Chapter 391: Eagle I

Flying into the sky is a great dream that humanity has held from ancient times to the present, and there have always been people constantly exploring this dream of flight.

Starting from the era of the European Renaissance, Europeans had a clearer imagination regarding flight. Da Vinci drew multiple design diagrams for flying machines, and people's imagination of flight shifted from possessing the ability to fly themselves to flying with the help of machinery.

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

Spain's Sky Project team is absolutely the most advanced in terms of progress among all scientific research teams in the world studying flight and airplanes.

Because the current diesel engine is not yet 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 relying on this four-stroke gasoline engine is completely out of the question.

Because the power of this gasoline engine is simply incapable of it, the Sky Project team's goal for this airplane is merely to have it achieve a short flight of over one minute.

One must know that an airplane needs to carry a person into the sky. The weight of all the airplane's components plus a pilot must be at least several hundred jin.

Carrying such heavy luggage into the sky, even if it is only for a short flight of a minute or so, is unimaginable for people at present.

From this aspect, one can also see how difficult it is for the Sky Project team when conducting scientific research; apart from the few scientists who firmly believe in it, most people even feel that humans will never possess the ability to fly, even with the help of external objects.

Because the current power of airplanes makes it difficult to fly directly into the sky, conducting flight experiments requires the assistance of the terrain.

How does the terrain assist in flight experiments? This requires selecting a site suitable for flight experiments that must have relatively stable and fast wind speeds, so that the airplane can use the wind speed and its own power to find the right moment to fly into the sky.

The good news is that Spain's wind resources are relatively abundant. The hilly region of Andalusia is a high-wind area; with the help of the strong winds blowing through the hills and mountains, the airplane has hope of taking off with the wind and successfully completing the flight experiment.

For the sake of secrecy, this flight experiment will not be made public, nor will there be any newspaper media reporting on the relevant experimental content.

Carlo does not want European countries to turn their attention to the development of airplanes too early; doing so would increase the difficulty of the First World War.

During the historical period of the First World War, countries placed more importance on airships than on airplanes.

The reason is also very simple: engine technology at the time was not mature, and the airplane's flight altitude, flight duration, and flight distance were all limited.

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

Airplanes in the First World War had only two roles: the primary role was for reconnaissance, and the secondary role was to attack enemy reconnaissance planes.

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

Compared to the fact that airplanes could not carry heavier weapons, airships in history clearly possessed greater advantages in terms of payload.

It is precisely because airships could carry a payload of several tons or even tens of tons that, before the Second World War, the most popular aerial passenger transport tool was always the airship rather than the airplane.

The decline of the airship had to wait until the Hindenburg airship disaster in 1937. A massive airship suddenly caught fire under the gaze of everyone, and this incident resulted in 36 deaths, which also caused the once incomparably glorious airship business to collapse almost instantly.

Although airships did not completely disappear from people's sight, thereafter the role of airplanes in transportation indeed surpassed that of airships, and in most air transport scenarios, people also tended to prefer using airplanes rather than airships.

Because this flight experiment was highly classified, there were no onlookers at the scene. In order not to arouse the curiosity of others, this experiment was chosen among barren mountains with no residential houses in the surrounding area, which could ensure to the greatest extent that the experiment would not cause any loss to the public.

Because this flight experiment was full of uncertainties, Carlo accepted the suggestion of the test personnel and did not come in person, but instead dispatched the Minister of Royal Affairs, Grant Jelifus, to represent him and watch the experiment on his behalf.

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

Lionel Martinez was born in 1854 and is only 43 years old this year. He graduated from the Mechanical Design major in Barcelona in 1877, then entered the Royal Academy of Sciences for further studies, obtained a doctorate 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 to serve as the chief consultant of the project team.

Because of his imaginative ideas in airplane design, he eventually won Carlo's support and was promoted all the way to the person in charge of the Sky Project team.

The Eagle I airplane participating in the flight experiment before our eyes is exactly from the design of Lionel Martinez.

"Your Excellency Grant, all experimental preparations have been completed, and the flight test can begin at any time." The person in charge of the Sky Project team, Lionel Martinez, reported respectfully to the Minister of Royal Affairs, Grant Jelifus, after completing all preparations for the flight experiment.

Grant Jelifus nodded and said with a smile: "Good luck, Mr. Lionel."

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

This airplane, named Eagle I, was manufactured after the Sky Project team conducted various wind tests, lift tests, and drag tests.

The design modification process after it was manufactured alone took nearly two and a half years. This airplane was also pinned with high hopes by the R&D personnel of the Sky Project team; once this flight test succeeded, it would mean that all the efforts of the researchers of the Sky Project team over these years had not been in vain.

The total length of the Eagle I airplane reached 6. meters, the wingspan of the airplane's double wings reached 12. 1 meters, and the height was about 2. meters.

The total area of the wings reached 48 square meters, and the estimated takeoff weight could reach 360 kilograms, which was just enough to 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 for the flight test.

There was no other way; Lionel Martinez was the person most familiar with this airplane. Facing the extremely dangerous flight experiment, one must definitely let the person most familiar with the airplane participate in the experiment, so as to increase the success rate of the experiment as much as possible.

As for the safety of Lionel Martinez himself, that could only rely on God to bless this experiment with success.

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