The Rise of Australasia

As Arthur watched property prices in the United States rise with interest, the Royal Aircraft Manufacturing Factory also reported some excellent news: a major advancement in aircraft technology.

Although Australasia’s aircraft technology is ahead of other countries, there has not been significant progress since World War I, and other nations have begun to narrow the gap.

Arthur has never cut back on investment in aircraft research and development. It has always been an essential component of Australasia’s military technology R&D, second only to the rockets and missiles, and nuclear weapons that Arthur is currently focusing on.

In fact, this technology was not solely developed by the aircraft industry. Under the joint efforts of Diesel and the aircraft industry, the aircraft’s engine was improved, and the renowned jet engine was designed for future generations.

Yes, a jet engine.

This advanced technology was explored over a hundred years ago, but until now, it has not yielded significant results.

It’s worth mentioning that in 1915, Albert Farno, a technology expert from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, designed a device that increased the range of shells by burning gas and compressing air. This device compressed and ignited the high-speed airflow of the projectile’s flight through a variable cross-section intake, providing thrust.

The Austro-Hungarian military did not adopt Albert’s design, which happened to give Arthur an opportunity.

After the end of World War I, Arthur formally invited Albert Farno to join the Australasia Royal Science Academy, where the main area of study was engine power.

Afterward, Albert served as Diesel’s assistant, focusing on research specifically for aircraft engines, a research effort that lasted for several years.

At long last, after years of hard work, the new generation of aircraft engine technology showed fruit.

Of course, the newly researched engine is somewhat special. Albert and Diesel each had their own ideas. Through their cooperation, they developed two jet engines based on different principles.

It seems incredible, but if one understands their historical achievements, it makes sense.

Albert researched a supersonic ramjet engine which also falls under the category of jet engines, with the advantages of simple construction, light weight, small size, high thrust-to-weight ratio, and low cost.

However, this type of ramjet engine doesn’t have a compressor, and when undergoing testing, it cannot start under a static ground condition, making it unsuitable as a power device for regular aircraft.

To rectify this flaw, Albert, together with Diesel, developed a second type of jet engine.

The second jet engine resembles an axial flow jet engine, and compared to the first one, it is more suitable for the power system of regular aircrafts, especially military ones.

Of course, this does not mean that the ramjet engine designed solely by Albert is useless.

While the ramjet engine is not suitable for regular aircraft, it is perfect for one-time use machines like missiles, making a crucial contribution to missile and rocket research.

This means that the two newly researched jet engines hold significant weight in Australasia’s military research, something Arthur didn’t predict, but it’s certainly a piece of welcome news.

Without further ado, Arthur immediately scheduled a trip to the site of engine testing, the Royal Aircraft Manufacturing Factory.

The birth of the jet engine implies that the production of jet aircraft is not far off, which is the primary reason why Arthur values this technology.

Compared to the bi-wing propeller planes that other countries are using, Australasia’s monoplane is already advanced. However, a propeller has a rotation speed limit, which significantly restricts the speed of Australasian aircraft.

If the research focus could shift to jet aircraft, the flight speed of aircraft would increase dramatically, considerably outpacing other countries’ aircraft.

Given that the ramjet engine has proven unsuitable for military aircraft, this technology has been handed over to the rocket research project to enhance the study of rockets and missiles.

The other jet engine technology is currently partnering with the Royal Aircraft Manufacturing Factory, working on Australasia’s first jet aircraft.

The theory of jet aircraft actually appeared ten years ago, first proposed by Captain Makni of France and Henry Conda of Romania.

Henry Conda even researched the first jet aircraft ten years ago, but at that time, the technology of the jet engine was not mature. Coupled with the Romanian government’s lack of investment in this area, the jet aircraft experiment failed, and the relevant research data was discarded as waste paper.

Although Henry Conda’s experiment failed, as a pioneer of jet aircraft, he received an invitation from the Australasia Academy of Sciences. He is now part of the Australasian jet aircraft research team.

This is also a characteristic of Australasia currently, creating a very favorable environment to attract well-known foreign scientists.

Essentially, every scientist of some renown in Europe and America had been invited by the Royal Science Academy, much to the displeasure of many research teams in these regions. After all, Australasia’s poaching of talent had caused significant losses for them.

Although Henry Conda’s jet aircraft ultimately failed in its experimental run, his design concept for the jet aircraft had its merits.

At least with Henry Conda’s experience of failure, Australasia was able to avoid some detours in the development of jet aircraft, gaining some experiences that other countries lacked.

In fact, the concept of a jet aircraft was far too advanced for this era.

In the history we know, even when there were ideas related to jet engines and patents were applied for, many aircraft manufacturers were still uninterested.

They stubbornly believed that realizing the jet engine was as unbelievable as sending a man to the moon; it was entirely impractical.

At present, Australasia is at least ten years ahead of the world in research on jet engines and jet aircraft. This is a valuable opportunity for Australasia, a chance to far exceed other countries in the jet aircraft phase.

When they arrived at the aircraft factory, the experts had already moved the prototypes of the two jet engines so Arthur could examine them in person.

Because the underlying principles of the two jet engines are different, their construction is also significantly dissimilar.

Looking at these two substantially modern engines, Arthur nodded satisfactorily. He then turned his gaze to Albert and Disel, the creators of the two jet engines, and asked with a smile, "How much thrust can these two engines generate at present?"

"Your Majesty, the jet engines we have developed can use a variety of fuels as an energy source. The thrust generated varies greatly depending on the fuel used," explained Diesel.

"If we use our specially produced diesel, both jet engines can provide 4 to 5 kN of thrust. The speeds of the current generation of engines can match the fastest speeds of existing fighter aircraft."

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In terms of speed, the improvement of the jet engine over the propeller engine is massive.

The first successful test flight of a jet engine, the He178, reached a top speed of 700 km/h, already giving it a significant advantage over conventional propeller aircraft.

Arthur nodded again, satisfied with the current power of the jet engine.

However, even though the jet engine already exists, it will still take a considerable amount of time to equip it properly onto a fighter aircraft.

While the development of a jet aircraft does not start from zero, there also aren’t any examples to imitate.

Plus, due to the need to keep things secret from other countries, practically all the original parts need to be self-produced, which increases the difficulty of building a jet aircraft.

Then there is the issue of power guarantee for the new jet engine. As compared to ordinary propeller aircraft, a jet aircraft has significantly reduced gliding capabilities.

This means that if the engine loses power or is damaged, it would be a massive disaster for the jet aircraft.

Determining how to ensure the performance and stability of the jet engine is now the problem that Diesel and Albert need to research.

However, no matter how you look at it, having developed a jet engine at this point in time, Arthur is already considerably satisfied.

It’s as if the hardest part of a paper has been written, the rest shouldn’t be a big deal.

No matter how difficult the design of a jet aircraft might be, it could never be more difficult than researching a jet engine.

Under the premise of already having a jet engine, Arthur believed the aircraft factory wouldn’t let him down. Its own jet aircraft is already within Australasia’s grasp.

After encouraging the many experts, Arthur also took the opportunity to request that the airfield quickly design a jet aircraft and begin experimentation.

Only after receiving assurances from numerous experts, Arthur was content to leave the airfield, ending his inspection of the jet engine.

Of course, Arthur didn’t just leave the airfield without doing anything.

Researching the jet engine was a big project for Australasia, so the experts conducting the research needed to be rewarded.

Each expert received a check for 500 Australian dollars, with the main contributors, Albert and Disel, each receiving 1,000 Australian dollars. These, along with the tallying of the merits of the various experts, made up Arthur’s rewards and gifts for these scientific experts.

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