I Became a Plutocrat in World War I: Starting with Saving France-Chapter 220: Revised - Torpedo Bomber

Carter’s flying club requires no special emphasis. Shire ordered them to be vigilant and to train all pilots for fighter aircraft.

Gallieni, on the other hand, launched a massive campaign to recruit pilots from society and began setting up a dedicated flight military academy to recruit young people willing to join the air force.

Only in this way can the supply of pilots for subsequent operations be guaranteed.

...

Shire went to the aircraft factory to find Eric at the first opportunity.

Eric invited Shire to sit down in the factory’s lounge and made a cup of hot coffee for both himself and Shire.

After listening to Shire’s description, Eric couldn’t help but exclaim: "My God, we should develop a single-seat aircraft in the shortest time possible!"

The "Aphro" has good performance, but it is a two-seater, and the extra seat is completely unnecessary for a fighter plane.

But Shire didn’t think this was urgent.

"The Germans also don’t have a dedicated single-seat fighter," Shire replied. "It’s something we have to do, but it can wait a little longer."

"Wait a little longer?" Eric asked Shire with confusion. "But besides that, it seems we don’t have much else to do."

Shire smiled without speaking and then asked in return, "How is the development of the engine going?"

Eric quickly nodded: "They are great, Colonel! You were right. You signed a group of crazy people, especially that Dorne..."

"The one who speaks French?" Shire asked.

Shire remembered this Dorne; he was one of the few people planning to bring their family to Paris for long-term development.

Shire had joked with him, asking him about the reason, and he answered, "I think differently from the others. I believe Paris will not be in danger. The Germans have already lost the opportunity to occupy Paris, so there is nothing to worry about."

Shire didn’t know whether to praise him or not.

From the perspective of World War I, he was quite visionary. The Germans indeed couldn’t occupy Paris. But in World War II...

"Yes, that’s him!" Eric warmed his hands with the coffee cup. "He was elected as the leader by the research staff..."

"Shouldn’t it be the head of the research department?" Shire asked with confusion.

"That’s what they like to call him," Eric replied with a smile. "They are very casual. If there is a problem, they call out ’head’ or ’chief,’ and they call me ’old man.’

"What about me?" Shire asked with some curiosity.

"They call you ’boss,’ but more often ’Corsican Kid.’" Eric laughed as he said this.

Shire was taken aback. He didn’t understand what "Corsican Kid" meant. The next second, he realized it was a somewhat derogatory nickname given to Napoleon by the British.

"Not a bad nickname," Shire smiled lightly. Perhaps this was British humor.

"They’ve only been here for a few weeks and have already increased the engine’s horsepower to over 100," Eric marveled. "This is a huge improvement, and it’s still increasing."

Shire nodded with satisfaction. An engine with 100 horsepower could meet the current needs.

Shire didn’t say much more. He took out a blueprint from his briefcase and handed it to Eric: "Our next step is to produce this kind of aircraft."

Eric took the blueprint, looked at it, and was surprised: "This... this is a big one, Colonel."

Shire responded with a "Hmm."

Eric continued to browse the blueprint and then looked up at Shire: "It has three engines?"

"Yes!" Shire replied while holding his coffee. "One on each wing and another at the back, with the difference being that the one at the back pushes."

Taking a small sip, Shire asked, "Is there any difficulty?"

"No, of course not," Eric raised the blueprint, answering, "The research department can provide the engines. You supply the blueprints. All we have to do is produce it according to the blueprint, which is our specialty."

"It’s just that..." Eric frowned.

"Just what?" Shire asked.

"This might be beyond my responsibility, Colonel," Eric said with some concern. "But if you need an aircraft to fly into combat, it shouldn’t be this large. You should also consider its maneuverability. Such a large aircraft... it might not be able to turn in time, thus unable to avoid enemy bullets..."

"I know," Shire interrupted Eric, "which is why it’s not for combat. It’s for bombing!"

Shire leaned over and pointed to a location on the blueprint: "This is the bomb rack."

Eric exclaimed, "Oh, I see, Colonel! Dropping bombs on the enemy’s head, good idea!"

Eric didn’t ask anything further because it involved military secrets, and he knew what he should and should not ask.

In fact, there was nothing to hide from Eric regarding military secrets. The blueprint was the most important military secret. Shire didn’t elaborate because some military concepts might be beyond Eric’s understanding.

The blueprint Shire gave to Eric was of the famous Caproni Ca.3 bomber from World War I, made in Italy.

Shire chose this bomber because it could directly increase the number of engines: in the early days of World War I, aircraft engines typically had horsepower ranging from 80 to 100, making it difficult for bombers to carry heavy bombs.

But the Caproni bomber was different. By adding an additional engine at the rear of the fuselage, it could carry 800 kilograms of bombs.

When the engine was later upgraded to 150 horsepower, simply replacing the engine with a higher-power one was not a problem.

More importantly, the Caproni bomber could carry torpedoes... At the end of World War I, this bomber was modified by the navy into a torpedo bomber and successfully equipped a torpedo bomber squadron.

It’s just a pity that it didn’t see much action before World War I ended, so it had no battle records.

This bomber met Shire’s needs perfectly. The only issue was that Shire only remembered the general shape and layout and couldn’t provide detailed data.

However, these could be resolved through test flights.

Shire instructed: "This is just the preliminary design. You need to find people to further improve it."

"Understood, Colonel!" Eric, flipping through the blueprint, answered with confidence without even looking up: "Leave it to me!"

Eric was well-versed in aircraft and was an expert in aircraft manufacturing. He could tell that the blueprint had already confirmed all the major directions, and only the details needed modification and improvement.

...

After leaving the aircraft factory, as he sat in the car returning to headquarters, Shire thought about the next step to have Steed produce the aviation bombs.

This should not be difficult for Steed. A scaled-up mortar shell would suffice.

Then, bomb the Germans’ airfields before they are prepared!

The airfields housed the Germans’ elite pilots and a batch of newly machine-gun-equipped fighter jets. Dropping a batch of bombs would render all their efforts useless!

(Pictured above is the Caproni bomber, showing the rear propeller and the rear gunner above it. There is also a nose gunner, plus two pilots, totaling four crew members.)

(Pictured above is the naval version of the Caproni bomber from World War I, capable of carrying an 800-kilogram torpedo.)

Updat𝓮d from freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.co(m)