I want to be emperor

Chapter 1175 Wind Tunnel

In July of the summer of the 54th year of Chengshun, Cadiz, the European governor's residence, welcomed several unusual naval transport ships.

After these naval transport ships docked, a group of soldiers in sky blue uniforms came down.

This strikes many people as rather strange... because military uniforms of this color are rarely seen.

The most common army uniforms are dark blue in color, while combat uniforms vary depending on the region, and can be dark blue, yellow, green or even white.

The navy wears a darker navy blue for formal dress, and sometimes white as casual uniform.

People had never seen sky blue military uniforms before.

Because the sky blue military uniform is the base color of the new military branch of the Great Chu Empire, the Air Force. It uses the same color as the azure sky, symbolizing its aerial characteristics. It was just changed this year, and before that it was not assigned to the three airship units stationed in Europe.

After getting off the ship, these air force soldiers in sky blue uniforms did not leave, but instead cooperated with the navy to start lifting a large number of aircraft parts.

The force that came on the naval transport ship was an air force unit, consisting of soldiers from the Second Flying Regiment and more than 100 Black Swallow series combat aircraft.

The three airship brigades previously deployed in Europe seemed incapable of performing reconnaissance, air strikes and other areas.

At the same time, various rebellion incidents have emerged one after another in Europe, especially in Western Europe this year, where a large number of illegal armed forces have appeared. In addition, intelligence agencies have discovered that many illegal armed forces are equipped with and use a number of illegally manufactured single-shot rifles.

This brought considerable pressure to the government forces of many countries as agents, and also caused some pressure on the foreign legions of the Chu army stationed in various countries.

When the local government forces are unable to maintain the situation, the foreign legions will be forced to join the battle.

The pressure of security operations in Europe is relatively high, and the demand for aerial reconnaissance has increased dramatically.

After comprehensive consideration, the Air Force deployed the Second Flying Regiment, which had completed training and possessed certain reconnaissance and combat capabilities, to Europe.

According to the deployment plan, several flying squadrons under this flying regiment will be deployed in different areas such as Cadiz, Dover, and the Denmark Strait to provide aerial reconnaissance and simple air fire support to the Chu army in nearby areas.

These Black Swallow trainer/reconnaissance aircraft have been equipped with an 8mm heavy machine gun on the rear seat, which can be operated by the rear seat pilot for ground fire strikes.

This was a combat test project of the Air Force before the gunship program, to see how effective the gunship would be in actual combat.

Of course, due to the relatively short range of the Black Swallow aircraft, this thing can only temporarily serve as a fire support mission. A real aerial gunboat will be a two- or even four-engine aircraft with a longer range, longer flight time, and a larger payload.

The arrival of the Second Flying Regiment brought a lot of liveliness to Cadiz, especially the first batch of bulk aircraft which were assembled with the efforts of engineers and flew into the sky, attracting a large number of citizens to watch.

This was the first time that most of the Chu people in Cadiz had seen an airplane. After seeing the airplane actually flying in the sky, many people cheered...

Although airplanes have been around for a few years, they are still relatively mysterious... It's not that the Air Force keeps the airplanes secret... The Chu Army has never kept their equipment secret. Even the most advanced battleships are used as museums at various docks in the mainland most of the time, and people are allowed to visit the ships during the Navy Open Day.

The same is true for the Air Force. The bidding for aircraft is open, and the performance data of various aircraft are almost also public, especially the Black Swallow aircraft. This thing is not only air force equipment, but also purchased and used by many administrative agencies and even private enterprises for flight shows or various special operations.

At the same time, the various flight trainings of the Air Force are also open to the public. If you want to see them, just go to the vicinity of the airport and look up at the sky...

  And from time to time, there is a flight demonstration day, allowing the public to enter the airport directly and observe the air force aircraft up close!

These are all to enhance the reputation of the space!

The various branches of the Great Chu Empire have put a lot of effort into improving their reputation within the army, winning the favor of the people, and attracting more aspiring young people to join them.

The navy holds a navy open day with its battleships, the air force holds a flight demonstration day, and the army likes to hold battle restoration shows, where they bring out a group of soldiers, wear uniforms from decades ago, carry flintlock rifles for performances, and reenact battles of the past. Sometimes they even hold live-fire shooting demonstration days... From time to time, they pull out a bunch of near-expired ammunition to show the public the grand scene of guns and cannons firing at the same time.

The Guards, on the other hand, don't do any of these fancy things. They just hold a public Guards parade at the Jinling City Guards parade ground every year!

They will also bring out the only remaining heavy cavalry in the contemporary Great Chu Empire, the 'First Heavy Cavalry Regiment of the Guards', to perform various heavy cavalry marching and even charging performances.

Various other advanced weapons and equipment of the Guards will also be on display one after another, such as the latest armored vehicles, trucks, 150mm field cannons towed by tractors, etc., which will all be pulled out for a spin.

  They will also specially invite high school students with excellent academic performance to visit... After the visit, they will be given various brochures about the Guards and the Guards Officer School, and these outstanding students and their parents will be directly won over during the parade: Don't hesitate, apply for our Guards Officer School!

Due to their global invincibility, as well as the desire to maintain their reputation and attract more outstanding talents to join, all the troops in the Chu Army are very keen on doing these things.

This is also the reason why the Air Force did not go to fight shortly after arriving in Cadiz, but instead frequently carried out so-called training... They just wanted to fly the planes and circle over Cadiz to let the people of Cadiz know the power of the Air Force.

Who knows, among the crowd watching the aircraft training at this moment, there is a boy who is attracted by the heroic appearance of the aircraft and then develops the desire to join the Air Force in the future.

This half-training, half-performance flight lasted for more than a month, during which time dozens of aircraft were assembled.

At this time, the garrison headquarters in Central Europe also frequently sent telegrams to ask... Are you ready? We are at a war, and you in the air force are enough, so come quickly.

If there are not too many planes, you can just dispatch three or five planes here first!

We have even prepared the airport for you in advance, and we have prepared several of them at once, so that your short-legged Black Swallow aircraft can transfer and fly at any time.

  But you haven’t been seen for a month, that’s too much, brother!

Under such circumstances, the Air Force sent a flying squadron to prepare to move to Central Europe!

Considering that the Black Swallow aircraft has a short range, even with the addition of auxiliary fuel tanks it can only have a range of more than 600 kilometers, so it needs to stop several times along the way to reach Berlin, where the Central European Garrison Command is located.

However, there is no need to worry about the airports where the troops will stop. The European side had been notified half a year ago that the Air Force would send aircraft to participate in the war. Considering the range of the aircraft, in order to facilitate the transfer, combat and emergency landing, the Air Force had already asked the Army to prepare temporary airports in various regions.

Anyway, this kind of temporary airport doesn’t have any big requirements. Just find a flat ground and level the land.

We have also contacted the civil service system, hoping that the administrative departments would build more straight roads when building roads, whether in the mainland, overseas, or in vassal states, so that aircraft can carry out emergency takeoffs and landings in emergency situations.

With the Black Swallow aircraft's excellent low-altitude and low-speed control capabilities, it has no problem taking off and landing on these dirt roads with average conditions.

The aircraft of that time were primitive and simple, and the requirements for takeoff and landing were also simple, so flight transfers and temporary combat deployments were actually quite simple.

Unlike later jet aircraft, which have very high requirements for take-off and landing, their combat areas are also greatly restricted.

As for the Black Swallow aircraft, after starting the transfer, it will basically land at a preset temporary airport after flying four to five hundred kilometers, and then refuel directly with a fuel barrel. After a short rest, the pilot will continue to fly the plane on the road.

  After two days of such trouble, we finally arrived in Berlin!

This ultra-long-distance air transfer of more than 2,000 kilometers also made the Air Force realize for the first time the huge flaw of the Black Swallow aircraft: the range was too short.

A flight range of five or six hundred kilometers makes it difficult to even transfer, not to mention being used for direct reconnaissance or ground support.

After all, once you fly out, the plane has to fly back, and it needs a certain amount of fuel for hovering reconnaissance and ground strikes, and it also needs to leave a certain amount of emergency fuel. By then, the combat range will be reduced to about 200 kilometers.

Two hundred kilometers may be far for the army, but for the air force flying in the sky, these two hundred kilometers are too close.

After this transfer was reported to the Air Force Headquarters in Jinling, the Air Force asked the Black Swallow aircraft supplier, Tangshan Aircraft Company, to increase the range of the Black Swallow aircraft just a few days later.

After receiving this request, Tangshan Aircraft Company thought about it and decided to remove the rear seat and use it to carry fuel, so that one pilot could perform reconnaissance missions and ground fire strike missions.

They installed the aerial camera directly on the plane, and the heavy machine gun on the back seat was also hoisted directly under the nose of the plane, forming a layout similar to shooting diagonally downward.

  Then use the pull rod to remotely control taking photos or firing!

In this way, a certain amount of space and load capacity can be freed up to carry more fuel.

Then the engine can also be upgraded to a certain extent. The power company under Tangshan Machinery Company, the parent company of Tangshan Aircraft Company, has never stopped the continuous improvement and research and development of aircraft engines.

When it comes to the technical level of aircraft engines, the aircraft engines under Tangshan Power Company are still the best in the country, just like their automobile engines and large engines.

Tangshan Machinery Company is the earliest company to develop spark plug gasoline engines. It has accumulated a wealth of experience and technology over the past nearly twenty years, enabling it to maintain its leading position in the engine field for a long time.

The technological leadership in the engine field not only allows them to build better cars, but also gains a lot of advantages in areas such as trucks and even military vehicles.

The 15th series trucks are still the only trucks used by the military to this day. They are ordered in large quantities and are widely used in field artillery units or logistics units.

At the same time, the market share of 15 trucks in the private sector is also very high. In the 1.5-ton truck field, 15 trucks have almost no competitors and occupy 80% of the market. These trucks are widely used in various short-distance transportation operations.

The Type 15 truck can be said to be the most successful transport truck in the Great Chu Empire. It has very good performance and a powerful engine. Although the truck has a nominal load capacity of 1.5 tons, it can actually run very fast even if it is carrying three or four tons of cargo.

The technical advantages of the engine have brought a lot of advantages in the automotive field, and naturally gave Tangshan Aircraft Company a great advantage in the aircraft field.

The Black Swallow series of aircraft has undergone two engine upgrades in just a few years. Not only has the horsepower been gradually increased, but the fuel consumption has also been further reduced, which has also gradually increased the range.

This time, Tangshan Aircraft Company is preparing to install a new engine on this thing to increase its range.

After this modification, we found that the improved Black Swallow aircraft is really good. At least when it was designed on paper, it was given a range of 800 kilometers, which is quite good for a single-engine small aircraft.

As for the specific data, we will have to wait until the prototype is completed and an actual test flight is carried out.

After all, current paper calculations are actually not very reliable... It’s not that the math can’t be done, but there is too little accurate data available for calculation.

The industrial base of the Great Chu Empire was still relatively limited, and many testing projects were difficult to carry out, especially the wind tunnels that were crucial for the design and manufacture of aircraft.

The earliest wind tunnel in the State of Chu was a product of the flight research laboratory of the Royal Institute of Technology in its early years. It was a relatively primitive wind tunnel, but although it was primitive, the air flow speed could reach 50 to 60 kilometers per hour. Later, a wind tunnel with a speed of 13 meters per second was built.

It is precisely because of these two types of wind tunnels that the flight laboratory was able to verify the feasibility of lift theory and then manufacture aircraft.

After the five major aircraft companies entered the aircraft industry, they all designed and built their own wind turbines, but the scale was still small and the performance was average.

The best wind turbine is the large one built by Songhe Aircraft Company. It has a diameter of 1.6 meters, an air flow speed of more than 20 meters per second, and is powered by an 80-kilowatt electric motor. This wind turbine provides them with a large amount of data for the development of medium and large aircraft, especially data on various wings.

Song River Aircraft Company experimented with nearly every conceivable wing, including monoplanes.

If you are bored and look through their various test data, you will find that Songhe Aircraft Company has tested many modern monoplanes...but they are only in the early theoretical research and limited testing.

I don't even plan to make a prototype...

Because current technology cannot produce a monoplane... Current wing materials are mainly wood, and the performance of wood is limited. If a monoplane is used directly, the wing will be too thin to support the weight of the aircraft, and safety cannot be guaranteed.