"First, the Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft was enormous! And because of thermal expansion and contraction, its engines could even lengthen by several dozen centimeters at high altitude and high speed! So its technology wasn't really mature at the time."
"Second, the Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft was 32 meters long and 17 meters wide. It was huge."
"But based on visual estimates, the other aircraft was only around 20 meters long, with a wingspan of merely twelve or thirteen meters. Furthermore, the Blackbird couldn't reach Mach 3 at low altitude. It could only exceed Mach 3 at altitudes of around 24,000 meters."
"Yet they developed an engine with greater thrust in a smaller airframe, and overcame problems such as thermal deformation in the materials. Every one of those was an enormous challenge."
Dr. William spoke quickly.
The generals now understood the gravity of the situation. Leaving everything else aside, they themselves couldn't achieve that at present. If someone else could, it meant that someone else was far stronger than they were.
"Gentlemen, although I don't want to say it, I have to. If they can reach Mach 3 at low altitude, then reaching even higher speeds is not impossible." Dr. William added one final point.
"Even faster?" Kamp could not help asking.
"Even I, a scientist, understand that when our neighbors release something, they won't show us all of its capabilities. They're different from us. They must have held something back. That's already their habit." Dr. William gave a bitter laugh.
Everyone looked at one another, only then realizing that, yes, the other side could not possibly reveal all its capabilities. And not just them—even they themselves would never do such a thing.
"Do we have any countermeasures? Or can we produce anything similar?" Kamp did not care about technology—or rather, he did