Chapter 391

1897 was definitely a year of technological explosion for Spain. Not long after Diesel's diesel engine was successful, the Sky project team brought Gao Da another piece of good news, which is that an airplane named Eagle No. 1 had been manufactured and was about to conduct a takeoff experiment at the end of October 1897.

Flying to the sky is a great dream of human beings from ancient times to the present, and there have always been people constantly exploring for this dream of flying.

Starting from the era of the European Renaissance, Europeans had a clearer imagination about flying. Da Vinci drew multiple design drawings for aircraft, and people's imagination about flying changed from possessing the ability to fly themselves to flying with the help of machinery.

By now, there have been many pioneers in the field of airplanes in various countries around the world, and they are conducting various flight experiments and explorations in their own ways, adding bricks and tiles to this brand-new design of airplanes.

Spain's Sky project team is definitely the one with the most leading progress among all scientific research teams studying flying and airplanes in the world.

Because the current diesel engine is not very perfect, the power module used by the airplane manufactured by the Sky project team is a specially made four-stroke gasoline engine.

Of course, wanting to achieve long-distance long-term flight with this four-stroke gasoline engine is completely unnecessary to think about.

Because the power of this gasoline engine cannot do it at all, the Sky project team's goal for this airplane is only to achieve a short flight of more than one minute.

One must know that an airplane needs to carry people to the sky. The weight of all parts of the airplane plus a pilot must be at least several hundred jin.

Flying to the sky with such heavy luggage, even if it is only for a short flight of more than a minute, is unimaginable for people at present.

From this aspect, it can also be seen how difficult it is for the Sky project team to conduct scientific research. Except for some scientists who firmly believe in this, most people even feel that human beings will not possess the ability to fly, even if they use external objects.

Because the current power of airplanes is difficult to fly directly to the sky, conducting flight experiments needs the support of the site.

How does the site support flight experiments? This requires selecting a site suitable for conducting flight experiments, which must have a relatively stable and relatively fast wind speed, so that the airplane can borrow the wind speed and its own power to find a suitable time to fly to the sky.

The good news is that Spain's wind power resources are still relatively abundant. The hilly area of Andalusia is a strong wind zone; with the help of the strong wind blowing from the hills and mountains, the airplane has hope of rising with the wind and successfully completing the flight experiment.

In order to keep it secret, this flight experiment will not be made public, and there will be no newspaper media reporting the content of the experiment.

Gao Da does not want European countries to focus on the development of airplanes too early; doing so will increase the difficulty of World War I.

During World War I in history, the importance various countries attached to airships was higher than that of airplanes.

The reason is also very simple; the engine technology at that time was not mature, and the flight altitude, flight duration, and flight distance of airplanes were limited.

Even because of the power reason, airplanes could not carry weapons with strong power; most airplanes carried machine guns, and the combat effectiveness was very limited.

World War I airplanes only had two roles; the main role was used for reconnaissance, and the secondary role was to attack enemy reconnaissance airplanes.

It was not until World War II that airplanes would be detailed into various types, and the weapons carried would also be different.

Compared with airplanes not being able to carry heavier weapons, airships in history obviously possessed greater advantages in terms of load capacity.

It is precisely because airships could carry a load of several tons or even dozens of tons that before World War II, the most popular aerial passenger transport tool was always airships rather than airplanes.

The decline of airships had to wait until the Hindenburg airship disaster in 1937. A huge airship suddenly caught fire under the gaze of everyone, and this incident caused a total of 36 people to lose their lives, which also caused the once incomparably brilliant airship business to almost instantly disintegrate.

Although airships did not completely disappear from people's sight, since then, the role of airplanes in transport has indeed exceeded that of airships, and in most aerial transport scenarios, people are also more inclined to use airplanes rather than airships.

Because this flight experiment was highly confidential, there were no onlookers at the scene. In order not to arouse the curiosity of others, this experiment was chosen among the barren mountains without residential houses around, which can ensure to the greatest extent that the experiment will not cause any loss to the public.

Because this flight experiment was full of uncertainty, Gao Da accepted the suggestion of the test personnel and did not come in person, but dispatched the Royal Affairs Minister Grant Jelifusi to represent himself and watch this experiment on his behalf.

It is worth mentioning that the general person in charge of this flight experiment, the chief engineer of the Sky project team, is a Spaniard with pure blood.

Lionel Martinez was born in 1854, and his age this year is only 43. He graduated from the mechanical design major in Barcelona in 1877, then entered the Royal Academy of Sciences for further studies, obtained a doctoral degree from the Royal Academy of Sciences in 1884, and successfully entered the Royal Academy of Sciences.

After the Sky project team was established, Lionel Martinez was selected into the project team and served as the chief consultant of the project team.

Because of his imaginative ideas in airplane design, he finally obtained Gao Da's support and was promoted to the general person in charge of the Sky project team all the way.

The Eagle No. 1 airplane participating in the flight experiment in front of him came exactly from Lionel Martinez's design.

"Your Excellency Grant, all experimental preparation work has been completed, and the flight test can start at any time," the general person in charge of the Sky project team, Lionel Martinez, reported respectfully to the Royal Affairs Minister Grant Jelifusi after completing all the preparation work for the flight experiment.

Grant Jelifusi nodded and said with a smile: "Good luck to you, Mr. Lionel."

Lionel Martinez nodded seriously; he took a deep breath and slowly climbed onto this airplane that looked quite novel.

This airplane named Eagle No. 1 was manufactured by the Sky project team after conducting various wind tests, lift tests, and drag tests.

Just the design modification process after it was manufactured experienced almost two and a half years. This airplane was also entrusted with high hopes by a group of research and development personnel of the Sky project team; once this flight test is successful, it means that all the research personnel of the Sky project team have not wasted their efforts over these years.

The total length of the Eagle No. 1 airplane reached 6.5 meters, the wingspan of the airplane's double wings reached 12.41 meters, and the height was around 2.9 meters.

The total area of the wings reached 48 square meters, and the expected takeoff weight could reach 360 kilograms, which could just carry the weight of the airplane itself plus the weight of the pilot.

As the designer of this airplane, Lionel Martinez naturally became the pilot of the flight test.

There is no way; Lionel Martinez is the person who is most familiar with this airplane. Facing the abnormally dangerous flight experiment, one must let the person who is most familiar with the airplane participate in the experiment, so that the success rate of the experiment can be improved as much as possible.

As for the safety of Lionel Martinez himself, that can only rely on God to bless this experiment to be successful.

There is no way; this is what these flight pioneers have to do. If it weren't for the efforts of these pioneers and forerunners, the airplane technology of later generations would naturally not be so developed.