50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 669 Flight Attendants Showing More and More Thighs
The most important performance characteristic of a submarine is not its endurance, its firepower, or its speed; the only one is how quiet it is.

In this day and age, without deep-sea radar, the detection of objects in the water relies entirely on sonar. As long as a submarine is 'quiet' enough, it can ensure its own safety and secrecy.

Security and confidentiality are exactly what Subi Island needs most for defensive operations.

Subi Island is not a sovereign state; it is merely the headquarters and training base for Pinkerton's Asian branch. The defensive equipment required here cannot be too outrageous.

Therefore, Sun Zhiwei never intended to build any kind of fleet; one or two high-performance submarines would be enough to protect the island.

Therefore, Sun Zhiwei was immediately interested when he thought about the stealth capabilities of the Trafalgar-class attack submarines.

Seeing that the construction of Subi Island was on track, he decided to make another trip to England.

The following day, Sun Zhiwei departed from Pontianak Airport and flew directly to Hong Kong Island in his Gulfstream 3 aircraft, from where it would be easier to travel to the UK.

This time when he went to London, he used Sun Wei's identity as a grain merchant from Hong Kong.

On May 19th, Sun Wei boarded a flight to London. The flight would last 14 hours, with a refueling stop in Cairo.

When he boarded the plane and saw the flight attendants who were there to greet him, he was amazed by their uniforms.

In the early days of commercial aviation, airplanes were cramped, and if you brought a child on board, the child could only be placed on the overhead rack.

At the time, airlines believed that having a medical professional present could significantly alleviate passengers' anxiety in the confined space and in the face of an unknown flight.

Therefore, flight attendants at that time were usually nurses or female doctors.

Their uniforms resemble those of hospital nurses, either black or white, with skirts so long they reach their ankles.

In the 1960s, with the advent of large civil airliners, flight attendants began to have more room to showcase their talents.

And so from this time on, flight attendant uniforms began to show signs of becoming more colorful.

Photo: The blue uniform of an Irish flight attendant in the 1960s
With the rise of the aviation industry, professional fashion designers began to design uniforms for flight attendants.

Flight attendant uniforms have begun to take on a fashionable feel, and a more ladylike style has started to be reflected in them.

In the 1970s, the feminist movement arose, and 'sexiness' became the only starting point at the time. Flight attendants' calves were exposed, but they were still kept below the knee.

Back then, Southwest Airlines' motto was "Sexiness is the best-selling thing," so hot pants paired with knee-high boots became one of the flight attendants' outfits.

Uniforms in different regions vary, some are fitted at the waist to show off the waistline, some have changed from long sleeves to short sleeves, and some are even designed to be a soft pink.

Now that it's the 80s, Sun Zhiwei, who has taken many flights, has noticed that skirts below the knee are almost nowhere to be seen anymore.

Flight attendants are showing more and more of their thighs, and how much they show depends entirely on how daring the airline's designs are.

On the British flight that Sun Zhiwei was on, the uniforms of the London flight attendants were very sexy, giving Sun Zhiwei a visual feast.

To be honest, the flight attendant uniforms designed by the airline's designers are incredibly alluring, and he plans to take a few home with him when he goes back.

Fourteen hours later, Sun Zhiwei set foot on London soil; it was already evening.

The straight-line distance from London to Barrow-inverness is 350 kilometers, and the land distance is approximately 500 kilometers.

Fortunately, highways now cover the entire British Isles, making it much faster to travel by highway. After leaving the airport, Sun Zhiwei found an underground parking garage, borrowed a new car, and hit the road with some trouble.

The reason I say it was bumpy is mainly because he rarely drove in Commonwealth countries, where the driver's seat is on the right.

Therefore, his acceleration and deceleration while driving are always a beat slower. Fortunately, it's not a big problem; he'll get used to it.

He drove north from London, turning on the car stereo and playing country music as he drove.

When he passed a KFC along the way, he took a few fried chicken legs and a bottle of Coke from it and ate them as he walked.

We drove until dawn and finally arrived at the Barrow-inverness shipyard.

British nuclear submarines are designed by Vickers Shipbuilding & Engineering Ltd. and built at the Barrow-inverness shipyard in Cumbria. The latest model is the Trafalgar-class, which is 85.4 meters long, 9.8 meters wide, has a diving depth of 500 meters, and a displacement of 5900 tons.

The Trafalgar-class submarine is nuclear-powered, has an underwater speed of 32 knots, a range of 37 kilometers, a self-sufficiency of 60-90 days when fully loaded, and a crew of 130.

This submarine is 20 meters shorter and displaces 1000 tons less than the Los Angeles-class submarine, but it is just right for Subi Island.

After arriving, Sun Zhiwei parked the car and, before dawn, quickly sneaked into the shipyard's dock.

In a large indoor shipyard, he saw two submarines under construction, and judging from their shapes and outlines, they were the Trafalgar-class attack submarines he was looking for.

He silently calculated the time and confirmed that the two submarines under construction were indeed the fifth and sixth of the Trafalgar-class submarines, the 'Sharp' and the 'Genius'.

But the unfinished submarine was not his target, so he could only continue searching within the shipyard.

He searched the shipyard thoroughly but could not find the 'Rock Bay' which should have been newly built.

Wait a minute, where's the ship? He suddenly remembered that a new Trafalgar-class ship had been launched last month, which is why he rushed over in such a hurry. But now that he's here, the ship is nowhere to be found.

Seeing that he had made no progress and that dawn was approaching and the workers would soon be coming to work, he had no choice but to temporarily leave the shipyard and return to the street.

After calmly walking around the streets, he guessed that the new ship was either being tested at sea or had probably already been taken by the British Navy.

After all, newly built submarines cannot be put into service immediately; they still need 1-2 years of sea trials.

If the 'Rock Bay' is undergoing sea trials, then he just needs to wait; it's unlikely to sail very far in the early stages of testing.

If the 'Rock Bay' was taken away by the Navy, then it has gone a long and arduous journey, because the Navy's submarine base is located at Plymouth Naval Base on the southwest coast of the British Isles.

Plymouth, along with Barrow-inverness and London, forms a triangle, with each city separated by 300 to 400 kilometers.

Unsure of the whereabouts of the 'Rock Bay', he had no choice but to stay temporarily in the city of Baroinverness.

To avoid missing the return voyage of the 'Rock Bay', he had no choice but to stay in a small hotel near the shipyard.

Barrow-inverness is a coastal industrial town in Cumbria, England, and is world-renowned for its shipbuilding industry.

This place not only has nuclear submarine shipyards, but also shipyards for battleships and aircraft carriers.

(End of this chapter)