"Photonic Stealth Drone?"
"I didn't design any stealth features this time!"
"Wait! Could it be this?"
Looking at the drone's name and notes, Chen Yi seemed to realize something.
He rummaged through the nearby area and found a laser pointer. Pressing the button, he shone a green eco-friendly laser beam outward.
The green light was dazzling when it struck other objects, its reflection bright and vivid.
But when he moved it onto the drone's surface, the light immediately dimmed.
The dazzling green beam became a hazy, faintly flickering glow.
"Phew!"
"So it really was this!"
Chen Yi's hands trembled twice.
He had been so focused on improving the solar panels.
That he had nearly forgotten the true nature of sunlight.
—Electromagnetic waves.
Sunlight was an electromagnetic wave.
Laser light was an electromagnetic wave.
Radar detection waves were electromagnetic waves too.
Besides the visible light people normally saw, sunlight's spectrum
also contained invisible ultraviolet rays, infrared rays, radio waves, microwaves, and even trace amounts of X-rays and gamma rays.
All those wavelengths combined formed what people commonly understood as sunlight.
Since the current solar panels converted more than 50 percent of sunlight, and their light-focusing structure also distorted and disrupted optical signals,
when a radar detection system performed echo detection, it would detect at most a mass of interference. It simply could not display a clear signal.
That meant Chen Yi's drone had effectively achieved radar stealth.
If he adjusted its attributes and upgraded the gallium nitride solar panels into solar cell film using light quantum technology, with an 84.6 percent conversion rate,
then never mind radar—even if the drone were placed right in front of someone, it would look like a blurry, distorted mass of black to the naked eye.
That was because the principle of vision involved light striking an object and then reflecting into the eyes.
The retina sensed the light signals, which were converted into neural signals and processed by the brain to form an image.
Now, 84.6 percent of the light was converted into electrical energy, while another portion was absorbed by the object's surface and turned into heat.
The remaining reflected light was concentrated by the light-focusing structure, causing uncertain distortions in its angle of incidence and reflection. Even if it reflected back, it had lost all its information.
Wouldn't that make it look like a distorted, blurry patch?
"That solar cell film from earlier seemed pretty thin, light, and flexible. If I used it to tailor a double-layered, double-sided outfit, I'd definitely be mistaken for a ghost walking around at night."
Having figured out the drone's stealth logic, Chen Yi turned his attention back to its attributes.
"This warning symbol for the energy system is pretty scary."
Seeing the notice that its explosion risk had increased ten thousandfold, Chen Yi backed several meters away to a safe distance. His gaze moved over each attribute as he considered how to adjust them.
"The endurance replenishment attribute needs twenty-five points of adjustment and upgrading."
"The requirements for this adjustment are a little steep. It'll be hard to squeeze that many points out of the other attributes."
"Looks like I can only use stacked upgrades this time."
Chen Yi thought for a while.
He found that no matter how he adjusted things, it would severely weaken the drone's core performance.
He had no choice but to spend more resources and more consciousness waves on a stacked upgrade.
After all, the drone's key technologies had either been designed and mastered by him already, or their technical information had been read.
The fact that he would be unable to read the information after a stacked upgrade was not a problem at all.
"Battery production will take several hours. The communications and radar modules will also need stacked manufacturing."
"So the only module I can produce quickly is the avionics module."
Having decided on the direction of the stacked improvement, Chen Yi moved his mind.
Multicolored light blossomed, enveloping the Manta Ray Drone before him.
[Avionics: 34.5→1.5] [Endurance Replenishment: 44.6→69.6] [Strength: 13→21]
More than ten minutes later.
The light faded.
The model drone, which had originally been covered in a layer of armor, had completely changed in appearance.
The armor had become a skin, fitting perfectly over the carbon-fiber fuselage beneath it.
At the same time, the solar panel armor had turned into solar cell film that conformed perfectly to the body.
Its previously affected attributes, such as weight, stability, and speed, also returned to their original values.
"This motherboard is done for."
Chen Yi opened the fuselage casing and looked at the drone's main control board. It resembled something that had been left out in the wind and rain for two and a half years, its colors dull and half-weathered.
He took out a screwdriver and carefully unscrewed the motherboard.
He cautiously disconnected the wiring harnesses linking the motherboard to the communications, radar, Hydraulic Wheel Set, battery module, wing and tail controllers, and solar cell film, then removed the motherboard.
The avionics module was nothing special.
Essentially, it was the drone control motherboard plus the avionics control system.
The motherboard was merely a standardized template.
The real core lay in the avionics control data and system within it.
Chen Yi had long since made backups of that system and data.
He took two high-performance drone control motherboards, connected them to the programming machine, and began flashing the low-level code.
After waiting more than ten minutes, the low-level code finished flashing.
After inspecting it and confirming there were no problems, he connected them to a computer and began importing the complete avionics control program.
In less than forty minutes,
two brand-new high-performance avionics control motherboards were ready.
Chen Yi picked up one of the boards, connected the wiring harnesses, and installed it securely inside the drone.
[Avionics: 1.5→34.5] [External Function Module added. Quantum Field Collapse and Reorganization. Subsequent information cannot be read. Consciousness wave adjustment increased a hundredfold!]
"This time, I'll solve the battery energy hazard, then raise the quality attribute to reduce the drone's weight. After that, I'll adjust the stability attribute to further improve its aerodynamic layout and the structural stability inside."
Chen Yi glanced at the notice that consciousness wave adjustment had increased a hundredfold.
Without hesitation, he continued adjusting the attributes.
[Avionics: 34.5→1.5] [Energy: 41.1(!)→49.1] [Weight: 21→29] [Stability: 35→43]
As the light faded,
the drone before him became more streamlined, and its overall height decreased by six centimeters.
The angle of its wings, its length, width, height, and other parameters, as well as the curvature of its fuselage surface, all changed one by one.
"So that's how it is. Aerodynamic layout isn't just about refining details; you also have to consider the whole picture from an overall perspective.
"The previous fuselage curvature and wing height were both excellent designs on their own, but at high speeds, they created internal airflow losses.
"The overly short tail and its sweep angle affected the fuselage's subtle balance at supersonic speeds.
"Now that the tail has been adjusted, that effect has clearly disappeared.
"Instead, the two complement each other and further improve stability."
Although he could not read the information, Chen Yi had deep expertise in aerodynamic layouts.
As he compared the adjusted drone, carefully pondered it, and made calculations, he discovered many aerodynamic effects he had not known about before. His understanding of aircraft aerodynamic layouts deepened even further.
"After the adjustments, the drone's lift coefficient exceeds 2.57, while its drag coefficient is as low as 0.012. With such aerodynamic improvements, its overall flight efficiency has increased by four percentage points.
"Counting the aerodynamic curvature of the fuselage, the solar conversion area on its back reaches 6.28 square meters, while the area on its belly reaches 5.89 square meters.
"Although the belly cannot directly receive solar energy,
with that absurd 84.6 percent conversion rate, it can still obtain a considerable amount of energy through diffuse reflection from the air and reflection from the clouds.
"If this drone flies into the stratosphere, it can convert at least 70 kilowatt-hours of electricity a day."
Chen Yi took out paper and pen to calculate the aerodynamic layout's lift coefficient and drag coefficient.
Then he brought out a scanner and scanned the drone's surface area for calculation.
Once all the results were calculated and confirmed,
only one thought remained in Chen Yi's mind.
Powerful!
Too powerful!
It had actually increased the drone's surface area and the conversion power of its solar cell film while further improving its aerodynamic performance.
Replenishing 70 kilowatt-hours of power a day—this was practically an aerial perpetual-motion drone with ultra-long endurance.
"Three in the morning."
"Take this drone to have a thermal barrier protective layer sprayed on it, add a layer of transparent beryllium oxide ceramic, and complete the final process."
"If nothing unexpected happens, the performance test and flight filing will be done by morning. I'll chase the sun—while the sun doesn't set, neither will I—and admire the magnificent rivers and mountains of our motherland!"
Chen Yi suppressed the excitement in his heart, removed the scrapped control motherboard and replaced it with the new one, then used a hand pallet truck to pull it to the coating spray room nearby.
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