Republic of China: Ace Pilot

Chapter 491 Tender for the Yunnan-Burma Transportation Line; Taishan Multifunctional Military Vehicle Finalized

The collaboration between Fang Wen and the Department of Political Science was reached after several rounds of negotiations.

Compared to other forces, the Department of Political Science agreed to Fang Wen's request to take the lead in air transport and took the initiative to suggest that Taishan Airlines be responsible for the procurement and transportation of other non-air transport materials.

And payment is made upon delivery, with absolutely no delays.

The next step is to discuss the transportation and procurement of supplies.

The current Nationalist government has lost its grain-producing and industrial areas, and is now confined to the southwest, lacking everything.

However, the supplies that political science personnel can handle do not include strategic materials such as weapons, ammunition, artillery, machine tools, and medicines.

Those things contain astonishing profits and have long been targeted by others.

Those people were hoping to make a fortune through this, so naturally they wouldn't let anyone else handle it.

Therefore, Taishan Airlines is mainly responsible for the procurement and supply of materials, including food and civilian supplies.

Each month, Chongqing will send an order, which Taishan Airlines will handle for procurement and transportation, with payment made upon delivery.

Although it didn't involve the procurement and transportation of military supplies, Fang Wen still took it very seriously.

He already knew from the Southwest Logistics Company's report that prices in the three southwestern provinces were soaring and various civilian goods were in short supply. Even if the logistics company had stockpiled and transported goods in advance, it would not be able to meet the huge demand.

Having operated in South Asia for many years, I am capable of solving this problem.

Immediately after receiving the first batch of orders, Fang Wen organized the company staff to begin procurement.

The rice was purchased from French Vietnam, following the original supply channels for compressed military rations.

Negotiating with each of the many types of civilian supplies would be time-consuming and laborious, which is not what Fang Wen wanted.

Therefore, he held a bidding and procurement meeting in Yangon.

In late November 1938, Taishan Aviation Headquarters sent out invitations to tenders to major suppliers in Southeast Asia and South Asia.

The procurement list covers urgently needed wartime supplies:

Essential consumer goods: salt, matches, paper, cooking oil
Industrial products: ordinary steel, hardware tools, rubber products, gasoline, kerosene

Medical products: sulfonamides, bandages, first aid kits, and finished traditional Chinese medicine products.

Invitations were received from overseas Chinese enterprises in Southeast Asia, British Burma/India companies, and French and American branches in Southeast Asia.

Fang Wen personally supervised the sending of the invitation letters, each of which included detailed bidding rules in both Chinese and English, and emphasized that "cash payment will be settled immediately and transportation will be handled by Taishan Airlines."

With such favorable conditions and the guarantee of Taishan Airlines, the invitees flocked to the event on Taishan Airlines flights.

After arriving in Yangon, some of these people checked into hotels arranged by Tarsus Airlines, while others booked separate accommodations.

They met and exchanged ideas before the bidding conference even started.

Overseas Chinese businessmen were the most enthusiastic about bidding for Taishan Airlines, with the Chen family taking the lead in stating: "In the face of national crisis, overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia will definitely give their full support."

The British were most aware of the current situation. Representatives of the British-owned Calcutta steelworks tried to contact Fang Wen in advance to secure contracts for steel and hardware, but were turned away.

Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies in French Indochina (now Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia) publicly stated that they could urgently transport 10 boxes of sulfanilamide powder to Yangon via the Hanoi transit point in Vietnam.

The bidding and procurement meeting was officially held in early December.

Representatives from various suppliers entered the conference hall of the Yangon headquarters building.

Fang Wen stood up and gave a brief speech: "Taishan Airlines only recognizes quality and price. The procurement process is open, fair and just. The bidding meeting will now officially begin."

Next, the finance department of Taishan Airlines announced the results of the qualification review:
These results were obtained with the cooperation of branch offices in various regions, verifying the company's qualifications and production capacity, and eliminating three Indian shell companies that falsely reported inventory.

The bidding process then officially began.

Each item was bid on individually by merchant representatives.

Chinese businessmen secured bids for salt, matches, paper, and cooking oil.

The Chen family secured the rubber contract, while the Hu family's pharmacy secured the traditional Chinese medicine contract.

However, the two categories of ordinary steel and hardware tools saw fierce competition among the four major steel mills in British India: Tata Steel, Indian Steel, Bangladesh Steel, and Mysore Steel.

Ultimately, four steel mills secured all the contracts.

This is also the helplessness of this era. China, which has not yet risen, is even inferior to India in terms of steel production capacity.

In the subsequent bidding process, the gasoline and kerosene bids were contested between ExxonMobil and Shell, with Shell ultimately winning all the bids due to its local oil fields and refineries.

French pharmaceutical companies won all three bids for sulfonamide drugs, bandages, and first aid kits.

After the bidding process concluded, the procurement and transportation of goods commenced immediately.

Taishan Airlines has its own business system. Driven by patriotism, the employees work diligently and efficiently.

Batch after batch of supplies were loaded onto ships at ports in South and Southeast Asia and transported to Yangon Port.

The first supplies sent to China were rice from French Vietnam, which was purchased by Taishan Airlines itself.

Large quantities of rice were packed into sacks and transported to Da Nang, where they were then loaded onto cargo ships of Taishan International and shipped to Yangon via the Strait of Malacca.

Then it was transported to northern Myanmar via Myanmar railway and waterway.

They are then loaded onto trucks at the base in northern Myanmar and transported to China via the Yunnan-Burma Road.

After arriving in Yunnan, these trucks loaded with rice will be inspected by the Southwest Transportation Department before being transported to Sichuan.

While the convoy of rice was on its way, two planes loaded with medical supplies took off from Yangon and flew to Chongqing via the Yunnan-Guizhou-Sichuan route, delivering the urgently needed medical supplies quickly.

With the procurement and transportation of supplies on track, Fang Wen handed it over to the company's senior management for management.

He had only one requirement: Taishan Airlines must not take advantage of the transportation of these supplies, and if anyone is found to be profiting from it, he will not tolerate it.

After giving his instructions, Fang Wen turned his attention back to the research and development of military vehicles.

In order to accelerate the research and development of automobile engines, Fang Wen chose to learn from others.

The three V-type car engines he referenced were: the Ford V8 engine, the Packard V12 engine, and the Cadillac V16 engine.

After analyzing and comparing the mechanical sensing capabilities, Fang Wen gained a certain understanding of the three engines.

Ford's V8 engine comes in 65-horsepower and 85-horsepower versions, the Packard V12 engine produces 175 horsepower, and the Cadillac V16 engine has a maximum power of 185 horsepower.

Although the Packard V12 and Cadillac V16 engines have higher power outputs, for military vehicles, more power is not necessarily better.

Military vehicles need to take into account comprehensive performance, including vehicle load capacity and road conditions.

The power output of the Ford V8 engine is sufficient to meet the power requirements of general military vehicles, such as towing light artillery and transporting supplies.

In complex battlefield environments, excessively powerful engines can make vehicles difficult to control, increasing the difficulty of operation for the driver.

From this perspective, the Ford V8 engine better meets Fang Wen's requirements.

Therefore, Fang Wen focused his research on the Ford V8 engine.

After a comprehensive analysis, Fang Wen discovered even more advantages.

Ford's V8 engine has a simple design and low cost.

It uses a cast iron cylinder body, which is easy to manufacture and has reliable performance. Its structural design also makes it highly stable in harsh environments and less prone to failure.

In contrast, the Packard V12 engine and the Cadillac V16 engine have complex structures and numerous parts.

For example, the Cadillac V16 engine is equipped with a complex system including dual carburetors, dual fuel pumps, dual distributors, and dual water pumps. While this improves engine performance, it also increases potential points of failure. In a battlefield environment, if any component malfunctions, the repair difficulty and cost will be very high.

The Ford V8 engine has a simple structure, which also makes it easier to maintain and repair.

Maintenance personnel do not need to possess overly specialized and complex knowledge and skills to inspect and maintain it.

The Packard V12 engine and Cadillac V16 engine, due to their complex structure and advanced technology, require professional and experienced maintenance personnel for upkeep.

On the battlefield, limited maintenance conditions make it difficult to meet the maintenance needs of these complex engines.

Finally, there is another advantage, which is fuel economy.

Fuel economy is an important consideration in the use of military vehicles.

Ford's V8 engine's relatively small displacement and simple design may give it an advantage in terms of fuel consumption.

The 60-horsepower engine could achieve a fuel consumption of approximately 8.71 to 10.69 liters per 100 kilometers, which was quite excellent for an engine of the same horsepower in 1938.

In contrast, the Packard V12 engine and the Cadillac V16 engine have much higher fuel consumption due to their larger number of cylinders and displacement.

During wartime, fuel supplies are limited, so fuel-efficient engines can reduce the pressure on logistical support.

After these comparisons, Fang Wen directly chose the Ford V8 engine as the template.

Furthermore, by combining Taishan Airlines' own V-engine technology, appropriate modifications were made to it.

The modified V8 engine has improved its performance, an improvement that would have seemed insurmountable to automotive engineers, but was achieved under Fang Wen's leadership.

With the new car engine in hand, the next step is to design a six-wheel drive system.

The first thing to do is the gearbox.

Fangwen still uses a two-stage transfer case (high-speed/low-speed gear), but distributes power to the front, middle and rear axles.

The transfer case was an improvement on the transfer cases of other military trucks of the same period, with the addition of an extra output shaft.

Torque distribution: 30% to the front axle, 35% to the middle axle, and 35% to the rear axle. However, to cope with complex terrain, a hard connection is achieved through a differential lock.

The front axle is connected to the transfer case via a universal joint from the front output port. The middle and rear axles are connected in series via an intermediate drive shaft to ensure synchronous rotation.

The front axle is a split axle equipped with a differential lock to enhance off-road capability; the middle and rear axles use the same non-split axles with a load capacity of 3-5 tons.

Next is the suspension system.

The front suspension retains the leaf spring structure of the Ford V8, but adds shock absorbers and stabilizer bars to improve high-speed stability.

The middle and rear suspensions use a balanced suspension to ensure that all three axles remain in contact with the ground on rough terrain.

The manual transmission is a four-speed transmission that Fang Wen modified himself, providing a lower gear ratio to adapt to heavy loads.

The clutch diameter has been increased to 9.5 inches to improve torque transmission capability.

Military vehicles need to pass quickly through many uneven road sections, so the chassis needs to be reinforced with a frame, using box-section steel beams, and adding reinforcing ribs at the middle and rear axles to improve torsional rigidity.

Finally, Fang Wen also modified a problem that had been discovered regarding his supernatural abilities.

The gear materials were optimized to improve transmission efficiency, and the transfer case and axle gears were replaced with Soviet special alloy steel to improve wear resistance.

After the overall design was completed, Fang Wen led the automotive engineers to begin the production of the first prototype.

Under his fervent leadership, the entire production team worked overtime and ultimately completed this seemingly impossible task within a week.

Taishan's first military multi-functional vehicle was born, and Fang Wen couldn't wait to drive it around the airport of the aircraft manufacturing plant.

After finishing the test, he already had a clear idea of ​​the completed data in his mind.

Load capacity: 2.2-4.5 tons (2.2 is unloaded, 4.5 is maximum load).

Off-road performance: Gradient ≥ 40% (equivalent to an angle of approximately 21.8°), wading depth 0.7 meters.

Power output: 85 horsepower driving six wheels (can switch between front two-wheel drive and front and rear six-wheel drive to meet the driving needs of different road conditions), with a maximum highway speed of 108 km/h and an off-road speed of approximately 20-60 km/h.

This data has reached Fang Wen's expected value and can be used to equip the Independent Regiment.

Therefore, he customized the entire car production line.

Automobile production lines are not the same as aircraft manufacturing.

Automobiles can be produced more efficiently on assembly lines. For example, components such as suspension, transmission, engine, and axle can be produced separately. As long as they meet the production specifications and are error-free, they can be assembled into a complete Taishan multi-functional military vehicle.

All the raw materials and processing equipment are available at the base in northern Myanmar. All that's needed is to get the blueprints for the parts and have the mechanical engineers trained in the aircraft manufacturing industry produce them according to the blueprints.

But there's a recurring problem: a lack of talent!
If a group of engineering and technical personnel were to be transferred to produce military vehicles, the aircraft manufacturing process would be slower.

This kind of "robbing Peter to pay Paul" approach can only be used as a temporary measure and cannot be used frequently.

However, nowadays, all the university students that can be recruited in China have been recruited, and it will take time to cultivate new talents.

Fang Wen's gaze involuntarily fell upon Europe.

Germany should be going to war.

Why has there been no feedback from the French Air Force after purchasing a gunboat?

Since the other party hasn't given any feedback, then go ask them yourself.

Fang Wen telegraphed the Paris branch of the French Air Force, instructing manager Paul Lin to inquire with the French Air Force Equipment Department.

Paris, France.

Paul Lin, of mixed Chinese and French descent, dressed neatly, drove away from the Paris branch office.

He was preparing to go to the French Air Force Equipment Department.

He stopped the car after driving through a block.

A tall, obese, blonde old woman came down from a building on the street, kissed Lin Baolu on the forehead, and asked him with concern.

"Do you have any news about your father?"

This is Paul Lin's mother. His father was a student sent to Paris, France by the Qing Dynasty. He was stranded there after the fall of the Qing Dynasty. After he grew up, he fell in love with his mother and had him. Later, his father returned to China and never contacted his mother and son again.

Even now, his mother has never forgotten Paul Lin's father, and she asks him that question every time she sees her son.

"There's a war going on over there. I'll take you back when the war is over."

Paul Lin reiterated his promise to give his mother a happy hug.

After receiving the lunchbox made by his mother, Paul Lin continued driving.

He went to the equipment department and found the officer who had handed over the gunboat aircraft to him last time.

"Hello, I'm from Taishan Airlines. I'm here to ask about your feedback on the use of the Taishan gunship aircraft."

(End of this chapter)