Chapter 272: Chapter 272: Plane and Hot Air Balloon
"What the hell... a plane design?"
Looking at the plane-like shapes first reminded Xiaoyun of the book picture from Wright's brother's flight.
However, it leaned much more toward some sort of makeshift aircraft, as the paper report had an attached photo of an already completed prototype.
From the outside, it looked just like a normal biplane, but as Xiaoyun flipped to the other pages, it showed the crammed inside that still had the car gine labels.
"Shuli, have they tested it yet?" Xiaoyun asked curiously.
"No, wh I got there to collect the weekly report, they told me they just finished building it."
"Really... Look like I'm going to need to check it later."
As Xiaoyun put the biplane to the side, he checked the second report from the Russian.
"What the hell are they on? Why are they making so many flying devices?" Xiaoyun wondered as he flipped over to the next page.
In front of Xiaoyun was a hot air balloon with a big circular shape on top, like an egg, with a burner in the middle.
"I think those three Russians are competing on who can make the best aircraft," Shuli replied.
"Yeah, I can see that..."
After finishing reading the second report from them, Xiaoyun moved on to the last one.
This time, it didn't have a picture of the actual product, as it was only three pages of a blueprint.
"What do you call this? Some sort of big hot air balloon?"
Xiaoyun showed the blueprint to the other two, only for Shuli to point out what it was.
"It's a zeppelin. I think it's used in World War One?"
"Really? That far back?"
Yuqi looked surprised by the answer as she was a little confused about what this big aircraft could do.
"Yeah. It usually is used in bombing runs back wh planes didn't really exist yet." Shuli explained.
"Wait, this thing can carry things?" Xiaoyun asked urgtly as he began to realize what strategic value it could bring.
"Yeah, this bottom part of the zeppelins is where they usually carry passgers and items..."
Shuli paused for a second, th continued.
"But I don't think it's really that safe... I remember teaching about the Hindburg disaster in class, where a zeppelin blew up."
"How did it blow up?"
"Something about using hydrog instead of helium causes it to catch fire... But I'm not sure about the exact detail."
As Xiaoyun consider all the material needed and added in Shuli's explanation, he decided to approve funding for the first two prototype, with the third one rejected due to the cost required.
---
Wh Xiaoyun finished working in the office, he quickly left for the factory.
After walking past the security guard, Xiaoyun found the three Russians along with a stranger standing in front of the biplane that they made near the outside of the factory.
Seeing the plane in person was quiet eye oping was it was much bigger than the photo that Xiaoyun saw. Especially the propeller which was almost half of the plane's size.
"You guys are flying this right now?" Xiaoyun asked curiously.
All three of them turned at the same time, only to see Xiaoyun in his military uniform in front of them.
"Yes, we're about to start testing it. But we are not flying it." One of the Russian explained in Chinese.
"Th who's flying it?" Xiaoyun asked as he got a little confused.
"We hired a former pilot to fly this thing." The second Russians explained as he pointed to the stranger that Xiaoyun hav't met before.
"Your name is?"
"My name is Fei Tian. I have be flying for five years now. You're Mr.Xaioyun, the hero of the town?"
"Yes I'm Xiaoyun. But I wouldn't call myself a hero... You sure you want to fly this thing?"
Xiaoyun asked in a concerning voice as the plane looked extremely makeshift as if it was built out of bunch of scraps.
"Yes, if this is the way I can support the town, th I'll gladly be the test subject for it." Fei Tian replied.
"Very well. I grant you the captain of the airforce." Xiaoyun suddly announced as he saluted back at Fei Tian.
"Yes sir!"
Fei Tian saluted back, th excitely got inside the tiny airplane as the four of them took a step back away from the makeshift runway.
Slowly, the loud gine began roaring as the propeller in the front began spinning.
As it moved forward, it started going faster and faster. But it wasn't going up as the four expected.
Just as it was about to reach the d of the runway, the nose of the plane finally lifted up as it wt up in the air.
"Whew. That was close." Xiaoyun mumured as the plane was now flying higher and higher toward the sky.
After the plane perform few circles and flew a the empty factory field, it slowly began to go down for landing.
But just as it descded halfway, the four of them could see the propeller suddly stopping completely as they looked through their binocular.
As the plane crash looked inevitable, Fei Tian immediately aborted the plane and jumped out.
The four quickly ran back inside the factory as the plane crashed onto the runway in a loud explosion.
Meanwhile Fei Tian was still in the sky as the parachute slowly carrying him down.
"Cyka blyat——"
The first Russian immedaitely started speaking Russian loudly in anger as the other two laughed out loud.
"Ahem, it's okay. I didn't expect it to work perfectly for it's first flight. There's always improvemt to make it better... Beside, you guys ar't plane gineers in the first place."
Xiaoyun tried to comfort the first person as he looked extremely upset and angry at the same time as they all looked towards the plane ruins.
"Fei Tian, what happ up there?" Xiaoyun asked as he finally landed to the g.
"The gine just stopped. I think I might of flew too high and the cold temperature frozed it..."
The first Russian immediately started noting down Fei Tian's feedback as Fei Tian continue explaining how he felt about the plane.
After finishing explaining, the four of them moved onto the next aircraft.
It was the hot air balloon as it stood in an concrete plateform next on right of the runway.
To Xiaoyun's surprise, it was laid down sideway, with an large fan next to it.
The second Russian wt over to the side to turned on the massive fan, and aimed it directly at the mouth of the large nylon fabric.
After running the fan for almost t minute, the top of the hot air balloon was was inflated all the way up as the basket was flipped back up.
"You can light it up!" The second Russian yelled out as he turned off the fan and the other two Russian helped to carry the fan away.
Fei Tian quickly got inside the hot air balloon as the four watched him turned on the burner.
Slowly, the hot air balloon began to rise it as the burner continue to feed hot air into the mouth above it.
"Yes! It worked!"
The second Russian looked in excitemt as the hot air balloon was now all the way in the sky.
The other two didn't look so optimistic as it still hav't landed yet.
After a while, the hot air balloon was all the way to the other side of the factory as the wind blew it towards that direction.
"Um, where is it going?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.
"Whatever the wind brings it to." The third Russian explained.
As Xiaoyun watched the hot air balloon flew up and down, the second Russian explained to him that it was meant to change direction as each height had differt wind currt.
Soon, it began to descding down toward the g.
"One last thing... Come on."
The second Russian clunched his fist as they watched the hot air balloon slowly landed onto the grass nearby.
"Look like it's a success." Xiaoyun clapped as the other two clapped in a grumpy mood.
"Thank you thank you."
The four walked towards the landed hot air balloon, which had the fabric lying at the g as all the hot air had dissepated.
"How was it?" Xiaoyun asked curiously.
"It was very smooth... Althought I panicked a little wh all the wind direction was blowing me away from where I was meant to land."
Fei Tian pointed back at the empty platform, and th pointed back at the grass field.
"It was slightly off... But I'm sure it's fine." The second Russian dismissed Fei Tian's concern as he began noting down all the feedback that Fei Tian reported.
With both of the experimt out of the way, the third Russian looked back at Xiaoyun with hope as he didn't have a prototype to test due to the cost.
"Sorry... I know you want me fund your project. But the zepplins you suggested is just too expsive. Maybe in the future I'll accept it."
The other two patted the third Russian on the back as they both laughed out in Russian as if they knew that was what Xiaoyun was going to say.
"I understand..."