From December 1903, the Wright brothers piloted the self-made 3.2 type aircraft to 1912, about the first year, but in this first year, the world's aviation industry is showing a blowout of development, the aircraft from the beginning can only hold dozens of seconds to ten minutes, dozens of minutes, the range from tens of meters, to hundreds of meters, thousands of meters to tens of hundreds of kilometers, the speed of development is extremely fast.

The appearance of the aircraft has also attracted the attention of the [***] family, although the degree of attention of various countries is different, but basically have begun to get involved in the new affairs of the aircraft, and so on in 1911 in the Italian-Turkish War for the first time after the aircraft was used in the war, it was even more stimulating to the [***] family, countries began to prepare for the formation of their own aviation units.

However, on the other hand, because the plane appeared for too short a time, the role of many high-ranking generals in the plane was still limited to reconnaissance, and even the officers of the aviation unit did not know what their planes could do. In addition, the airship is on the rise in this year, Germany's large airship shocked all countries at the same time, all countries are also vigorously developing airships, relatively speaking, the development speed of aircraft in the army was very slow before World War I, and the troops of various countries did not even have clear requirements for aircraft, only required to be able to do reconnaissance, easy to drive.

In short, at this time of 1912, airplanes were still a novelty, and the [***] people had hopes and curiosity about airplanes, but they had not yet realized the great impact they were about to have. In China, airplanes are even rarer, although many foreign pilots have performed in China, so that some Chinese know about airplanes, but so far, airplanes are still very strange to the majority of Chinese.

Unlike others, Chen Jingyun is very clear about the future potential of the aircraft, and even has absolute hope for the aircraft. At present, China has lagged far behind in both the navy and the army, and the army can say that it will be able to catch up with it if it really wants to be reunified, but the navy will not be able to; with China's current basic industrial capacity, even if it develops steadily for 30 or 40 years, it will not be able to catch up with the naval level of Britain and the United States, and there is no other way to achieve naval superiority than to preemptively develop aircraft and aircraft carriers.

For this reason, when he invested heavily in the expansion of the Fuzhou Arsenal, he did not forget the Mawei Shipyard, although Fujian has always been extremely financially difficult, but still a considerable amount of funds will be allocated to the Mawei Shipyard every month, on the one hand, for the maintenance of the Mawei Shipyard, and on the other hand, for the research and development of aircraft. Later, after the Fuzhou Arsenal acquired the Mawei Shipyard, although the military and political axes no longer paid funds to the Mawei Shipyard, the research and development funds for the aircraft have not stopped, and even the Fuzhou Arsenal even signed a research and development contract with the Ministry of Equipment for this purpose, and the Ministry of Equipment paid for the research and development of the aircraft.

Xi Zhixing, who was originally in charge of the Mawei Shipyard, said that he knew what the plane was, but he couldn't figure out how to build it, so he searched around and found a few talents, one of which was Qin Guoyong, who came back from studying in France, and learned aviation technology in France, and before Xinhai, he also used the plane he brought back to the Manchu magnates and the ministers of various countries to perform a flight show, but the Manchu magnates were just curious about the plane, and after the admiration, Qin Guoyong was thrown aside, and the whole country was in chaos after Xinhai, and no one paid attention to him. Later, he received an invitation from Mawei Shipyard, saying that he was asked to build airplanes, although he wondered how a shipyard could build airplanes, but he seemed to have a lot of salary and enthusiasm for airplanes, so he came to Fuzhou.

After that, Xi Zhixing took Qin Guoyong as the center, and then concentrated on more than a dozen technicians to start developing the aircraft, this time slowly passed at the same time, they also built the first aircraft, although which plane can only fly for more than ten minutes, but it is enough for the people present to be excited, and then they imported more powerful engines from abroad, ready to design larger, more advanced aircraft, so that the time is more than half a year.

Looking at the biplanes parked in the open space, Chen Jingyun showed curiosity, the planes in front of him are not big, and they are standing a little far, so they look slightly smaller, looking at the style of this plane and the many biplane wooden planes that Chen Jingyun has seen in his previous life are not much different, and after taking a closer look, Chen Jingyun found that this plane is really very simple, and even Chen Jingyun doubts whether such a simple plane can fly into the sky, and will it fall apart after flying?

When Chen Jingyun watched, Tang Huikang also whispered a few words to a man next to him, and then turned to Chen Jingyun and said: "Now the aircraft factory is in charge of Mr. Qin Guoyong, and I will let Mr. Qin explain a thing or two to the governor!" ”

Chen Jingyun nodded, looking at this Qin Guoyong, this person is also very ordinary, and they are all wearing suits and ties like the department heads of the Fuzhou Arsenal, there is not much difference, after nodding his head, Qin Guoyong also walked over, and first said: "Governor!" ”

"Hmmm! Tell me, how is this plane, how is the speed, range, and load? Chen Jingyun asked casually.

When he heard Chen Jingyun's question, he seemed to be extremely familiar with airplanes, but when he thought about it, Qin Guoyong was relieved, if he didn't know anything about airplanes, I am afraid that the governor in front of him would not have wasted so much money on the development and manufacture of airplanes. You must know that in order to develop the aircraft, more than 100,000 funds have been invested before and after, and I am afraid that no one will come up with so much money without confidence and expectations.

After making up his mind, Qin Guoyong said: "Our aircraft factory has gone through more than half a year of research and development, and has developed and trial-produced more than four models of more than ten aircraft, and then tested and continuously transformed according to the models manufactured. At present, this aircraft is our latest trial model, the power of the aircraft imported from the United Kingdom, the other fuselage parts are our own construction, the aircraft is piloted by one person, the maximum speed can reach 100 kilometers per hour, the range has reached 250 kilometers, in addition to the pilot himself, you can also bring other things, but we have not yet developed a bomb for aircraft throwing, if you really want to bring only grenades. ”

"Can you test the flight and see!" Chen Jingyun always felt that the plane in front of him was a little hanging, the planes in his previous life were all high-tech products, even if they were planes in World War II, they were also high-end industrial products, when did they become so simple, especially the cockpit, it was still exposed and there was not even a wind shield, and Chen Jingyun didn't find a few of the equipment inside.

"Of course you can, we have been building these planes for seven or eight days, and we have carried out dozens of test flights before and after without any problems!" After Qin Guoyong answered, he said a few words to the next few technologies, and then a group of technicians began to prepare.

In this year's airplane, the preparation for take-off was also simple, it did not take half an hour to prepare, and as the propeller in the nose of the plane rotated, there was a piercing roar, and the wooden biplane was staggering and taxied in the open space, and then the nose was lifted and gradually left the ground.

Chen Jingyun showed a satisfied expression after seeing the plane take off, but at this time, the other people who followed Chen Jingyun to inspect were all dumbfounded!

Especially Lin Chengkun's mouth opened wide, as if he wanted to stuff the whole egg.

Airplanes, Lin Chengkun has heard of them several times, and he also knows that there is an aircraft factory over there in Mawei, but today is the first time he has seen the real thing in such a long time. When he first saw these planes, Lin Chengkun still wondered, this plane is just a wooden frame, can it fly?

But when he saw that the plane was really taxiing and flying, he was speechless in astonishment.

After being surprised, a scene appeared in his mind! The two armies are fighting, the enemy army sends troops to attack in a roundabout way, and their own planes spot this roundabout force in the sky, and then make corresponding tactical adjustments themselves to annihilate this roundabout force. Or use the aircraft to find holes in the opponent's defense line from the air, and then concentrate your forces to strike down.

This scene in his mind became clearer and clearer, and Lin Chengkun had already walked to Chen Jingyun's side before the plane landed, and said, "Governor, buy a few planes for the guard division, and then my guard division can set up an aerial reconnaissance company!" ”

Since Lin Chengkun was able to think of using the plane for reconnaissance, and the other people present were not stupid people, they naturally all thought of the huge role of this aircraft reconnaissance, and Zhuang Dafu, the deputy commander of the Fourth Division on the side, also showed his eyes: "Dudu, this plane is a good thing!" ”

Seeing that these generals were all interested in the plane, Ouyang Tian, the minister of equipment on the side, walked up to Qin Guoyong and asked, "I don't know how much this plane costs?" ”

When Qin Guoyong heard Ouyang Tian ask the price, he immediately had a happy look on his face: "Is the army going to purchase it now?" ”

Ouyang Tian didn't answer and asked: "This depends on the price and efficiency, and in the end, it depends on the meaning of the governor, you talk about the price first, I have a bottom in my heart!" ”

Qin Guoyong calculated in his heart and said: "Not counting the early development costs, if you consider the manufacturing cost alone, an aircraft is about 1,500 yuan, and most of the cost is used to purchase engines!" ”

Hearing that it was only more than 1,000 yuan, it also made Ouyang Tian secretly relieved in his heart, he was afraid that this plane would be tens of thousands or even tens of thousands when it came, and he would not be able to purchase it at that time, but now it is only more than 1,000 words can still be accepted, and the equipment department should be able to buy a batch if he squeezes it. Of course, the specific situation depends on Chen Jingyun's meaning.

Hearing that Lin Chengkun and Zhuang Dafu both said that they wanted to purchase aircraft, and several other officers also showed expectant expressions, Chen Jingyun smiled: "It's not in a hurry, this plane must be bought, but it has nothing to do with you, and I will set up a separate aviation unit to manage it at that time." ”

Hearing this, Lin Chengkun was not disappointed: "It's all the same, equipping all units and setting up new units to manage them are the same, as long as you can provide reconnaissance intelligence on the front line at that time!" ”

When everyone said this, the plane in the sky was already preparing to land, and after the plane landed, Chen Jingyun said to Qin Guoyong again: "You also heard, we are ready to equip the plane, but I think the plane still has big defects, you have to continue to change!" ”

"In addition, this kind of aircraft is too small, and it is okay to use it for reconnaissance, but it is not good for bombing, so you are going to develop a large aircraft specifically for bombing, and at the same time I will ask others to cooperate with you for aerial bombs dropped by aircraft!" Chen Jingyun said that he remembered the aircraft carrier, since he came here today, Chen Jingyun asked for the surname to say all the thoughts in his heart, even if he can't build it now, but he has to start the preliminary research.

So Chen Jingyun said directly: "Regarding the direction of the aircraft factory, let me tell you, first of all, the current aircraft should continue to improve and further enhance various surnames; Second, as soon as possible, design an aircraft with a machine gun that can be used to shoot down enemy balloons, airships, planes. thirdly, the development of an aircraft specifically designed for bombing, which must carry more and heavier bombs; Fourth, the engines required for the aircraft should be imitated and localized as much as possible. These general directions do not mean that you should do it immediately, but only give you a general direction, so that you know what kind of aircraft our army needs, and in what direction you should work in the future! ”