The Rise Of Australasia - Chapter 309

Chapter 309: Chapter 272: Big Belly Number One_2

This also means that this manned aircraft can greatly enhance the connection between two distant regions and significantly reduce the time it takes to travel to these remote areas.

If you travel from West Australia to the capital Sydney via industrial railway, it will take at least two days.

But what about taking this passenger aircraft? At an average speed of 170 kilometers per hour, it takes about ten hours to reach Sydney.

Of course, current airplanes can’t support such long flights, even with multiple fuel tanks, the SF-1’s maximum range is only 1100 kilometers.

Actually, based on the size of SF-1, it is entirely possible to add a few more fuel tanks and increase the maximum range to at least 1500 kilometers.

However, doing so might not be worth the risk as nobody can guarantee that the aircraft engine won’t encounter problems, especially during long flights.

Even the very stable car engines we have today can potentially fail after running continuously for more than ten hours.

Although the chances of failure have now been reduced to a very low frequency, if a car has a breakdown on the road, it’s just an inconvenience. If an airplane fails in the sky, the death rate is 100%.

Therefore, a maximum range of 1100 kilometers is sufficient for current airplanes, as it still requires nearly seven hours of flight time.

After more than seven hours, even if the aircraft engine has no problems, it must be allowed to cool down and undergo maintenance before flying again.

Anyway, the distance from West Australia to New South Wales is not too far. If necessary, a transfer stop in the middle of the route wouldn’t waste too much time.

Although passenger aircraft have been developed, Arthur has no plans to use them in the short term, at least not within two years.

He would wait for these aircraft to undergo a high-frequency, long-term tests that prove the fault rate is within an acceptable range before attempting to use them.

Of course, Arthur will also take all necessary precautions even in such situations.

Arthur is not very satisfied with the current passenger capacity and stability of SF-1 and has no need to expose the aircraft to the scrutiny of other countries. He gave Director Theodore the task of continuing to develop passenger aircraft with improved stability, safety, speed, and maximum range.

As for the number of passengers per aircraft, Arthur hasn’t made any requests in the short term.

After all, even if the aircraft’s commercial use increases rapidly, it would still be a long time before it becomes a transport option for ordinary civilians.

Until it becomes popular amongst people, the market for commercial aircraft won’t be very substantial.

Therefore, a seven-passenger aircraft would suffice for now, and if need be, additional flights can be arranged.

The successful development of several aircraft has pleased Arthur, and the reward for the research staff, such as experts and scientists in the aeronautical research room, was generous. They received at least five thousand Australian dollars, along with various valuable supplies worth over a thousand Australian dollars which left them utterly grateful.

Even the ordinary workers in the aerospace research room, such as ordinary laborers, were able to receive at least five hundred Australian dollars in rewards and supplies. The rewards alone could account for several years of their wages.

Although the rewards cost millions of Australian dollars, it is only a drop in the ocean for Arthur.

Moreover, compared to over a million Australian dollars, Arthur is more interested in the work attitude of the research staff and the progress of aircraft development.

After instructing Director Theodore to never neglect the quality of the aircraft being built, Arthur left the aerospace laboratory satisfied and returned to Sydney Palace.

The main task of the aerospace laboratory will now be the production of the 500 aircraft, and Arthur felt there was no need to stay and personally supervise the building of the planes.

These tasks can be handled by his subordinates. As for Arthur, apart from the development of advanced weapons and the initiation of large-scale national construction projects, there aren’t too many matters that require his personal attention.

After all, as a king, one must remain dignified. Arthur has already earned enough prestige, goodwill, and support among the public. Now, he needs to enhance the authority of the king.

A few days later, Arthur arrived at the Royal Shipyard to inspect its progress.

Since the complete construction of the three dreadnoughts in October 1909, the Royal Shipyard has been preparing for the construction of the Unified-class battlecruisers.

Since all three Monarch-class battleships were undergoing sea trial tests, the Royal Shipyard had not started building new warships, but was ready to repair the battleships if needed.

After all, each battleship was built with millions of Australian dollars and needed to be protected from any accidents.

The good news was that over the past few months, there had been no accidents during the naval tests of the three dreadnoughts. The Australasia, having undergone a year of rigorous sea trials, is almost ready to be officially commissioned into the fleet.

As for the remaining Australia and New Zealand battleships, if the sea trials go smoothly, they should be able to be officially commissioned in the latter half of this year, becoming the trump cards of the Australasian navy.

By then, Australasia will officially become one of the top ten naval powers in the world. Even stretching the truth, it is not impossible to say that their naval power has reached the great power level.

In fact, considering the control of the sky by the aircraft, the Australasian navy does have great power level combat effectiveness in coastal operations, although it can only be considered at the tail end of the major power level.

To catch up with top powers like Britain and Germany, having dozens of dreadnoughts would be absolutely necessary.

After all, historically, since the birth of the dreadnought in 1906, the construction of dreadnoughts has been quite exaggerated amongst the major powers during the short eight-year period until 1914.

The British Empire built the most dreadnoughts, a whopping 29 ships in just eight years, leading the world pack.

Ranked second naturally was the German Empire, which built 17 dreadnoughts in eight years.

Although the United States was relatively weak before World War I, they still built six classes of dreadnoughts totaling 12 ships.

Britain’s construction speed was extremely exaggerated, averaging 3.6 dreadnoughts per year, a rate that Australasia’s shipbuilding industry could not even catch up to if it tried.

Germany was also quite exaggerated, building two dreadnoughts per year on average.

If considering Australasia’s shipbuilding capabilities, working at full capacity for eight years, they could build only about ten dreadnoughts.

Of course, this does not consider the costs of building dreadnoughts and crew training time, only taking into account the construction speed of the warships.