Flying Sky Type-1

This first ignition test did not last long, nor did it involve any actual flight.

After rising a dozen or so meters off the ground and remaining there for barely more than ten minutes, it descended under Li Qingsong's control, and its engine shut down.

The clones waiting nearby immediately swarmed forward, using all manner of tools to tear it apart and inspect, piece by piece, what changes had occurred in its various components during the process.

The engine system and jet system were given particular priority.

Li Qingsong saw that after merely ten-plus minutes of jetting, the engine components and injector components had already undergone some unexpected changes due to the high temperatures and pressures.

"This won't do. It still needs further adjustment and optimization."

A simple phrase like "optimization and adjustment," when put into practice, became an immensely complex comprehensive project involving multiple disciplines.

On Earth, such a task would have been impossible without tens of thousands of people working on it for a year or two.

But on Luoshen Star, things were different.

At this point, Li Qingsong's total population had reached 1.4 million, while the number of consciousness links had risen to 600,000. Accordingly, the number of clones working in the research base full-time, wholly devoted to advancing technology, had also risen to 300,000.

What did it mean for half the population of a civilization to be research personnel?

Compared with Human Civilization, whose population had already risen to ten billion, even if all research personnel were counted—including science and engineering students currently attending university—the entire civilization had only around 600 million researchers, accounting for just 6 percent.

Yet it was precisely those 6 percent of research personnel who had driven Human Civilization to an extremely advanced level, even giving it the capability to launch a spacecraft carrying Li Qingsong to Luoshen Star at the edge of the Solar System for scientific exploration.

And now, the Scientific Research Power Li Qingsong possessed went far beyond merely accounting for 50 percent.

These 300,000 research clones all possessed knowledge reserves across every discipline, had no communication costs between them, worked around the clock without rest throughout the year, suffered no Internal Friction, and devoted all their energy to scientific research.

Roughly speaking, a single one of his research clones was probably equivalent to twenty human scientists.

That meant the equivalent of six million high-quality human researchers were conducting scientific research!

At present, around 50,000 research clones—the equivalent of roughly one million human scientists—were devoted to optimizing and adjusting the aircraft.

As a result, a new optimization plan was completed in just three days. Five days later, a new aircraft prototype was built.

This time, it flew several hundred meters high, traveled several kilometers, and remained in flight for half an hour.

Then came further optimization and adjustment. After repeated iterations, half a year later, a finalized mass-production aircraft model was finally built.

"Ignition!"

At the command, the liquid methane and liquid oxygen stored in the fuel tanks of the aircraft, which still retained its hemispherical shape, were released into the Combustion Chamber under the control of automated chips.

The electric ignition equipment lit them, and they immediately began burning violently. Their volume rapidly expanded as the temperature and pressure rose sharply.

Through specially designed jet conduits, these high-temperature, high-pressure gases were directed beneath the aircraft and expelled downward.

The aircraft slowly rose into the air.

Once airborne, the gas blasting from below weakened and began jetting out from the rear instead. The spacecraft began moving, flying faster and faster and higher and higher.

Because Luoshen Star had no atmosphere, it could not rely on air buoyancy to maintain altitude. The spacecraft therefore had to keep jetting downward at all times, or it would fall.

The process of jetting downward to maintain the spacecraft's altitude and jetting backward to control its speed was adjusted entirely automatically by chips. The clones only needed to input the corresponding commands.

There was another advantage to flying on Luoshen Star: there was no air resistance. Once it accelerated to a sufficient speed, it only needed to maintain its altitude and could continue flying through inertia.

This saved a substantial amount of fuel.

The first finalized spacecraft Li Qingsong had built flew directly around Luoshen Star at a speed of up to 2,000 kilometers per hour, taking several hours to complete the circuit. After decelerating sharply, it once again hovered above the test site.

Its downward-facing nozzles blasted fiercely, pushing it steadily down at a relatively slow speed until it landed.

After another comprehensive inspection confirmed that everything was as expected, Li Qingsong immediately issued an order.

Mass-produce them!

Over the years, Li Qingsong had always been troubled by the slow speed of cargo transportation.

Bulk goods that did not require speed, such as ore, could slowly travel along the Railway Line.

But small or special cargo was another matter. A base might urgently need certain components; the Chip Factory might produce more advanced chips that needed to be deployed on a large scale; a base might urgently need more clones as reinforcements; and so on. Having such cargo and personnel move slowly by train was becoming unbearable.

Now that the spacecraft Li Qingsong had named "Flying Sky Type-1" had entered finalized mass production, it could make up for this shortcoming and further raise the overall productivity of the entire base cluster.

"Unfortunately, at this stage, Flying Sky Type-1 can only operate near the surface of Luoshen Star. It still can't enter space, so it can't be considered a real spacecraft."

Li Qingsong felt a slight sense of regret. "But it doesn't matter.

On Luoshen Star, aircraft and spacecraft are basically the same thing anyway. During mass production and subsequent large-scale use, the shortcomings of Flying Sky Type-1 will continue to reveal themselves, and I can optimize them accordingly.

Once it has been optimized to a certain point and its performance improves sufficiently, its top speed will naturally break through 830 meters per second, surpass Luoshen Star's First Cosmic Velocity and enter orbit."

At present, Flying Sky Type-1's top speed was 2,000 kilometers per hour, or around 550 meters per second, still a considerable distance from 830 meters per second.

Of course, even at that speed, it could only orbit Luoshen Star. To break free of its gravitational field and enter space, it would need to reach around 1.2 kilometers per second, or 4,320 kilometers per hour.

With Flying Sky Type-1's model finalized, the spacecraft industrial base that had been built in advance but had never begun production finally received confirmed specifications and production standards.

More than ten thousand clones immediately entered the production lines. After a series of tests and adjustments, the production lines finally began operating at full capacity.

Before long, large numbers of Flying Sky Type-1 spacecraft began appearing in Luoshen Star's skies, streaking and roaring through the air with long Exhaust Plumes trailing behind them.