Chapter 392

The first flight test of the Eagle No. 1 airplane was a complete success, which is good news for both Gao Da and Spain.

But there is no wall that does not leak wind; in order to keep the airplane experiment highly confidential, there must be a similar substitute to attract the attention of European countries.

What should be used to replace the airplane? Naturally, it is the airship that was born and developed almost at the same time as the airplane.

Airplanes and airships are actually people's exploration of soaring in the sky; these two products have shown great potential and also possess quite large defects.

Setting aside the experience of later generations, purely from the current perspective, it is really impossible to determine who possesses greater potential between airships and airplanes.

Using airships to attract the attention of European countries, such a means, not to say it can achieve complete success, at least it can achieve one's own goal and delay the progress of European countries in developing airplanes.

One must know that in history, European countries already attached great importance to airships. Even if Spain did not add fuel to the fire, airships would still welcome a golden age from the beginning of the 20th century to before World War II.

Then what if Spain adds fuel to the fire and makes European countries attach more importance to the development of airships? Undoubtedly, airships will welcome a golden development stage that is more prosperous than in history, and the capital of various countries will also crazily invest in airship companies and establish flights to earn huge profits.

Before there were airplanes and airships, people who wanted to travel to relatively distant areas only had two ways: trains and ships.

The speed of ships is too slow; sailing across the ocean needs at least more than a month, and the bumps on the ocean will also make people uncomfortable; seasickness happens from time to time.

Although trains are more comfortable than ships, trains need to run on railways.

For inland areas, this kind of transport tool as ships simply does not exist. And for a country like the UK whose territory is composed of multiple islands, traveling to other areas will become quite troublesome, and even a transport method combining ships and trains is needed.

Compared with ships and trains, airships do not have such shortcomings.

Airships only need two relatively wide sites, one for takeoff and one for landing.

The entire flight process is carried out in the sky, and there will be no obstacles in the sky; the construction of routes is quite simple, and it does not need too much capital investment.

This is actually the reason why airships are valued by various countries; whether it is an inland country or a coastal country, or a country composed of multiple islands or archipelagos, they can strengthen the connection between various places through airships, which is what the original trains and ships could not do.

In order to pass off the fake as the real, Gao Da had people establish an airship research and development project team and set up the entire research and development team in a factory in the suburbs of Barcelona.

Gao Da also invested more than 2 million Bisaita of funds in the airship project and required them to collect the ideas of various European countries for airship research and development and design an airship that can conduct flight tests.

Compared with the completely confidential airplane flight experiment, the airship's flight experiment will be made public to attract the attention of European countries.

Even if the airship technology is mature, Gao Da will also organize a global flight of airships to completely attract the attention of European countries and those capitals.

At that time, selling the airship technology in hand, just the income earned from selling technology would be enough for Gao Da's investment to earn back the principal with interest.

As for whether European countries will go further on Spain's airship technology and develop airships with better performance, this is not a problem Gao Da worries about.

No matter how excellent the performance of the airship is, it cannot change the fact that the airship is too huge and clumsy. As long as Spain masters airplane technology, destroying airships in the sky is simple.

Airplanes and airships point to different technology trees. Airplanes focus on control, and the flexibility in the sky is much higher than that of airships.

And airships point to load capacity, and the control and flexibility in the sky are far inferior to airplanes.

Even if the airship technology of European countries gradually matures, it will not be able to stir up much trouble in front of Spain's airplanes. Gao Da even wishes that European countries would invest more funds in the research and development of airships; after all, airships and airplanes are two products with completely different ideas, and attaching importance to airships means relatively neglecting airplane technology.

While Gao Da was laying out the plan to use airships to replace airplanes to attract the attention of European countries, the political situation in Spain was also quietly changing.

It was mentioned before that Spain currently has a total of four major parties, which are the Conservative Party, the Progressive Party, the Liberal Party, and the Workers' Party.

These four major parties all have their own history; the Progressive Party and the Conservative Party have been brilliant one after another, and the Workers' Party, as a party that has not been established for a long time, has also gradually flourished at present.

On the contrary, the Liberal Party, which started with the Progressive Party, currently has less and less sense of existence in Spain. This phenomenon is not limited to Spain's cabinet elections and House of Representatives elections, but also appears in the elections of various state legislatures.

Simply put, the Liberal Party's ideas are no longer recognized by the Spanish public. Without the recognition of the grassroots public, the Liberal Party cannot absorb new party members.

Without fresh blood, a party will sooner or later be destroyed. What's more, the Liberal Party does not only have this one problem; the Liberal Party is also at a huge disadvantage in cabinet elections.

A political party that has no sense of existence in the House of Representatives and state legislature elections can see its future at a glance.

If the Liberal Party still has no changes, perhaps in a few decades, Spain will return to the pattern of three major political parties, and the Liberal Party will disappear in the dust of history.

In order to change this phenomenon, the Liberal Party has already discussed it many times internally.

Spain's four major parties all have their own party constitutions and party platforms, and the political pursuits of each party are completely different.

The Progressive Party, carried forward by Prime Minister Primo, pursues a certain limit of comprehensive reform to change the backward situation of Spain.

The Conservative Party, which has the longest history, pursues changing nothing to deal with all changes,

maintaining the existing political situation, and developing stably is fine. The Conservative Party rejects reforms that are too radical, which is also the reason why the Conservative Party did not maintain its status as the largest party during Prime Minister Primo's period.

The Workers' Party advocates maintaining the interests of workers and opening up the right to speak for the worker group. This party has already obtained the support of a large number of workers; although it is an emerging party in Spain, its political power is not weak.

The Liberal Party pursues more radical reforms; in the era of the Spanish Revolution, the Liberal Party even pursued a complete republican system to improve the status quo of Spain.

From the political pursuits of these four major parties, it can be seen that the Liberal Party naturally stands on the opposite side of the Conservative Party, and its relationship with the Progressive Party is not that good.

More importantly, Spain has already completed comprehensive reforms under the monarchical system, and the radical reforms required by the Liberal Party are unnecessary.

Spain has already become a powerful great power; does it still need to carry out radical reforms? Completely unnecessary.

The radical reforms required by the Liberal Party will only destroy Spain's existing development and make the originally peaceful and stable political situation become chaotic.