Development of productivity started in 1981

Chapter 146 Air-Sea Transport
On November 1982, 11, the beginning of winter, Wang Jiankun once again came to the base in northern Myanmar which was as warm as spring.

At this moment, the main road inside the base has been paved with cement. Wang Jiankun drove the Hummer off-road vehicle quickly from the entrance to the airship base.

When he arrived, a Greyhound transport plane was preparing to land in the sky.

After completing the airship test and offshore platform manufacturing last month, Wang Jiankun returned to the base and manufactured two Greyhound transport aircraft and six Black Hawk transport helicopters according to his uncle's requirements.

Wang Jiankun did not change anything about these eight aircraft. They were manufactured completely according to the samples launched from the U.S. military's Okinawa base at that time.

Now the Southern Liberation Army has continuously screened and trained more than 100 junior pilots. My uncle selected a group of them to come to the base to fly on simulators for more than half a month, and then they flew on real aircraft.

Of course, if you follow the formal flight training, you must have a trainer aircraft to fly first, but in Nanjiezhen, these are omitted, and these two aircraft are also low-speed aircraft. If you fly enough hours on the simulator and perform well in the assessment, you will be able to perform actual flight.

Seeing the plane landing, Wang Jiankun drove towards the airport. According to the conversation with his uncle three hours ago, this plane should be the one that brought his uncle to the base.

When the plane stopped and the cabin door opened, my uncle's figure was the first to appear.

"Uncle, get in the car, let's go to the airship base together."

"Okay, just wait a moment."

After getting in the car, the uncle patted Wang Jiankun on the shoulder and said, "Jiankun, you look stronger. It seems that you have exercised a lot since you returned home."

"I found that the method you taught me is quite effective. It not only strengthens the body, but also helps restore mental strength."

It turned out that after losing to his uncle in the last competition, Wang Jiankun started exercising. His uncle saw him doing a set of military boxing. Although it was very standard, because there was no breathing method, it could only be practiced to the point of burst, and it had no effect on endurance.

So Cen Yong told Wang Jiankun the breathing method he learned from an old man and asked him to cooperate with him in using it.

Unexpectedly, the effect was surprisingly good. After practicing for half an hour every morning and evening, Wang Jiankun not only felt that his body had become stronger, but his mental strength also seemed to have been restored.

Because he is now constantly receiving and studying the materials compiled by Zhizi, he consumes a lot of energy every day.

In addition to using his superpowers, Wang Jiankun also uses them to observe changes in his body, but he has not yet found the principle of how changing his breathing method can improve his physical fitness.

However, he has already put human body research on his agenda, and will devote some of his energy to exploring the mysteries of the human body in the future. After all, the current human body will not be able to sustain deep space travel for long in the future.

Returning their gaze to the base, the two arrived at the airship landing field.

His main purpose of coming here this time was to participate in the air-sea transport experiment, and at the same time to check for deficiencies and fill in the gaps in the base area and accelerate the development of the Southern Liberation Front.

"Jiankun, the goods in these 12 containers have been installed, take a look."

"Great! Why are there so many rocket launchers and individual missile launchers in here?"

"Oh, these are intended for export to Persia. Our people have established contact with the Persian military and brought rockets, individual anti-armor missiles, and individual anti-aircraft missiles. After actual inspection by the Persian military on the front line, they were very satisfied and decided to purchase 500 rocket launchers with 20000 rockets in the first batch, 100 launchers for individual anti-aircraft missiles, 500 anti-armor shells, and 1000 anti-aircraft missiles."

"So many? Or the first batch? How much did you quote them?"

"Yes, that's it. The total value of this first batch is 6 million US dollars, and we are responsible for delivering it to the port of Abbas in Persia.

Now Persia has had several territories occupied and is planning to launch a counterattack, but their domestic military production capacity is too low to produce such advanced weapons, so after we took these three models, they couldn’t wait to place an order. ”

"6 million US dollars, not bad, maybe there is a 10-fold profit?"

"Not yet, because our military factories can only carry out small-scale production, so the cost is still relatively high."

"So you plan to provide foreign military trade, earn excess profits while expanding military production capacity?"

"Yes, didn't you propose to start foreign military trade before? Now we can take out these three weapons. They can be produced in the conventional way and do not need to rely on your superpowers to manufacture key components."

"Have you found the materials for the missile engine's heat-resistant material and the infrared probe's material?"

"It's done. The heat-resistant materials for the missile engine are imported from the Soviet Union. The materials for the infrared probe have also been prepared by the chemical experts at the base. There are no problems with machining. The CNC machine tools made in Hong Kong are capable of processing, and the requirements for operators are also lower. After all, once the program is set, there is no need to change the program to produce a few fixed parts."

"In that case, then we can export what we can. Persia and Babylon are already at loggerheads with each other. Have your people collect more information about the battlefield and the needs of the two countries. I'll see what we can supply."

"Okay, I'll have them collect the information, and they'll send us some intelligence one after another."

"Okay, you might as well be a little bolder. For some things that we can't produce here, we can go to the mainland to find suppliers. At present, the orders of domestic companies are greatly reduced. Although the quality of their products may be a little worse, they still have basic processing capabilities. Why not ask them to help with OEM production and then ship them here for assembly."

"Let domestic companies do the work? Is that okay?"

"Okay, weren't those motorcycles produced by the original military factory? Domestic companies are now looking for a way out. If you have an order for them and can pay them some US dollars, their ability to act will definitely surprise you."

"Are they so hungry for orders? Didn't they produce according to the plan in accordance with the requirements of their superiors before? Is this the case now that they are implementing the reform?"

"Reform is only one aspect. There are many other reasons, including poor management, uneven quality, too much stockpile, and the national strategy of maintaining stability. There is no place to digest the materials previously stored for World War III, so now we can only cut orders on a large scale."

"Okay, I'll send someone to look for them in China. Some of your grandfather's former comrades or subordinates have begun to return to work one after another, and your uncle has already contacted some of them."

"That's perfect. My uncle works in an import and export company. If we can reach a cooperation, it will be a win-win situation. Domestic products will have a market, the factory will have new orders, my uncle will also get some achievements, and we can also use domestic productivity to provide a boost to the development of productivity in the base."

While observing the operators loading containers beside the transport airship, the two chatted about their trade ideas in the Middle East.

"Jiankun, besides these three weapons, what other products are suitable for us to produce and sell?"

"Let's use the process of elimination to eliminate the problem. First of all, guns and ammunition are not suitable. One reason is that the profit margin is relatively low, and the other is that we are not suitable for large-scale production.

Secondly, strategic weapons are not suitable for export, such as the DD-300 missile.

Finally, biological and chemical weapons and nuclear weapons cannot be sold, although we don’t have them yet.”

"Then the remaining four types are artillery, armored vehicles, tanks and aircraft?"

"In fact, the only equipment suitable for us at present is artillery and armored vehicles. The manufacturing technology and equipment for tanks and aircraft are still too complicated. We cannot support the production of these two types of equipment in the next two years. Even if we use domestically manufactured parts, the assembly work is still relatively difficult."

"Is that so? Then artillery and armored vehicles are also more difficult, right?"

"I'm here. I can use my superpowers to make a batch of samples. After the tests are completed, I can also manufacture the corresponding production equipment at the base. Some parts can also be purchased domestically."

Artillery is the god of the army. Wang Jiankun had always wanted to try to manufacture one. In several research institutes in BJ, he also collected drawings and related information of several artillery models that were being studied in the country or had been equipped by the troops.

At the US military base, he also saw the US 155 artillery and ship-borne artillery, and all of these were projected into his mind.

In terms of manufacturing technology, the biggest difficulty lies in the manufacture of gun barrels, but artillery shells are no longer a problem for the Southern Liberation Army.

As for gun barrel manufacturing, Wang Jiankun and others began to experiment with conventional methods after the airship transportation test was completed. He collected the more advanced electroslag remelting and barrel self-tightening technologies.

Electroslag remelting is a technology that uses electric current to remelt crude steel ingots.

The ingot is first placed on the electrode as part of the circuit, energized, and slowly fed into the slag.

The main component of the slag is calcium fluoride, supplemented by other compounds such as calcium oxide, aluminum oxide, magnesium oxide, silicon dioxide, etc. These slags have the ability to desulfurize, dephosphorize, and remove non-metallic inclusions at high temperatures. At the same time, a layer of slag skin is formed between the ingot and the crystallizer, which plays an insulating and heat-insulating role, preventing current from leaking from the crystallizer, and keeping the crystallization direction consistent with the main direction of the current (both longitudinally).

The ratio of slag components is the core technology of electroslag remelting. Electroslag remelting technology can produce steel with less impurities and uniform quality, which is an excellent material for manufacturing gun barrels.

Finding the optimal ratio of slag components is not a problem at all for Wang Jiankun, who can observe at the atomic level.

With the steel for making gun barrels, most of the difficulties in manufacturing artillery have been solved, and the barrel self-tightening technology that improves the life and performance of artillery is not very difficult for Wang Jiankun.

The barrel self-tightening is that after the gun is bored, a pressure far exceeding that generated during normal firing is applied to the inner layer (usually liquid is used to transmit pressure, such as oil). This pressure is enough to cause plastic deformation of the inner wall of the gun, thinning the barrel wall and increasing the caliber. At the same time, some small cracks that are not easy to find will be squeezed out. The deformation part is concentrated near the inner wall surface of the barrel and decays rapidly along the radial direction.

Therefore, during processing, the caliber of the artillery should be slightly smaller than that of the finished product, so that the caliber that produces plastic deformation can reach the design level.

The process of self-tightening of the barrel applies pressure to the inner wall of the barrel, causing the barrel to be pre-compressed and the outer wall to be pre-tensioned.

When the artillery is fired, the chamber pressure is much smaller than the pressure during self-tightening, and the residual stress of the barrel wall is sufficient to counteract the chamber pressure generated during firing, thereby increasing the life of the artillery.

When Wang Jiankun proposed to manufacture artillery as the next step of foreign military trade products, the key technology for manufacturing artillery flashed in his mind.

"Uncle, after we complete the air-sea transport test in the next two days, let's start the development of the artillery!"

"Okay, just make a list of your needs and I'll have someone arrange it as soon as possible."

So Wang Jiankun gave his uncle a list of the elements needed for the preliminary tests and asked him to arrange someone to go to the warehouse to take inventory and then replenish the missing elements.

"Commander, all the containers have been installed in place, please give instructions." After completing the preparations before takeoff, the commander of the transport airship asked his uncle for instructions.

"Check all the subsystems of the airship to make sure everything is safe."

"clear."

The commander picked up the communicator on his shoulder and began to question several people who were doing pre-takeoff checks in the airship.

"The energy system is normal, with 19 kWh of electricity."

"The power system is normal."

"The charging and discharging systems are normal, and the helium reserves meet the requirements."

"Reporting to the commander, all systems have been checked and confirmed to be correct. Can we take off?"

"You can take off. Be safe."

……

After completing the inspection before the airship took off, Wang Jiankun boarded the airship with the commander.

The cockpit of this cargo airship can accommodate 6 people. In addition to life-support equipment, there is also a small lounge where people can rest in batches.

After all, this airship can fly for more than 10 hours at a time, and if it runs non-stop, it may fly for more than 20 hours, so Wang Jiankun designed a rest area for the staff based on the style of an intercontinental long-range passenger aircraft.

This time the airship was carrying 12 containers of about 30 tons, and it was not fully loaded, so its ascent speed was still quite fast.

After the airship reached the top of the troposphere and confirmed that the airflow was stable, the commander ordered the airship to enter deep space mode - opening the sub-airbags.

As the sub-airbags open, the airship continues to fly upward, and the lift fan continues to work, providing more acceleration for the airship to rise.

After reaching an altitude of 4 meters, the lift fan began to shut down, and the two propulsion fans at the tail of the airship began to work, providing the airship with forward power.

At this moment, the airship began to rise slowly while accelerating southward, because when it reached an altitude of 4 meters, it had already flown out of the range of most radars and aircraft.

As for high-altitude navigation, Wang Jiankun installed a star positioning device on the airship.

Because we have flown to a very high altitude, where there are no clouds blocking the view, the starry sky positioning method can correct the accumulated deviation of the gyroscope in real time.

Although a laser gyroscope has been installed on the airship, the cumulative deviation will become larger and larger after a long flight.

Therefore, using starlight navigation to eliminate errors can ensure that the airship always stays on the correct course.

The scenery from the sky seemed beautiful and spectacular the first few times you saw it, but Wang Jiankun had seen it many times and was aesthetically fatigued, so he began to use his super powers to observe the high-energy particles flying 5 meters in the sky.

At present, Wang Jiankun has gained a deeper understanding of protons, a positively charged particle, by observing hydrogen ions, so he began to try to capture these charged particles flying in space.

The airship maintained a speed of 300 kilometers per hour. Wang Jiankun observed dozens of high-energy particles one after another, but his attempts to capture them were unsuccessful because the particles were too fast and also because his ability was not up to the task.

However, by observing these charged particles flying through the sky, he gained a deeper understanding of the microscopic properties of matter.

"Commander, we have reached the target and are about to land."

"Okay, you follow the procedure and I'll watch from the side."

Under the commander's command, the airship began to deflate the screwdriver airbags, and then the power of the propulsion engine at the tail was also reduced.

When reaching the troposphere, the lift fans also start working to keep the airship stable.

After more than 10 minutes, the airship arrived at a position about 500 meters above the offshore platform in the Bay of Bengal.

"Platform 1, this is airship 1, please reply if you get it."

"Platform 1 received."

"I am about to land, please clear the landing zone."

"The landing zone has been cleared for landing."

After the airship communicated with the platform and confirmed that it could land normally, the commander piloted the airship slowly toward the slow-moving offshore platform.

Looking down from the sky, the gray-painted offshore platform gradually grew from the size of a gray whale, and finally almost filled the entire field of vision.

When the airship was about 5 meters above the ground, 8 fixed ropes were lowered, and the staff on the platform used tools to fix the ropes to the moorings.

The rope became shorter and shorter as the mooring device was reeled in, and the airship was slowly approaching the deck.

Pfft~tsk~
The airbags at the bottom released gas, and when everyone heard the sound, they knew the landing was successful.

The commander then led the people on the airship to the platform deck and handed over the cargo to the person in charge of the platform.

After the handover was completed, Wang Jiankun went with them to the lounge on the platform, ready to have a good rest for a few hours.

The platform staff outside began to load and unload goods. A large container truck came from a distance and moved the containers in the airship cargo hold to the crane next to the platform.

In a few hours, these containers will be placed on a small cargo ship purchased by Sihai Group, then sail south to the Indian Ocean and north to Arabia and finally to the port of Abbas in Persia.

The freighter also brought 30 containers of metals and ores, which were ready to be transported to the base in northern Myanmar by the cargo airship.

Four hours later, the airship unloaded the cargo and loaded 4 tons of cargo. After more than 600 minutes of pre-flight inspection, the airship began to slowly rise from the platform.

This time, because it was fully loaded, the speed of take-off was much slower, and the power of the lift fan was turned to 80%. In addition to providing some upward acceleration, its main function was to maintain the balance of the airship.

Because there are often winds of level 1 to 2 on the sea surface, the lift fan can ensure that the airship can remain stable at low altitudes.

Although the launch process took longer, it was still very smooth.

After returning to the base in northern Myanmar, the airship landed safely, bringing 600 tons of metal resources to the base.

These metals will provide strong support for Wang Jiankun's subsequent experiments and base construction.

(End of this chapter)