The Rise Of Australasia

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.

This was an unavoidable issue. The country's focus was definitely on the more important military sector, and the civilian sector, relying solely on the efforts of the people, could not possibly catch up with those nations that had been building ships for several hundred years in a short time.

Take the Netherlands, for example, once the dominator of Europe, whose history of civilian shipbuilding could even be traced back several hundred years.

But the civilian shipbuilding sector was also important for the economic development of the country. As the main mode of transport for long-distance travel and voyages, the advanced level of ship technology contributed significantly to various aspects of the country.

Transport ships could improve the efficiency of cargo transport, and passenger ships could enhance the efficiency of travel to distant regions, saving more time.

For a country like Australasia, whose territory spanned the entire Oceania, the advancement of passenger ship technology could effectively improve the transportation efficiency of people in different regions and enhance the government's control over all areas.

In fact, not only the civilian shipbuilding industry, but Arthur also implemented numerous policies encouraging dozens of industries.

They acknowledged the advancement of the technology developed and the importance of certain industries, offering rewards that included funds, land, medals, and titles of nobility.

With the stimulation of many rewards, it was believed that the technology in the shipbuilding industry would also experience significant upgrades.

This was actually one of the benefits of industrial development. Many 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.

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.

Although the improvements in all aspects were not substantial compared to the previous generation, the fact that two extra seats were added meant a considerable actual enhancement.

The most significant change was focused on safety. The DC-2 transport plane could ensure a safe landing should any one of the engines lose power, an advantage that twin-engine planes had over single-engine planes. Read new adventures at My Virtual Library Empire

As for the result of losing power in both engines at the same time, well, it would crash into pieces.

Douglas Company wasn't the only one achieving results.

It has to be noted, in the field of transport planes, Australasia had three enterprises, namely, Douglas Aircraft Company, Boeing, and Royal Aircraft Manufacturing Factory.

After being overshadowed by the Douglas Aircraft Company with the DC-1, the Royal Aircraft Manufacturing Factory had been looking to save face.

A few days after the Douglas Company submitted their report to Arthur, the Royal Aircraft Manufacturing Factory promptly reported their design results for the SF-3, also known as the Big Belly Number Three transport plane.

Inspired by the DC-1, the Big Belly Number Three transport plane also moved away from a semi-hard shell design and switched to a full metal transport plane design.

According to the data submitted by the Royal Aircraft Manufacturing Factory, this transport plane used a three-person steering approach and could accommodate a total of 15 passengers besides the three pilots.

Even when fully loaded, it could transport nearly 800 kilograms of luggage, and had a maximum range that exceeded 2100 kilometers.

In terms of speed, the Big Belly Number Three's average cruising speed was slightly below the DC-2, but it was still capable of reaching 250 kilometers per hour.

The maximum speed approached 330 kilometers per hour, and the climb rate was close to 400 meters per minute, with a practical ceiling near 3,715 meters—all data were fairly close to the DC-2.

If you add in the results reported by Boeing, all three airplanes were actually maintaining quite a good level.

Yes, Boeing had also submitted its own design results.

In fact, it wasn't just the Royal Aircraft Manufacturing Factory and Douglas Aircraft Company in competition, Boeing was equally unwilling to lag behind these two enterprises.

After all, they had all been acquired by Arthur and belonged to the Royal financial group—attempts to impress in front of Arthur were only natural.

The Boeing transport plane's design was tentatively named Boeing 267. Why 267? Because this transport plane had an average cruising speed of 267 kilometers per hour.

If you talk solely about average cruising speed, the Boeing 267 was the fastest of the three aircraft designs, narrowly leading the DC-2.

But you can't judge solely by cruising speed. Compared to the DC-2 and SF-3, which could carry 14 passengers, the Boeing 267 could only accommodate 10 people, excluding the pilot—a significant difference.

Moreover, as it was Boeing's first attempt at designing a passenger plane, the Boeing 267 could only carry about 181 kilograms of cargo when fully loaded, lagging behind both the DC-2 and the SF-3 in terms of transport capability.

In terms of transportation capacity, Boeing clearly put more emphasis on passenger comfort.

Taking inspiration from airships, Boeing equipped the Boeing 267 with a restroom and increased the space between each seat.

In this way, it was certainly more comfortable to sit in the more spacious Boeing 267.

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.

To hype the World Aircraft Expo, Arthur even had the government release some statistics of these three transport planes, such as their cruising speeds and passenger capacities.

They especially promoted the much lower failure rate of airplanes compared to airships, assuring people that airplanes were a more reliable mode of transportation.

While vigorously promoting the World Aircraft Expo, Australasia announced it would give away the 38 spots for the first global airplane voyage, free of charge.

Moreover, Australasia promised to pay at least 100,000 Australian Dollars to each participant of the global voyage if any issues occurred with the airplane.

After much hype, the interest was indeed kindled. The general population wasn't too affected; after all, airplane tickets would surely be as expensive as those for airships, beyond the affordability of the ordinary person.

But for airline companies and the wealthy, they were the real target audience for this World Aircraft Expo.

It cannot be denied, there are still many wealthy individuals 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?