Rise of Australia

Chapter 273 Pregnant No. [-]

The performance of the third-generation military aircraft has been greatly improved, and the increase in its cost is not small.

雄鹰-3侦察机的造价达到了27425澳元，野虎-3战斗机的造价达到了29105澳元。最昂贵的是幽灵-3轰炸机，造价已经达到了32725澳元。

Arthur's 500 military aircraft construction plan includes 150 reconnaissance aircraft, 100 fighter jets and 250 bombers, with a total cost of 520 Australian dollars, which is not a small figure.

Even the difference between this and the military expenditure of Australasia last year is several million Australian dollars, which is enough to show that the current aircraft are expensive.

However, compared to these costs, the role of these 500 aircraft is far greater than the costs.

After all the aircraft are equipped and combat capabilities are formed, the combat capabilities of the navy and army of Australasia will be improved in the near sea and within a certain range.

There is no other reason, it is because Australasia has a complete air superiority.

Just imagine, if the navy and army of a certain country are at war with the Australasian army, and suddenly groups of hundreds of bombers appear in the sky to bomb, who can stop it?
This is a huge unprecedented threat not only to the army, but also to warships within the range of aircraft bombing.

At present, all kinds of warships have not mastered anti-aircraft weapons. The 250 bombers are all dispatched, not to mention anything else, at least they can blow up a few dreadnoughts.

If you add the aircraft that have been equipped before, after the completion of this aircraft order, the number of military aircraft equipped in Australasia will reach 560, far exceeding the sum of the 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, and Arthur also felt the feeling of Australasia seeking defeat alone for the first time in a certain way.

However, although he has taken a big step ahead of other countries in terms of military aircraft, Arthur has not yet made the Air Force completely public.

The last war with Portugal has brought airships into the eyes of countries all over 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 failure in research and development, how can all the research and development of weapons be successful?Nor do other nations have any doubts about the usefulness of airships.

As far as Arthur knows, Britain and Germany have invested a lot in airships, at least millions of pounds.

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

The success of these two countries has also convinced some powers and sub-powers with weaker research and development capabilities.

After all, the two most powerful countries are constantly researching airships and have achieved considerable results. Why do they have any reason to doubt airships?

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

If there is no accident, Arthur believes that the most glorious moment of airship airship in history will be staged in Europe more than ten years in advance. After all, the attention and all-out research and development of a top power is not a joke.

It is precisely because countries around the world attach great importance to airships that various airship companies and factories have been born.

Although no specific commercial system has yet been formed, Arthur feels that airships will soon become a major means of transportation in Europe, and then spread from Europe to the whole world.

While airships do have decent transport capabilities, some parts of Australasia also use airships for transport.

However, Arthur is more looking forward to the plane for air transportation.

Yes, as of the last time Arthur asked the Aeronautical Laboratory to develop a passenger-carrying aircraft, after four years of research and development, the first passenger-carrying aircraft was finally born.

Of course, if it is only carrying passengers, the second-generation reconnaissance aircraft is actually already there.However, this kind of plane that can only take two people is completely unsuitable for commercial use. How much is the ticket for a special trip for one person.

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

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

SF-1 can currently take up to 7 people except the driver, and the maximum carrying weight is 1.5 tons.

Because the sitting position is on the belly of the plane, this also led to SF-1 having a big belly, which was even dubbed "Big Belly No. [-]" by the researchers of the Aeronautical Laboratory.

Because 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 195 kilometers per hour.

This flight speed is far behind military aircraft, but it is enough for manned flight.

After all, no matter it is the current train or ship, it is impossible to 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 steamships, whose speed is far behind trains, let alone on par with airplanes.

This also means that this 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 Sydney, the capital, it will take more than two days at the fastest.

But what about taking this passenger plane?According to the average speed of 170 kilometers per hour, it only takes more than ten hours to reach Sydney.

Of course, the current aircraft cannot support such a long voyage. Even the SF-1 equipped with multiple fuel tanks has a maximum range of only 1100 kilometers.

In fact, according to the size of SF-1, it is completely possible to add a few more fuel tanks to increase the maximum range to at least 1500 kilometers.

But doing so is not worth the loss. After all, under the long-term operation of the aircraft engine, no one can guarantee that there will be no problems.

Even a car engine that is already very stable at present may fail after running for more than ten hours.

Although the possibility of failures has been reduced to a very small frequency at present, if a car breaks down on the road, that is, it breaks down and cannot go. Once a plane breaks down in the sky, the fatality rate is [-]%.

Therefore, the maximum range of 1100 kilometers is enough for the current aircraft. After all, if the 1100 kilometers is viewed at an average speed of 170 kilometers per hour, it will take nearly seven hours to fly.

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 overhauled before it dares to set sail again.

Anyway, it’s not too far from Western Australia to New South Wales, and it’s a big deal to make a stop in the middle, and it won’t waste too much time.

Although the passenger plane has been born, Arthur does not plan to take it in a short time, at least not within two years.

Arthur will not try at least until the passenger aircraft has undergone long-term and high-frequency experiments to confirm that the failure rate is compressed to a very low range.

Of course, even under such circumstances, Arthur will be fully prepared.

Arthur is not very satisfied with the current number of passengers and stability of SF-1. In addition, there is no need for the aircraft to be exposed to the eyes of all countries in advance, so he gave Teodor an order to continue to develop passenger aircraft , under the premise of ensuring the stability and safety of the aircraft, the flight speed and maximum range of the aircraft should be improved as much as possible.

As for the number of people on the plane, Arthur didn't ask for it in a short time.

After all, even if the aircraft is quickly put into commercial use, it is absolutely impossible for ordinary civilians to come into contact with it.

Before it is popularized in the lives of ordinary people, even if the aircraft is put into commercial use, the market will not be too large.

Therefore, it is barely enough to take a plane with seven people, at most, just add a few more flights.

Arthur was very pleased with the successful development of several types of aircraft, and the rewards for these researchers were naturally not small.

All the experts and researchers in the Aeronautical Research Laboratory will be able to receive a reward of at least [-] Australian dollars, plus various materials worth thousands of Australian dollars, making them smile.

Even the ordinary workers in the aviation research laboratory, that is, those ordinary workers, can get at least five hundred Australian dollars in rewards and certain supplies, and the rewards alone may be their wages for several years.

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

What's more, compared with the more than 100 million Australian dollars, Arthur is more concerned about the working attitude of these researchers and the progress of the aircraft's research and development.

After instructing Director Theodor not to ignore the quality of the manufactured aircraft, Arthur and his subordinates left the Aeronautical Laboratory with satisfaction and returned to Sydney Palace.

The next task of the aviation laboratory is mainly to manufacture the 500 aircraft, and there is no need for Arthur to stay in the aviation laboratory to personally supervise the construction of the aircraft.

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

After all, as a king of a country, he still has the style he should have.Arthur has earned enough prestige, favor and support among the people, what is needed now is to enhance the king's authority.

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

Since the completion of the three dreadnoughts in October 1909, the Royal Dockyard has been preparing for the start of construction of the unified-class battlecruiser.

But after all, the three Sovereign-class battleships are all in the navigating test process. 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 was built by Australasia at a cost of millions of Australian dollars, and there must be no accidents.

The good news is that in the past three months or so, there have been no accidents in the sea-navigation tests of the three dreadnoughts. The year-long sea-navigation tests of the battleship Australasia have basically been completed and will soon be formally equipped in the navy's queue.

As for the remaining battleships Australia and New Zealand, if the HNA test is still going well, I believe they can be officially equipped with the Navy in the second half of this year and become the trump card of the Australasian Navy.

By then, Australasia will also officially be among the top ten navies in the world.It is even an exaggeration to say that it is not impossible for the navy's top combat power to reach the level of great powers.

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

It is impossible to catch up with top powers like Yingde without a dozen or twenty dreadnoughts.

After all, in history, from the birth of the dreadnought in 1906 to 1914 in just eight years, the major powers have exaggerated the construction of the dreadnought.

The British Empire built the largest number of dreadnoughts. It built 29 dreadnoughts in eight years, ranking first in the world.

The second place is of course the German Empire, which also built 17 dreadnoughts in eight years.

Although the United States was not very powerful before World War I, it also built a total of 12 dreadnought ships of six levels.

The construction speed of the United Kingdom is very exaggerated. On average, 3.6 dreadnoughts are built every year. This is a speed that the current shipbuilding industry in Australasia cannot keep up with.

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

If you look at the speed of shipbuilding in Australasia, you can only build a dozen or so dreadnought ships at full capacity in eight years.

Of course, this does not take into account the construction cost of the dreadnought ship and the training time of the crew, it is just a reference to the construction speed of the warship.

　The third update of 3600 words, asking for a monthly ticket, asking for support!

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(End of this chapter)