I Became a Witch and Started an Industrial Revolution

The Alliance’s engine development philosophy essentially followed two parallel technological paths: Magitech propulsion and fuel-powered propulsion.

In other words, under the same technical standards, two versions of every engine would be produced, each using a different power source. One would enter service, while the other would be retained as a validated technological reserve before being archived.

Mitia established this policy after witnessing the effectiveness of Elemental Suppression Mist extracted from the ocean.

If such a method were ever used against the Alliance itself, they needed a contingency plan.

That was also why many heavy weapons in the Alliance military employed dual-core systems.

The fuel engine supplied propulsion, while the Shield Generator carried its own independent Magitech power unit.

In reality, many pieces of equipment could have been designed like fighter aircraft, with a single Magitech Engine simultaneously powering both propulsion and defensive systems, thereby maximizing energy efficiency.

However, the engine provided to Ernesto was the reserve engine originally developed as an alternative powerplant for the Zero fighter.

It was a fourteen-cylinder, air-cooled radial engine producing 1,500 horsepower.

During the subsequent flight tests, the wooden fighter, designated H-5, achieved a maximum speed of 640 kilometers per hour.

Moreover, thanks to its lightweight wooden airframe, it possessed an excellent rate of climb and outstanding maneuverability.

It perfectly satisfied Ernesto’s requirements.

This fighter had practically been born for Ernesto.

Components such as the laminated Bakelite skin and the birch planks used for the wooden structural frame could all be manufactured domestically by Ernesto after receiving a period of training from the Alliance.

Furthermore, the aircraft had tremendous potential for mass production.

Ernesto possessed exceptionally abundant forestry resources.

People who lived by the mountains relied on the mountains, while those who lived by the water relied on the water.

Naturally, this meant Ernesto was filled with highly skilled carpenters.

Production could easily be distributed among numerous collective workshops before the finished components were delivered to assembly plants for final assembly.

The Alliance only needed to supply the engines, propellers, and complete cockpit control systems.

This greatly improved the efficiency of material assistance.

After all, the fundamental purpose of aid was to bridge the gap between supply and demand.

Transport capacity, however, remained relatively fixed.

Each shipment could carry only so much.

To make room for other urgently needed materials, Ernesto had already begun implementing nationwide rationing of essential supplies.

Some regions had even experienced localized famine.

Every one of those sacrifices was made to reduce food allocations and free up transportation capacity.

Every item that no longer needed to be shipped meant additional space for something even more urgently required.

Although the fighter production problem had now been solved, pilot training was a far more difficult issue.

Even the Alliance itself was struggling to expand its pilot corps.

Neither side spoke of it openly.

Yet both understood perfectly well—

When the critical moment arrived, many pilots would probably learn how to fly fighter aircraft on the battlefield itself...

There simply was no better solution.

The only thing the Alliance military could do was dispatch a group of flight instructors to train Ernesto’s pilots.

At the same time, they would send experienced logistics technicians to serve as technical supervisors, training the local maintenance system through an apprentice-style mentorship program.

Nevertheless, Wellington remained extremely optimistic.

He believed the current outcome was already extraordinarily fortunate.

It was not that the Alliance refused to provide Ernesto with heavy weaponry.

Most of the assistance simply focused on artillery pieces and shells.

Equipment such as tanks and Mechanical Bodies would be useless even if they were delivered, because Ernesto lacked the logistics system required to support them.

Without a complete repair and maintenance network, such equipment was virtually worthless.

They would gain far more practical value from receiving two additional heavy artillery pieces instead.

Ernesto’s artillery had already destroyed numerous Allied armored strongholds through precise bombardment.

As a result, Ernesto’s army had long relied upon an exchange-of-lives style of warfare.

They used manpower to compensate for the gap in armor and heavy firepower through close-quarters urban combat, ambushes, sabotage, sniper attacks, and every other imaginable tactic.

Meanwhile, Allied fighter aircraft enjoyed excellent visibility from the sky.

They could detect Ernesto’s concealed soldiers far more easily than ground forces could, allowing them to surround and eliminate them.

Conversely—

If Ernesto also possessed fighter aircraft capable of driving the Allied Air Force from the battlefield...

Then those same fighters could be used in reverse to eliminate Allied ground forces.

The wooden H-5 fighter was the only lifeline they could grasp.

It was the only aircraft they could mass-produce in sufficient numbers to reverse the tide of war and turn defense into offense.

While the Aircraft Design Institute was designing Ernesto’s new fighter, another project was quietly progressing at the Third Warship Construction Yard in Coparac.

Inside a dry dock, a warship nearly 230 meters long completed its initial construction ahead of schedule.

Water was gradually pumped beneath its hull as it entered the sea trial phase.

Its appearance was remarkably strange.

Unlike the imposing Dreadnought-class Battleships with their massive main gun turrets, this vessel featured an uninterrupted flight deck stretching from bow to stern.

Its bow adopted a fully enclosed design, while a massive flattened funnel stood along the starboard side.

It was an armored aircraft carrier converted from the hull of a Dreadnought-class Battleship.

To meet the steadily increasing demand for aerial fire support, roughly half of the battleships originally planned under the second-phase battleship construction program had been redesigned as aircraft carriers.

This vessel—

Was the Alliance’s very first aircraft carrier.

The lead ship of the Empress-class Aircraft Carrier.

The Sera.

It featured a single-level hangar equipped with two elevators.

Its full-length flight deck measured 231 meters and incorporated a 5.5-degree angled flight deck.

The fully loaded design displacement reached 24,000 tons.

Propulsion came from a combined steam turbine and Magitech Engine power system.

Its armor protection was comparable to that of the Zhiyuan-class Cruiser.

The main armor belt measured between 79 and 127 millimeters thick.

The hangar deck was protected by 50 millimeters of armor.

The upper hangar structure carried armor ranging from 76 to 114 millimeters.

The hangar itself could accommodate 120 aircraft.

Its defensive armament consisted of:

Twenty 120mm dual-purpose guns mounted in four twin-gun turrets positioned before and behind the island.

Twenty-five quadruple-mounted 40mm anti-aircraft guns.

Fifteen 20mm autocannons.

This aircraft carrier had been designed almost entirely according to the specifications and requirements personally provided by Mitia.

Otherwise, she feared the designers might unintentionally produce something embarrassing.

Although aircraft carriers appeared much simpler than battleships, their internal design was anything but straightforward.

Many hidden problems simply could not be discovered until the ship entered actual service.

For example, to allow fighters to take off and land more efficiently, the island could not be positioned along the centerline.

Instead, it had to be offset toward one side to maximize the efficient use of deck space.

That, however, introduced another problem.

The ship’s center of gravity would no longer lie along the centerline.

To compensate, the designers employed an angled flight deck together with outward-positioned elevators to rebalance the vessel.

Furthermore, to maximize aircraft capacity, not only did aircraft need to be stored inside the lower hangar, but a portion of the flight deck also had to remain available for aircraft parking.

To safely recover landing aircraft, hydraulic arresting cables had to be installed at the stern.

Otherwise, landing fighters would crash directly into aircraft parked farther forward.

The angled flight deck likewise significantly improved the efficiency of aircraft launch operations.

In addition, a carefully calculated optical landing assistance system was installed to guide carrier aircraft during recovery.

Its purpose was to minimize the cost and difficulty of training carrier pilots.

That was precisely the greatest advantage of possessing prior experience.

Potential problems could be avoided before they ever appeared.

Ordinarily, constructing a new class of warship required sea trials, combat testing, operational evaluations, feedback, redesign, and optimization before mass production could even begin.

Mitia, however, could bypass that lengthy process entirely.

Mass production could begin immediately.

Only the lead ship needed to undergo sea trials and fitting-out first, verifying whether her original design contained any flaws.