The launch of the Zhonghua airship immediately aroused the fanaticism of people all over the world to conquer the sky.

Especially in the Chinese Empire, a large number of private companies participated in the research and development of airship projects, and more classic airship design concepts emerged.

With the continuous improvement of the quality of education in the Chinese Empire, the level of national knowledge has been greatly improved, which has boosted the strength of the country's scientific and technological research and development.

Although Li Weiguo failed to board the airship to pull the limelight as he wished, this did not affect his love and attention to the airship.

With the success of the test flight of the Zhonghua, all technical parameters have reached the standards of commercial operation, Li Weiguo then ordered the establishment of a state-owned air tourism company to build a large number of airships to meet the people's desire to fly in the sky.

This is a very lucrative project, the population of the Chinese Empire has now recovered to 300 million, the national economy is developing rapidly, the people's life has entered a well-off level, and there is a lot of surplus money in hand to pay for air travel.

This is a major measure to stimulate the national economy, which has received strong support from the National Assembly, and various policies and related legal documents have been quickly approved and approved.

There are also a large number of capital businessmen in the private sector, who are worried about having no place to invest, and as a result, a large number of private enterprises have also begun to participate in the airship tourism project, which has made the airship business of the Chinese Empire flourish.

At the same time, Li Weiguo also convened a special military imperial meeting, which was attended only by high-ranking officials of the imperial military.

Li Weiguo wants to establish an imperial air force, which is a new term and a new thing, and even high-IQ personnel, including Wu Yong, are blinded and confused.

"Forgive the ministers and others for being stupid, can Your Majesty explain the meaning and role of the Air Force!"

Li Weiguo was suddenly happy, and it was time for him to show off his knowledge and show his superiority.

"Air Force, as the name suggests. That is, compared to the army fighting on land, the navy fighting at sea, and the air force fighting in the sky! ”

Fighting in the skies?

The military officers were all amazed, fighting in the sky was the first time they had heard of it, and they had never experienced it before.

"In fact, the ancient people used Kong Ming lanterns to transmit signals in the sky, which was an air force tactic. Training eagles and detecting the enemy in the sky is also an Air Force tactic. In ancient times, someone once used a big kite to throw the plague corpse into the city, and took the city bloodlessly, which is still an air force tactic. It's just that at that time, human beings could not stay in heaven. Now it's different, we have airships, people can be in the air for 48 hours, if it's purely in the air, it's no problem to stay on the airship for a week. Imagine what it would be like if our airship flew over the enemy's city with smashing eggs. ”

When Li Weiguo said this, the military officials present immediately understood.

That's what the Air Force means!

Sure enough, it is a new class of troops that is new and strategically significant!

"Your Majesty's eyes are like torches, and the ministers are extremely admired!"

Seeing everyone's expressions of admiration, Li Weiguo was very proud, and he successfully pretended to be B again, which was naturally refreshing.

"However, Your Majesty strictly keeps the matter of our establishment of the Air Force strictly secret, this is a killer weapon, which is more powerful than all kinds of killer weapons of the previous empire, and can directly determine the outcome of the war!"

Everyone nodded their heads in understanding.

Wu Yong immediately suggested: "It is better to build an air force on a large scale in the name of a state-owned tourism company, train air force soldiers, and then find a no-man's land to conduct a live-fire exercise." ”

"That's a good suggestion, so let's do it!" Li Weiguo secretly praised it, it is indeed a high-IQ creature, it is thorough at one point, and he draws inferences from one another!

Subsequently, the crowd discussed some specific details.

Li Weiguo called Zhuang Jiuxia and asked him to be the commander of the Air Force.

"Your Majesty, the minister just wants to stay by Your Majesty's side to protect Your Majesty!" Zhuang Jiuxia is not very happy, now he is the supreme commander of the Royal Forest Army, it is a lofty profession, and countless people are red.

"Don't be so unproductive! Did you know that the Air Force may seem weak now, but in the near future, it will become a powerful force that surpasses the Army and Navy? In ancient times, we only knew the strength of the army, so we could only claim hegemony in Asia. Until modern times we did not know that the navy was strong, so today the Imperial Navy has the opportunity to dominate the seas. But both the navy and the army have limitations, the army cannot fight the navy of the deep sea, the navy cannot fight the inland army, but the air force can attack the navy and the army at the same time, and it is the arms that truly dominate the entire earth. Today, as the commander of the Air Force, you look inferior to the commander of the Navy and the Commander of the Army, and in the future it will be their turn to envy you as the commander of the Air Force. ”

"Is this true? The minister is a little nervous! ”

Li Weiguo was immediately happy, patted Zhuang Jiuxia's shoulder, and said with a smile: "Direction, when will I judge that I missed?" Also, do you know why I asked you to be the commander of the Air Force? ”

Zhuang Jiuxia suddenly said: "It's Your Majesty who raises love!" ”

Li Weiguo then said: "I believe in you!" The importance of the Air Force is much higher than that of the Army and Navy, and only the most trustworthy people around me can hold it! ”

Zhuang Jiuxia was startled at first, then ecstatic, and immediately knelt down on one knee, and bowed for a long time: "Thank you, Your Majesty for your trust!" The minister's liver and brain are smeared, and he will not give up! ”

Li Weiguo smiled slightly, and hurriedly helped Zhuang Jiuxia up, and the relationship between the two monarchs and ministers went further.

Soon, the Chinese Empire established the world's first airship travel company, which was the first to provide travel services to nationals of the states of the Chinese Empire.

For a time, the people were very excited, and the gimmick of traveling to heaven attracted thousands of people to sign up.

However, at present, there is only one airship China, so the registration is on a first-come-first-served basis, and the ticket price is high, hoping to relieve the pressure temporarily. But the result backfired, and the people were not deterred by the high ticket price when they heard the ticket price of 100 yuan per person, but they were more active in signing up.

This is the general consumption psychology of the Chinese people, who do not look at the price, but only look at the face. Being able to take a trip to the skies once is enough for these people to come back and show off to their friends and family. The fun is self-evident.

There is no way, the people are too enthusiastic, and the houses of representatives of the National Assembly of the Empire, which represent the will of the people, have issued proposals to ask the House of Representatives of the Central Congress of the Empire to allocate funds to speed up the support of airship tourism and meet the people's desire to fly to the sky.

This echoes the idea of the Imperial military, the formation of the air force needs a large number of airships, and the appropriation needs to have a name. So he took the opportunity to apply for a special fund of 10 million yuan for the construction of 100 airships.

At the same time, the military of the Chinese Empire announced that due to the complexity of the airship operation, in order to ensure the safety of the people's lives, the pilots on the airship were all strictly managed by the military. Civilian airship scientific researchers and airship pilots must obtain a pilot's license issued by the military before they are allowed to fly into the air. Without a pilot license, it is forbidden to fly, and it is forbidden to carry other personnel, and once it is violated, it will be legally responsible.

In this way, the appearance of military personnel of the Chinese Empire on the airship seems reasonable, and it will not arouse the suspicion of foreign institutions.

Soon, the Chinese Empire set up a special airship academy for national recruitment, and students who were willing to develop in this area could sign up for the school. Private airship companies must also obtain a business qualification test certificate issued by the airship academy before they are allowed to set up airship tourism projects.

As a result, the Chinese Empire's Airship Academy has become a popular school, countless students who fantasize about heaven have signed up to study, and even foreigners have come to the Chinese Empire to fight for a place in the school.

Because of the advanced airship of the China, airship manufacturers all over the world are looking up to and learning from the Chinese Empire. Invisibly, the airship industry of the Chinese Empire has become the world's leading country, and the airship piloting license issued by the Chinese Empire has become a common and recognized driving license all over the world. Later, airship companies established by countries around the world will be given priority in the selection of pilots with a pilot's license issued by the Chinese Empire.

At the same time, the Chinese Empire also established an air base in Beiyuan, but it was claimed to be an airship base.

On the other hand, Li Weiguo also put forward new requirements for the Imperial Academy of Sciences, on the one hand, mobilizing manpower to develop more advanced airships. On the other hand, a new research project team has been established.

Aircraft development team!

When they heard this name, the relevant experts of the Imperial Academy of Sciences were stunned. It was the same expression as when Li Weiguo convened a meeting of the military and proposed the concept of the Air Force.

Of course, Li Weiguo was happy again, and began to show off his madness and knowledge again, which made these top international experts envious and jealous.

"Your Majesty, what is this plane?"

"You guys take a look at these design drawings first, and you can understand how much you can understand!"

Li Weiguo drew a few sketches of airplanes, and in order not to frighten these children, he just drew a few early sketches of airplanes based on memory.

For example, the biplane propeller aircraft of the 1900s, the monoplane monoprop aircraft and the monoplane twin-propeller aircraft of the 1910s, in Li Weiguo's view, these are all pediatric aircraft designs, but for the top experts of this era, it is a shocking design.

The first problem that bothered these scientists was not the propeller, but aerodynamics, whether it was a biplane or a monoplane, using aerodynamic knowledge, there was no textbook in this area in this era, and it was all up to experts to explore and summarize on their own.

Historically, the Wright brothers tested the plane in 1903, in fact, the most critical thing in his aircraft structure is the engine, and the engine they used was actually available in the 1870s, but no one was able to build an airplane at that time, the key is the knowledge of aerodynamics, how to fly in the air, human beings have not not studied, but no one can really put two wings on themselves to fly in the air, even if they really fly, they also fell to death, it is difficult to leave a test record, So it wasn't until 1903 that the Wright brothers made their first bold attempt. Since then, mankind has finally understood some of the principles of airplanes, and aerodynamics has also been perfected, so the world has realized the big bang of science and technology in the era of airplanes in just ten years, and by 1914, during World War I, fighter jets participated in the war, which shows that it is not technology that troubles mankind, but ideas and bold attempts.

Now Li Weiguo wants the experts of the Imperial Academy of Sciences to make a bold attempt to make the Chinese Empire the first country to eat crabs, and to lead the world in the future air force by at least one generation, which will give the Chinese Empire a stronger and overwhelming advantage.

Think about the United States in later generations, the concept of its air force is to maintain a level of superiority over other countries' air force aircraft by at least one generation, how bullish and domineering it is.

Now Li Weiguo is thinking like this, using epoch-making technology to beat European and American children.

"Since the propeller can propel the airship to fly, it should also be able to drive the plane to fly!"

"The airship relies on the buoyancy of hydrogen to rise and fall, so this wing of the plane should provide buoyancy!"

"This is a completely new field, we need to first study the situation under which the wings of the aircraft can produce upward buoyancy and downward buoyancy, and only when we understand this problem can we start to develop the aircraft."

Li Weiguo was also very happy to hear the experts say so.

"You can first build some small unmanned planes according to the drawings and use them to test the ascent and descent of the planes! In fact, this is similar to the principle of the submarine's ascent and descent, except that the air is less dense than the seawater, but it can be controlled by the tail rudder, and the same is true for the aircraft, which only needs to be understood by more experiments. ”

Speaking of this, Li Weiguo suddenly had a flash of inspiration and said with a smile: "I have thought of a way!" Use this method to meet your test aircraft ascent, descent, and even steering and other problems! ”

Li Weiguo had in mind the principle of a wind tunnel, and with the current level of technology in the Chinese Empire, although it was not possible to build a wind tunnel for testing jet aircraft, it was enough to build a propeller aircraft test wind tunnel. As long as these experts understand the principle of the aircraft in the air due to the wind to rise, descend and steer, then it is very easy to develop the aircraft.

Thinking of this, Li Weiguo immediately ended the meeting of the aircraft development team, re-called Hua Yufang, and transferred people to build a wind tunnel.

This wind tunnel does not need to be too big, and at present, the development of the aircraft only needs to make a fuss about the airfoil and wing load, so when testing, as long as there is a wind force of 60 knots, it is enough.

60 knots of wind power, this is still very easy to do, Hua Yufang understood Li Weiguo's intentions, and soon gathered people to build a simple wind tunnel in the Imperial Academy of Sciences. It's not big, it can be used to test aircraft models, mainly so that experts can master the knowledge of aerodynamics, so that they can understand the flight principle of the aircraft, and then develop the aircraft to get twice the result with half the effort.

Li Weiguo is not in a hurry, it will take ten years to get a practical aircraft, and there are enough airships at present.

However, the aircraft project needs to be kept strictly secret, and this is Li Weiguo's bottom line, and he does not want the European and American powers to know about the existence of the aircraft in advance, otherwise with the technical background of the European and American powers, as long as they invest a huge amount of money, there will be no problem in developing the aircraft. If that were the case, it would pose a serious threat to the Chinese Empire, and Li Weiguo would never allow that to happen. (To be continued.) )