The expansion of Australasia is not a good thing for the island nation.

Including the troops of the Philippines and Kalimantan, Australasia can control more than 1.3 million troops, more than three times the number of troops currently on the island.

In the Pacific, Australasia's competitor is only one island nation. Needless to say, the purpose of the military expansion has also aroused a high degree of tension in the island country.

The situation faced by the island nations today is very different from that of the island nations in the past.

Because of its relatively small area, the island country itself does not have much oil. Historically, island nations were extremely dependent on oil from the United States before the outbreak of World War II.

There is one statistic that shows how exaggerated the island nation's dependence on outside oil is. Before World War II, more than 90% of the island's total oil consumption came from imports from abroad.

Of all oil imports, 80% is from the United States, and more than 10% comes from Southeast Asia, most notably the Dutch East Indies.

And in this world, the two regions and countries that historically provided oil to the island nation, the United States and the Dutch East Indies, have all perished.

This has made the oil crisis worse than ever in the history of the island nation, and has also prompted the island country to find other ways to maintain domestic oil consumption.

The first is to buy from Australasia at a high price. Australasia has three major oil-producing regions in the Persian Gulf, Southeast Asia and Australia, and even the Alaska territory has a lot of oil reserves.

It is no exaggeration to say that Australasia's oil reserves are more than enough for its own use in the discovery and popularity of new energy sources.

One of the reasons why the island and Australasia are in a state of competition is precisely because the island countries are desperately short of oil resources, and the Southeast Asian region controlled by Australasia has relatively rich oil reserves.

One of the reasons the island nations are nervous is that their oil sources can be easily cut off by Australasia.

At present, there are only two ways for island countries to buy oil, one is to cross the ocean and buy a small amount of oil from South American countries. The other is to buy oil from Australasia at a high price.

But neither of these methods can be used as the main way to import oil, and it is one of the reasons why the number of cars and tanks in the island country is not too large.

Because of the high cost of fuel, people in island countries generally dislike cars. In particular, after Australasia and Britain jointly controlled the price of oil, the island countries have fallen into a full-blown crisis in terms of oil.

Even more unfortunate is that the island nations have not found any larger oil reserves in all the areas they occupy.

This is no longer the case. All new heavy weapons such as airplanes and tanks require a large amount of oil as a fuel source.

The island nation that has been choked by the neck in terms of oil is equivalent to being choked by someone, and there is no chance to resist yet.

At this time, the islanders found that the treaty they had signed against Russia had become a chain that bound their access to oil.

Russia has a lot of oil reserves, and Russia's Far East ports are relatively close to the island countries, so they are capable of importing a lot of oil to the island countries.

However, because of the treaty signed with Germany against Russia, the island countries could not reach any cooperation with Russia, and the purchase of oil from Russia became nonsense.

There was no choice but to accelerate their plans to find oil in all the lands on the one hand, and on the other hand, they tried to start a larger war, even preparing for a war with Australasia.

At this time, Arthur didn't know the plans of the island people, and even if Arthur knew, he wouldn't care too much.

Arthur had already made a successful trip to Douglas Aircraft to see the most famous transport aircraft in history, the DC-3.

Almost eight years have passed since the development of the previous generation of transport aircraft DC-2. After receiving some of the Royal Aircraft Factory's transport aircraft production lines and drawings, Douglas finally perfected his design ideas and built a new generation of the DC-3 transport aircraft according to the ideas.

Unlike military jets, the DC-3 uses a normal propeller design. It turns out that even after so many years of jet aircraft, propeller aircraft still have their own unique role.

The new generation of transport aircraft with twin-engine piston engines will be a new twin-engine propeller transport aircraft.

Due to the capacity constraints of the previous generation of transport aircraft, Douglas intends to increase the passenger capacity of the latest generation of transport aircraft, the DC-3, to 34 people (3 pilots and 31 passengers).

The DC-3 transport aircraft has a total length of 19.52 meters, a wingspan of 29.12 meters, and a height of 5.2 meters, which is a large circle compared to the previous generation.

The entire aircraft weighed about 18,355 pounds, or 8.34 tons. In addition to a crew of 34, the DC-3 can carry more than 6,000 pounds (2.7 tons) of supplies.

Because the maximum take-off weight reached 31,000 pounds, or 14 tons, the carrying capacity of the DC-3 transport aircraft was greatly enhanced.

In terms of speed, the speed of the DC-3 transport aircraft is not high because it is powered by a more ordinary propeller.

Even though Douglas Aircraft specially hired Diesel as the designer of the engine, it also invited a large number of engine design experts from Australasia.

But the best data that the plane came up with was only 385 km/h at its top speed.

Although it is far behind the latest fighters, it is already about the same as the data of the previous generation of fighters, that is, the fifth generation fighters.

Considering the strong transport capacity of the DC-3 transport aircraft, the slightest drawback in terms of speed can be completely ignored.

Of course, the maximum speed is really just a reference value. It is not possible for an airplane to fly at maximum speed all the time when it is actually flying.

During the actual test, the DC-3 transport aircraft could only maintain an average speed of about 275 kilometers per hour at most, that is, the cruise speed in the conventional sense.

There are some other data, and Arthur also hastily glanced at them:

Maximum range: 1,600 nautical miles (2,963 km)

Practical ceiling: 26,400 feet (8,050 meters)

Rate of climb: 1130 ft/min (5.75 m/s)

That's all the data for this civilian version of the DC-3 transport aircraft.

Judging from these data, Arthur is still very satisfied.

You know, this is just the most ordinary civilian version. The civilian version has already been greatly improved compared to the previous generation of transport aircraft, not to mention the improved super transport aircraft, that is, the military version adopted by the military.

Yes, there is a military version of the DC-3 transport aircraft.

The civilian version of the DC-3 retains its original name, while the military version of the DC-3 has a new name, the Sop-34.

Sop, taken from Special operations, means special operation.

This also shows the greatest role of military transport aircraft, in addition to transporting military supplies, there is also a paratroopers to the rear of the enemy for raid operations.

The military version of the transport aircraft, with a state-of-the-art jet engine, still retains the twin-engine construction.

In terms of appearance, the aircraft is hardly much different from the civilian version of the DC-3 transport aircraft.

But because of the difference in powertrains, in terms of load and speed, the military version is undoubtedly more powerful.

The empty weight of the military version of the transport aircraft reached 8.7 tons, and the maximum take-off weight reached 16 tons.

This also means that the SOP-34 transport aircraft can carry up to 7.3 tons of people and cargo.

In terms of speed, the SOP-34 transport aircraft has a maximum speed of 455 kilometers per hour and a cruising speed of 325 kilometers per hour, which is much higher than the civilian version.

Finally, it's the voyage. If part of the load is discarded and replaced with two additional fuel tanks, the Sop-34 transport aircraft can reach a range of up to 4250 km.

Even without these two drop fuel tanks, the Sop-34 transport aircraft would still be able to maintain a range of 3,125 km, and its strategic role would undoubtedly be greatly enhanced.

Although Arthur did not know much about the specific performance of the DC-3 transport aircraft in history. But Arthur is sure that the current Sop-34 transport aircraft will definitely surpass the DC-3 transport aircraft in terms of data.

After all, in history, jet aircraft have not been developed until now. Now, Australasia's new generation of aircraft is largely powered by jet engine technology, and is an improved second-generation version.

Perhaps because the headquarters of the Douglas Aircraft Company and Boeing Company are not far away, after knowing that Arthur had arrived at the Douglas Aircraft Company for inspection, Boeing also issued an invitation to Arthur and said that Boeing's new generation of aircraft has also been developed.

The competition between the two aircraft companies is what Arthur wants to see, and Arthur is also curious whether Boeing, which lagged behind Douglas Aircraft in the design of the previous generation of transport aircraft, can make a comeback in the new generation of transport aircraft.

At the invitation of Boeing, Arthur went to Boeing not far away, after finishing his inspection of the Douglas Aircraft Company.

Boeing and Douglas Aircraft Company, in the field of the previous generation of transport aircraft, are already considered the two giants of the world's aircraft.

Especially after the Royal Aircraft Factory in Australasia abandoned the business of civil aircraft, the two most famous companies in Australasia and even around the world are Boeing and Douglas.

Of course, the DC-2 transport aircraft is significantly more trusted by other countries in terms of performance and carrying capacity.

So far, more than 65% of the world's DC-2 transport aircraft have been used, and Boeing's previous generation, the Boeing 267 transport aircraft, only accounts for about 20% of flights.

However, from this data, it can also be seen how advanced Australasia's aircraft industry is in the world.

Even the remaining 15 per cent of flights that do not use Australasian aircraft use more than 10 per cent of imitation DC-2 and Boeing 267 transport aircraft.

In other words, products developed by other countries themselves account for less than 5% of the world's flights.

There are a number of reasons for this.

The first is the safety of the flight. Boeing and Douglas are two of the three major aircraft manufacturers that hold round-the-world flights.

In the past eight years, the DC-2 and Boeing 267 have not had major accidents, which is why the two aircraft manufacturers have been able to develop rapidly in the past eight years.

Aircraft manufacturers in other countries either design aircraft products that are too backward or cannot guarantee the safety of the aircraft, which also prevents their products from entering large-scale commercial flights.

It is precisely because of the excellent market share of Douglas Aircraft Company and Boeing Company that these two companies can generate a lot of revenue for Arthur every year, and the research and development funds they receive every year are also growing.

When Arthur arrived at Boeing, a large number of Boeing employees came to greet him.

By the time Arthur went to the Boeing conference hall, Boeing had already prepared the drawings and specific data for the new generation of aircraft it designed, the Boeing 367.

It is worth mentioning that like the previous generation aircraft Boeing 267 transport aircraft, the Boeing 367 is simply named, that is, Boeing plus the number of the top speed of 367 kilometers per hour to form the complete name of Boeing 367.

This also exposed the top speed of Boeing's new generation aircraft, which is lower than the 385 km/h of the DC-3 and can only reach 367 km/h.

Arthur was puzzled, because the engine suppliers of Boeing and Douglas Aircraft Company are both Diesel engine factories, so it stands to reason that there is no such a huge difference in power.

But by the time Arthur turned his attention to the rest of the Boeing 367's data, Arthur instantly understood why the Boeing 367 was lagging behind in terms of speed.

In terms of the size of the aircraft, the Boeing 367 transport aircraft is a lap larger than the DC-3 transport aircraft. As a transport aircraft that also uses twin propellers as power, the Boeing 367 transport aircraft pays more attention to load and range, and does not pay as much attention to the speed of the aircraft as the DC-3 transport aircraft.

The Boeing 367 has a total length of 20.12 meters, a wingspan of about 29.37 meters, and a height of 5.35 meters.

The empty weight of the entire aircraft reached 8.75 tons, which is already more than the weight of the Sop-34 transport aircraft with jet engines.

The maximum take-off weight of the Boeing 367 can reach 15.65 tons, and the maximum load can reach 6.9 tons.

The increase in load comes at the expense of speed. The Boeing 367 has a top speed of only 367 km/h, and a stable cruise speed of only 252 km/h.

To Arthur's surprise, the Boeing 367 completely inherited the clever design of the Boeing 267 in the interior of the aircraft, and even carried it forward.

If you want to describe the difference between the Boeing 367 transport aircraft and the DC-3 transport aircraft in a short sentence, it is obvious that the Boeing 367 transport aircraft attaches more importance to the passenger riding experience, and the DC-3 transport aircraft pays more attention to the carrying efficiency and role of the aircraft.

The Boeing 367 not only has a toilet, but also a more spacious seat. In addition to this, in the design of the aircraft, the Boeing 367 is equipped with adjustable pitch propellers, cabin heating systems, wing and tail de-icing devices, and autopilot.

Of course, this so-called autopilot does not achieve true autopilot, and can only help the aircraft maintain a straight flight through an electric gyroscopic stabilization device and a three-axis stabilization system.

Today, I will change it for the time being, ask for a monthly pass, ask for support!

(End of chapter)