Chapter 1036: Air Show at Celestial City
Under Jiang Chen’s order, Future Heavy Industries integrated its twenty industrial s.p.a.ce stations in Celestial City and a.s.sembled a technical team involved in the design of the Seagull-cla.s.s to establish a subsidiary called Xin First s.h.i.+pyard. It had begun the production of a second Seagull-cla.s.s.
The order of the second transport s.h.i.+p was still made by the aeros.p.a.ce department of Celestial Trade, but the new s.h.i.+p would not include a pa.s.senger cabin, but only cargo with low technical requirements. At present, Lunar City could only host a certain number of tourists, increasing the number of flights would only make it more difficult.
The mission of this transport s.h.i.+p was to transport rare earth materials. The rare earth-rich Moon soil would be sent to Celestial City for processing, and then Future Mining would send the processed ore to Earth and access the international market.
By the time the new 500,000-tonne transport s.h.i.+p was built, the “boats” that were previously used to transport rare earth mines could be retired. The capacity of five Stingray C-1s making two trips combined was less than the capacity of a single trip of the Seagull, and they weren’t faster.
The Stingray C-1 retired from the transportation route would be sent back to the s.h.i.+pyard on Celestial Trade. After the mining module was replaced by the transport module, the Stingray would be sold at a discount to Future Mining and join the asteroid mining fleet.
There was another story with the newly built transport s.h.i.+p.
After Kelvin learned of Jiang Chen’s poor naming ability, he didn’t ask Jiang Chen to name the s.h.i.+p again. Or rather, he never mentioned this to Jiang Chen and discussed with the technical team. They came to the decision of simply printing the name “Sea Dragon” onto the body of the s.h.i.+p and sending it as a report to Jiang Chen’s desk.
The name didn’t matter since Jiang Chen thought it was troublesome to give something a name. He also never considered putting his own name on a transport s.h.i.+p. He thought that a s.h.i.+p worthy of his name would at least by a carrier-cla.s.s s.h.i.+p more than ten million in tonnage. He would rather let the future generation name it for him.
Just after learning about the name of the transport s.h.i.+p, Jiang Chen was dumbfounded.
History is always strikingly similar. The prototype of the Red River engine was the Flying Dragon 07 engine of the Pan-Asia Cooperation, and the engine scavenged by Beluga Inspection Station happened to come from the PAC Sea Dragon.
Now the new s.h.i.+p not only inherited the engine of the Pan-Asia Cooperation but also inherited the name of the s.h.i.+p that had crashed in the future.
Even Jiang Chen, who never believed in G.o.ds, was amazed by this coincidence.
Perhaps, it was meant to be.
…
Shortly after the flight from Celestial City to Lunar City became available, s.p.a.ceX and other aeros.p.a.ce companies partic.i.p.ated in the design of the Apollo X1. After being dismantled into pieces and packed into dozens of containers, they were sent to Ange Island port by freight. After it arrived at the s.p.a.ceX’s leased warehouse in Celestial City, Apollo X1 was a.s.sembled.
According to the agreement between s.p.a.ceX and Celestial Trade, the newly reborn Apollo would partic.i.p.ate in the transportation route between Celestial City and Lunar City after it pa.s.sed the safety qualification check. The rare earth materials were transported to Celestial City while crops and daily necessities on earth were brought to Lunar City.
Perhaps it was a tribute to a certain movie, the main structure of the Apollo X1 was designed to be semi-spherical. Compared with the long strip design of Russia’s Oleg, the design offered more agile control and higher safety factor. The drawbacks were mainly due to the maintenance cost of the engines and the cost of the s.p.a.cecraft itself.
In addition to the Apollo X1, Jiang Chen also saw the Oleg in Moscow. The design of the 200,000-ton cla.s.s was a size larger than the Apollo X1, and the capacity was also greater. However, compared with the 500,000-ton Seagull, both of them were miniature.
Whether it was the UA or Russia, the two traditional aeros.p.a.ce powers did not currently have the capability to produce a 500,000-ton s.p.a.cecraft. While they possessed the design capability, the technical barriers of the engine and power source were something that they couldn’t easily get around.
Perhaps they possessed more experience in aeros.p.a.ce manufacturing, but these problems were not solved by experience.
In addition to the two traditional superpowers, the Ever Spring independently developed by Hua Aeros.p.a.ce Science and Technology Group also partic.i.p.ated in the transportation route. The transport s.h.i.+p used the RM-320 engine purchased from Future Heavy Industries at a high price and all the other parts were design by the Hua Academy of Sciences. In appearance, the s.h.i.+p reflected an Oriental design.
The mining speed of iron, aluminum, t.i.tanium ore and rare earth resources in Lunar City already far exceeded the transportation capacity between Lunar City and Celestial City. For Jiang Chen, he welcomed anyone willing to partic.i.p.ate, otherwise the ores would be useless without a buyer.
According to Jiang Chen’s estimate, at least 50 s.h.i.+ps with 100,000-tonage were needed to fulfill the ores’ transportation demand.
However, it was not something that could be rushed. Apart from Xin, there were only three countries capable of producing large transport s.h.i.+ps.
Although Nippon, ranked fourth in s.p.a.ce technology, partic.i.p.ated in the design of the Apollo X1’s observing system and navigation system, the country didn’t have the capability to independently manufacture a 100,000-ton s.p.a.cecraft. The fifth-ranked India was ambitiously preparing to design a 500,000-ton “s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p” that stood shoulder to shoulder with the Seagull. However, they didn’t figure out how to make it move after completing the s.h.i.+p design.
It was soon mid-May, and Celestial Trade held the first Aeros.p.a.ce Science and Technology Expo in Celestial City.
If Xia s.h.i.+yu didn’t remind him, Jiang Chen almost forgot. Future Heavy Industries’ tweleve products would appear in the expo, of which seven were export products. The remaining five were only for exhibition, not to be sold.
For example, the Stingray series aircraft that made countless people astonished. The P-1 mining type and the C-1 transportation type that had been eliminated from the fleet would be displayed.
The expo would be held every year beginning from 2019. The significance of holding events was mainly to support other aeros.p.a.ce companies and help them find buyers. If Celestial Trade discovered something novel, they could also use this opportunity to procure it.
To be honest, Jiang Chen did see a lot of interesting things at the air show, but he did not intervene in the procurement. He gave full responsibilities to the aeros.p.a.ce department, only they knew what they really needed in s.p.a.ce.
Xia s.h.i.+yu accompanied Jiang Chen to the expo. When they appeared in front of the public, they became the focus of the air show. From the beginning of the expo, a large group of people surrounded them. People handed him their business cards and after a short while, his hands were full of business cards of different languages.
Jiang Chen was surprised by the fact that he stole the show from the Stingray X1.
It was like putting the cart before the horse.