Chapter 793: 749 A Different Test Flight Chapter 793: 749 A Different Test Flight “Huff! Huff!” Even with the oxygen mask on, Sun Rui could still hear his own tense breathing. He once thought he had gone crazy to undertake such a mad endeavor.
At this very moment, he was piloting a Stuka Dive Bomber, descending towards the endless blue sea below him.
His plane wasn’t carrying any weapons and was rocking up and down in the strong sea breeze. Sun Rui could feel the bumpiness of his plane, but that wasn’t the reason for his anxiety.
The main reason he felt crazed was because directly ahead, pointed at by the nose of his plane, was a ship tossing on the sea; that ship turned out to be the very airstrip he was about to land on!
Yes, it was the first aircraft carrier in the history of this planet, the Great Tang Kingdom’s Aircraft Carrier Tongcheng No. 1.
The aircraft carriers of this era didn’t really have much sophisticated technology, and compared to the expensive battleships, they were much cheaper to build.
Completely different from the first nations to build aircraft carriers on Earth, Tang Mo had the foresight in this area, so he didn’t take any detours.
The first designed aircraft carrier featured a straight flight deck that ran the entire length of the warship, with the island positioned to one side and a fixed funnel installed.
The overall design was almost a copy of the American Essex-class aircraft carrier, right down to the primary specifications.
The warship’s main dimensions were 265.79 meters by 44.99 meters, with a standard displacement of 27,100 tons and a full load displacement of 33,000 tons.
The crew complement was 2,750–3,450 people, including the aircrew and sailors, as well as commanding officers, doctors, nurses, mechanics, and so on…
The power came from four steam turbines, steam propulsion, four shafts, and four propellers, with a top speed of 33 knots, an operational range of 20,000 nautical miles at 15 knots, a flight deck of 262.13 meters by 29.26 meters, and a maximum aircraft capacity of 85–95 planes.
Although the aircraft carrier of the Great Tang lagged slightly behind the historical Essex-class in terms of the number of aircraft due to different plane models, it was a matter of only a few planes.
Even possessing a nearly 30-meter-wide and 262-meter-long flight deck, the aircraft carrier seemed pitifully small in the eyes of the pilot about to land on it amidst the vast sea.
Especially in the eyes of the pilot participating in the landing experiment… Sun Rui was the first test pilot in the world to land a plane on an aircraft carrier.
He started at a high point, piloting a fixed, single-wing metal-skinned carrier-based aircraft. This plane had also been weighted to simulate the additional heft of the carrier-based aircraft’s folding wings.
Due to time constraints, although the airplane was modified, it did not use a folding wing design. Therefore, some iron blocks were stacked on the co-pilot’s seat to simulate the actual weight of the plane.
On the Aircraft Carrier Tongcheng No. 1, the experiment participants were all looking up, watching the wobbly plane that was approaching closer and closer.
They were also very nervous, extremely so: if that plane crashed onto the deck of the aircraft carrier, it wouldn’t just be a simple matter of the experiment failing. Afterwards, the carrier would have to return for repairs, and a new test plane would have to be manufactured.
Sun Rui was even more nervous as he repeated the steps he would have to perform in a few moments over and over in his mind, lowering the tailhook as he neared the carrier.
He had to control his plane, enter the carrier’s runway at an appropriate angle, catch the arresting wire with the tailhook to decelerate the aircraft instantly, and complete the landing.
If he flew too high, he would miss the arresting wire and would have to pull up immediately, causing the plane to take off again to ensure his own safety, as well as that of the plane and the aircraft carrier.
But if he flew too low… well, then he would crash into the stern of the carrier with no chance to bail out.
In control of all this was a set of signal lights. They faced the carrier aircraft’s landing approach directly, indicating to the pilots their precise position by the angle.
Unfortunately, these indicators could only provide a rough guide, as the aircraft carriers themselves never stopped swaying on the high seas.
Fortunately, precision wasn’t needed for aircraft landing, as there were four arresting wires, and the carrier-based aircraft pilots needed only to hook the tailhook onto any one of them to succeed.
There was a reason for choosing the Stuka Dive Bomber as the experimental aircraft type: this plane used fixed landing gear, it was slower, and its structure was easier to reinforce, making it more manageable than the Butcher Fighter.
As the distance closed, the carrier in front of Sun Rui’s eyes kept getting larger, inching closer, and descending bit by bit until he could see the row of distinct lights through the cockpit glass.
He could clearly see the landing signal lights, indicating that he was in the correct zone. The weather was very good today; looking from the sky, the carrier itself hardly showed any noticeable sway.
“Your attitude is great! Keep it steady!” came the loud reminder through the headset from an observer on the carrier, clutching the communicator.
Sun Rui could feel his palms sweating as they gripped the control stick, his leather gloves felt wet and oppressively hot.
It was too late to think about removing them now; he was already in the landing path. Any issues would have to wait until he was safely on the carrier.
So, biting the bullet, he checked his instruments and attitude once more. The ten seconds or so of landing distance felt like an hour’s flight to him.