Three in the morning.
Port Pyrenees.
The harbor under the night sky is very quiet. Except for the sound of insects on a summer night, there is no sound or shadow in the harbor.
If it wasn''t for the night watchman in charge of patrol who occasionally walked by with oil lamps, the port would be dead.
To use the words "dead" to describe the port of Pyrenees is not groundless nonsense to some extent.
Because it''s really dying.
A year ago, the port of Pyrenees, which is only 120 kilometers away from the port of Copernicus, was still a thriving port. Its scale was slightly smaller than that of the former, but its prosperity was even more than that of the former.
At the end of the storm season every year, more than half of the large number of merchant ships travelling between the northern part of the Kingdom and the Xinghai mainland choose to visit the southern port of Pyrenees.
Many people think that sooner or later, the port of Pyrenees will surpass the port of Copernicus and become the largest port in the northern part of the kingdom.
However, since Haichao chamber of Commerce directed the famous "hot air balloon publicity event", it all came to an abrupt end.
Haichao chamber of commerce is like a huge magnet, attracting a lot of wealth to Copernicus port, and the accumulation of wealth will naturally bring about the accumulation of resources, and produce a "siphon effect" on the surrounding areas.
Port Pyrenees was the first victim.
Compared with last year, the number of merchant ships arriving at the port this year is 20% less, and the monthly reduction is larger than last month. In the hot month just past, the number of merchant ships is 30% less.
In order to make a living, many small businessmen and civilians choose to move to Copernicus port. Many chambers of commerce are also considering reducing the scale or moving to Copernicus city as a whole.
In the commercial district close to the port, once it was a grand occasion of "one shop is hard to find", now there are sporadic empty shops, and many businessmen have put up "for sale" signs in front of their shops.
People with clear eyes can see that with the passage of time, it is inevitable that the port of Pyrenees will be in decline.
Gollum flitted across the night sky. Behind him, 12 fully armed Island guards, each in a strange looking aircraft, followed Gollum closely.
The top of the aircraft is a huge triangular canvas, under which a set of simple support ring is suspended. At this time, all the team members are wearing special flying helmets and lying on the support ring.
A black metal cylinder with a length of nearly 1 meter and a diameter of about 30 cm is installed at the tail of the aircraft. The "Huhu" air is ejecting from the cylinder.
This is the magic delta wing.
It is also Renault''s first special forces, alpha team, equipped with high-end equipment.
Magic triangle wing is also one of the "inventions" of a certain Lord.
When Renault drew a sketch of the delta wing, this amazing idea immediately gained a lot of admiration and added a heavy weight to his title of "God inventor".
However, in the subsequent manufacturing process, the rune magicians were stuck in the power plant.
In fact, the principle of the power plant is very simple. First, the air is drawn into the heating chamber from the air inlet, and then the air is heated by the thermal magic heater to expand it. Finally, the hot air is sent into the injection chamber and sprayed out from the nozzle to obtain thrust.
In this device, the magicians even designed an extremely simple turbine as the main power of the jet chamber.
The real difficulty of power plant lies in the balance between weight and thrust.
The power device designed by the magician either has a thrust of 100 kg, but the weight of the device is too heavy for the aircraft to fly when it is attached to the delta wing;
either the weight meets the requirements, but the thrust is not enough, and the delta wing can not get enough lift, and it will fall head on before long.
In the continuous cycle of "design verification overthrow comeback", the magicians are tormented to death, and there is no progress. Finally, Renault wakes the dreamer with a word.
He only lightly said two words - material!
Yes, the core of the problem is the material.
If you want to increase the thrust, the most direct way is to increase the air expansion ratio, which requires higher heating temperature, but if the temperature is too high, the heat resistance of the material can not meet the requirements.
On the other hand, the most convenient way to reduce the weight of the engine is to use alloy materials with lighter density and stronger strength.
As a result, a group of magic mechanics began to research and develop new materials.
These guys are good at learning. Instead of acting foolishly, they come to ask the Lord for a clear way.
This time, Renault said six words with a smile - aluminum lithium magic alloy.
In addition, he also suggested that the materials laboratory set up a sub laboratory to research and develop Al Li materials.
This new laboratory is named "aviation materials laboratory" by Renault.
In the next few months, the laboratory experimented with thousands of material formulations, and successfully found a powerful light alloy.Its density is as low as 900 kgm3, which is lower than the density of water. If you drop it on the water, it can float.
Thanks to the addition of magic metal, its strength is higher than that of steel, and it can withstand temperatures above 1500 degrees.
With the right materials, the birth of the first magic delta is just a matter of course.
Even the most knowledgeable people can''t help falling for this magic triangle wing, which is like a big bird across the sky.
With a stroke of his pen, Renault gave it a poetic name - paper airplane.
Of course, Murphy, who is in charge of the magic triangle wing project team, does not agree that the aircraft he has painstakingly developed is just a delicate and fragile paper aircraft. He thinks the name "big iron bird" or "steel Eagle" is more appropriate.
For this reason, Murphy has complained many times in private.
However, a few months later, when Renault took out a drawing with a smile, the man never mentioned this topic again.
As the alpha team approached the port of Pyrenees, Gollum, the leader of the team, whistled. The team immediately put out the jet engine of the paper plane and glided to a flat grass.
As a relatively primitive aircraft, the maneuverability of paper aircraft is very urgent. Even the most experienced pilots can not guarantee that it can land in the designated area accurately.
If you want to land safely and avoid such tragedies as "hitting a big tree" and "falling into a river", you need a landing site with an area of no less than 5000 square meters.
When flying over the landing site, the team members try their best to raise the nose and press down the tail, so as to increase the windward area and achieve the purpose of rapid deceleration.
"Hua Hua..."
As soon as the first paper plane touched the grass, the huge sound of grass blade friction suddenly sounded. The body with a wingspan of more than 6 meters bumped into a passage of more than 60 meters in the grass, and the paper plane stopped.
Pilot Spalletti quickly lifted up the paper plane, bared his teeth and got out. He hobbled a few steps, which slowly recovered.
When he touched the ground just now, his feet suffered a huge impact, and he was shocked to a great pain.
After confirming that he was not injured, Spalletti had a big smile on his face.
In fact, this kind of field landing is quite dangerous, because no one knows that there are some magic horse things in the dense grass.
If there is a big stone lying in it, the driver accidentally bumps into it and breaks his legs. It''s a piece of bad luck. It''s not impossible to be seriously injured or even belch.