Chapter 465: It didn't fall apart
Major Staff, with the remaining seven land-based planes belonging to the British Royal Navy, took off from Pulo Airport, across the sea from Phuket, and began aerial reconnaissance of parts of the Gretel Channel, northeast of his station.
Earlier yesterday, a land-based biplane four-engine aircraft taking off from another British airfield northeast of Phuket spotted a large ship suspected to be the Great Song during a routine patrol of the Grett Strait, and the British forces in the Phuket direction immediately reported the discovery by telegram to the British base in Phulo looking across the sea via submarine cable.
Considering that the strait between Phuket and Pulo is about 200 nautical miles wide, and the speed and range of the British biplanes that can now be used for reconnaissance and patrol are very embarrassing, in order to detect the Royal Song Navy fleet that may be heading for the Strait of Malacca in time, John Bull ordered the British planes stationed in Pulo to also conduct aerial reconnaissance along the Glitter Strait.
As a result of obtaining a lot of relevant technologies for aircraft manufacturing from the traversers and witnessing the take-off and landing of the "big lawn mower" AC-130U many times, the British took many detours in aircraft manufacturing, and the land-based aircraft they made were at least in line with aerodynamic principles in appearance.
Of course, you don't expect any avionics to be equipped with such primitive ancient aircraft, and their navigation is done by the navigator in the back seat with a compass and a map, and there is no even the most basic altimeter or speedometer.
As for the communication between the planes and the planes, they can only be communicated through the navigator waving the handkerchief in his hand, coupled with the rookie piloting skills of the first pilots, it is not surprising that the strange formation formation of the British aircraft is not surprising. To be honest, they didn't collide in the air, so they could be regarded as putting on a reasonable and practical formation formation.
"Signal the young men in the back to turn north to patrol while we continue south to find the Great Song fleet." Major Stafford yelled at the navigator in the back seat.
There is no exaggeration in describing the communication between Major Stafford and his navigator in a roar. With an open cockpit, a leather windproof hat with earmuffs, and a loud roar from the four engines, even loud yelling often requires several iterations between the pilot and the navigator to communicate effectively.
Major Stafford yelled at least three times, but the navigator behind him did not tapped him on the left shoulder as usual to show that he had received his instructions clearly. This time his navigator slapped his shoulders with a rhythmic rapidity, and Major Stafford could feel the sergeant behind him feeling a sense of impatience that wanted to turn him around.
"Sergeant, did you see a ghost? What am you trying to express by shaking so hard? Major Stafford yelled impatiently.
Damn it? It's really a ghost, or it's even more terrifying than seeing a ghost! This navigator with the rank of sergeant is obviously not a timid person, and the lord who dares to eat crabs to be a crew member in this generation is obviously not a cowardly person, and the casualty rate of the crew members of ancient aircraft is enough to discourage most people.
It was just that the flaming planes with their butts that appeared from the left side of the aircraft formation were approaching their formation at high speed, which made the navigator behind Major Stafford no longer calm.
Overwhelmed, Major Stafford finally turned his head and spotted the plane that had alarmed his navigator. The plane approaching from the left rear of their formation was clearly flying higher than them, and the south shone with a metallic sheen in the Pacific sun, a cold light that would be sinister even in the warm sun.
"It's the plane of the Great Song Dynasty! Was that flame through the power of Satan? Major Stafford said after seeing the F15C driven by Kang Xiaoshuai.
Before the pious Major Stave could even make a cross on his chest, the plane of the Great Song, which he believed to be the power of the devil, whizzed past the heads of their plane formation. After all, being able to clearly see the tail flame of the F15C already shows that the distance between the two is close enough.
Immediately afterwards, Major Stafford felt his car shake violently, and a feeling of despair immediately welled up in him. Major Stafford was well aware that he was experiencing turbulence, as he had encountered on the eve of a storm in the South Pacific, when the planes he was flying with were all plunged headlong into the sea, and he was the only one who survived.
"Major, we have two planes falling on the sea!" This time, Major Stafford finally heard what the navigator behind him was shouting.
But Major Stafford didn't have the time to pay attention to the other planes in the formation, his own car was already tilting to the left at a large angle, and he couldn't find a way to stabilize the fuselage, and he himself had to smash into the sea, and this kind of wooden biplane couldn't play such a juggling action as flipping.
Only two of the British planes in the eight-plane formation crashed into the sea due to the wake interference caused by the F15C piloted by Kang Xiaoshuai, all because Kang Xiaoshuai did not have the courage to raise the speed of the aircraft above Mach 0.9.
How damaging can the sonic boom effect of breaking the sound barrier be? The sonic boom produced by the "Concorde" passenger plane, which was once known as the fastest passenger aircraft, when flying at twice the speed of sound at an altitude of 16,000 meters, can produce a pressure of up to 100 Pascals on the ground, which is equivalent to exerting 10 kilograms of force on a glass window of about one square meter, which directly led to the "Concorde" passenger plane being banned from flying at supersonic speeds over the mainland.
Even if the F15C is not as large as the Concorde, if it passes by the British's flight formation at a speed that breaks the sound barrier, I am afraid that the result will not be just two planes crashing into the sea.
"Oh, I'll go, the plane I built is quite leathery, but all the wood is falling apart!" Seeing that he only received two heads in his high-speed skimming this time, Kang Xiaoshuai was still quite surprised.
"Signal the boys, hurry up and reduce the flight altitude!" Major Staff, who was able to stabilize the fuselage, hurriedly gave instructions to the navigator in the back seat.
After feeling powerless against the devil's plane of the Great Song people flying at high speed through the vicious tricks, Major Stafford had no choice but to make this decision. Of course, Major Staff's decision to lower the flight altitude of the whole team did not mean that the lower the flight, the less injured the fall, as far as pilots like them were not equipped with parachutes, there was only one result of the GG being smashed on the surface of the sea from a hundred meters in the air and from two hundred meters in the air.
Colonel Staffe felt that the faster the plane, the more difficult it would be to operate, and he gambled that the Great Song pilot flying the devil's plane would not dare to fly at high speed at a low altitude close to the sea, in which case he and his men might still have a chance to live.