Chapter 488: Reconnaissance Aircraft and Fighter Aircraft

Facts proved that history could truly be changed.

Although the 1913 in history did not break out in a World War, European countries were no longer unfamiliar with things like airplanes, and tanks already had a prototype, which was also the reason Britain could use tanks in World War I.

But now, under Spain's interference, European countries generally valued airships rather than airplanes.

Although airplanes also had development in European countries, this product that was extremely unstable when flying, whether in terms of effect or potential, was incomparable to airships.

Airplanes could do reconnaissance work, and airships could also do it; even airships could be used to transport materials, which was something airplanes currently could not do at all.

Airplanes only had a speed advantage, but because European countries were not keen on the development of airplanes, the finished airplanes developed by European countries currently did not pull away too much of a gap with airships in terms of speed.

Comparing the two, airships were naturally more valued by European countries.

The military observation groups sent by many European countries, including Spain and Britain, also used airships to observe the situation on the front line.

These neutral countries' airships all had relatively bright coatings, for the purpose of letting participating countries better identify the airships, avoiding the occurrence of accidental injury.

The military observation group sent by Spain had already been divided into three parts, stationed on the western front battlefield, the eastern front battlefield, and the Balkan battlefield respectively.

After several months of detailed observation, it could be basically determined that European countries, including Germany and France, only possessed airship-formed air force units and did not have any military airplanes.

Judging by the intensity of the war on the front line, if these participating countries had developed airplanes with combat effectiveness, they would have long since put these airplanes into the battlefield.

After all, the casualties every day on the battlefield were huge; if they could master air superiority, at least it could make the army's losses less.

The only thing not quite certain was Britain, but according to the news from the Royal Security Intelligence Bureau in Britain, Britain probably did not value the development of airplanes too much either.

Under Spain's interference, the British government placed most of its attention on the development of the navy. They could not even keep their status as the naval hegemon, so naturally, they could not have any mood to develop airplanes, something that currently did not show too much effect.

This could be considered the best good news for Spain. Currently, in terms of tanks and airplanes, the results Spain obtained were absolutely leading, and it had already pulled away a relatively large gap with other European countries.

As time came to February 1913, Spain's airplane development project team finally reported good news to Gao Da: Spain's new generation of airplanes currently already possessed a role that surpassed airships.

Gao Da valued airplanes quite a lot. When he learned that Spain's airplanes already had quite excellent finished products, Gao Da did not hesitate anymore and immediately rushed to the suburban laboratory where the airplane development project team was located, personally watching Spain's first practical airplane.

For the King's personal arrival, the entire airplane laboratory was quite excited.

Because this represented that their experimental results were recognized by the King, and future research and development funds naturally did not need to be worried about.

As the general person in charge of the airplane development project team, Francisco Lawson Herick had been waiting at the laboratory's gate with a group of scientific research personnel from the project team early in the morning, and Gao Da also arrived with several high-ranking military officials under the respectful gaze of everyone.

Without too much nonsense, everyone immediately entered the runway area of the laboratory, where two completely different airplanes were parked, waiting for everyone's appreciation.

"Your Majesty, please look, these are the two different types of airplanes we have newly developed; we have named them fighter-type airplanes and reconnaissance-type airplanes respectively.

The reconnaissance airplane you see is named *Imperial Eagle*, the name comes from a large bird of prey in Spain. This airplane is 5.78 meters long, 2.62 meters high, with a wingspan of 8.56 meters, adopts our latest rotary air-cooled engine, and the whole machine weight reached 428 kilograms.

After our tests, the maximum takeoff weight of this *Imperial Eagle* reconnaissance airplane can reach 677 kilograms, and it can carry a load of 249 kilograms.

To facilitate reconnaissance, we only installed one improved Maxim heavy machine gun in the direction of the nose, and only carried 632 rounds of spare ammunition.

After our tests, the average flight speed of this reconnaissance airplane can reach 185 kilometers per hour, the practical ceiling is 5,775 meters, the maximum climb rate is 4.7 meters per second, and the maximum range is 375 kilometers.

Considering the problem of insufficient range, we installed a setting that can carry auxiliary fuel tanks on both sides of the airplane. If two auxiliary fuel tanks are carried, the maximum range of this reconnaissance airplane can reach 570 kilometers.

The carried auxiliary fuel tanks can also be dropped at any time, ensuring that in dangerous moments, our pilots can abandon the load brought by the auxiliary fuel tanks and get rid of the enemy at a faster speed."

Hearing Francisco Lawson Herick's introduction, Gao Da nodded; he was quite satisfied with the paper data of the current airplane.

The airplanes of this era were certainly incomparable to the airplanes of later generations, whether in terms of flight stability and safety, or flight speed, range, etc., they were only a fraction of the airplanes of later generations.

However, fortunately, other countries currently did not have airplanes of the same level; even if the airplanes developed by Spain were slightly simple, it was enough to crush other countries' air forces relying on the generation gap.

Other European countries generally equipped airships; these big, clumsy guys like airships in the sky had no ability to fight back when facing airplanes.

Gao Da had no questions, but several generals in the military were somewhat puzzled. Looking at this strangely shaped airplane in front of them, they asked: "Mr. Francisco, the machine gun of this airplane is placed in the position of the nose; will it conflict with the propeller of the nose?

If the machine gun's bullets hit the propeller, wouldn't it mean that our pilots would face a situation of suicide?"

Hearing the inquiry from the high-ranking military officials, Francisco Lawson Herick had long been prepared and said with a smile: "It will indeed face such a problem, but we also have corresponding responses long ago.

We developed a component named the firing interrupter. Through the propeller shaft linkage mechanical device, we can realize the function of avoiding the machine gun bullets hitting the propeller blades.

The specific method is: when the blade is aligned with the gun barrel, the gear protrusion or cam triggers the linkage mechanism to pause firing, making the bullets pass through the gap between the blades.

When the propeller leaves the gun barrel's aiming range, the device returns to its original position, and the machine gun can continue to fire.

In this way, our pilots also don't need to worry about the problem of hitting the propeller blades and can deal with the enemy more easily.

Including on the other fighter airplane, this equipment is also installed, ensuring that our bullets will not cause any damage to our own airplanes."

Hearing Francisco Lawson Herick's answer, the several generals in the military then nodded, indicating that they had no questions.

It was mainly because the current Spanish military had little contact with new weapons like airplanes; besides the problems that could be seen on the surface, they actually did not know what functions and roles this strangely shaped guy in front of them had.

Seeing that Gao Da and the several high-ranking military generals accompanying him had no questions, Francisco Lawson Herick then continued to introduce: "As for the other fighter-type airplane, its codename is *Bull*.

We installed two machine guns on this fighter airplane, located on both sides of the nose respectively. This also made the airplane look like it had two bull horns, which was also the reason we named it *Bull*.

Unlike the reconnaissance airplane that can only carry one person, the *Bull*-type fighter airplane can carry two pilots, and the volume of the entire airplane is also a whole circle larger than the *Imperial Eagle*-type reconnaissance airplane.

The length of this fighter airplane reached 6.28 meters, 2.65 meters high, with a wingspan of 9.17 meters. Because the airplane's volume is larger, plus two machine guns are installed, the weight of the entire airplane reached 542 kilograms.

We have equipped this fighter plane with a more powerful engine, allowing the fighter's maximum takeoff weight to reach 771 kilograms, with a payload capacity of 229 kilograms.

With two pilots on board, this fighter can still be equipped with at least 1,500 rounds of machine gun ammunition.