However, Arthur was not satisfied with the current performance of these three aircraft, so the aviation laboratory set the goal on the research and development of the Pioneer-3, and after the successful development of the Pioneer-3, the second generation of three military aircraft was successfully manufactured according to the Pioneer-3, namely the reconnaissance aircraft Eagle-2, the fighter Tiger-2, and the bomber Phantom-2.

Arthur is certain that Australasia has successfully led the world in terms of military aircraft, and can even be said to be the most powerful aircraft manufacturer at present.

Of course, such a conclusion is not unfounded, but Arthur after observing the combat performance of three military aircraft on the ground.

The first is the Eagle-2 reconnaissance aircraft, which has two front and rear seats, with the front being the pilot seat and the rear being the observation position.

The Eagle-2 reconnaissance aircraft will also be slightly larger, because it is equipped with larger fuel tanks, which also makes the maximum range of this reconnaissance aircraft reach about 600 kilometers, and if it is equipped with two auxiliary fuel tanks, the maximum range can even reach thousands of kilometers.

Of course, the speed of such a reconnaissance aircraft was also reduced due to the increase in size and weight.

The average flight speed of the Eagle-2 reconnaissance aircraft can reach 190 kilometers per hour, and the maximum speed can only reach 210 kilometers per hour.

Although it can't be compared with a fighter with a higher speed, such a speed is actually enough if it is used for intelligence reconnaissance.

Speaking of fighter jets, the weapons carried by the current fighters are still very rudimentary, and even the Tiger-2 fighter is equipped with two MA-107 Maxim machine guns developed by the Australasian military factory itself, and most of the remaining weapons are carried by the pilots themselves.

What does it mean, if the two machine guns carried inside the Tiger run out of ammunition, then in addition to returning to the airfield to reload the ammunition, the only way for the fighter to enter the battle is to rely on the pilots themselves to carry weapons.

There is no way to do this, all kinds of weapons are not well adapted to current fighters, and even the two machine guns carried on board were manufactured after a long time of research in military factories.

Thanks to the use of roulette magazines, the two machine guns had a total reserve of 1,500 rounds.

This is where the Wild Tiger fighter is currently disappointing, but it is believed that his combat weapons will also become diverse with the joint research and development of military factories and aviation laboratories, and eventually grow into a real fighter.

Although there are still many deficiencies in terms of weapons, the maximum flight speed of the Tiger-2 fighter has reached 235 kilometers per hour and the maximum range is 500 kilometers.

At present, among the three aircraft, the Wild Tiger fighter has the worst actual combat performance and is not very practical.

Of course, this is also the reason why the countries of the world are not really aware of the importance of aircraft at present.

Even the Wright brothers, who are famous in history, have built Aviator 2 and 3 one after another at this time, but they have not received the attention of the news media and the US military.

Their planes even remained in the stables for more than two years, before finally the US military realized the great potential of the aircraft.

In other words, at present, Australasia is the only one that really uses national power to study aircraft.

This is also the reason why Arthur affirms that Australasia is currently the world's number one aircraft power, because there is no rival at all in a short period of time.

Of course, this also significantly reduces the usefulness of the fighter. Because there are no opponents, various aircraft in Australasia are still very safe in the sky.

In addition to the reconnaissance aircraft, the most practical bomber is also counted as one.

At present, the army only has one means of bombing long-distance targets, but the parabola of artillery is basically fixed, and even powerful ship-based artillery cannot be avoided.

This is also the reason why the most powerful warships and battleships are only taking care of some important facilities in terms of armor protection.

And one of the reasons for the obsolescence of such large warships as battleships is the rise of aircraft.

The heavy armor on the sides of battleships and other areas was useless for planes carrying bombs.

All kinds of bombers can easily find the weak points of the battleship and bomb it.

Coupled with the increasingly expensive cost of battleships, this is why battleships gradually fell after World War II.

The range of fire of battleships is often only tens of kilometers, but the attack range of aircraft carriers carrying aircraft of various types can even reach hundreds, hundreds of kilometers.

This meant that before the battleship had discovered the enemy aircraft carrier, all sorts of enemy reconnaissance and bombers were already overhead.

Moreover, the design of the aircraft carrier is also very simple, and the initial aircraft carrier design is even very rudimentary, and all that is required is the performance and practicality of the aircraft.

For now, Australasia already has the ability to design aircraft carriers, and it is not even far from the birth of the world's first aircraft carrier.

The bomber currently in Australasia's possession is the Phantom-2, an advanced bomber modified from the Pioneer-3.

In order to make this bomber have the ability to bomb the enemy at high altitudes, the military factory specially modified the current artillery shells and designed shells that can be used by aircraft.

At the same time, in order to adapt to more combat targets, there are currently two models of this shell, namely 35-mm shells and 75-mm shells.

With 35 mm shells, the Ghost bomber has a bomb load of 32 pieces, and with 75 mm shells, the bomber's bomb load drops to about 18 pieces.

These shells are attached to the gun carriage in rows, and when the pilot presses the launch button, the first row of shells will rain down and then automatically replace with the second row of shells.

The amount of ammunition carried by bombers today is still too small compared to the future, but it can basically meet the needs of today's missions.

Imagine a large number of shells falling from the sky without any enemy defense, which is enough to cause a large number of casualties for the enemy.

What's more, warships of all kinds are also one of the targets of bombers. Today's warships have not yet become the target of attention of various countries, so they basically do not have any air defense capability.

If you want to talk about prevention and control capabilities, it may be that the naval soldiers on the warship shoot with rifles.

However, warships are not as stable as on land, and naval soldiers pay more attention to the control of warships than to the soldiers' marksmanship.

In such a situation, it is really unlikely that you will want to rely on the Navy soldiers to take down the bomber.

This also means that the current fighter jets can cause huge casualties to the current warships, and the research of aircraft carriers has become a possible mission.

After watching the aeronautical research institute's demonstration of all aircraft types, Arthur nodded with great satisfaction, and immediately announced that he would be rewarded with 10,000 Australian dollars for each staff member of the aeronautical laboratory.

"Director Teodor, what is the current production of these three aircraft? If Australasia is equipped with these three types of aircraft, will they be able to install them on a large scale? Arthur asked.

After the birth of the aircraft, the next question was about the production and installation of the aircraft.

No matter how luxurious the paper data of the aircraft is, it must be actually equipped with the army, and the performance will be tested by training and real warfare.

Although Australasia is not currently plagued by war, Arthur already has plans to install aircraft on a large scale.

Not only will it improve the combat capability of the Australasian army, but it will also train more pilots for the future Australasian Air Force in advance.

You know, pilots are not like soldiers in the army and navy, after one or two years of training, they can become regular soldiers.

To become a qualified pilot, the training cycle must be at least two years, and it also needs to be accompanied by a lot of flight tests and real battles to grow and transform into a good pilot.

This is also the real reason why major countries would rather have their planes destroyed than their pilots killed.

For an industrial power, building an airplane is not a troublesome thing. But it takes a lot of money and time to train a pilot, and the importance of a pilot is far higher than that of an airplane.

Of course, the current research on aircraft has not been perfected, and the training system for pilots has not been established.

At present, Australasia's way of training pilots is to rely on experts in aviation laboratories, who are the most familiar with the operation of aircraft facilities as people who study aircraft.

But despite this, the training and training of pilots is still very troublesome.

It's been more than two years since the birth of Pioneer-1, but the aviation laboratory has trained fewer than 100 pilots so far.

Although the aviation laboratory has gained a lot of experience in training pilots in the past two years, the speed of training pilots will be much faster in the future.

But it cannot be denied that even for Australasia today, pilots are a very valuable asset.

"Your Majesty, because of the different types of aircraft, there are many differences in their cost. In case of mass production, our Pioneer-3 will cost about $18,600, the Eagle-2 reconnaissance aircraft will cost about $20,100, the Tiger-2 fighter will cost around $22,000, and the Phantom-2 bomber will probably cost more than $23,500. The aeronautical laboratory had already estimated the cost of the four aircraft, so Teodor was quick to answer.

Arthur nodded.

Now, because there is no war, the currencies of all countries in the world are relatively strong.

The cost of various aircraft in Australasia is basically around 10,000 pounds, and the maximum will not exceed 12,000 pounds.

This is a good thing for Arthur, at least the scale of the equipment aircraft is not a burden on the finances of the current Australasian government, and the Australasian government can still afford it.

The first update of 3,000 words, ask for support!

(End of chapter)