Daming 1805

Chapter 81

Nelson persuaded his partner to help him complete a mock test of his new battleship idea.

In the capital of the Ming Dynasty, thousands of miles away, Zhu Jingyuan, who should have been staring at the design of the battleship, is now engaged in aircraft.

After the early morning of the day, Zhu Jingyuan went to the office compound of the Ministry of Industry with Zou Bingtai, Minister of the Ministry of Industry.

Zhu Jingyuan originally planned to go directly to the ship division and convened the craftsmen of the ship division headed by Wang Lai to discuss the protection design of the new battleship.

As a result, as soon as the person entered the door, he was stopped by Li Rui, the chief of the Armament Division.

Standing with Li Rui, there were several other craftsmen, as well as a middle-aged woman who was dressed simply and maturely, and who was quite temperamental.

Li Rui walked up to Zhu Jingyuan and took the initiative to introduce to both parties:
"His Royal Highness, this is the treasurer Wang of the Royal Flying Machine Company, and several design craftsmen of the company..."

Zhu Jingyuan immediately reacted, this is Wang Zhenyi mentioned by his mother.

At that time, I signed the aircraft patent authorization letter with myself, and also instructed my mother to recruit workers and craftsmen, and I will have to deal with them frequently in the future:

"Good morning, Manager Wang and all the great workers. Thank you Manager Wang for helping Jiaci plan the airline's affairs in the past few days. I am very grateful.

"Then, all of you who came to the Ministry of Industry today... are you here to find me?"

Wang Zhenyi met Zhu Jingyuan for the first time, but she had heard Liang Yunying talk about it many times, and she was obviously quite conceited about his son.

After seeing the official one today, the first impression is also very good, and I also greeted with a smile on my face:

"His Royal Highness is really polite, it's just a little effort, we are here today to find His Highness.

"His Majesty has been pressing the progress of the aircraft, and asked us, the Ministry of Industry and His Highness's company to cooperate and promote the research and development of the aircraft at the same time.

"It just so happens that the Ministry of Industry has remade a complete official test aircraft according to the drawings you provided, and is ready to test and verify it today.

"So we hope that His Royal Highness will come with us, watch the real machine test on the spot, and give suggestions for improvement."

Zhu Jingyuan suddenly realized that it was completely understandable that the old emperor urged the plane.

It was he who told him at the beginning that the aircraft carrier's performance was the key to the aircraft carrier, and it would be abnormal if he didn't care.

But Zhu Jingyuan still has a small question:

"I understand...but what about the drawings? When did I give you plane drawings?"

Li Rui from the Arms Department immediately came out to explain:

"That's right, when His Highness explained the structure of an airplane's wings, didn't he draw a diagram of the shape of an airplane?
"It is a two-layer wing, the engine is installed in the middle of the body, directly in front of the cockpit, and the propeller is driven through the gearbox.

"All the rudders are installed at the tail, and the middle part of the fuselage is completely wrapped with skin to form a box that can carry people and materials.

"A flying machine of this design, we have made today."

Zhu Jingyuan recalled the situation at that time, and slowly realized what was going on.

What Li Rui said was the outline of the "Swordfish" attack plane that he had drawn at the time.

The Swordfish attack aircraft, a carrier-based aircraft of the Royal Navy in history, was designed in 1933 and completed in 1936.

Viewed through the lens of World War II, the Swordfish is definitely an outdated aircraft.

As an attack aircraft, it has only 750 horsepower and can fly at a speed of less than 200 kilometers per hour.

However, it followed the aircraft carrier of the British Navy and fought in the Atlantic to the Mediterranean for many years, leaving quite good results.

At that time, the latest battleships of France, Germany, and Italy were all hit by the torpedoes mounted on the Swordfish attack aircraft on the propellers and steering gears.

So much so that the Swordfish attack aircraft was dubbed the "Broken Leg Maniac" by military fans.

One of the most well-known results is that when the German battleship Bismarck was encircled and destroyed, it hit and destroyed Bismarck's steering gear again.

The Bismarck was unable to sail normally, and could only keep spinning on the sea, and was eventually sunk by the British Navy.

However, in this day and age, the very mature double-wing design of the swordfish can be regarded as a very good design.

Zhu Jingyuan's storage education included drawing classes, and the things he drew at that time were fairly standard.

But after all, it was just a random drawing. At that time, it was just to introduce the shape of the plane, and I didn't intend to copy the design of the swordfish.

Unexpectedly, Li Rui and the others noticed it, and took that picture as the outline design drawing of the plane, and compared it to the plane that should have a similar shape.

After Zhu Jingyuan understood what was going on, he became interested:
"I... seem to remember it, and it was completed so quickly? How much power did you use? How about the performance?"

Li Rui immediately said everything he knew:
"Because Your Majesty urged it so hard, two groups of craftsmen took turns to work, and it took four days to basically complete the production.

"We used the [-]-horsepower engine with the maximum power that can be installed, and the specific flight performance has not been tested.

"Now we are here, just to invite His Royal Highness to come over and witness the experiment together."

Zhu Jingyuan didn't think too much. The plane was about to be launched, and he wanted to see this new plane, so he nodded decisively:
"Okay, then let's go directly."

Li Rui greeted everyone to go out, got on three four-wheeled carriages prepared in advance, and left the Ministry of Works and went straight to the testing ground.

After walking into the test field in the west of the city, Zhu Jingyuan immediately discovered that the pattern of the scene had changed.

In the original yard, there was no special flight runway. At that time, the so-called runway was a few lines drawn in the middle of the yard.

Because it is too close to other warehouses and factories, workers who are resting and eating out unconsciously walk into the runway.

A new asphalt road has been specially built on the western edge of the current test site, and a fence has been erected next to it.

In this way, it is not so easy for unrelated people to mix in.

There is now a very classic biplane parked at one end of that newly built asphalt road.

Several craftsmen surrounded the aircraft, probably doing inspections and adjustments.

Li Rui walked over quickly with everyone. After a brief introduction and greetings to each other, he asked a middle-aged craftsman at the scene:
"Old Zhao, how are you preparing? Can you start the test?"

The craftsman known as Lao Zhao reported a little excitedly:
"Don't worry, Mr. Li. We have checked it three times. We haven't found any uncontrollable problems. I think we can start at any time."

After listening, Li Rui looked at Zhu Jingyuan subconsciously, which meant that the request was started.

Zhu Jingyuan nodded directly, then took the initiative to lead the others out of the way and hide outside the rear end of the flight path.

Li Rui circled the plane, and after personally confirming the situation, just like the last test, he took the initiative to act as the on-site commander:
"Everyone's attention, the flight machine test is about to start, please leave the runway immediately--

"The driver is ready, the auxiliary team is ready..."

There was no one on the runway this time. This time, "Lao Zhao", who served as a test pilot, put on a parachute bag and boarded a plane that looked much more mature.

However, this plane looks mature, and the starting method is still manual, and it needs to be shaken with a crank handle.

When the two craftsmen in the auxiliary group heard Li Rui's instructions, they ran over with the handlebars and shook them.

Then, the familiar thick smoke spewed out, and the plane's propeller whirled.

Zhu Jingyuan looked at this scene, the corners of his eyes twitched slightly, this thing is no different from starting a tractor.

No, new tractors are all electric.

On the other hand, other craftsmen, as well as the big shopkeeper Wang Zhenyi, and the craftsmen from the Royal Flying Machine Company, are all yearning and appreciating.

They obviously didn't think there was any abnormality in this picture, but praised the "high-end" of the flying machine test by the Ministry of Industry.

It can only be said that as long as the psychological expectations are low enough, everything feels very advanced.

For Zhu Jingyuan, although the last test was rough, it was originally an early verification test, as long as it could fly.

At that time, Zhu Jingyuan's psychological expectations were very low, which was the level of the Wright brothers' flying bicycles.

But this time the test was theoretically a formal test aircraft, and Zhu Jingyuan instinctively thought of the future test aircraft.

Therefore, Zhu Jingyuan's instinctive standard has been raised a lot. After seeing the situation, his inner thoughts are now:
"That's it……"

However, considering the current actual situation, Zhu Jingyuan gradually adjusted his mentality:
"At this level of technology, it only takes four days to prepare, and that's all there is to it...

"And as long as a machine gun is installed, it should be enough to scare the Westerners."

(End of this chapter)