"Seven thirty at night. Another day had slipped by without him noticing."
He had spent over 400,000 consciousness waves and scrapped more than twenty model aircraft, along with a large number of parts.
By the time Chen Yi finished building his latest drone, day had turned into night.
"Dinner first, then I'll take it out for fueling and a test flight."
Looking at the terrifying stats of this brand-new drone, Chen Yi, who had pulled an all-nighter last night and worked all day today, felt no fatigue at all. Instead, he was full of energy and excitement, impatient to take it out for a test flight.
Interest and passion.
They were the best teachers, and also the strongest stimulants.
After graduating, he had gone to DJI to work the assembly line, then spent more than four years running his own model aircraft and drone business.
Chen Yi had always dreamed that one day, he would own a drone that could stand above all others, with overwhelmingly powerful performance in every aspect.
He went to a nearby restaurant and had a simple dinner.
Then Chen Yi pushed a manual pallet jack, lifted the drone onto a scale, and loaded it into the trunk before taking it to refuel.
The new drone had a wingspan of only 1.38 meters, a length of 1.79 meters, and a height of 46.2 centimeters. Even among turbojet model drones, it was considered compact and delicate. It fit into the trunk with room to spare.
After filling it with aviation kerosene and oxidizer, Chen Yi took it to be weighed again.
"Since the engine is much lighter, its empty weight is only 29.8 kilograms. But after filling it with aviation kerosene and oxidizer, it shoots up to 206.6 kilograms."
"No wonder it's called an orbital aircraft. This is basically a fuel barrel wrapped in a drone shell. Its belly is full of fuel."
He drove to the seaside park, the usual spot.
Chen Yi submitted a flight test filing application, then took out his laptop, signal antenna, control stick, rudder pedals, and other equipment to begin setting up and calibrating everything.
As a professional Near-Earth Orbital Aircraft capable of visiting the moon, the avionics software Chen Yi had previously paid to customize could no longer meet the needs of its avionics flight control system.
However, the upgraded Avionics Main Control built into the drone came with its own avionics flight control software. Once connected, it automatically updated and downloaded.
A few minutes later, the avionics software update was complete.
Chen Yi set the permissions and password, then began calibrating the drone's functional settings.
Communication functions normal.
Radar imaging functions normal.
Takeoff and landing wheel assembly normal.
Avionics control signals normal.
After studying it for more than ten minutes,
Chen Yi gained a general understanding of his brand-new drone.
In summary, there was only one word for it: powerful!
Take the drone's radar imaging as an example.
After several stacked upgrades, the radar, which he suspected had something to do with quantum technology, had an absurd scanning angle of 289 degrees and a maximum Detection Range of 1,800 kilometers.
It could simultaneously lock onto eighteen basketball-sized targets within 1,000 kilometers and ten sparrow-sized targets within 500 kilometers. It also possessed infrared detection, microwave detection, laser scanning detection, and other functions.
Provided weather conditions permitted, the forward-facing camera on the fuselage could clearly capture craters on the moon's surface...
It was clear from this that 30 attribute points were a threshold.
Only after reaching 30 attributes did it possess the true performance of an orbital aircraft.
"The flight filing has been approved. Test flight begins!"
After he finished studying the new drone's capabilities, the flight filing was approved as well.
Chen Yi activated the avionics system, ignited the engine, and opened the throttle.
Boom!
Azure exhaust flames blasted from the model drone's engine nozzle, and the drone shot forward in an instant.
"Takeoff!"
Chen Yi pulled the control stick and stomped hard on the rudder pedals.
The drone executed a steep climb in midair, spiraling upward at an angle toward the sea to its front left.
"Ten percent power output."
Looking at the monitoring display on the computer beside him, Chen Yi saw that the drone had already climbed to an altitude of one thousand meters.
He tapped twice on the computer and pressed Enter.
The sky to the left seemed to flicker with starlight.
Under the clear moonlight, he could vaguely see a sonic boom cloud slowly dispersing through the sky.
Three seconds later, waves of sonic booms rolled down from above.
After losing much of their force over a thousand meters, the sonic booms still sounded like thunder, but they no longer had any effect.
"This engine's thrust is insane!"
"I need to be careful next time. I can't casually increase power before reaching high altitude, or I might accidentally hurt someone."
Watching the sonic boom cloud slowly disperse in the sky, Chen Yi sighed in amazement. He activated the radar's low-power detection and imaging functions, then controlled the drone toward the open waters off Penghai City.
Once it entered open waters, the radar's low-power detection and imaging functions activated.
The drone began cruising at subsonic speed five hundred meters above the sea, continuously passing fishing boats, cargo ships, and even yachts along the way.
From time to time, rolling waves reflected countless images of the moon.
But those moons lasted less than a second before shattering into patches of brilliant light.
"The ocean is still bustling and beautiful at night."
"Looks like I should install a microphone on the drone when I have time. Listening to the sea wouldn't be bad either."
Chen Yi admired the ocean's night scenery as he continued flying for more than ten minutes.
The drone passed over the Dongsha Islands, left Penghai's offshore waters, and began entering the South China Sea Zhongsha Islands.
The sea here was no longer dotted with ships, but vast numbers of glowing creatures drifted across the water, like stars decorating the vast waters of his homeland.
From time to time, groups of warm-blooded dolphins chased fish and shrimp beneath the moonlight, leaping from the sea and leaving scene after scene of breathtaking beauty in Chen Yi's camera footage.
"Without modern prosperity, the borders of my homeland have gained the beautiful sights of nature's living creatures."
Using a camera with an unknown number of billions of pixels, Chen Yi took photo after photo.
He circled over the sea and admired the view for dozens of minutes before finally stepping on the rudder pedals and pushing the throttle and control stick.
Boom!
A roar rang out.
A sonic boom cloud appeared out of nowhere.
The drone shot up from the sea, turned its nose northeast, and flew away.
After traveling at supersonic speed for a while,
a brightly lit cluster of cities and a massive island sitting in the ocean soon appeared before the camera.
"We've reached Treasure Island. There's still more than three-fifths of the endurance left. Looks like the new engine is more fuel-efficient."
Chen Yi controlled the drone to take several photos, then headed north toward Fuhai before turning west along the coastline, preparing to end tonight's test flight.
But just as the drone returned to the Lufeng sea area,
a beep suddenly sounded.
Several red signal points appeared on the computer's monitoring screen.
Hm?
It found aircraft?
Chen Yi froze, staring at the parameters displayed on the radar scan interface.
1.3 meters long, 0.9 meters wide. Flight altitude: 480.
Why did that look a little like a propeller drone?
But could that thing fly out to sea?
Chen Yi glanced at the map positioning beside him. Even the nearest coast was more than fifty kilometers away.
Based on what he knew about this kind of propeller drone, it was impossible for it to reach this location without replacing its batteries.
So that meant the drones had taken off from ships at sea?
Curious, Chen Yi controlled his drone to descend a little and activated its radar imaging function, aiming it at the waters below those drones.
With the help of the moonlight, two cargo ships moored together entered the drone's camera view.
Chen Yi's eyes widened instantly as he watched the footage.
What was going on?
Why were the crew members on those two cargo ships all armed?!
Before you continue