diymy Chapter 964: 721: The Era of Flight Arrives
Chapter 964: 721: The Era of Flight Arrives
Chapter 964: Chapter 721: The Era of Flight Arrives
In the unnoticed corner following the eight-year shipbuilding plan, Arthur initiated a new policy aimed at encouraging technological upgrades in the civilian shipbuilding sector.
When it comes to military shipbuilding, Australasia has certainly reached the forefront of the world.
However, in the field of civilian shipbuilding, Australasia still lags behind some countries with a long history in the shipbuilding industry.
industries now only needed encouragement from the government and the royal family to develop vigorously on their own.
If it were Australasia 20 years ago, without government leadership and substantial funds invested, it would be very difficult for an industry to develop on its own.
At least in terms of infrastructure, Australasia was now well-equipped. Precisely because of the substantial foundation laid down, the royal family only needed to invest a small amount of funds to control the technological reform of each industry.
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Just as Arthur was about to relax after implementing the policy, he immediately received some good news from the Douglas Company.
After more than a year, the transport plane DC-1 developed by the Douglas Company finally welcomed its new model, the DC-2, which was an improvement on the first-generation transport plane.
The DC-2 transport plane still had a full metal body, but the fuselage was extended, and the seating increased from 12 to 14 passengers.
In terms of power, they still had not adopted the jet engine. After all, a civilian airplane using cutting-edge technology would definitely be studied and replicated by other countries.
The current jet engines were too advanced, and it was better not to reveal them before other countries had not yet developed them.
However, even though it was just an improved third-generation aviation engine, the power still saw a significant increase.
Named the DE-3 aviation specific engine, the planes using this engine had previously been military airplanes.
In the field of civilian airplanes, the power provided by this engine was definitely excellent, and if not ranked at the very top, it would surely be within the top five.
The DC-2’s twin-pilot cockpit seats were not included in the total count, which meant that this passenger plane could transport 14 passengers, a considerable improvement in transport efficiency over the previous generation.
In the report provided by the Douglas Company, the DC-2 transport plane’s top speed had nearly reached 355 kilometers per hour, with a theoretical cruising speed of 265 kilometers per hour and a climb rate of 415 meters per minute, reaching a practical ceiling close to 3855 meters.
Even more noteworthy was that the Boeing 267 was the first to feature flight attendants, known to all as stewardesses.
This position was specifically to serve passengers onboard, ensuring the comfort of each traveler.
It was precisely because of the inclusion of restrooms and flight attendresses that the Boeing 267 could only carry ten passengers.
However, as it was a product meant for commercial use, what mattered most in practice—cargo capacity or comfort—would truly be determined by the market’s actual experience.
Receiving the design outcomes for three different transport planes over several days left Arthur with little inclination to review their results one by one.
After some consideration, Arthur decided to hold a World Aircraft Expo in Australasia; it was the perfect opportunity to launch these three types of transport planes and kickstart the era of global flight.
First and foremost was to establish the reputation of the so-called World Aircraft Expo.
This was actually quite easy to achieve, especially for a king like Arthur.
On February 11th, 1929, the Australasian Government announced that a World Aircraft Expo would be held from March to April, where Australasia’s three civilian aircraft designs would be revealed to the public.
During this period, Australasia would establish various airline companies and open the world’s first global route for transport planes.
Since the first global airship voyage had been organized by Australasia, this World Aircraft Expo also attracted quite a bit of attention.
Though airships had been a failure in the military realm, no one blamed Australasia for it.
After all, in those days, only the rich could afford to travel by airships; the poor rarely even got the chance to lay eyes on one.
uals across the globe. If there were truly a faster and relatively safer mode of transport, the rich would be very willing to choose it.
To increase potential customers’ trust in these airplanes, the Australasian Royal Family publicly stated it would purchase a transport plane as a royalm jet.
This also garnered more attention from airlines and the wealthy worldwide for the airplanes; after all, the Australasian Royal Family surely knew about the safety of these transport planes.
If even the Australasian Royal Family was making a purchase, what was there for them to worry about?