Alien Arms Empire

Chapter 749 749 A Different Test Flight
"Huh! Huh!" Sun Rui could still hear his nervous breathing despite the oxygen mask.He once thought he was crazy to do such crazy things.

At this moment, he is driving a Stuka dive bomber, lowering his flying altitude in the endless blue sea.

His plane was unarmed and bobbed up and down in the strong sea wind.Sun Rui could feel the turbulence of his plane, but this was not the reason for his nervousness.

The main reason that made him feel crazy was that right in front of where his nose was pointing, there was a ship shaking on the sea, and that ship turned out to be the airport where he was about to land!
Yes, that was the first aircraft carrier in the history of this planet, the aircraft carrier Tongcheng No. 1 of the Datang Kingdom.

Aircraft carriers in this era don't actually have much technical content, and their cost is much less than expensive battleships.

Completely different from the first batch of countries on earth to manufacture aircraft carriers, Tang Mo did not take any detours because he was forward-looking in this regard.

The first aircraft carrier designed used a straight deck that ran through the entire battleship, and the island was placed on one side of the battleship, using a fixed chimney.

The overall design is almost a copy of the American Essex-class aircraft carrier, even the main indicators are exactly the same.

The main dimensions of the battleship are 265.79 meters x 44.99 meters, with a standard displacement of 27100 tons and a full load displacement of 33000 tons.

The crew establishment is 2750-3450 people, including pilots and sailors of the air force, as well as command personnel, doctors, nurses and maintenance workers, etc...

The power is 4 steam turbines, steam propulsion, four shafts and four propellers, the maximum speed is 33 knots, the endurance is 20000 nautical miles/15 knots, the flight deck is 262.13 meters x 29.26 meters, and the maximum carrying capacity is 85-95 aircraft.

Although due to the different types of aircraft, compared with the Essex class in history, Tang's aircraft carrier is slightly inferior in the number of aircraft, but it is only a few aircraft.

Although it has a flight deck nearly 30 meters wide and 262 meters long, in the vast sea, this aircraft carrier is still pitifully small in the eyes of the pilots who are about to land on the ship.

Especially in the eyes of the pilots of the ship landing experiment... Sun Rui is the No.1 test pilot in the world who landed an aircraft on an aircraft carrier.

His starting point was relatively high, and he flew a carrier-based aircraft with a metal-skinned single wing fixed.The aircraft also added counterweight to simulate the weight gain of the folding wings of the carrier-based aircraft.

Due to time constraints, although the aircraft has been modified, it does not use the folding wing design, so some iron blocks were piled on the co-pilot to simulate the actual weight of the aircraft.

On the Tongcheng No. 1 aircraft carrier, the personnel participating in the experiment all raised their heads and looked at the wobbly, approaching aircraft in the sky.

They were also nervous, very nervous: If the plane hit the deck of the aircraft carrier, it would be more than a simple failure of the experiment.At that time, the aircraft carrier will have to go back for maintenance, and the new flight test aircraft will have to be remanufactured.

Sun Rui was even more nervous. He repeated the steps to be operated in his mind over and over again, and lowered the landing hook at the tail of the aircraft when he was close to the aircraft carrier.

He had to control his plane, enter the aircraft carrier's runway at a suitable angle, hook the arresting wire with the hook at the tail, let the plane slow down instantly, and complete the landing.

If he flies too high, he will miss the arresting wire, and he must immediately pull it up again to let the plane go around, so as to ensure the safety of himself, the plane and the aircraft carrier.

But if he flies too low... well, then he'll hit the tail of the carrier, and he won't even have a chance to jump out.

Controlling all this is a set of signal lights.They are facing the carrier-based aircraft entering the aircraft carrier's landing path, relying on the angle to inform the pilot of their exact position.

It's a pity that this thing can only provide a general indication, because the aircraft carrier itself is constantly shaking when sailing on the sea.

Fortunately, the landing of the aircraft does not need to be so precise, because there are four arresting cables, and the pilot of the carrier-based aircraft only needs to hook the landing hook on one of the arresting cables to be successful.

There is actually a reason why the Stuka dive bomber was used as the experimental model: this aircraft uses a fixed landing gear, which is slower and easier to strengthen the structure, which is more suitable for handling than the butcher fighter.

As the distance approached, the aircraft carrier in front of him continued to magnify in Sun Rui's eyes. He got closer and lowered the altitude little by little, until he saw the row of obvious lights through the cockpit glass.

He could clearly see the landing lights, which meant he was flying in a correct range.Today's weather is very good. From the sky, the aircraft carrier itself can't even see obvious shaking.

"Your posture is very good! Hold on!" In the headset, the observer on the aircraft carrier grabbed the communicator and reminded loudly.

Sun Rui could feel that the palms of his hands holding the joystick were full of sweat, and he felt that the leather gloves he was wearing were a little wet and extremely hot.

It's just that it's too late to take it off, he's already in the landing channel, so we can only talk about it after he stops on the aircraft carrier.

So he bit the bullet and checked his instrument and posture again. The landing distance of less than ten seconds seemed to him to fly for an hour.

With the passing of the last few seconds, the very small flight deck that was overlooked before has rushed towards the face, as if to cover the entire sea.

Caught off guard, Sun Rui felt that his two main landing gears had collided with something, and the shock made him grip his joystick tightly, and his hair stood on end.

Although on the ground, he has trained countless times, he is used to watching the ship's lights land, and he is used to taking off and landing on the specified palm-sized runway.

But at the time, he only thought that the project he was experimenting with had something to do with the damn "short take-off and landing experiment". He didn't even think that he was going to take off and land on a ship with a runway...

Those damn secrecy departments didn't inform him until a few days ago that, as the first batch of the best pilots, he would participate in and complete the most secret "aircraft carrier" carrier-based aircraft take-off and landing experiment.

Now, when he let his landing gear hit the carrier deck for the first time, he was still shaking nervously.

This is completely different from the takeoff he just completed, because to take off, he just needs to go full speed and pull himself up at the end of the flight deck.

Because the aircraft was sailing against the wind, the aircraft had sufficient lift, no ammunition was carried, and the fuel was halved, so there was no risk at all in the take-off experiment project.

But landing is different. Even if it is a bungee jump that knows exactly that nothing will happen to it, there will still be instinctive fear the moment it rushes to the ground.

He held on to his control stick tightly, and when the plane's landing gear bounced and fell back to the flight deck again, he was almost about to pull up for climb.

But just when he was about to pull up his plane with all his strength, it seemed like a giant behind him suddenly pulled him back.

The huge inertia caused his body to lean forward, and his weight was pressed on the seat belt. He could feel his neck bearing a huge force, and his head seemed to be more than twice as heavy in an instant.

But his whole heart relaxed at this moment, because the habit that was almost buried deep in his blood told him that everything was in line with his past experience.

His landing hook was on the arresting line, he knew it without checking.His plane was pulled and landed firmly on the deck of the aircraft carrier.

All the people waiting on the island had already rushed out. They rushed to the side of the Stuka whose propeller hadn't completely stopped turning. The ground crew couldn't wait to climb onto the wing and helped to open the aircraft's cockpit canopy.

Sun Rui inside still feels a little unreal, he hasn't shaken off the surprise of landing on an aircraft carrier for the first time.

Months of training, just for this one landing today.He flew thousands of hours, almost all of which were spent on take-off and landing training.

When others were flying in the blue sky, he could only point the nose of the plane at the runway again and again: he didn't even take a good look at the scenery next to the airport, because every time he landed, he could only look at the glowing indicator light.

Now, his hard work finally paid off, he succeeded!He landed the plane on a movable... runway!

Yes, that's right!He now has a mobile airport, which is of great significance to the entire navy.

Since then, the navy no longer has to fear the airports built by the enemy along the coast, and at the same time, it no longer has to worry that its own battleships are not as many as the enemy.

The standard to measure the strength of a naval fleet is no longer the caliber of the cannon, nor the thickness of the armor.It's the number of radars, the performance of the aircraft, and the number of aircraft carriers!

"You succeeded!" The bearded old ground staff shouted to Sun Rui with a big smile after opening the hatch.

Sun Rui pulled off his mask and smiled: "Yes! I succeeded! Or, we succeeded!"

"Ha! You are right! We succeeded!" The old man continued to laugh, as if he had completed the landing flight by himself.

"How do you feel?" Another officer who climbed onto the wing of the plane shouted to Sun Rui who was struggling to climb out of the cockpit.

This is the commander of their flying brigade, Sun Rui's old leader.Sun Rui gave a thumbs up: "I think it's okay, what's delicious for lunch? I'm going to eat more to celebrate."

"Don't worry, there is beer from Linshui Factory, and it's enough! The kitchen has prepared a cream cake for you! Double-layered!" The commander was very excited. They completed the first flight experiment that even His Majesty was very concerned about, which was almost equivalent Said to move the plane to the sea.

With an aircraft carrier, coupled with the ultra-long range of the plane, the navy of the Tang Kingdom can turn from defense to offense in a few months, and let those idiots see what is called the iron fist of justice.

The navy's meals are already of a higher standard, and it is also a naval aviation force, so the treatment is not to mention.Except for the submarine officers and soldiers, they are treated the best in the whole army.

What's more, this is a flight test project, and it is only natural to prepare a cake to celebrate: it's just that the poor children of the Army will be stimulated to cry when they see it.

This really echoes the sentence: the air force is young soldiers, and the army is beggar soldiers... When the frontline infantry was studying how to eat compressed biscuits without clogging their teeth, the navy had basically eliminated compressed biscuits.

People on the runway were celebrating, many throwing their hats into the air.Seeing the plane landed on the deck smoothly, these people seemed to see that they had won the war.

The sailors crowded on the deck of the Linshui-class battleship escorting nearby also saw this shocking scene.

The plane that the army is proud of just landed on a warship. It seems that from today, their navy also has its own "air force".

So they even cheered along, waving their hats and arms at the Tongcheng No. 1 aircraft carrier in the distance.

At this time, they were even a little proud, because apart from them, not many people knew that a brand new warship was born in this world.

It is not equipped with large-caliber artillery, nor is it equipped with heavy armor protection, but such a strange-looking warship is actually a "secret weapon" that their majesty the king cares about very much.

At this moment, they still don't realize what this scene means to the battleship.In the eyes of these sailors, Linshui No. 1 battleship is still the most powerful surface ship of the Tang Kingdom.

This "Bismarck" class battleship of the Tang Dynasty is still powerful, but no matter how you look at it, it has a kind of heroic taste.

It's just that although the battleships of the Tang Dynasty are twilight heroes, they look a bit sad, but the battleships of other countries are going to face the threat of the Tang Army's aircraft carrier. the tragic...

Although not many people have realized how great a threat the emergence of carrier-based aircraft is to battleships, although most people are still focusing on the submarines that are now in the limelight, soon... everyone will know, How important is the status of aircraft carriers in the history of naval warfare.

"I like cakes!" Sun Rui became excited when he heard about cakes. He loves sweets, and after the cream cake was invented by His Majesty the King, it became one of his favorite foods.

"Let's go! Go and have a rest. We will fly twice in the afternoon, once for you and once for Zhang Hu." The commander patted him on the shoulder and arranged the next mission by the way.

Soon, the ten pilots who came out this time will have to complete the landing flight mission, and then they will bring their experience back. Next time... bring fifty pilots together to test the formation of the carrier-based aircraft as soon as possible Combat ability.

(End of this chapter)