Munitions Empire

Chapter 1018: 940 new products

In the port of Linshui of the Tang Empire, a new session of the World Technology Expo was held. This assembly has always been the most advanced technology meeting in the world, attracting a large group of technicians and scientists from all over the globe.

They come here to seek inspiration, exchange their research findings, and inform each other about the latest technological developments.

Just like a group of pilgrims, they find the inspiration they seek in the Tang Empire, see the latest directions in technological research, and witness the truth they have long awaited…

At this moment, a group of Dwarves was curiously inspecting a Mi-1 type helicopter, a completely new type of aircraft.

For technicians of any country, this new type of aircraft represents a future that they haven’t even imagined.

Helicopter technology is not really a brand-new technology; after the invention of the propeller, normal designers would start to explore the field of using propellers in a vertical orientation.

But the technology of this world is deformed. Aside from the Tang Empire, technicians from other countries have always been passively accepting leaked technology from the Great Tang Group. They haven’t fully grasped the existing technology they hold, let alone contemplate the branches of these technologies.

Therefore, when these technicians first see a helicopter, they are astonished. Indeed, some of them have thought of such designs, but many have been stopped by various difficulties.

The helicopter is not actually a symmetric design; with the exception of special types of helicopters used by the Tang Empire like the Zhinu Gan, most helicopters are actually asymmetric designs.

At the rear of a helicopter, a tail rotor must be specifically designed to counteract the torque created by the main rotor. This problem also exists in propeller fighter jets.

For such issues on propeller fighter jets, they are generally solved with trimming, which means using the slight differences in adjusting the control surfaces on both sides to counteract the torque when the plane is flying forward.

This method works for faster piston aircraft, but it’s utterly ineffective for helicopters, which emphasize hovering and vertical take-off and landing.

Thus, helicopters need tail rotors to counteract the torque, preventing the fuselage from spinning with the rotor—engineers from other countries that haven’t fully understood propeller design wouldn’t be able to come up with this.

They are still caught up in the mindset of learning about propeller aircraft and using difference in rotors’ directions of rotation to counteract the torque. Their imagined helicopters are actually structured in a similar fashion to the Osprey V-22.

Unfortunately, such design is too complicated for early helicopters, too heavy, and thus affects the practicality of the aircraft.

This has once led engineers from various countries engaged in such research to doubt whether their developed helicopters were entirely useless.

These doubts dissipated as helicopters from the Tang Empire increasingly appeared before the eyes of the world; the outstanding performance of the UH-1 helicopter provided hope to all engineers involved in such designs.

Thus, once again, people traveled from far and wide to the Tang Empire, converging in Linshui to witness the Tang Empire’s newly sold helicopter: the Mi-1 multipurpose helicopter.

The newly designed Mi-1 helicopter can carry 3 passengers for vertical take-offs and landings at suitable locations—a capability genuinely attractive enough.

When this helicopter lifted off from the ground, blowing away the dust, and hovered in front of everyone, gasps of wonder were heard.

An aircraft that does not require an airport to take off is truly too enticing for other countries in the world. It possesses characteristics that normal airplanes can’t have, features adequate to support many particular uses.

Watching the helicopter cautiously flying in the sky, everyone present was astounded. Even if the aircraft appeared clumsy, it seemed graceful enough to them.

To these people, this helicopter was beyond imagination, and with it, many previously unimaginable tasks now had new possibilities.

Not to mention other aspects, just taking vertical take-off and landing alone, it was an irreplaceable function for transferring VIPs.

The past process of transporting people to the airport by automobile or horse carriage to then take a flight on a DC-3, could now be completely replaced by a direct helicopter flight to the airport.

Such transport, whether in speed or safety, seems to have a higher guarantee: And for those who want to enjoy such service, there’s no need to build an airport at home, just a sufficiently large open space will do. How convenient is that?

An engineer from the Dorne Empire, standing aside, looked up at the Mi-1 helicopter and couldn’t help but exclaim, “So this is the rumored helicopter, I heard someone saw it in Chu Country.”

Standing by his side, his follower was also filled with longing and nodded, saying, “Even if it’s not the same model, it’s pretty much similar. It’s too exaggerated that it can take off vertically!”

Keeping a weapon’s secrecy indefinitely is impossible, so the best way is to take it out while it’s still valuable and exchange it for a sufficient amount of Gold Coins.

The Great Tang Empire has already invested too much effort into ensuring the security of aircraft carriers and jet fighters, so they really can’t completely hide helicopters.

In the previous actions by Chu Country and this time in the transportation mission for Fengjiang, helicopters have been used; complete secrecy was impossible.

Many have seen these wingless aircraft, so the Great Tang Empire simply stopped concealing the existence of this kind of aircraft.

As for the UH Huey Helicopter, which is the proprietary version for the Great Tang Empire, it’s definitely not for sale; therefore, the best choice for Tang Mo was to sell the slightly less capable Mi-1 helicopters.

Of course, the more powerful Chinook helicopters remain a secret, and to many, they seem nothing more than a larger version of the Huey Helicopter.

“We should purchase some of these helicopters; at least, we should buy 20!” said the representatives of the Goblins, who were very curious about these helicopters, and they’ve recently been quite wealthy, with no need to worry about money.

This is the case with many countries, who haven’t been this prosperous for a long time since the last Anti-Tang War. The Great Tang Empire prepaid a large amount of mercenaries’ fees on behalf of Fengjiang, and various countries made a good sum of money by relying on mercenaries.

For these countries, the Fengjiang civil war was nothing short of a blessing: they gained a lot of war experience in this mercenary battle, they trained their troops, cleared their debts, and one could say they made a huge profit.

It’s no exaggeration to say that the fiscal deficits these countries have been dealing with for a long time were alleviated, and they even achieved a measure of profit through ammunition exports to Fengjiang.

The Great Tang Empire is wealthy, and Tang Mo doesn’t default on the purchase of military supplies from these countries or in hiring their mercenaries, even sometimes generously paying in advance.

This is also a way for Tang Country to achieve economic circulation; Tang Mo uses this approach to reciprocate to the world, driving world economics towards a more favorable development.

“The Dwarves of the Ice Cold Empire have already placed an order; they’ve bought 100 Mi-1 helicopters and are very interested in this type of aircraft,” whispered the representatives of other countries, discussing the recent order signed by the Ice Cold Empire.

So many countries were willing to send their soldiers to serve as “mercenaries” in the battle for Fengjiang, which was also related to this technology exhibition.

The Great Tang Empire discreetly informed many countries that they would be displaying many advanced weapons at this expo, and only those willing to help Fengjiang would be qualified to participate.

As a result, everyone very tactfully displayed a cooperative attitude, and then at this expo, they saw many technological pieces of equipment they had not even dared to dream of before.

Like the helicopters in front of them, and not far behind them at the static display in the square, that Panther Tank.

Yes, the Great Tang Empire placed the Panther Tanks on the export exhibits this time: as more and more Type 59 Tanks were being mass-produced, the Panther and Type 4 Tanks were increasingly unwelcomed in the Great Tang Empire’s arsenal.

The second-line troops still equip a large number of Type 4 Tank chassis, but phasing out a small number of Panther Tanks has been the general consensus.

So, the Great Tang Empire is prepared to donate these actually very advanced tanks—certainly more advanced than similar class tanks of other nations—to other countries.

Chu Country is a beneficiary of this military aid, but the quantity of Panther Tanks they received for free was still too few; the Tang Army itself has a large number of second-hand Panther Tanks ready to be introduced to the international arms market.

Many countries are interested in this brand new tank, including the Elven Yangmu Empire that’s almost fully equipped with German-line equipment.

Meanwhile, the Great Tang Empire has also begun selling Katyusha Rocket Launchers, a rocket artillery that the soldiers affectionately call Ma Cuihua, and its performance really opened the eyes of many countries.

It was the first time everyone had seen such a formidable “artillery” weapon, and its superiority in fire coverage is something that traditional artillery troops cannot compare to.

After seeing such terrifying weapons, all countries bought the related technology and hoped to develop similar weapons to gain a greater advantage on the battlefield.

In fact, all countries have already seen some rudiments of these weapons, as the principle of rocket projectiles is actually very simple, and everyone has made some attempts and guesses in this area.

However, everyone’s technology and theories are immature, so they can’t produce mature products for the time being. Now that the Great Tang Empire has put them up for sale directly, everyone will naturally pay and take them home to see if their own approaches were indeed correct.