A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

"Good heavens, is this the Ming Tombs? Why did we go so far this time?"

Looking at the various stone statues on both sides of the spacious passage, Jiang Xia really wanted to go down and take a picture.

"No, it's still far. The place General Buyi mentioned is all the way to Huairou County. The scenery is quite nice; it's a place called Qinglong Gorge."

Jiang Xia, who hadn't looked closely at the experimental site, panicked a little.

It wasn't because it was far from the city; he was just worried that going too far might cause trouble for Old Wang. Although he had been to Qinglong Gorge in his later life, and the green mountains, clear waters, and the ancient Great Wall were indeed a great place for relaxation, now it simply meant "avoid entering any forest!"

It's not that I'm worried about enemy agents or anything, I'm just afraid of getting lost in the deep forest and not being able to find my way back...

"What, are you scared?"

"No, not really. I'm just worried about whether the gyroplane can withstand the strong winds in the canyon. It would be quite embarrassing to be blown around like that."

"You're already out there, there's no turning back now. Just enjoy yourself. I see there's a big lake over at the construction site; you probably won't die if you fly over it..."

Old Wang teased Little Dumb Hair with a mischievous grin.

"Can't you say something nicer..."

……

Huairou Reservoir.

The reservoir, whose name was personally inscribed by the old man, began construction in February 1958, and the dam was completed in August of the same year.

Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians, relying on a daily food allowance of only 0.4 yuan, worked day and night using handcarts and horse-drawn carts to accomplish this feat.

After the reservoir was completed, several hydroelectric power stations were built around it.

Having electricity is great, of course. But the inability to transmit the electricity is a real headache.

A certain military unit, which urgently needed a power supply, had repeatedly requested instructions from higher authorities: In order to safeguard the security of the capital, the power supply must be in place!

Our commoner general was also anxious. This was the protective umbrella of the city, and we couldn't afford to be negligent! But the camp site chosen by this army just happened to be on a flat area behind Qinglong Gorge, and they even included a hill behind it.

To build the power line, according to the team's needs, the line had to cross the edge of the canyon. Crossing it was one thing, but damn it, this section also had a formidable chasm filled with reefs and a swift-flowing river. People could find a calmer section of the river several kilometers away to cross, but power lines… well, there's no ultra-high-voltage transmission system in sight yet, and the losses from such a long detour would be too great!

Moreover, this unit's camp is somewhat special, with part of it extending into the mountains. If we don't pull them across this natural barrier, there will be even more trouble later on!

Unfortunately, the camp was a major power consumer; once all the instruments were running, even the largest number of reserve generators couldn't keep up. There was no other way but to tough it out!

Therefore, our commoner general did try to find a solution. Initially, he thought of using a weather balloon to lower the guide rope across.

Unfortunately, this thing only flew about 40 meters before it just stopped moving. That won't do, it's not high enough! I wanted to get a bigger one, haha, but I can't find one!

Yes, that's right. Nobody else will even sell such a small weather balloon… The Russians do have them, but to bring up the "long-wave radio station" issue again over a weather balloon, you must be overthinking things…

After much deliberation, the commoner general set his sights on the Z-5 helicopter.

The military also gave them face by sending the prototype of the Z-5 helicopter—the Mi-4. To show their sincerity, this was the one that hadn't been dismantled and damaged by the 122nd Division.

When it flew over, tragedy struck!

No one has ever tried to tow cables with a helicopter before. The pilots at the time thought that a roll of cable would only weigh about 5 tons, while the Mi-4 prototype had a takeoff weight of 7 tons. This little bit of weight is nothing.

With the cable attached, the helicopter, trailing a long cable tail, took off shakily. The first half of the flight was calm and uneventful, but things started to get unsettling when it reached the middle of the river.

Due to the terrain, the airflow fluctuations here are too frequent, especially in the middle of the river. The sudden changes in wind force, combined with the cable trailing behind, turned the Mi-4 into a yo-yo. The Mi-4's wooden rotor was rattling and creaking from the sudden changes in stress, almost causing it to fly away.

Fortunately, the driver reacted quickly and pushed the cable out of the engine compartment, thus averting a major accident that could have resulted in the destruction of the aircraft and loss of life.

Subsequently, the Air Force dispatched a meteorological team to conduct a survey of the air situation in this area.

"Instantaneous winds reach force 4-6, and turbulence is generated in the air at different times. At the same time, the rotor and air vortices mix with each other, forming a complex coupled flow field, making helicopter operations under these conditions extremely difficult!"

Oh dear, this effectively kills the chances of laying cables for helicopters. Although it's an extremely difficult task that wouldn't scare our pilots, the higher-ups felt the cost-benefit ratio was too low…

……

"That's the situation. I saw in the information that your rotorcraft can fly in winds of force 6 and is less affected by turbulence, so I asked you to come over."

"However, there's no need to rush. Flying is still very dangerous. I have a comrade here who has proposed another solution. If that doesn't work, then you can go!"

The general in plain clothes poured out his heart to Yang Youning, explaining the whole story clearly, and also took out a large bag of weather information.

"This is the weather forecast we asked our comrades to observe recently. Strangely enough, the wind drops a lot at night..."

Without even glancing at the documents, Yang Erlengzi immediately stood at attention: "Report! We're not afraid of danger! Let's get going before it gets dark!"

"Look at the pilots next to me. They were fine during the level 7 gale a couple of days ago, so this level 6 gale is nothing to them."

As he spoke, Yang Erlengzi patted Liu Hongjun on the shoulder, and Liu Hongjun stood up straight.

"Boss, just let us go! I was planning to take Xiao Jiang for a spin around the reservoir later!"

As he spoke, Liu Hongjun turned his gaze to Jiang Xia, who was lying listlessly next to the small jeep, vomiting.

After Jiang Xia finally finished vomiting, he listened to the conversation over there and beckoned to the Red Army.

Liu Hongjun understood and ran over with the pile of meteorological data in his arms.

"Jiang, how's it going?"

Jiangxia didn't reply, but looked at the weather map.

(⊙o⊙)...

can't read……

But turbulence is no joke. Even modern jets struggle with it, let alone the early rotorcraft with its virtually nonexistent flight control system.

"Alright, stop arguing. Let's see what the general has prepared this time regarding whether or not to fly..."

"But……"

"No buts. There's no runway yet, what are you going to fly on! Don't waste your time with that brain-dead idiot!"

Well, it's always better to be cautious with something this dangerous. Jiang Xia doesn't want anything to happen to anyone around him. Others have already explained the difficulties thoroughly; Jiang Xia doesn't believe the 'Flying Cat Car' is any better than the Mi 4…

However, recalling the twin vertical tails that Professor Guo specially designed for this gyroplane, the stability data that Jiang Xia observed through the scanner seemed to be better than that of the Mi-4!

"Hehehe... Engineer Jiang, what do you think is that over there?"

As they spoke, a low rumbling sound echoed across the small flat area by the river.

With its big nose, wide front, and fiery red paint job, Optimus Prime seemed to spring up from the ground and appeared before Jiang Xia's eyes.

Good heavens, the flatbed trailer not only carried a gyroplane, but also a bulldozer.

"You've thought of everything very carefully..."

"Hehe, with bulldozers, let alone a 20-meter level track, even a 100-meter track will be a matter of two cigarettes' worth of work..."

"Huh? What's that old Jiefang truck over there carrying? A bunch of steel pipes?" Jiang Xia wasn't drawn to his own mighty Optimus Prime; instead, his gaze fell on the vehicle following behind.

"Hey? Old Wang, come take a look. Does that guy in the driver's seat look familiar?"

Old Wang put his hand to his forehead: "Hey! Isn't this the factory manager from Northeast China who put a sunroof on the 'Five Pairs of Wheels'? What's he doing here?"

From a distance, a middle-aged man waved excitedly in their direction: "Young Jiang, it's been so long since we last met. Did you miss me?"

"Back then my foot! This author has written over a hundred chapters, and he keeps saying he wants to celebrate the New Year, but it's still not over. He's been criticized so much that he can't recover..." Little Doe waved his hand and muttered to himself.

"Hey, Director Zeng, weren't you relegated to a lower-level position?" Old Wang couldn't help but tease the factory director as he hurried over.

"Hey! This is all thanks to Xiao Jiang. Being relegated is fine, getting credit is what matters!"

The factory director lifted his shirt over Jiang Xia's shoulder, and a red and gold badge flashed by.

"So, after I made a good contribution, I was transferred to Factory 247 to work on that thing..."

Factory Director Zeng pointed to the pile of half-steel pipes behind him.

"A 130mm rocket launcher!"

"What?! Using rocket launchers to pull ropes? What kind of genius idea is that?"