Homo Sapiens

Hongsawaddy.

Kachin State, Hu Gang Valley—Mengguan Town.

Qingye Airlines Company—Factory No. 003 was located in this small town.

The factory was designated for the research, development, and manufacturing of large jet engines, as well as related jet aircraft.

Chief Engineer Wright, who had been poached from Redwood Federal Airlines; engineers headhunted from several aircraft manufacturers in Transvaal; and additional personnel transferred from Flying Fish Company—together, they formed the factory’s core research and development team.

Wright had already immigrated to Hongsawaddy with his entire family. In truth, he felt he had no other choice. Bahrain Airline was going through a tough time. The aircraft manufacturing industry was somewhat similar to the chip industry; as time went on, the strong grew stronger and the weak grew weaker. It was an unavoidable trend.

Currently, the global aviation manufacturing market was mostly carved up by large European and American enterprises like Boeing, Airbus, and Lockheed Martin.

Bahrain Airline and the several aviation manufacturing companies in Transvaal were all struggling.

Wright’s face twitched as he looked at the jet engine production line before him. ”Manager Wu Feng, are you sure you want to use this antique production line?”

”We are. These are the orders from above,” Wu Feng replied, his expression impassive.

Wright was speechless for a moment before reminding him, ”Even if we adjust the materials and part of the design, the jet engines produced by this line will, at best, only perform at the level of the 1980s. While we can ignore fuel consumption for military aircraft, the thrust and range...”

But Wu Feng was unshakably firm. ”It doesn’t matter. You just need to develop the best-performing jet engine possible based on the original design.”

”Fine! I’ll do my best.” Wright nodded with a sense of utter resignation.

In reality, Wright didn’t know that Qingye Aviation had its own unique advantages, but they had not yet been integrated.

...

Luzon.

Inside the Flying Fish Company’s production base.

The company currently possessed eight drone production lines and five propeller aircraft production lines. It had also established 34 supporting factories throughout Luzon, achieving domestic production for the vast majority of its components.

Chief Engineer Fang Bai and Manager Paul were currently observing a prototype.

Inside the large, enclosed workshop, the propeller aircraft borrowed heavily from the designs of classic modern propeller planes, yet it also had its own unique features.

What set it apart from conventional aircraft was the special structure covering its surface, making it look like a monstrous metal bird cloaked in feathers.

Fang Bai explained to the visiting Fang Xincheng and Gafei, ”This is the Avian System we designed based on biomimetics. While it can’t break the sound barrier, its energy consumption is only 30% of a jet aircraft in the same class.”

”Thirty percent? Chief Engineer Fang, can it really achieve 30% energy consumption?” Fang Xincheng was a little stunned by the company’s R&D capabilities.

Fang Bai nodded. ”The specific technical principles are mainly based on biomimetics and chip technology.”

Using a scaffolding platform, Gafei approached the aircraft and saw the dense feathers on the wings. ”Are these real feathers?”

”They are made from nano-silkworm silk and nano-bamboo fiber using biomimetic weaving techniques. After being soaked in a special solution and coated with a waterproof and fire-resistant layer, their all-around performance is quite good,” Fang Bai explained.

He then picked up a palm-sized biomimetic feather from nearby and handed it to them for inspection.

”So the key to its energy efficiency lies in these feathers?” Fang Xincheng asked curiously.

Fang Bai nodded. ”Yes.”

He took out a tablet, which was actually a disguised biological computer, and gave a rough explanation of the principles using a simulation on the screen.

The surface of this large propeller transport aircraft was covered with a total of 1.2 million biomimetic feathers, which were inserted into an artificial dermal layer underneath.

This artificial dermal layer was similar to the skin and muscles of a bird. Its core structure consisted of a genetically modified sponge-like honeycomb and a special solution. The concentration of the solution within the honeycomb structure could be regulated by light signals, thereby controlling the direction of the feathers.

Additionally, the surface of the artificial dermal layer had an integrated biosensor layer for detecting external factors.

All of these components were connected via fiber optic lines to the aircraft’s biological computer core. This computing core had a floating-point calculation power of 500,000 teraflops per second and was paired with a biomimetic flight program.

Once the aircraft completed its initial boosted takeoff, the Avian System would activate and run synchronously.

Gafei put down the feather. ”What are the specs of this aircraft?”

”Length: 35 meters. Wingspan: 42 meters. Empty weight: 32 tons. Maximum takeoff weight: 70 tons. Maximum fuel capacity: 10 tons. Maximum payload: 33 tons,” Fang Bai continued.

”Maximum speed is 650 kilometers per hour, with a cruising speed of 450 kilometers per hour. At full load, its maximum range is 6,000 kilometers.”

Then Fang Bai added, ”If we expand the fuel tank to 20 tons, the maximum range can reach 12,000 kilometers. This would be the long-range model, but the maximum payload would be reduced to 23 tons, or 280 seats.”

”With the 10-ton fuel tank, the maximum range is 6,000 kilometers, and the payload is 33 tons, or 350 seats.”

Fang Xincheng stroked his chin. ’While its speed is inferior to a Boeing 737, its other specs are clearly superior.’

’Especially in terms of fuel consumption. Right now, the biggest operational cost for commercial airlines is jet fuel.’

’Forget a reduction to 30%; even a 3% reduction would have a swarm of airlines clamoring to partner with them.’

But Fang Xincheng couldn’t help but smile bitterly. He was now a member of the Spider Web and was naturally aware of the many sensitive technologies within the company.

’Clearly, the Avian System and the biological chips cannot be commercially rolled out right now.’

Homo Sapiens Company and its other shell, Qingye Group, had already courted enormous external risk by launching products like viral antibiotics, Coral Cement, low-temperature glass, and iron bamboo.

If the world powers were to discover the existence of their biological chips now, America would undoubtedly bring an aircraft carrier fleet right to their doorstep.

To America, the chip industry was nothing less than its lifeblood.

This was also why, despite having powerful biological chip technology internally, Homo Sapiens Company still purchased traditional electronic chips for its commercial internet operations.

Until its nuclear bomb and missile technologies had matured, Homo Sapiens Company didn’t want to provoke America excessively.

Recently, the shell corporation for Homo Sapiens Company’s security division—Three-leaf Oak—had been stirring up chaos in South America’s Silver Triangle Region. This was all a ploy to draw America’s attention and buy time for their plans in Southeast Asia.

America actually placed a higher priority on South America, its own ”backyard,” than on Southeast Asia.

After all, no matter how chaotic Southeast Asia became, it had little impact on North America. But if South America spun out of control, it would pose a serious threat to North America.

That was why Homo Sapiens Company had launched the Three-leaf Oak shell, causing trouble all over South America. Three-leaf Oak had already developed a large number of subordinate organizations in the Andes Mountain Area and the Amazon Rainforest.

Gafei’s inspection of Flying Fish Company’s aircraft and the Typhoon-series loitering munitions that were beginning to be mass-produced was, in fact, all in preparation for next year. Next year, he would officially take control of Luzon.

He had recently been vigorously strengthening Luzon’s armaments while simultaneously purging unstable elements from within the Luzon Army.

All of this was to ensure they could face the threat from America and other world powers in the strongest possible state during the coming crisis.

Gafei knew very well that unless they removed the stumbling block that was America, neither Homo Sapiens Company nor Luzon could advance any further.