Chapter 45: Aircraft
To this day, Tom still only possesses the two sole landing spaceships capable of traveling between Loshen Star and (Deep Space) Spaceship.
Originally, there was only one, but as development progressed, the parts from the disassembled first landing spaceship were no longer needed, so it was reassembled, resulting in two.
To ensure he didn’t lose these two sole space-faring vehicles, Tom had minimized their flight frequency as much as possible, only using them when absolutely necessary to extend their lifespan.
Even so, by today, they were already showing their age and could barely fly.
Tom had long planned to develop his own aerospace capabilities, but due to insufficient foundational technology and industrial strength, it had never materialized. Now, with the base’s scale and technological foundation significantly advanced, he could finally begin.
On a pre-selected open space, a large number of Clones were deployed, and soon after, an aerospace technology research base was completed.
The first propulsion test then began.
Due to Loshen Star’s vastly different environment from Earth, the aerospace technology developed on Loshen Star was destined to be different from Earth’s.
On Earth, rockets were indispensable for sending spaceships or satellites into space.
Because rockets could not be made too large, spaceships or satellites also could not be too large.
But here, Tom could directly skip the rocket step and instead manufacture flying vehicles that could take off directly from the planet’s surface into space and then return directly from space.
At the same time, on Earth, airplanes and spaceships were two distinct things: one could only fly within the atmosphere, and the other only in space.
But on Loshen Star, airplanes and spaceships could not be so clearly differentiated.
These two types of objects could roughly be considered one—after all, both relied on the burning of fuel to generate high-pressure gas that was expelled, thereby providing forward thrust.
Those with higher power, capable of escaping Loshen Star’s gravity field, were spaceships. Those with lower power, unable to escape, were airplanes.
From an essential perspective, they were the same.
Thus, in a huge workshop at the aerospace base, large quantities of methane and liquid oxygen were fed into an engine. After ignition, scorching hot gas sprayed from the tail, and enormous kinetic energy immediately acted upon the test stand.
The technology for this type of engine originated from the internal combustion engine technology Tom had mastered long ago. The only difference was that internal combustion engines burned methane and liquid oxygen to push pistons, whereas here, the high-pressure gas generated from their combustion would be directly expelled.
Although the method of performing work was different, the combustion process was the same.
The powerful thrust lasted for several minutes. Tom frowned as he looked at the readings on the screen.
The power was too low; this much power was insufficient to propel a spaceship out of the planet’s gravity field. It couldn’t even lift an airplane.
"We must improve combustion efficiency and scale," Tom thought to himself.
"But if we do that, the temperature will be too high. The performance of my current heat-resistant materials probably won’t hold up."
This was a relatively tricky problem.
The human world certainly had formulas for advanced heat-resistant materials, but the Deep Space knowledge base did not.
The Shenkong (Deep Space) Spaceship did have high-performance heat-resistant materials, but Tom had examined them and found the technical complexity too high for him to manufacture.
"I still need to find a material that is less technically complex, something I can manufacture now, yet still meets the current demands."
Tom had an idea, and immediately, one thousand Clones were added to the materials building of the research base.
Without any prior training or learning, these newly added one thousand Clones immediately adapted to the work rhythm of the research base, seamlessly integrating into the existing research and development work.
In addition to these one thousand Clones engaged in hands-on operations, Tom also mobilized an extra "brainpower" equivalent to 3,000 people, dedicating it to analyzing existing experimental data and contemplating future attempts.
Many tasks, though requiring human involvement, didn’t consume much brainpower.
For example, how much brainpower could a Clone operating an excavator possibly consume?
Thus, a large amount of brainpower became idle.
Since it was idle anyway, it might as well be used to ponder materials science problems.
And so, a peculiar sight emerged within Tom’s base:
Even though a Clone might be operating an excavator, he was simultaneously contemplating the most cutting-edge, advanced materials science problems;
Even though a Clone might be feeding pigs, he was simultaneously contemplating materials science problems;
Even a Clone driving a train, appearing fully concentrated on operating the train, was in fact also contemplating materials science problems.
Furthermore, if an emergency occurred requiring full attention, he could immediately stop thinking about materials science problems, and the corresponding thought allocation might instantly transfer to the mind of another construction worker Clone, a thousand kilometers away, who was tying rebar.
By adopting this model, Tom achieved the complete utilization of the brainpower of all controllable Clones, with no waste whatsoever.
Tom was already very proficient in this model. However, this was the first time he had suddenly mobilized one thousand Clones for hands-on work and an additional 3,000 units of brainpower for thinking, on such a large scale.
This problem was simply too important and needed to be solved as quickly as possible.
With thousands of brains, each possessing knowledge from almost all disciplines as a reserve, simultaneously contemplating a single problem, breakthroughs quickly emerged.
After adding a certain proportion of nickel and tungsten metals, and employing a specific metal treatment process, the heat-resistant metal meeting Tom’s requirements was finally manufactured and quickly installed on the test equipment.
The propulsion test began once more.
This time, the flames injection ing from the engine’s tail were brighter and more intense, clearly indicating higher temperatures and pressures.
Looking at the data on the screen, Tom nodded in satisfaction.
Now, the power finally met the standard.
The biggest problem in manufacturing an aircraft lay in the engine. Once the engine technology was broken through, manufacturing the metal shell posed no difficulty.
Thus, very quickly, a peculiar aircraft, hemispherical in shape with two nozzles at its flat bottom and two at its rear, appeared before Tom.
"Ignite!"
Following Tom’s command, the Clone responsible for operating the aircraft immediately pressed the corresponding button.
The next moment, scorching flames erupted from the bottom of the aircraft, slowly lifting the four-meter-tall, eight-meter-diameter hemispherical aircraft into the air, eventually reaching a height of over ten meters above the ground.