Chapter 273 Big Belly No. 1

The performance of the third-generation military aircraft has been greatly improved, and its cost has also increased. new

The cost of the Eagle-3 reconnaissance aircraft has reached 27,425 Australian dollars, and the cost of the Wild Tiger-3 fighter jet has reached 2. The most expensive one is the Phantom-3 bomber, which has reached 32,725 Australian dollars.

Arthur's 500 military aircraft construction plan includes 150 reconnaissance aircraft, 100 fighter jets and 250 bombers. The total cost reaches 15.255 million Australian dollars, which is not a small number.

Even the difference between this and Australasia's military expenditure last year is only a few million Australian dollars, which is enough to show how expensive the current aircraft is.

However, compared with these costs, the role that these 500 aircraft can play far outweighs the costs.

After equipping all aircraft and forming combat effectiveness, the combat capabilities of Australasia's navy and army in offshore waters and within a certain range will be improved.

The reason is simply because Australasia has complete air superiority.

Just imagine, if the navy and army of a certain country are at war with the Australasian army, and suddenly a group of hundreds of bombers appear in the sky to carry out bombing, who can stop it?

This is not only a huge unprecedented threat to the army, but also a huge threat to warships within the bombing range of aircraft.

The current warships of various types have not yet mastered air defense weapons. If all 250 bombers are dispatched, if nothing else, they can at least blow up a few dreadnoughts.

If you add in the aircraft that have been equipped before, after this aircraft order is completed, the number of military aircraft equipment in Australasia will reach the total number of military aircraft equipped by other countries in the world.

Of course, it is hard to say whether other countries have military aircraft at present. For the first time, Arthur felt the feeling of being alone and defeated in Australasia.

However, although Arthur is already a big step ahead of other countries in terms of military aircraft, Arthur has not yet made the idea of ​​​​making the Air Force completely public.

The last war with Portugal had brought airships into the spotlight of countries around the world. After that war, a large number of countries began to invest in the research and development of airships, and achieved considerable results.

Although there are also cases of R\u0026D failure, how can all weapons R\u0026D be successful? Other countries have no doubts about the practicality of airships. new

As far as Arthur knew, the current investment in airships by Britain and Germany was not small, at least millions of pounds.

Of course, the achievements achieved are also very good. They have caught up with or even surpassed the achievements of Australasian airships, and they are still undergoing continuous research and development and experiments.

The success achieved by these two countries has also convinced some major powers and sub-powers with weaker R\u0026D capabilities.

After all, the two most powerful countries are constantly researching airships and have achieved considerable results. Why do they still have doubts about airships?

So far, the number of airships equipped in Europe has exceeded a thousand. It can be said that this is a temporary prosperity of airships.

If no accidents occur, Arthur believes that the most glorious moment of airships in history will be staged in Europe more than ten years in advance. After all, the attention and full-scale research and development of a top power are no joke.

Precisely because countries around the world attach great importance to airships, various airship companies and factories have been born.

Although a specific commercial system has not yet been formed, Arthur feels that airships will soon become a major means of transportation in Europe, and then they will become popular all over the world from Europe.

Although airships do have good transportation capabilities, they are also used for transportation in some parts of Australasia.

But what Arthur is looking forward to more about air transportation is airplanes.

Yes, as of the last time Arthur asked the aviation laboratory to develop a passenger aircraft, after four years of research and development, the first aircraft capable of carrying passengers was finally born.

Of course, if it only carries passengers, it is actually a second-generation reconnaissance aircraft. However, this kind of plane that can only carry two people cannot be used commercially at all. How much does it cost to make a trip just for one person?

The first manned aircraft currently developed by the Aeronautical Research Laboratory was named SF-1 by Director Teodor.

SF actually means safe. After all, it is a plane carrying multiple passengers, and the most important thing is to ensure personal safety.

The SF-1 can currently carry up to 7 people except the driver, and has a maximum load capacity of 1.5 tons.

Because the riding position is in the belly of the aircraft, this also causes the SF-1 to have a big belly. It was even jokingly called Big Belly No. 1 by researchers at the Aeronautical Laboratory.

Because the SF-1 carries more people and weight, the average flight speed of this manned aircraft is only 170 kilometers per hour, and the maximum flight speed is only 1

This flight speed lags far behind that of military aircraft, but is sufficient for manned flights.

After all, neither current trains nor ships can reach the terrifying speed of 170 kilometers per hour.

Take the current passenger trains in Australasia as an example. The average speed is only 70 kilometers per hour, and the maximum speed is only 85 kilometers per hour.

Not to mention ships, their speed is far behind that of trains, let alone comparable to airplanes.

This also means that this kind of manned aircraft can greatly improve the connection between two remote areas and greatly reduce the time to travel to remote areas.

If you take the industrial railway from Western Australia to the capital Sydney, it will take more than two days at the earliest.

But what if you are taking this kind of passenger plane? Based on the average speed of 170 kilometers per hour, it only takes more than ten hours to reach Sydney.

Of course, current aircraft cannot sustain such a long voyage. Even the SF-1 equipped with multiple fuel tanks has a maximum range of only 1,100 kilometers.

In fact, judging from the size of the SF-1, it is entirely possible to add a few more fuel tanks to increase the maximum range to at least 1,500 kilometers.

But doing so is not worth the gain. After all, no one can guarantee that no problems will occur when the aircraft engine is running for a long time.

Even a car engine that is already very stable may malfunction after running continuously for more than ten hours.

Although the frequency of malfunctions has been reduced to a very small level, if a car breaks down on the road, that is, it breaks down and cannot move, once an aircraft malfunctions in the sky, the mortality rate is 100%.

Therefore, the maximum range of 1,100 kilometers is enough for current aircraft. After all, 1,100 kilometers will take nearly seven hours to fly at an average speed of 170 kilometers per hour.

After more than seven hours, even if there is no problem with the aircraft engine, it must at least be allowed to cool down and be inspected before it dares to set sail again.

Anyway, it’s not too far from Western Australia to New South Wales. At worst, it’s just a layover in the middle, and it won’t waste too long.

Although passenger aircraft have now been born, Arthur does not plan to fly any time soon, at least not within two years.

At least until the passenger aircraft has gone through long-term, high-frequency experiments and determined that the failure rate is compressed to a very low range, Arthur will try it.

Of course, even in such a situation, Arthur will be fully prepared.

Arthur was not very satisfied with the current passenger number and stability of the SF-1. In addition, there was no need to expose the aircraft to the eyes of various countries in advance, so he gave Teodor an order to continue to develop passenger aircraft. , on the premise of ensuring the stability and safety of the aircraft, try to increase the aircraft's navigation speed and maximum range as much as possible.

As for the number of people on the plane, Arthur had no requirements in the short term.

After all, even if airplanes are quickly put into commercial use, they are definitely not a means of transportation for ordinary civilians.

Before it spreads into the lives of ordinary people, even if airplanes are put into commercial use, the market will not be too big.

Therefore, a plane carrying seven people is barely enough. At most, a few more flights will be enough.

The successful development of several aircraft made Arthur very happy, and naturally there will be no shortage of rewards for these researchers.

All experts and researchers in the Aviation Research Laboratory can receive a reward of at least 5,000 Australian dollars, plus various materials worth thousands of Australian dollars, which makes them smile.

Even ordinary workers in the aviation research laboratory, that is, ordinary workers, can receive a reward of at least 500 Australian dollars and certain supplies. The reward alone may be their salary for several years.

Although the reward cost millions of Australian dollars, it was only a drop in the bucket for Arthur.

What's more, compared to the more than one million Australian dollars, Arthur cares more about the work attitude of these researchers and the progress of the aircraft's development.

After instructing Director Theodor not to neglect the quality of the aircraft he manufactured, Arthur and his subordinates left the aviation laboratory with satisfaction and returned to the Sydney Palace.

The next task of the Aeronautical Laboratory is mainly to manufacture those 500 aircraft. There is no need for Arthur to stay in the Aeronautical Laboratory to personally supervise the construction of the aircraft.

This kind of thing can be left to his subordinates. For Arthur, apart from the research and development of some advanced weapons and the construction of national-level major projects, there are not many things that can make Arthur show up in person.

After all, as a king of a country, you still have to have the style you should have. Arthur has already earned enough reputation, favor and support among the people. What he needs now is to increase the authority of the king.

Within a few days, Arthur arrived at the Royal Dockyard to inspect the current progress of the Royal Dockyard.

Since the completion of the 1st Dreadnought, the Royal Dockyard has been preparing to start construction of the Unity-class battlecruiser.

But after all, the three Monarch-class battleships are all in the process of sea navigation testing. Just in case, the Royal Dockyard did not start building new warships, but was ready to repair the battleships at any time.

After all, any battleship is the hard work of Australasia that has cost millions of Australian dollars to build, and there must be no accidents.

The good news is that in the past three months, there have been no accidents in the sea trials of the three dreadnoughts. The year-long sea trials of the battleship USS Australasia have also been basically completed and will be officially equipped into the navy's fleet.

As for the remaining battleships Australia and New Zealand, if the naval test continues to go smoothly, I believe they can be officially equipped into the navy in the second half of this year and become the trump card of the Australasian Navy.

By that time, Australasia will also officially be among the top ten navies in the world. Even to exaggerate, it is not impossible for the navy's top combat power to reach the level of a great power.

In fact, if you include the air superiority of aircraft, in offshore operations, the Australasian navy really has the combat effectiveness of the great powers, but it can only be regarded as the level of the last great powers.

It is simply impossible to catch up with top powers like Britain and Germany without more than ten or twenty dreadnoughts.

After all, from 1 to 1 in history, the major powers have been very exaggerated in the construction of dreadnoughts.

The British Empire built the largest number of dreadnoughts, and in eight years it built the largest number of dreadnoughts in the world.

Ranking second is naturally followed by the German Empire, which also built 17 dreadnoughts in eight years.

Although the United States did not have very strong combat effectiveness before World War I, it still built a total of 12 dreadnoughts of the sixth level.

The UK's construction speed is very exaggerated, with an average of 3 ships being built every year, a speed that even the current shipbuilding industry in Latin America cannot keep up with.

Germany is also very exaggerated, building an average of two dreadnoughts every year.

If we look at the shipbuilding speed of Australasia, at full power in eight years, we can only build a dozen dreadnoughts at most.

Of course, this does not take into account the construction cost of the dreadnought and the training time of the crew, but only refers to the construction speed of the warship.

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