Darkstone Code-Chapter 717 - 0715 Research Institute

The weather was getting hotter.

Sometimes winter was quite cold, but as long as you wore a few more layers, there was always a time when you would feel warm.

Summer, however, was truly torturous. Even if you wore no clothes, it would still be hot. The kind of all-encompassing heat, even the wind was scorching, blowing against people without any cooling effect, but rather making it feel even hotter.

Even on the bustling streets of Bupen, the number of pedestrians decreased significantly, as people dreaded the heat.

Lynch thought about the summer in Nagariel, where the temperature was evidently a bit higher than in the Federation, yet it didn’t feel as hot.

Under the swaying shadows of the trees, the rolling heatwaves became cooler, blowing on people with a sense of chilliness that soothed the heart.

Sitting in a wicker chair, feeling the breeze, watching those Nagariel people sweating profusely on the construction site in the blazing summer, there was nothing more enjoyable than this.

When Lynch entered the research institute, a group of staff was debugging some machines.

"What are they doing?" Lynch casually asked.

The research institute director, who came to greet him, immediately explained, "They are installing temperature regulators, which can maintain the internal space of the institute at a stable temperature range."

"Some materials that are quite sensitive to temperature changes need to be tested in different environments, so we procured a set. They said it’s central... something." The director couldn’t quite remember the word; he wasn’t very concerned with this aspect anyway.

It was actually just central air conditioning, Lynch nodded.

In fact, his understanding was slightly mistaken. This thing was more than just central air conditioning; it could lower the temperature of some rooms to near zero degrees, which current air conditioning systems struggled to achieve.

Sometimes, a breakthrough in cutting-edge technology could often lead to successive breakthroughs in many related technologies. For the Federation now, it was about to enter a period of technological boom. As long as those people had innovative ideas that could convince others, they wouldn’t have difficulty securing investments from wealthy individuals.

Lynch acquired this research institute with a little money. The institute itself wasn’t valuable, and neither was the land. For less than three hundred thousand, it became Lynch’s asset. Of course, there wouldn’t be any data or researchers inside, just some not-so-outdated but not state-of-the-art precision instruments used for research.

The research institute was currently allocated to "Darkstone Industries". Darkstone Industries was not an ordinary operational company; it didn’t actually produce anything on its own, neither now nor in the future.

This was an institution specifically engaged in research. Lynch invested a considerable amount of money in it, hiring some real scientists and a few amateur scientists. Its value lay in providing various methods to realize people’s interesting ideas.

These methods would be registered as patents, then licensed to "Darkstone Manufacturing" and some other companies in which Lynch held shares for production.

For instance, the aircraft company involving numerous Members of Parliament and military representatives would get authorization, then manufacture some things.

Lynch couldn’t value such obviously interest-driven enterprises too highly, nor could he allocate any important work to them.

They were companies full of loopholes, incapable of preserving anything substantial.

After going through the static elimination procedure, the two of them officially stepped inside the research institute.

"Mr. Lynch, some of the ideas you previously provided regarding aircraft engines, we have already begun designing..." The director voluntarily opened a door for Lynch, and the two entered the interior of the research institute.

The security force used in the entire research institute came from Darkstone Security. They were all their people, so it was reassuring to use them.

Many researchers knew Lynch, but obviously, they had no intention of exchanging pleasantries with him; they were seriously engaged in various calculations or experiments.

Lynch promised them that if they could produce the first specialized aircraft engine before January 1st next year, then at least three percent, and no more than ten percent, of the profits generated by the first generation of aviation engines would be taken out to reward all researchers.

It didn’t seem like much. Maybe the authorized production cost of an engine was only a few thousand dollars, but the number of these things would definitely not be small.

Whether through military procurement or purchases by civilian enthusiasts, the researchers in the institute believed that it wouldn’t be a problem to sell a few thousand units during its lifespan. Therefore, the three percent dividends generated merely from the licensing fees would amount to hundreds of thousands, or even more.

As long as this engine wasn’t completely discontinued, the researchers in the institute would benefit continuously from it.

During this economically challenging period, having such benefits was already quite rare, so everyone was working very hard on the design.

The director of the research institute was not originally someone engaged in high-end research; he was an engineer in the laboratory of a heavy industry group, mainly responsible for designing high-power engines to serve some engineering machinery.

The work was relatively uninteresting and lacked a bit of passion. It wasn’t until Lynch approached him, hoping he would switch to a new job, that he rekindled a sense of passion.

Flying has always been one of humanity’s most romantic fantasies. Everyone has longed for the freedom of the sky, and the director was no exception. So when someone approached him and told him Lynch intended to invite him to research aircraft engines, he immediately agreed.

Not only did he come himself, but he also recruited some people in the industry willing to switch jobs, which, of course, also related to the price Lynch offered.

Lynch was enthusiastic; his enthusiasm, money, and warmth were among the most difficult things for people to refuse.

"Based on some of the ideas you provided, we’ve actually completed the preliminary design...," Lynch said nothing along the way, making the Director feel a bit uneasy. The institute has been established for three months now.

If there had been no progress in these three months, he would feel a bit embarrassed. He walked to the innermost part of the institute, where there were many clipboards holding drafts with various patterns and formulas.

The Director found one among them and pulled it out, presenting it to Lynch.

"After some research and discussion, we have theoretically pushed the horsepower of our first-generation engine to over a hundred horsepower. Our aircraft designer has also come up with a very beautiful appearance for it..."

The Director proudly patted the airplane draft behind him, this design was done by those civilian scientists.

At this time, there had not yet formed a stereotype of mutual disdain between academic scientists and civilian scientists, and both sides collaborated quite well.

It was a biplane not too different from what Lynch had in mind, with a propeller at the front, simple and effective. In fact, many planes designed by civilian scientists looked like this now.

"Why is it a biplane...," Lynch asked a "small question," but evidently this small question wasn’t so easy to answer.

The Director stuttered for a while and, after apologizing, brought in the designer, a civilian aircraft scientist whom Lynch had personally invited.

Lynch had seen one of his performances; the plane took off smoothly and then crashed, which was quite impressive.

After the guy arrived, Lynch repeated his question, and the civilian scientist’s answer was "stability."

"Mr. Lynch, the biggest problems we face in the air are stability and strength. The biplane design caters to that. We don’t have to worry about it suddenly disintegrating, nor do we have to worry about the wings breaking when we pull up."

"The new engine will give it more power, and when performing certain maneuvers, we must first consider whether our wings allow us to do so..."

This civilian scientist clearly is a practitioner. Based on his rumored lack of successful landing experiences, his experiences are really more valuable than those formulas written on drafts by the institute’s researchers.

This is precisely why, after gathering a group of academic scientists, Lynch still wanted to bring in some civilian scientists with rich flying experience to the institute.

Practice is always more meaningful than working on paper. Their experiences all come from failures rather than simulations, making these experiences more valuable.

The civilian aircraft scientists who survived and remained active during this period must have escaped from various desperate situations.

Those civilian scientists who lacked capability or brains had long perished in their last flight accidents.

He continuously expressed his views, but in the end, it all summed up to the current materials being difficult to support high-horsepower planes performing complex maneuvers in the air.

In other words, the institute’s current engine theoretically surpasses all previous engines, so the airplane design must accommodate the engine, rather than making the engine accommodate the plane.

"How long can it fly, how far?"

"We currently have three designs..."

"The first is single-pilot, removing all unnecessary equipment, theoretically capable of flying around five hundred kilometers."

"The second can carry two people, with a flight range of about over three hundred kilometers."

"The third can carry a pilot and six 105 howitzer shells, with a flight range of about a hundred and fifty kilometers."

When mentioning these figures, both the Director and the civilian scientist appeared very proud. Such data, if released, would definitely rock the entire industry.

They even pre-designed an attack system, directly dropping shells from high altitude!

Previously, some aircrafts also considered attacks, but their methods were obviously insignificant, like using pistols, rifles, machine guns on planes, all lacking substantial value.

Pistols and rifles couldn’t hit people on the ground at all. Machine guns could, but required low-altitude flying.

As is well known, the biggest issue with current aircraft is the inability to pull up after a rapid dive, often leading to a crash, making the use of machine guns as an attack method clearly unfeasible.

As for dropping grenades...

If flying too high, the grenades would explode in the air; if flying too low, they easily get hit by machine guns, plus the difficulty of landing, resulting in aircraft still not fully entering the military’s vision of various countries.

As long as it can’t form effective combat power, nobody is too willing to overly research it; they might as well let those civilian scientists continue to tinker. The military and some enterprises occasionally give them some funds.

If results come out, great; if not, it’s not too big a loss.