Chapter 436: Airspace

After cross-questioning, I finally learned that the information about the airship had been leaked out for half a year, and all countries paid attention to the airship, and when the airship first appeared in Yunzhou, there were spies from various countries who began to activities and began to want to understand the ins and outs of this magical thing, and then, when the airship attacked the Chaoyuan Hall at night and became a terrifying force on the battlefield in Northern Liao, the thoughts of various countries to obtain this battlefield weapon became more and more urgent.

The principle of the airship is not difficult at all, especially the so-called airship in Dongping's hands now, which is just a hot air balloon after the transformation and strengthening, although the real hydrogen airship has been successfully tested, Ye Tao has not yet approved large-scale production and use, but only built a few small hydrogen airships, on the one hand, to further explore technology and data, on the other hand, to provide some departments with higher requirements for air stay capacity, and more risk-bearing departments to use, for example, the establishment of a special hydrogen airship aviation reconnaissance team. If you want to talk about the principle, all countries already know what the airship is all about, but until now, no country has been able to have a flying machine comparable to Dongping. The key is that the series of control and communication equipment of the airship carefully built by Ye Tao is really too thorough.

The heating part of the new generation of airship is no longer extracted from the outside to heat and inject into the airbag, but part of the hot air inside the airbag is heated, which only replenishes the lost part. The airbag is no longer an open mouth like a hot air balloon, but can be closed to form an internal airtight circulation, relying on a heater to maintain the air temperature inside the airbag. In this way, the fuel efficiency of the airship is greatly increased, and the flight time is greatly extended. Although this airship can only carry a limited number of personnel and materials, the gondola part is now also redesigned, no longer the kind of gondola that hangs and sways by a few things, but is structurally connected to the skeleton that supports the shape of the airship's airbags, and has some basic aerodynamic shape of the cockpit. The Yunzhou No. 1 airship that Ye Tao is riding on has a viewing cabin with glass at the bow of the cockpit, and the pilot's position is in a bubble-shaped glass cabin at the bottom of the airship. This kind of design came from the hands of those masters in the airship workshop, and Ye Tao did not personally participate, but the technical level and industrial feeling embodied by Yunzhou No. 1 made Ye Tao amazed and loved. And this design of Yunzhou No. 1 has now been put into mass production, and at least twenty ships will be produced to be provided to the most important group of people in Dongping as their air carriers.

Even the combat airships have been updated in the same period, such as the four combat airships that are now escorting Yunzhou No. 1 and are known as "Snow Owls" in the workshop and the military. The power plant used by the snow owl airship is exactly the same as that of Yunzhou No. 1, but the size of the big snow owl is a whole circle smaller. The viewing capsule is arranged in the position of three seats, which are the pilot, the signalman and the captain. The glass bubble cockpit in the bilge is the bombardier's position. Since there is no air opponent who can threaten the airship yet, the Snow Owl's anti-air ability is a bit poor, and a heavy crossbow is installed on each side, which is usually folded and stored in the toolbox, and installed on the guide rail when needed, and then opens the shooting hole on the pod to shoot. In charge of this work are the engineers and crew members in the middle compartment. There was also not a lot of ammunition of all kinds prepared in the cabin. Behind is a small lounge with four bunks. Although the standard crew on the airship is seven, considering that there are always people on duty, this rest room is sufficient. In addition to captains, pilots, signalmen, bombardiers, and engineers, the crew of the boat is usually those who may become airship crews in the future. And on these escort airships, it was Ye Tao's guards who occupied these places. The largest space in the pod is the payload compartment. The airships that escorted Ye Tao were still different from the airships that were really used for combat, half of the load compartment was changed to a more comfortable cabin than the rest room, and when Ye Tao traveled back and forth between Yunzhou and Danyang, Ye Tao's guards rested in these cabins, while the other half was loaded with food, drinking water and other daily necessities. On the Snow Owl airship, those dangerous fire oil bombs are hung outside the cabin, and the bombardier can open the magazine through a crank, and there are four hanging points in each side of the magazine, which can be used to hang the standard 50 pound level fire oil bomb or other types of ammunition. The biggest feature of the Snow Owl Airship is not the very mature functional design, but also its beautiful appearance. Snow Owl airship is the first kind of airship in Yunzhou that does not use a relatively easy to process drop-shaped airbag, the airship is carrying the internal frame of the first generation of airbags, even if the airship airbag is anti-air heat, the airbag still has the usual approximate shape, so as to ensure that when the flight needs to be lifted off, the air can be heated with all its strength at the beginning without relying on a small fire to open the shape of the airbag and then accelerate the heating. But this design gives the Snow Owl a more aerodynamic appearance, and when the Snow Owl airship lifts off, the whole image always reminds Ye Tao of something - the Q version of the Brenhil......

In terms of airship design, Yunzhou already has a very mature system, which has matured to the point where everyone is trying to study what can be improved under the existing technical conditions.

Now Yunzhou No. 1 and Snow Owl airship, the signalman can operate the signal lights at the head, sides and tail of the airship without leaving his seat, and complete the signal interpretation on his own workbench, and the conditions are already very good. But the next step of improvement includes replacing those bulbs with light-emitting diodes that are more power-efficient and have a longer lifespan...... And when there are such technical conditions, Ye Tao's brain is whether to get the next lesson of transistor circuits: using relays to control diode arrays to spell characters and patterns.

The workshop is interested in more practical techniques, such as researching ways to make the shell of the airship smoother and lighter and more comfortable. In Yunzhou, there is already an experimental airship undergoing various tests. The airship's airbag also has an internal frame, and the thickened canvas on the outside is specially customized, with a special weave at the predetermined seams, and after the connection adheres to the frame, it is sewn to connect with each other, and then touched with glue, so that people's hands can feel the material change when stroking the airship airbag, but they do not feel any unevenness as much as possible. Then, on the outside of the entire airbag, a bright white paint is applied, and then the sand holes on the surface of the dry paint are sanded off, and a clear and transparent grease paint is applied. This is true for the airbag part, and even more so for the pod. When the airship lifts off and flies all the devices into the cabin, it looks like two drops of milk are fused together. It was Tan Weixin who made an inappropriate comment on this thing, and after she asked Ye Tao, and after learning that Ye Tao did not interfere with the process of the design, she sighed and asked: "Shouldn't Steve Jobs also wear it here?" Or Jonathan Ivor? ”

Such a whole technical system, constantly tracking the endless new products and technologies in the Ye Workshop Research Institute and constantly evolving, has made Ye Tao feel pressure in promoting the technology tree, has made Ye Tao want to return to the field of design to show his talents, how can those neighboring countries get some technical information piecemeal to crack it? But can other countries have airships? It may be true that it wants to go far in terms of technology, but it has a huge impact on morale, in terms of the confidence of the army and the people. And when Ye Tao was summoned to discuss the impact of this matter, Zhuo Mang even proposed that when the opponent has an airship, he can start to try various tactics of the airship, and then use the airship to carry out large-scale bombing or other actions in the future, the effect may not be so good. Not only that, but when the adversary also begins to understand the field of vision in the air, the reconnaissance capability will be greatly enhanced, and the anti-air reconnaissance capability of the ground forces will also be improved. In the discussion, Ye Tao had to come up with a concept of "battlefield air supremacy".

"I don't believe they'll have enough airships to take me down. Not to mention the drawings, even if I give Chunnan a full set of drawings for the Snow Owl airship, the cost of Chunnan to build one will be three to five times higher than mine. This is not only the idea, but also the material, process and other issues, just the air heating pipe that takes into account various requirements, has undergone countless modifications, we have carried out no less than 2,000 tests and improvements in Yunzhou, and finally determined the heating pipe, the cost of each one is also 120 yuan, Yunzhou No. 1 and Snow Owl airship, each to use four. As for the high-speed propulsion vent on the tail of the airship, the cost is not much lower than this. I don't underestimate the level of Chunnan's craftsmen, but even if it does the same function, this kind of price can make Chunnan collapse. And when the time comes, the airship they built will still be just my target. It's true that the things that the snow owls fly now are not very good, and they are not as good as the previous models, but since I know that people can fly, I can naturally make something that can be used to defeat the aircraft. …… Actually, I was already instructed to build something, but I don't know how the workshop is going. Ye Tao seemed to say helplessly. He persuaded Wei Ming and said, "Your Highness, especially you, don't take this matter to heart. There is never only one aspect to the story. Now that Chunnan has these rudimentary materials, then ...... They must want more, right? They must be thirsty for airships, and such an expensive airship, even if Chunnan is so rich, they can't help but toss around, right? This is not only a matter of cost, the training of pilots, the construction of ground facilities, even we are a little tight, look at Chunnan what can be? Moreover, I take money directly from you and give you the lowest price of goods, so that those craftsmen can have something to eat, but what about Chunnan? According to the way they buy some of the simplest weapons from us, so many people reach out, how much more pressure can they add to Chunnan's military expenses? If it weren't for the sensitivity, and I didn't bother to go to great lengths to convince you, I would have wanted you to agree to sell the original models of airships to Chunnan. Since they may be able to build it now, why don't we sell it? ”

Ye Tao's relaxation relieved everyone, and the various methods that Ye Tao described to bring down the opponent's finances were even more refreshing. God knows, Ye Tao knows the specific case. Although the airship occupies no space as grand as that of "Star Wars", the imbalance between the productivity and price elements of various countries is even worse than that, and this kind of strategic fraud may have a higher chance of success.

"Really...... We're so far ahead? Tan Xiaopei and the others didn't believe it.

"There have always been various types of airships in Danyang, and now the snow owl airship is in my yard, tomorrow, tomorrow, let's experience it together?" Ye Tao suggested with a smile.