In the independent building of the Beijing Research Institute, Li Yin and some experts from the Research Institute were squinting at a car in front of them, and after half a ring, Li Yin turned his head to several managers from Yushi Group around him. "What do you think?"

Since the establishment of the national government, Yan Shao moved the original research institute to Beijing and renamed it the research institute, and the president is still Li Yin.

The mission of the entire institute is to specialize in the study of some of the most cutting-edge or practical techniques of this era.

When the Yushi Group sent a telegram asking the research institute to redesign a model based on the original 'Raindrop' car, Li Yin and the others were testing a newly developed aircraft.

Fighters, to be exact ...

And the first fighter of this era ...

At this time, it has been 10 years since the Wright brothers first flew into the sky with an airplane, and in ten years, although the airplane is still no different from a toy in the eyes of many people, it still has some practicality.

However, these planes can only be said to be airplanes, not fighters, because at this time the planes were not equipped specifically for air combat. The earliest weapons used in air combat were even more varied, bricks, stones, grenades, and pistols were all weapons. The earliest air battle of mankind occurred in the Mexican Civil War in 1911, when the Revolutionary Army hired American pilot Evan Lamber to fly the "Curtis" plane and exchanged pistols with a government reconnaissance plane in the air, setting a precedent for air combat.

Two pilots, fighting with pistols in the air. This may have been a funny story in later generations, but it was true in this era, because the planes at this time had no weapons for combat.

Later with the development of the war. Aerial battles have become fierce, aircraft performance and pilots' experience have been constantly enriched, and various countries have developed aviation machine guns suitable for aircraft combat. At the beginning of the First World War, the French were the first to load machine guns on the ground with movable mounts on the back seat of airplanes. On October 5, 1914, French pilot Franz and observer Canot flew a Vazin plane to patrol the air, and spotted a German reconnaissance plane reconnoitring the French line, and Franz approached the enemy plane. Kenott aimed it with a machine gun and shot it down, the first time in the history of air combat that an enemy plane was shot down.

Then. The propellers of the aircraft are mostly located in front of the nose, and the front-firing bullets can hit the propeller blades, limiting the aircraft's combat potential. The French pilot Garros installed a set of sliding plate devices at the base of the propeller of his landline plane, which initially solved the problem of the propeller blades being damaged by the front-firing bullet. On April 1, 1915, he flew into the air. Easily shot down a German plane. Later, he shot down 2 more planes and forced the landing of 2 German planes, thus becoming the first ace pilot with a record of 5 aircraft.

However, doing so still limits a lot of performance, and it's not a pure fighter...

Until something else comes along...

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Airplanes are a toy in this era, and at most they are useful for reconnaissance, which is a view of the vast majority of people in this era. But as a descendant, Yan Shao will definitely not see it this way.

So when the research institute was still a research institute, Yan Shao had already invested a lot of money. Let Li Yin and his team conduct research on aircraft and aero engines. Due to the abundance of funds, and the fact that it is easy to buy techniques from abroad at this time. Therefore, the performance of the aircraft built by the institute will not be inferior to that of the best aircraft of its time.

But in the development of fighters, the research institute got bogged down, putting machine guns behind the planes? Let another pilot operate? It's no problem to do this, but it doesn't meet Yan Shao's requirements.

However, if the machine gun is placed in front of the nose according to Yan Shao's requirements, the bullets fired by the machine gun will hit the blades, affect the performance of the aircraft, and even cause safety problems.

Yan Shao also has a headache about this matter, as a man, it is almost instinctive to love the military, the problem is that the military enthusiasts of his era usually only pay attention to World War II, and they are not very interested in World War I, as for the nose machine gun or something, it has long been used by the time of World War II...

In the end, there was no choice, Yan Shao had no choice but to do a handshake shopkeeper, told Li Yin and them to think of a way, and then went to their own business.

And Li Yin and them, dozens of people, couldn't come up with a way to break their heads.

It wasn't until after the institute moved to Beijing that a female researcher came back from outside buying a windmill from outside, and the windmill was blown around in the yard.

The researcher had bought a double-decker windmill, with a smaller one in the front and a slightly larger one in the back. At that time, a male researcher was immediately inspired when he saw this scene, and quickly ran to Li Yin and talked about his inspiration.

His solution is also very simple, similar to the French, that is, to install a set of sliding plate device at the base of the propeller, so that naturally there is no problem.

Soon the researchers of the institute worked together to install such a device at the root of one of the institute's aircraft. As far as the test effect is concerned, it does have a great effect after installation, although the performance of the machine gun is very limited, but at least the machine gun bullets no longer pose any threat to the blades.

After that, Li Yin and the others also let the plane go to the sky to try it a few times, and the results were all excellent.

Seeing that the test was successful, Li Yin, who had finally solved a matter on his mind, hurriedly called Yan Shao over, and after watching the results, Yan Shao also praised Li Yin, especially the researcher who had a lot of ideas, and even rewarded the researcher with a lot of money—————— in fact, he didn't understand it very well, and thought that the fighters of World War I were like this...

At that time, Yan Shao rewarded the researcher with a total of 1,000 yuan, which was enough to buy a hundred acres of land in China at this time. This scene naturally aroused a lot of envy and jealousy in the eyes of others.

Again, perhaps as a reward, the researcher's invention of the slide board device was a great inspiration to another researcher, and he soon developed an invention more important than the slide board device. It was also an important foundation for fighter jets during the First World War.

Shooting Synchronous Coordinator ...

This mechanism is equipped with a double cam on the propeller shaft, and the protrusion is directly opposite the two propellers. When the propeller blades are turned right in front of the bullet shot, the cam operates a connecting rod to lift. The machine gun automatically stops firing, which avoids hitting the blades, and when it turns away, bullets can fly out of the gaps in the blades.

Historically, it took the Germans 48 hours to invent the firing coordinator after seeing the French pluck-sliding plate, and it took the researcher a whole week.

But such a long period of research has also paid off handsomely......... The bonus of 5,000 yuan, considering that the annual income of ordinary people in this era is only 3 or 40 yuan. This money is enough to keep him eating and drinking for the rest of his life...

And the invention of this device also made the first fighter in the history of mankind appear in China...

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The request (request) of the Yushi Group for the new model was sent shortly after the successful test of the fighter, and at this time the research institute was actually independent from the Yushi Group. However, at this stage, the research and development funds of the research institute are all obtained from Yushi Group, and Yan Shao is the behind-the-scenes boss of the group, so Li Yin and they dare not refuse this request (request)...

In fact, at this time, the scale of the institute was much larger than in the past, and the number of researchers directly involved in the research reached more than 700. There are not only Chinese researchers, but also some well-known scientists from Europe and the United States.

The reason why the latter came to China is simple. Because Yushi Group's financial assistance to the institute is too generous, especially for those promising projects. Anyway, the group is not bad for money now, so naturally there is no need to be stingy with this kind of thing.

Therefore, it is impossible for the research institute to draw out a team of experts of dozens of people to help design new models. At this time, the people from the Yushi Group are also looking at the new 'raindrop' car in front of them with scrutinizing eyes.

According to Yan Shao's requirements, Li Yin did not directly design a new car, but made some improvements on the original basis.

After all, when you design a new car, the whole thing is just too much trouble.

Not much about the time it takes to design a new car. No matter how efficient it is, it took a year, right? This is still under the condition that the development is going well, and if it doesn't, it is likely that it will take a little more time.

After that, the supporting 'assembly line' also needs to be adjusted. At present, the 'assembly lines' used by automobile companies each have their own strict standards. For example, the assembly line used in the current 'raindrop' car has only required more than 7,000 steps after a series of simplifications, and the entire assembly line is designed according to these more than 7,000 steps.

If you're designing a new car, you'll need to redesign an assembly line to match the car, and each step will have to be optimized to save the most time, which can be a long time when you design it. No way, after all, it has just entered the industrial age.

Therefore, it is better to improve on the basis of raindrops, so that most of the original parts can be used, and the assembly line only needs to be slightly improved. Not only does it save money, but it also saves time.

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In the room, the people of the Yushi Group were still looking at the new car with scrutinizing eyes, and an expert next to him had already spoken.

"Your group's requirement is to optimize the comfort and performance of your car with as little impact on costs as possible, and that's what we're optimising..."

"The first is comfort, in the case of continuing to use the original chassis, we have made some changes to the shell of the car, so that the shape of the car has become fuller, the interior space is more spacious than the original, and the comfort has been greatly increased, of course, limited to the volume of the chassis, the interior space of the car must not be compared with Liulan, but we are not originally going to design a car to replace Liulan, so this is a matter of consciousness..."

"Of course, in the case of the body volume has become larger, the weight of the whole car has also increased a little, although it is not much, but the engine power of the original raindrop is not very high, if the original engine is continued, the speed of the new car will be greatly affected, which is also inconsistent with our original idea of improving performance, so we used the new engine developed a few days ago. In terms of power, it is a line stronger than the original, so that even if the body is heavier than the original, it will not affect the performance of the car. ”

"At the same time, we have adopted a new type of tyre. The tires are wider than those used in the original Raindrop car, but due to the limitations of the chassis, they are worse than the Liulan, but even then they are much stronger than the original Raindrops. ”

"In addition, since the interior of the car is much more spacious than before, we have also rearranged the interior."

"At present, the research institute has named the new car 'Raindrop A' because of the new engine, new body shell and tires, etc. So the cost of the whole car is probably more than $100 higher than the original..."

Originally, the cost of the raindrop car was only more than 200 US dollars, but now the body shell, engine, tires, etc. are optimized without changing the chassis. $100 isn't a lot.

And after listening to the expert's account, the people sent by the group also evaluated.

Due to the optimization of the body shell, the shape of the whole car is much fuller and more pleasing to the eye than the raindrops. Although on the whole, it is still a lot worse than Liulan. But it can be reached with just over $100 in costs. This is quite a success.

What is missing now is only a field test.

However, considering that only the wheels and shell of the whole car are new, and everything else is something that has been used for a long time, it is very unlikely that something will go wrong.

Thinking of this, the person at the head said to Li Yin. "For now, there should be no problem, and I hope that Dean Li can assemble a few more vehicles for us to conduct field tests to see if there are any hidden dangers." As long as it doesn't, I believe it will be on the market soon..."

"This is no problem..."The funds of the research institute are basically provided by Yushi Group. Li Yin naturally didn't dare to have too much arrogance. "I'll have them assemble 5 of them later, 3 of them for you, and the remaining 2 for ourselves to see if there's anything else that needs to be improved, okay?"

"No problem...", the man nodded slightly. In that case, let's go back and report first, someone will come to pick up the car later, but it will trouble you, Dean Li..."

"It's nothing, it's all I should do..."

After being polite, the people from the group just left the research institute in a car, and Li Yin also arranged for a few people to stay, waiting for the people from the Yushi Group to come to pick up the car...

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Automobiles are the most profitable business in the group, so the group attaches great importance to it. After learning that there was indeed no major problem, someone soon went to the research institute to pick up the car.

On the other hand, Elaline also found Yan Shao and told him that the car had been completed.

It was already early February, and the weather was a little warmer. Handing over the coat he had taken off to his subordinates, Elaline went straight to Yan Shao's office.

In the office, Yan Shao was looking at a telegram.

The telegram was sent from the South American side, and the content was simple, and the sailors who sailed to South America by ship were almost trained. Although I dare not say how strong the combat strength is, with the help of the Brazilians, it is still no problem to drive the ship all the way back to China, and this telegram from Buzigao is asking if they can go north to join Liu Guanxiong and them.

“……… The speed is okay..."Pursed his lips, although there was no telegram from Liu Guanxiong's side, but considering the time it takes to get from Rio de Janeiro to New York, since the steps are high, they are almost on their side, so by the time they go north and arrive off the coast of New York, Liu Guanxiong and their side should be almost ready.

Of course, I must have sent a telegram to inquire in advance, after all, the displacement of the Livadavia that Liu Guanxiong is responsible for is obviously larger than that of Bugao, and the personnel required are also more. On top of that, on the way back they relied entirely on the navy's own officers and men, and it was significantly more difficult to hire Brazilians than they were to hire...

It's just that just when Yan Shao was thinking about whether to send a telegram to Liu Guanxiong and inquire about the progress of the training, Elaline pushed open the door and walked in from the outside.

"The car is done..."

Walking to the corner of the room and pouring himself a glass of water, Elano said to Yan Shao, who was looking at him.

"It's fast..."Hearing that it was so fast, Yan Shao was a little surprised.

After all, it's only the beginning of February, and the time is a little too much anyway.

"It's just a shell," Elano chuckled. The whole car chassis is the original, only the shell, interior space, tires and engine are new, in which the engine is a mature product, there is no need to worry about the reliability of the tires......... It seems that there will be no problem, only the shell and the interior space are more troublesome, because it has to be redesigned, but this time we are urgent, so their efficiency is also very high, after finding a special designer to design, it only took 1 week to design the shape of the car..."

It is not surprising that the cars of this era were originally very simple, and they were even more like cars when they were still handicraft workshops five years ago.

Li Yin's idea is also very simple, this time it is mainly to experiment whether the concept proposed by Yan Shao is feasible, so the shape of the car is not too particular in the design, and the interior space is the same, so it is naturally much simpler. (To be continued......)