What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 485 Vacuum Tubes Reappear

The guards cautiously entered the woods, then used fire extinguishers and their clothes to put out the remaining flames, before dragging a large, charred, and oddly shaped frame to Hunter.

"That's it! I've got it!"

Torres lunged forward, shouting excitedly:

"That's it! That buzzing thing has been watching us ever since we entered Baxi!"

The high-frequency and dense noise from the gasoline engine, mixed with the propeller, caused Torres, who was already under great mental pressure, to suffer from insomnia for almost a month, and it almost developed into PTSD. He could be sensitively awakened even when he was in deep sleep, and he obviously had no idea how many times he had rehearsed it in his dreams.

Just as Hunter was about to ask him something, Torres suddenly closed his eyes and collapsed.

The guard shook him vigorously and then looked up in surprise: "He's asleep."

"Then let's wait until he wakes up to talk about it."

Hunter turned to look at the wreckage of the T6 drone; most of the main body was still intact, only the gasoline drums had been detonated.

Several shafts and propellers were broken, but the overall appearance was intact, and it was immediately clear that the lift was provided by six propellers.

But no one had ever seen such a strange aircraft before, let alone knew how to control this...unmanned small plane?

Hunter realized what was happening:
"Quickly, someone must be remotely controlling things nearby... Get someone to find the direction finder!"

After mobilizing the remaining people to go out and find the "remote controller," Hunter brought the wreckage back to the warehouse and studied it carefully, finding that he could completely understand the structure.

A gasoline engine, a propeller, a drive shaft—and a burnt little black box containing some very old vacuum tubes, that's all.

It looked cheap and lacked any technological sophistication, but there was no reconnaissance equipment in sight, which was strange.

At least bring a film camera to take some confidential photos, right?

Hunter led his men into the woods to search for the remaining wreckage, hoping to find some dropped cameras or something similar.

……

Prism Building
"Gentlemen, from now on we must face up to the technological gap."

Rams looked at the presidents and executives of the various companies, his expression very serious.

Outside the small room in this angular building, a new sign reading "ET Research Center" has been hung.

Don't get me wrong, we're not researching ET aliens here, but rather Hans's advanced technology. ET is an abbreviation for "Iron Cross Technology" in Hans.

But for the technical experts present who remained silent, interpreting it as alien technology research was also acceptable.

The ET Research Center was established under the leadership of Prism Building and encompasses various aspects such as military equipment, biotechnology, and hypnosis. It subcontracts research to various companies on all the unusual technologies that appear on Hans.

"Hyperspeed ship propulsion, smoke screens, special compression and folding of fighter jets, human body control, and now human body enhancement—that's all we need to research. The last one is new. Which company would be willing to take it on?"

The crowd below exchanged bewildered glances, none daring to utter a sound at this crucial moment in the fight for funding.

Human enhancement comes from rainforest air combat. The Air Force analyzed the process of the Super Swift using rockets to complete incredible maneuvers and found that the airframe might be able to withstand it, but the pilot would have to endure 9 to 14G of overload changes for a short period of time!

If it were just using anti-G suits, that would be one thing, but based on past experience, Hans pilots continued the tradition of World War II: apart from a jacket and a flight cap, they had no other special equipment!
Endure a 14G overload with your bare body!
This can only be attributed to biotechnology, and in fact, to a completely uncharted territory. Rams looked around and his eyes lit up when someone raised their hand, but he looked away after realizing it was York.

Forget about the Supernatural Investigation Bureau; those guys are always thinking about copying one person's memory structure into another. Let's find some normal people instead.

"Genentech, Amgen..."

After calling out names one by one, the vice president of Vertex Pharmaceuticals finally raised his hand:

“We have a similar project with MIT, but it’s a human augmentation program that BPRD was involved in in the 70s, and it can be restarted.”

The 70s and BPRD were undoubtedly a project launched during the height of the Cold War to compete with the Allies. However, Vertex Pharmaceuticals was a long-established biotechnology company with guaranteed technological capabilities.

"Next..."

Rams reviewed the research progress in the other technical areas and found that, apart from Thor recreating the smoke generator in an alternative way, only General Electric had made some progress:

Their research focused on the destroyer that could run at over 70 knots. After failing to discover conventional elements such as "air cushion" or "nuclear power," they finally found a technological route—magnetic hydrodynamic propulsion.

The principle of magnetohydrodynamic propulsion is to create a strong magnetic field by using superconducting coils, and then use electrodes to make seawater conductive to form charged particles. By ejecting the charged fluid, thrust is generated. In theory, it is not only quiet but also greatly reduces drag.

As early as 92, Japan conducted model research and eventually concluded that the theoretical speed could reach 150 knots, and a speed of 70 knots was only half of the limit.

However, to power a destroyer weighing several thousand tons, the liquid nitrogen used for the superconducting coils alone would likely be a considerable weight.

However, these are the only two projects that have yielded results so far; the rest of the technologies are still in their infancy.

The first small meeting at the ET Research Center ended in a hesitant and reluctant manner. Just as Rams was about to go out for a rest, he saw the IAA people carrying in a metal frame that had been burned and deformed, and placing it at the front with solemn expressions.

People from various companies pushed forward to see what it was, but at first glance, they couldn't quite make it out.

"Everyone, I'm sorry to take up a little more of your time."

Wayne rushed in and pinned an enlarged picture of the wreckage of a T6 drone to the wall:
"Marun discovered a small device that the enemy uses to secretly monitor us. It is powered by a gasoline engine and has six propellers. With this planar layout, it can hover for a long time and hide in the woods. The noise of the engine is not easily distinguishable at a distance of one to two hundred meters."

If we can't solve this problem, ground troops can't deploy.

Many of the company executives present had technical backgrounds and quickly analyzed the T6's propulsion system and flight principles from the wreckage.

Multirotor aircraft seemed novel to them, but upon closer examination…

"The drive shaft speed is constant, which means that the lift is adjusted by the torque-variable blades, but that's too complicated."

"The terminal power output efficiency is estimated to be only 80%, so why not make it a helicopter type?"

"Hey, how does this thing prevent itself from spinning? I don't see a gyroscope."

"Wait, where's the electronic controller?"

There wasn't much to study about the mechanical parts, and soon everyone noticed the T6's electronic control device, opening the small black box.

Some people felt it looked familiar, and upon seeing the contents, they immediately exclaimed:
"God, how is this possible? Vacuum tubes? Vacuum tubes again?"

(End of this chapter)