radio guidance to fly blindly to the target area.
The difference is that they can see the target when attacking, which is more convenient than flying at night. But at the same time, they have to face the problem that once they lose their way, even skydiving is unsafe.
“Almost half of the pilots learned how to use life jackets only two hours before takeoff...” The commander threw the record book on the map table with some irritability and complained to the officer who was marking the position of the aircraft formation on the map.
"The Navy has dispatched two destroyers, and also transferred 4 Liberty Ships and 15 fishing boats with radio equipment to the relevant waters... There should be no major incident." The officer threw away the compass in his hand and marked the position of the formation. He raised his head and spoke.
He is a Chinese, with black hair and black eyes, named Xiao Yun. Before entering the Air Force to study, he was a criminal and lived in Bunas.
Being able to serve as a senior commander of the Air Force at this time, it can be said that he has been very successful. He has flown Camel fighter jets and Butcher fighter jets. He has rich experience and is very familiar with the dispatch and command of the Air Force.
Just from his work on the picture just now, you can see that he is an excellent commander. If this were not the case, he would not stay on Long Island and serve as the air force commander here.
“Three troops will search the entire area in three directions. There will be no blind spots, provided that their routes and search ranges are correct.” Xiao Yun looked at the radio operation team and asked, “Is the signal normal?”
“There’s no feedback from the signal tower yet, everything is normal here.” The officer guarding the equipment immediately replied.
"Watch closely!" Xiao Yun ordered, and then grabbed the radio: "Seagull, seagull! I am a big ship, I am a big ship! Please answer when you receive it."
“I am a seagull, I am a seagull! Got it, got it!” From the earphones, the clear voices of the pilots who were leading the plane came.
They are still very close to Dragon Island, so the signal is very good. And there is not so much electromagnetic interference here. After all, only Tang Jun in the world has such high-end radio equipment.
“On the way to the target area, watch your steps!” Xiao Yun grabbed the communicator and ordered: “If you find a suspicious ship, report it immediately.”
“Seagull 01 understands!” “Seagull 02 understands!” A series of responding voices came from the earphones.
At the same time, the fleet that stayed on Dragon Island had all dispersed. Except for the warships that were arranged to lead the rescue fleet to meet the air force, all the remaining ships had already left the port.
The navy of the Tang Dynasty did not have the habit of being crowded into the port and being eliminated. Even if they were at a disadvantage, they would set sail to sea and tear off a piece of flesh from the enemies who dared to invade the Kingdom of the Tang Dynasty.
It’s just that from the time the airship was discovered until now, Cyric’s fleet, which the Tang Dynasty’s senior officials are most worried about, has not been discovered.
Before there were aircraft carriers and artificial satellites, the sea was too vast. Unless the route is predicted or the opponent's fleet is blocked near the port, it is really not easy to find a fleet on the vast sea.
This also made the commanders of the Tang Army dare not relax easily. They could not confirm whether there was such a fleet, so they could only deploy according to the existence of this enemy fleet.
They are academics, they will not take risks, they will only choose the best solution and use the most reasonable way to deal with the enemy. You can call them clumsy, but they are still the best commanders in the world.
(End of this chapter)