All work is being carried out nervously and orderly——
Using the prototype as a template, engineers spent another three days assembling an identical WS-1.
Xiu simulated the tail into an interface plug and inserted it into the prototype to familiarize himself with how to control the thruster in advance.
Chris led another group of people to start modifying the test boat. Due to the relatively simple structure, the modification was also completed within three days.
Xia Ye took Xiuji to the warehouse where the wing bones were stored and let him eat them for three days...
Finally, the exciting moment came - mainly Xia Ye was excited, while others were mostly in a state of doubt of "can this really work?"
The two propellers are installed side by side on a disposable bracket at an angle of 45 degrees and fixed with tenons. The bracket is connected to a shuttle that slides forward and backward along rails buried under the foredeck - thus creating a set of unpowered "catapults".
But the biggest technical difficulty of the catapult is the power system. It must be able to provide a huge thrust in an instant, be able to adjust the thrust according to the quality of the load, and must have high reliability and maintainability.
Fortunately, Xia Ye happened to have such a power source...
On the deck, Xiu had already put his legs into the reserved spaces of the thrusters. Different from the concept drawing originally drawn by Xia Ye, Chris finally designed the air inlets on both sides from the perspective of engineering feasibility. The back side of the leg.
This design is reasonable. According to Chris, when Xiu is in level flight, the ether wind can blow into the air inlet along the relatively flat back. If the air inlet is placed on both sides of the legs, The movement of the hands will obviously seriously interfere with the intake airflow. If it is designed on the side in front of the legs...
"Isn't that equivalent to the DSI air intake!" Xia Ye blurted out.
"D...S...I? What is that?" Chris asked curiously. She originally wanted to say that if the airflow is blocked by the chest, the air intake efficiency will definitely become lower.
Xia Ye tried hard to recall the knowledge that she had only a little knowledge of, and roughly explained the principles and functions of DSI.
"...In short, the bulge does not necessarily cause obstruction, but may eliminate the boundary layer, compress the ether wind, and improve the air intake efficiency. However, this design has very strict requirements for the bulge, which cannot be too large or too small. The shape also has to conform to a certain curve, otherwise it’s not as efficient as air intake from the back.”
"Is there such a thing..." Chris heard this with doubt, "Is this also knowledge learned from another city?"
"Well, this is called 'aerodynamics', it's very complicated."
Seeing that Xia Ye was serious about it, Chris finally became a little interested: "If that's true... Let's try it out when we are free in the future. It just so happens that we start from the youngest here..." As she said that, she took a look summer night.
"To the biggest..." She glanced at Yaha again. Of course, the first mate who was not present was no less generous, and there were quite a few samples of large DSI drum kits.
"...all of them!"
"..." Xia Ye looked at Chris with a smile, thinking about how to reasonably use the power of the major shareholder to deduct her salary this month to 0.
While the two were discussing DSI, Xiu had made all preparations with the help of engineers. Her tail was bifurcated into two and inserted into the interfaces of two thrusters respectively. The thrusters had entered fan mode and made a low buzzing sound on the fixed bracket. If the shuttle hadn't been fixed at the starting point by the hook, it would have been slowly sliding forward along the guide rail under the thrust of the fan.
Everything is ready, all that's left is repair.
Xia Ye patted the black cat sleeping on top of her head and said, "It's your turn!"
"Meow~~" Xiuji yawned and lazily jumped from the top of his head to the ground.
"You've eaten half of the whale bones in the warehouse these days, so you have to work hard~"
"Don't worry, meow. Although this cat has not finished digesting it, such a light thing is nothing more than a trivial matter!"
The black cat jumped up, its body rapidly expanded in mid-air, and then split into two groups of equal size, falling to the left and right sides respectively.
When they landed on the deck, they had turned into two groups of tentacles with teeth and claws, each group consisting of five slender tentacles. The next second, all the tentacles stretched out and headed towards the repair scroll in the center of the deck.
Two on each left and right legs, two on her hands, and two on her body. The ten tentacles wrapped around the girl's body symmetrically.
"Confirmation by the thruster engineer!" Xia Ye shouted according to the already designed process.
After checking the status of the thruster for the last time, the engineer responded: "Confirm!" After that, he quickly ran away from the ejection area.
"Strike Witch Confirmed!" Xia Ye shouted next.
According to the process requirements, the things Xiu needs to check include: whether "Synchronized Strengthening" has been turned on, whether each tentacle is tightly wrapped around the body, whether the thruster is operating normally... The girl quickly checked everything and pointed to Xia Ye. He nodded and shouted:
"Confirm meow~"
Xia Ye looked at Xiuji and said, "Shoggoth catapult confirmed!"
A few seconds later, a voice came from the tentacle: "Confirm!"
"The current ship speed?" Xia Ye looked at Chris.
"180 knots, cruising speed." Chris replied.
"Okay." Xia Ye nodded, and then announced loudly: "Five seconds to eject! Five, four..."
Along with the countdown, the ten tentacles distributed in a "V" shape quickly tightened. The Shoggoths are a very powerful race and can easily explode thousands of kilograms of thrust. The mass is less than 100 kilograms, which means that the Shoggoth catapult can achieve an acceleration of more than 10G! If it weren't for "synchronized reinforcement", the girl's body might have been torn into pieces while being ejected.
"...Three, two, one. Eject!"
Release the hook that fixes the shuttle——
"呲呲呲呲呲呲——"
There was a sharp and ear-piercing sound, and the shuttle rubbed sparks in the guide rail. The girl, like a stone in a slingshot, reached the end of the deck in an instant. With a muffled "bang" sound, the shuttle hit the buffer seat at the end of the guide rail. The impact caused the latch to open, and the propeller detached from the bracket, and flew out of the barrier together with the girl.
A strong ether wind blew towards her face. Xiu input instructions to the thruster through her tail to activate the contract in the compression ignition chamber. One second passed, but the thruster did not respond. Two seconds, three seconds... As time went by, she His body began to fall, and in the blink of an eye he disappeared into the sea of clouds.
But she did not panic. She adjusted her body posture in the air, allowing herself to dive downwards with her head down, and at the same time activated the compression ignition contract again.
boom--
The roar of ether detonation finally came from beneath the feet, and the sound of the propeller's operation also became louder. A huge force suddenly appeared, pushing the girl's light body to continue to accelerate. Repair the locked fan, let the propeller fully enter the ram propulsion mode, and at the same time move the legs unskillfully to change the direction of the thrust torque from downward to upward.
The girl dragged golden tail flames behind her, drawing a "U" shaped trajectory.
After a while, Xiu broke out of the thick clouds.
Her field of vision suddenly became vast, and when she turned around, she saw a sea of golden clouds stretching beneath her feet, all the way to the sky. Behind her, the test ship had been thrown away by her for a long distance, but she could still barely see the cheering crowd on the front deck waving their hands.
Some inexplicable feeling arose in his heart. From this moment on, Xiu completely fell in love with the feeling of flying on the etheric sea.
(End of chapter)
