Chapter 640 - 611: Prototype Small Vector Thruster

Dr. Tums had a dream, to fly to the skies like a birdman.

That dream had actually been realized: His own design, a superb aerodynamic flying wing paired with the Osborne Group’s small vector thruster and a brain-computer interface, allowed him to become a birdman, a birdman who flew with wings.

However, Osborne Group’s electric propulsion system was something he could only refer to, his forte being the design of aerodynamically-based aircraft, including but not limited to civilian airplanes and helicopters.

But a vector thruster? It was unlikely for civilian equipment to use a device so costly and with such low energy efficiency—it would only be used on highly advanced aircraft.

The Shield Bureau’s Quinjets were designed as such high-end combat aircraft: supersonic stealth fighters capable of vertical takeoff and hovering, able to perform air combat, bombing, and surveillance missions and were virtually all-purpose aerial units.

So far, Lille had not seen Quinjets deployed, but he indeed planned to develop his own fighters, after all, he couldn’t buy any fighters now—

Europe did have arms dealers wanting to sell their fighters, but honestly, Lille thought that buying high-cost fighters that were likely to get shot down was worse than not buying at all, considering morale tends to evaporate with sustained losses. If there’s none, one could still hold a breath, telling oneself that everything would come eventually.

Speaking of vector thrusters, the devices could also use fuel, but carrying fuel was too inconvenient and risky, so Lille preferred to use an electric propulsion plan for designing these devices.

This wasn’t Dr. Tums’ specialty.

But fortunately, Lille had already expanded his data: the first part came from their final heist in Night City with the Caster Kai Hovercar.

The vector engine of such a hovercar wasn’t particularly powerful, especially in terms of burst power. The engine’s top speed was not low, but the acceleration was average, with a greater emphasis on control. Thus, the designers adopted a superconducting chassis to achieve magnetic anti-gravity, lightening the vehicle’s weight.

In combat, Lille briefly disassembled it and strapped it on Da Mai, which indeed made him fly, but both the speed and altitude were quite unsatisfactory.

Aside from the parts made from superconducting materials, Dr. Tums had already figured out the vehicle’s vector engine:

A chemically powered thruster with extremely precise control, using fuel with a very high energy density. It harnessed the products of combustion through a propellant flow regulation system and reaction flywheels as a vector control scheme to control the hovercar’s posture.

This actually wasn’t some overly difficult technology—anyone could understand the basic principle, but the engineering aspects were sometimes about burning money and time, involving complex systems for flow monitoring, regulation, and reaction force control. Without significant investment, even he would struggle to produce it.

However, reverse engineering and then upgrading and testing based on that was much simpler.

Dr. Tums pointed at the design diagram and the finished product scan in front of him—

Good, there was already a finished product.

[Name: Prototype Small Vector Thruster]

[Description: Cutting-edge aerodynamic design enhances the control and flexibility of the thruster, with the nozzle featuring a ±30 degrees deflection angle and a response time under 0.3 seconds, control precision 0.2 degrees.]

[Fuel: Liquid Hydrogen, Kerosene]

[Reward Technology Points: 500]

[Current Technology Points: 22500]

This kind of thruster, just by looking at its propulsion part, appeared to be about one meter in length, with an engine diameter of about 40 centimeters, weighing close to 35 kilograms.

However, the whole system, including the pipeline system that needed to be hidden inside the vehicle body, as well as the fuel and oxidant chambers, brought the total mass of a single thruster to around 50 kilograms.

Four such thrusters grouped together could allow a three-and-a-half-ton Floating Car to fly through the air at speeds of 200 to 300 kilometers per hour, and would exhibit very high maneuverability, essentially could crush a Helicopter.

The Prototype Vector Thruster’s specific impulse and thrust weren’t particularly excellent, but it had high flexibility and controllability, making maneuvers that were dangerous for helicopters trivial to execute with a Floating Car without worrying about safety.

Moreover, because helicopters had to accommodate various propellers in their design, their overall safety was inevitably difficult to surpass that of Floating Cars.

Equipping Floating Cars with heavy machine guns would, at least in low-altitude areas, make them less passive.

"I could continue to minimize these thrusters and fit them onto the wings, then we would have a stable set of Birdman suits that could allow people to fly..."

Dr. Tums introduced this topic with excitement.

It seems that because of the unpleasant experience last time, he was now teasing that dream.

"But hydrogen fuel is too expensive and not very safe," Dr. Tums sighed, "If we use batteries, then this system becomes meaningless. We need to switch to electric propulsion systems."

The best use scenario for the prototype thruster was with high-energy fuels, yet the density of fossil fuels meant that the overall fuel tank of the vehicle had to be increased, thereby reducing the range and rapid acceleration, and also the complexity of the combustion products impacted the precision of the flow control system.

However, these were not major problems for ethanol-hydrogen fuel; although the energy density was still lower than pure hydrogen fuel, it was much safer and its combustion products, due to their simple composition, were relatively easy to control.

Thus, in Marvel World, this Vector Engine didn’t have high military value; It was only useful in extreme situations, such as dealing with a magical supervillain or superhero.

In Europe, Lille’s latest energy technology was the SCFR reactor, and he could make small-sized nuclear batteries, but for propulsion technology applications, he could only consider electric propulsion systems.

Conveniently, the technology that Pepper had stolen from Stark Industries included this kind of thing:

"... a nuclear-powered electrical energy conversion system, and an electric propulsion system designed based on electrical energy that could automatically filter, absorb, and purify gases from the atmosphere and ionize them for expulsion...

This system was a bit too complex, too idealistic, I must say this design was quite bold, but not very realistic, especially when we talk about miniaturizing it."

Dr. Tums shook his head and dismissed the idea.

After thinking for a moment, Lille said, "So you mean it would be feasible if it wasn’t miniaturized?"

"Somewhat, but not much," Dr. Tums replied, "You would need a large enough reactor, a sufficiently advanced air intake system, sufficiently complex and high-powered circuits... It’s almost mystical even for a fighter jet, let alone smaller applications.

However, the design of this thruster was indeed advanced enough that its thrust-to-weight ratio could reach 1200N/kg theoretically, it could even be used in small rockets.

Where did you get this thing from? Never mind, I won’t ask. Anyway, I’ve already designed the thruster according to your specifications.

I guess your next step is to transplant this thing into a vehicle, so I’ve already completed the preliminary design. By the way, that AI named Munemasa was very useful, how did you come up with a Japanese name for it?"

"Because...it’s a Japanese AI."

"Interesting," Dr. Tums showed an intrigued expression, "I didn’t know they were good at this stuff. It looks like AI technology has made another breakthrough...

Do you think AI will really one day have autonomous consciousness?"