"The Canberra sun is so warm! …，

MacArthur wore Ray-Ban black sunglasses and looked at the rather busy Canberra International Airport, there are still many passenger planes belonging to Australia's local aviation companies parked on the tarmac, the war has rushed to Australia, Australia's domestic civil aviation industry has been greatly affected, under the role of the Military Council, these civil aviation airliners belonging to several Australian local civil aviation enterprises, have responded to the call of war mobilization to form an airlift force, At this moment, MacArthur saw a batch of AVIC C04 jet narrow-body passenger planes and cargo planes, which are a valuable air transport force.

A staff officer who followed MacArthur's gaze and stepped forward to explain: "The AVIC C04 jet narrow-body passenger aircraft is an excellent trunk line operation model, which can carry 145 passengers, a maximum commercial load of 15 tun, a maximum flight altitude of 11,200 meters, an economic cruising speed of 830 kilometers per hour, and a high bypass ratio turbofan engine is hung under each wing on both sides, with a maximum range of 6,000 kilometers. The task of airlifting supplies and troops to the island of New Guinea is up to them in Wucheng! ”

After saying that, the staff officer opened the jeep door for MacArthur, and let MacArthur, whose eyes were covered by sunglasses, get into the car, and leave Melbourne for Canberra, MacArthur would only be a hurried passerby.

In the morning meeting, MacArthur expressed the idea of returning to China as soon as possible, and he needed to personally explain to Roosevelt and the generals at home the benefits of the war in Oceania, and he needed to get the necessary assistance, not only weapons and equipment, but also combat troops, which could make him more capital and small Japan, he needed it, so he was very willing to return to the United States for once.

In this era of intercontinental aviation opened by the Chinese people, Australia, as a large country, although the population is not large but it is rich in resources, has long had an inseparable economic and trade cooperation relationship with the Republic, so as the maritime routes and civil aviation routes for exchanges between the two countries are also very busy, but after the Pacific War was set off in Japan, the civil aviation routes and maritime routes directly between the coastal cities of the Republic and Australia were forced to be rerouted, such as taking a plane from Canberra to Guangzhou, the Republic. Requires transit via Jakarta International Airport, Indonesia.

MacArthur's return to China was a hasty trip, and he did not want to take an ordinary civil airliner to the Indonesian capital for a walk, and then from Guangzhou to Beijing, and then fly directly to Washington, the capital of the United States.

"General, the plane is currently undergoing the final inspection before takeoff, and we will have to wait for about 30 minutes!" The staff officer, who had just returned from a negotiation, reported to MacArthur, who was looking at the airport with his waist crossed.

The airport is very busy, the assembled troops have to go to the island of New Guinea to deploy faster, and the expatriates from other countries who want to leave Australia have made the largest international airport on Australian soil seem very busy, MacArthur standing in the VIP waiting hall is going to take a special charter plane back to the United States, accompanied by many American expatriates, the war does not know when it will burn to Australia, these American expatriates are eager to return to the mainland.

"Overseas expatriates, once the war comes, they are the most pitiful people, look at this posture, the crazy massacre of the little Japanese on the island of Oahu has caused a psychological shadow on the American people, 1 Xiao Japanese Ben is still tossing in the Philippines, they have to flee urgently, what is this matter?" MacArthur looked at all this, smiled bitterly, looked through the black sunglasses, looked at the neatly lined up soldiers at the airport, and boarded the transport planes in an orderly manner, it is strange to say that the aviation enterprises of the Republic would rather sell the best intercontinental jet airliners to the world, but never sell any military transport aircraft, MacArthur remembered that not long ago, in order to successfully evacuate more than 10,000 overseas Chinese on Oahu, the Republic did not hesitate to send a group of strategic transport planes across thousands of kilometers of the Pacific Ocean to complete the airdrop of supplies, How much is the aviation technology of the Chinese people ahead of the world?

MacArthur raised his head slightly, and looked at a large hangar in the distance, the rather arrogant intercontinental jet airliner, which belongs to one of the four intercontinental airliners of Qantas, is about to take on the mission of flying over the Pacific Ocean, before that, they have been flying the route from Canberra to Beijing via Shanghai, after the war in the Philippines, this route had to go around the skies over Indonesia, and due to the increased range of the detour, the plane could only fly to Beijing after stopping in Guangzhou, But this temporary route is estimated to not take long, because MacArthur knows that he can't wait to do it to Australia in 1 hour. Waiting, no matter how long it is, can feel quite long.

MacArthur had no choice but to return to Washington immediately, but standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, he seemed to have stood for hours, until he was reminded by the staff officer to leave the VIP lounge, and at this moment a group of Americans who were making a noise in the waiting hall also began to prepare to board the plane in an orderly manner according to the boarding pass, Australia is too far away from the mainland of the United States, and the flight range of nearly 13,000 kilometers is enough for all companies that want to try to open this direct international route between the United States and Australia weigh the problem of operating costs. Because the AVIC C05 intercontinental large passenger plane that can fly such an ultra-long route is the latest model, the price is expensive, if the seat rate is not high, then buying such an expensive passenger plane is equivalent to a waste.

As an important member of the British Commonwealth, Australia is not only politically close to the United States, Britain and France, but in fact, it is also human. In terms of economic and other exchanges, it is closer to Asian countries, especially the republic, so even Qantas itself feels that it must be bad to take the risk of opening up direct flights between the United States and Australia, and maybe the company will lose money, so it successfully verified the airworthy Brisbane direct Los Angeles route, but did not let any civil aviation companies take over.

However, just when everyone thought that this direct route between the United States and Australia would not be over, the outbreak of the Pacific War gave the United States and Australia Coalition Command hope, and they hoped that through this precious and long air route of more than 10,000 kilometers between the United States and the mainland of the United States, it would become a valuable link to closely link the United States and Oceania.

In order to verify the feasibility of this route, but fearing that the risk would be too high, the US-Australia Coalition Command asked Qantas, which was very willing to cooperate with it, to provide a large intercontinental jet with the best Xìng ability, which took off from Canberra as a demonstration aircraft and flew eastward to Papeete Airport on the island of Tahiti, more than 6,000 kilometers away, which was formerly a shore-based aviation base belonging to the French Navy, but was later captured by Nazi Germany on the French mainland. The exiled de Gaulle government persuaded the remaining troops on the island that the island was now under Allied control.

Papeete Airport is very large, in the past when the United States and Australia direct route tried to open up, it was an important alternate airport, but unfortunately later this civil aviation route was not put into commercial operation at all, so this airport has never had any intercontinental passenger aircraft diversion record, and this time, because Qantas believes that there is a great risk in flying directly to Los Angeles, because this almost "straight" route will pass through the high altitude of the southeast of the Hawaiian Islands.

Although the cruising altitude will be about 10,000 meters, the fighters of the Japanese Air Force and Naval Aviation will hardly pose a threat to the aircraft, but for the sake of foolproofness, and in order to take care of the limited fuel reserves, there is not much range redundancy at all, Qantas insists on stopping at Papeete Airport, even if this will make the flight longer, but passing through Papeete Airport can allow the aircraft to land for refueling, and it is not a problem for the intercontinental airliner loaded with fuel to easily fly more than 12,000 kilometers. Naturally, the Papeete Airport to Los Angeles Airport is less than 7,000 kilometers away.

Since MacArthur was not willing to be lonely, he hoped to return to the United States with many Chinese Americans who paid for this special charter flight, and the United States and Australia Command also thought that a stopover at Papeete Airport would also be a good choice, so that both flights would be within the absolute range of the aircraft, and it would be a good choice to avoid the dangerous airspace around Hawaii.

The dazzling white paint combined with the blue striped fuselage made MacArthur suddenly feel that the intercontinental large jet airliner in front of him was very beautiful, but unfortunately he had never been on such a large plane in his life, although the Republic is desperately producing various military and civil aircraft every month, until now many neutral countries are buying jet narrow-body passenger aircraft from the Republic Aviation Enterprises for domestic regional and trunk passenger flights, and there are also many airlines in the United States operating a large number of jet passenger planes and cargo planes, But MacArthur just didn't have that blessing, and spent most of his time in the Philippines where birds don't.

Before boarding, MacArthur took a careful look at the plane that was about to carry him and a large group of American expatriates out of Australia, and Qantas had only received the Tiǎn Intercontinental Jet Airliner of the China Aviation Diao type, which has not been in service for more than half a year, and is still very new, and the "presidential plane" leased from the Republic of China by President Roosevelt when he visited China is the same model, as the latest improvement, using newer technology and materials. And the size has been enlarged locally, so the three-level cabin layout is also adopted, but the carrying capacity is much larger. ,

What was particularly satisfying to MacArthur was that the behemoth in front of him did not have to "swallow" 467 passengers and 150 cubic meters of cargo with its huge measurements, except for a small number of passengers' luggage and some airline bags, and the maximum range of the plane must be more than 8,000 nautical miles (14,815 PS).

kilometers), it stands to reason that it will definitely be able to fly directly to the mainland of the United States, but the US-Australian joint command is unwilling to put itself in danger, and Qantas is not willing to let the expensive plane be shot down by the small Japan, so this flight will not let MacArthur experience the refreshing feeling of flying tens of thousands of kilometers in a single flight.

MacArthur, who had been given priority to boarding, sat directly in the first-class cabin with his accompanying staff officers, and the passengers who boarded the plane later were all expatriates who had paid a lot of money to return to the United States as soon as possible on this chartered flight, and the murderous Japanese army was about to set off a bloody storm in Oceania, and these American expatriates with financial resources naturally wanted the plane to take off as soon as possible.

The busy Canberra International Airport has recently frequently taken off and landed planes are all small planes, either transport planes of the Australian Air Force, or civil airliners that respond to the call of war to serve the national war, and the take-off and landing are all for the purpose of transporting materials and troops to the islands of Oceania at a faster speed to strengthen the defense forces, and this time the plane that is about to take off is particularly large, with a fuselage length of more than 70 meters, a wingspan of nearly 60 meters and a height of more than 19 meters. When it began to roar and sprint on the runway, it was like heaven and earth. All that was left was the roar of its four large bypasses, louder than the turbofan engine.

With the advent of the war, there is not much time to really make this airport function, and MacArthur, who enjoyed the big plane for the first time, has also woken up from the surprise of taking off. It wasn't until the beautiful flight attendant told him that the plane had entered a smooth cruise that MacArthur realized that he didn't feel anything special at all, as if sitting on the sofa at home, and the ride seemed to be more enjoyable.

But this first curiosity, the first refreshing feeling, soon disappeared with the passage of time, because the plane had to fly to Papeete Airport first, although the flight range of more than 6,000 kilometers was not too far under the speed of the plane of more than 800 kilometers per hour, but sitting motionless in the seat for a long time, and sitting for several hours, MacArthur finally realized what it means to live like a year.

Tahiti is a large island east of Oceania, located in the center of the South Pacific waterway shipping, if because of the United States and Australia direct routes can be opened, Oceania and South America can open a series of international routes, then it can also become an air transport center, but unfortunately the outbreak of the Pacific War made Tahiti not have time to play its role as a transportation hub, it became a French colony hanging overseas.

It was already eight hours after the plane landed on Papeete Airport, and because the plane flew over the International Date Line, Canberra is located in the East 10th District and Papeete is located in the West 10th District, the time difference between the two places has reached 20 hours, so when MacArthur departed, Papeete was still yesterday evening, and when the plane landed on the runway of Papeete Airport near the sea in the vast darkness of the night, the brightly lit military airport was on high alert as if facing a great enemy. The passengers sitting on the plane thought that the Allies attached great importance to the safety of the expatriates, but they did not know that the reason why the French troops on the island were so vigilant was because in the first-class cabin of this special super-large plane, Admiral MacArthur, commander of the US-Australian coalition, was "wailing."

"I used to think that intercontinental air travel was a pleasant thing for one night, but now I realize that this sitting still is simply a sin!" MacArthur did not disembark from the plane, and many passengers were allowed to leave the plane, and the only way to do so was to stand up on board and move around as they pleased, as the refueled plane would soon take off again to continue the unfinished journey.

The night is vast, the brightly lit airport is abruptly parked this large passenger plane, when the fuel truck left without a word, the plane quickly started the engine, and there was a violent whistling and sprint, in the starry dots, this behemoth-like plane tǐng into the sky, towards Los Angeles, USA direct flight, and soon after the plane arrived at the Los Angeles airport, MacArthur couldn't care to look at the expressions of those expatriates who shouted luck in tears, 1 small day is such a weak country, MacArthur did not consider it an honorable thing to do, so he did not leave the airport, but flew non-stop from Los Angeles to Washington shortly thereafter on a Pan Am airliner. ,

I had never enjoyed an intercontinental airliner before, but I had taken a regional airliner, but this time MacArthur was a xìng cool to the top, and after a large and a small passenger plane in a row, he finally arrived in Washington safely, and at this time he finally realized what is called the pain of "travel fatigue", is it a kind of discomfort caused by jet lag, or is the body itself extremely tired? MacArthur had planned to go directly to President Roosevelt, but fatigue made it almost impossible for him to hold on.

On the afternoon of July 24, Washington time, MacArthur, who had just returned home and received a call from Roosevelt, honestly rested at home and had jet lag, but he did not expect that he would wake up on the afternoon of the 24th, but President Roosevelt did not care, the war in Oceania was about to break out, and the entire Pacific theater in the future will be dominated by the contention for Oceania.

That night, MacArthur, still dressed in a military uniform, wearing khaki sè military uniform, black sè Ray-Ban glasses, and a corn cob pipe, unexpectedly appeared at President Roosevelt's Sī dinner. MacArthur was well aware of the tremendous benefits and disadvantages that the progress of aviation technology has brought to mankind.

The return of General MacArthur, commander of the US-Australian coalition forces, naturally caused quite a stir among the high-ranking generals of the three US services, and even Lieutenant General Walschot, commander of the US Army's Pacific Theater, exclaimed that MacArthur was simply crazy, and he actually flew over the Pacific Ocean to Washington like an ordinary passenger, but Xi Marshall, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, knew very well what kind of dangerous situation it was that forced MacArthur to take such a risk. @。