In June 1907, with a humming sound, an extraordinarily large aircraft rose from the thousands of miles of East Prussia, obscuring the clouds that fluttered in the sky. It is shaped like a cigar, but it is thousands of times larger; The black iron cross is carved into its mountain-like majestic body like the seal of Zeus, and it looks particularly dazzling and dazzling in the bright morning light of summer.

On an open field on the ground, Qingying held a telescope and looked calmly into the sky. The morning breeze howled and blew, blowing his clothes and blonde hair into a hunting dance; And the giant flying machine in the air, which was like a palace in the clouds, maintained an extremely surprising stability in the howling morning wind. With the continuous roar of the engine, the lighter-than-air airship slowly turned around and deviated from the course; Then in Qingying's telescope tube, he flew quickly into the distance in a steady attitude.

"Although this is only the beginning of this test, it is not difficult for me to see that Mr. Earl, your attainments in airships have come a long way compared to two years ago." Qingying put down the telescope in his hand, turned his head and smiled at a tall old Zeppelin next to him, and said, "Just seeing its outstanding performance in windy weather today, I feel that this trip to East Prussia has gained enough." ”

Hearing Qingying's praise, a hint of pride flashed in Zeppelin's eyes, and he said hesitantly: "Your Highness, you have invested millions of marks in my laboratory, and I naturally want your investment to be rewarded. This cute cigar that can stay off the ground for more than 50 hours, ignoring terrain barriers, is the only thing that can restrain them from being the near-perfect combat weapon on the planet at present. Only the unpleasant and unpredictable bad weather. Therefore. I set out to improve the airship's ability to withstand the elements. This allows them to take off and perform their missions even in less bad weather. It's doing pretty well so far. ”

Qingying nodded slightly. Although he didn't know much about the technical attainments in the field of airships, this lighter-than-air aircraft would obviously easily cause direction deviation or even loss of control in the violent convection of air. Instead of spinning in the air, the giant airship in front of him counteracted the effect of the wind with stable maneuvering and moderate offset, allowing it to move steadily in the predetermined direction, which is definitely a great achievement at the moment!

"Since the day Monsieur Earl built me the first airship, I have come to appreciate the depth of your attainments as one of the world's leading experts in aviation. I never had the slightest doubt about your talent that was rushing like the Rhine. "For this aristocratic scientist who occupies an important place in the history of human aviation. Qingying has heartfelt admiration and praise for him. He looked at the gray-blue eyes of the person in front of him and said, "On the same day, I proposed an idea to Mr. Earl, hoping that our airship could give full play to its large load capacity and throw a large number of its loads on the battlefield. I'm amazed at how you have made a breakthrough in such a short period of time and are able to show it today; I'm curious, how exactly did you do that? ”

Hearing this, Zeppelin smiled and said, "Returning to Your Highness, although this kind of thing violates the laws of physics on the surface, as human beings, we are completely capable of using a series of ingenious means. to avoid direct collision with the laws of physics. Ships allow us to sail safely when we are denser than water, and airships allow us to soar freely in the sky without wings. And so on, these are typical examples of us humans who have successfully circumvented the laws of physics! If it weren't for the fact that we have a brilliant brain under God's love, human beings would still be living a barbarian life like wild beasts. In the same way, in the field of airship throwing heavy objects, we also use some techniques to achieve the needs of Your Highness. ”

"Since the airship is designed for the purpose of throwing heavy objects, it is necessary to ensure that after a large number of cargo is unloaded in the air, it will not directly lose control due to buoyancy much greater than gravity; Therefore, when I designed it, I greatly increased its size, so that it has a cushioning capacity that is several times more than that of a small airship for sudden load changes. The cigar you see today is the heaviest cigar I've ever built since I invented the rigid airship in 1900! It has 18 airbags and carries 22,000 cubic meters of hydrogen, which is more than 20% larger than the world-class luxury airship I built for Archduchess Sanya. Powered by a 250 hp diesel engine, it also measured speeds of more than 40 knots in windless weather and spent more than 60 hours in the air. Zeppelin said with a little pride.

"Also in order to ensure the controllability of the discarded cargo, I also greatly reduced its buoyancy redundancy, and increased its own space to adjust its buoyancy, so that its normal flight altitude is only 300 meters, and at the same time, it also has a strong resistance to sudden changes in load. Of course, in order to protect against the possible threat of machine guns at this altitude, I made a double hull out of a relatively tough material to ensure that it could be protected from ground machine gun fire. In addition to this, I designed some of its 18 hydrogen airbags to be deflatable; If the airship is already unable to avoid the fate of getting out of control through its own buoyancy adjustment, these airbags can be released by air pumps, and at the same time the same amount of air can be pumped in, reducing the buoyancy that it can provide for the airship. In this way, the airship can be restored to a maneuverable state. However, the cost of a single sortie is too high, so I do not recommend that airships use this method in large quantities in order to have a high throwing capacity, and this design is only implemented to add an insurance policy to the successful return of the airship. Zeppelin said with a solemn face.

Hearing Zeppelin's last sentence, Qingying couldn't help but breathe a long sigh of relief. If more than 20% of hydrogen is consumed in a single sortie, then the high cost of sorties will make airship bombing a symbolic tactic that cannot be used on a large scale, and its real role on the battlefield will be drastically reduced. Regarding Zeppelin's concerns, Qingying bluntly expressed her rejection of the idea of deflated airbags. His mind turned, and then he spoke: "So now, how much weight can this airship carry in the air for unloading?" ”

"According to our previous tests, this airship with a total buoyancy of more than 24 tons can drop up to 7 tons of cargo in the air. If this number is exceeded, the airship will not be able to return to the ground and will eventually be lost in the air. But even then, the subsequent return operation can be extremely troublesome. Throwing away a large number of unloaded airships, even if they have excellent self-control, their altitude will suddenly increase to more than 800 meters; Relying solely on its own adjustment, it can only ensure that the airship is suspended in the air and it is difficult to land as before. At this point, the airship had to return to the starting point with great care, and then abandon a dozen cables more than 120 mm thick suspended from the skeleton, and use the force of the ground to recover them. The whole process is time-consuming and laborious, and the recovery of an airship that has lost its ability to self-descend at an altitude of more than 800 meters also requires high weather conditions. It wasn't perfect, but the 7-ton load should be enough for the Army guys. Zeppelin's face was slightly solemn, but soon his countenance regained a cheerful and confident look; As a veteran soldier nobleman who had served in the Prussian army for a long time and had inherited the title of count, he clearly had his own internal intelligence sources in the German Army.

Hearing these words, Qingying's eyes showed a look of surprise. In his memory, the Zeppelin used by the German army to bomb London in history was hastily converted from reconnaissance airships, and the largest could only drop 3-ton bombs, and its combat effectiveness was quite low. In this plane, however, Zeppelin was able to secure a throw weight of 7 tons, which was obviously far more than he had expected! Although the airship was not easy to operate due to its large size, the bombing accuracy was obviously not as accurate as the Stuka bombers of World War II; However, in the period of World War I, which was still dominated by static trench warfare, combined with aerial bombs with a charge coefficient of more than 40%, the saturation bombing of airships could still achieve extremely extraordinary results!

"Monsieur Earl, I am always amazed by the designs you make. Although it is hardly cheaper to build than a destroyer, I can also guarantee that the Army will purchase more than 100 in the next few years. Qingying's thin lips opened lightly, and there was a hint of inexplicable excitement in her words, and she said, "In addition, I have a few small suggestions, I hope that Mr. Earl can be used for this kind of bombing airship." ”

After receiving Qingying's guarantee of the order, Zeppelin was very excited; He nodded and said sincerely, "I am willing to accept all orders from His Highness." ”

"Airships are not only weapons that inflict lethal damage on enemy troops, but also an effective tool to demoralize the enemy; Therefore, this bombing airship of ours should have a terrifying appearance that makes enemy officers and soldiers tremble when they see it! With the current tone of all-over gray, it is really difficult to do this. Therefore, I propose to paint the shell of the airship all beige, and paint the front part of the airship with a huge and murderous shark mouth livery on the front of the airship. The corners of Qingying's mouth were hooked, and there was a hint of indescribable evil taste in her words, and she said to Zeppelin, "Mr. Earl, what do you think?" ”

Zeppelin was slightly stunned when he heard this, although he was 10,000 puzzled by Qingying's sudden idea, but it was obviously not a bad thing for the combat airship to have a scary livery. He pressed his right hand on his left chest and bowed slightly to Qingying: "Your Highness, your will will definitely be realized." (To be continued......)