Chapter 142 - 138 Tiger Mountain Airport_1

Texas, Ma had just returned home when he opened Twitter to see a never-ending stream of new messages, with an abnormally high number of people @mentioning him.

Clearly, Factory Manager Lin, who was a generation younger than him, had come up with some new stunt.

After casually scrolling for a bit, he found a screenshot of Lin Ju’s Weibo post. Ma narrowed his eyes as he read.

He’s actually planning to ride his own spacecraft into space?

Are all Chinese people so aggressive?

But on second thought, maybe it wasn’t that aggressive. H1 had already carried out five manned spaceflights, as well as many more unmanned ones, all successful without any failures. In the aerospace sphere, this was proof enough of their reliability.

Beyond surprise, Ma also felt a sense of longing and a touch of envy.

The second generation of Manned Dragon Spacecraft was still in development. Although it wouldn’t be difficult to get the manned flight license from NACA, it might take another year to start accepting missions.

He too wished to travel to space!

But the cost of a single launch of the Dragon Spaceship was expensive, and the idea of conducting several unmanned flights before a few manned ones was something specaX could not afford at the moment. Furthermore, as for the reliability of its spacecraft for manned missions...

Although Ma was generally confident, when it came to manned spaceflight, he was particularly cautious. Unless the Dragon Spacehip had completed seven or eight stable flights, he wouldn’t dare take the risk.

He tweeted a brief message: "Space belongs to the bravest," then posted three consecutive pictures of the Heavy Falcon, all set for launch, adding, "Let’s look at rockets, my family."

Lately, the buzz around specaX had picked up again; it seemed they were on the verge of reclaiming their throne as the most powerful private space company because the Heavy Falcon’s maximum LEO (Low Earth Orbit) payload had reached 69 tons, making it the most powerful active rocket in the world.

Xinyuan Company’s New Yuan-2 was now second with a 45-ton capacity, followed by the payload capacities of rockets like Cosmos God V, Ariane 5, and Delta IV, all around 28 tons.

The strongest rocket of China’s National Space Administration was still the CZ-2F with a 14-ton payload; however, once the CZ-10 was completed, with an LEO payload capacity of 110 tons, it would become the world’s number one. The payload capacity of America’s moon-bound SLS Block 1 rocket in near-Earth orbit was only 95 tons, but the cargo version, Block 2, had a payload capacity of 140 tons.

The CZ-10 was expected to make its maiden flight around August of this year, with the Heavy Falcon’s maiden flight set for May 25th, and SLS’s expected in December.

Yet, this year, two heavyweight players would enter the arena: New Yuan-2A and New Yuan No. 3.

The first New Yuan-2A’s core stage and boosters had been manufactured. The core stage was strengthened to withstand the thrust of the boosters, and it would be transported in three parts to Qiongzhou for assembly and its first trial launch, expected on May 29th.

The New Yuan-2A’s 135-ton capacity would remain first in the world until the launch of SLS Block 2, which wouldn’t happen until at least 2019. By then, the New Yuan No. 3 with its 247-ton LEO capacity would have already flown.

So, the Heavy Falcon’s record as the world’s number one would last only four days~

Time was running out for the Heavy Falcon.

...

On March 14th, 80 kilometers away from Xinyuan B-level Base, construction began at Tiger Mountain Airport.

Tiger Mountain Airport would provide a flight venue for multiple flying clubs and skydiving clubs, incorporating a large valley as the flight area. It was exceptionally spacious, not too far from the city, yet could minimize the noise from flying activities.

The idea for Tiger Mountain Airport originated from Lin Ju. The airport at B-level Base wasn’t small, but managing external trainee pilots was challenging. After the first 50 trainees reached flight hours, air traffic control became difficult, and the thought of scaling up was daunting.

Don’t think that 50 aircraft is a trivial number. On March 10th, when the new term for the flight school began, 50 students who could fly in formation along with 11 instructors, totaling 61 aircraft, formed an extraordinarily large formation for a high-speed flypast.

Even without any flight maneuvers, the 61 aircraft still formed a daunting dark cloud that left a significant psychological impact on everyone.

Keep in mind that the wingspan of the Colorful Cloud Initial Teaching Machine is 12.2 meters. A formation arranged into four lines could have up to 35 aircraft per row with a separation of 50 meters between planes, reaching a maximum width of two kilometers~

So proposals were made to the local government to choose a remote spot for a new airport solely for the training school.

As reports went up the chain, provincial representatives arrived.

The province said, let’s go bigger – six cross and four long, flatten a mountain for an enormous airport. But keep to low standards, since it’s mostly small aircraft participating. Even the Meteor Advanced Trainer is just seven or eight tons, so there’s no need for the airport to meet the high requirements of a civil aviation airport.

Eight of the runways, just cement-covered, were suggested for medium and small aircraft, while two high-standard runways were for jet-powered advanced trainers could be completed in five or six months.

Such an airport could accommodate three to four thousand small aircraft, open to flying clubs nationwide. Leveraging the airspace freedom around Xinyuan, this place could become the hottest flying spot in the country.

The provincial government fully funded Tiger Mountain Airport. Each aircraft just needed to pay a small annual fee based on its type, and Xinyuan Company wouldn’t spend a penny but would still get a 30% share of the airport’s revenue.

The two simple runways for propeller-driven craft could be finished fastest in 40 days, which included time to fix the roads.

Lin Ju agreed readily, as it provided a place to house the airplanes. Stone Flight and Hongdu had already delivered 220 Colored Cloud Initial Teaching Machines, currently en route, so this move could save him some money.

The air force, blatantly looking the other way at this apparent abuse of power, didn’t mind since the airspace contained nothing confidential, and its surrounding area had plenty of radars to prevent any incidents. All they did was routinely station a few people there.

Meanwhile, aviation enthusiasts within China were promptly alerted by the Sichuan government’s announcement. They were shown the location of Tiger Mountain Airport and the vast uncontrolled airspace around it, where they could fly below 3000 meters, and excitement surged.

Suddenly, numerous flying clubs were planning to relocate (some of these clubs might only have one to three or four planes), while many more considered moving to Rong City.

A lightweight aircraft within China is mostly home-built or assembled from foreign kits and, lacking mass production, quite expensive – the cheaper ones around a hundred thousand, and the costlier ones over three hundred thousand. There’s a significant number of people across the country who could afford it.

For these individuals, the most challenging part was gaining clearance for takeoff, and now there was this unrestricted airspace, making everything much easier.

The Sichuan government was also ecstatic. With a conservative estimate of three thousand aircraft at Tiger Mountain Airport, imagine how many renovation factories this could sustain and how many people would want to come and fly. Isn’t this another tourism highlight?

Constructing Tiger Mountain Airport wouldn’t cost much at all. The land was essentially free to use, and airport standards were minimal. A flat ground would suffice for light aircraft takeoffs and landings, just lay some cement, and that’s it. Even the requirements for high-grade zones weren’t that demanding, and it was just a small area.

Instead, the fifteen-kilometer road construction to Tiger Mountain Airport was a significant expense, but still manageable.

With the continuous efforts of the provincial leaders, the aviation and aerospace industries in Sichuan were flourishing at a visibly rapid pace, soon to be an industrial powerhouse!