Homo Sapiens

March 27, 2021.

After spending over half a month investigating in Luzon, Carl and his team secretly returned once more to Hongsawaddy.

They were in Mengguan Town, Kachin State.

This was the location of Qingye Aviation’s classified production base. The visible part of the base was built on a plain 4.1 kilometers from the town, with its back to a large mountain.

The base was actually divided into two parts. One part was out in the open, while the other was embedded within the mountains, concealed by the Green Umbrella system and underground facilities.

This design was primarily for security. After all, complete concealment was impossible. During the base’s production process, large quantities of materials had to be moved in and out, and some of these supplies inevitably had to be transported from the outside world.

The factory buildings could be disguised, but the roads and railways couldn’t be built entirely underground. Even trying to time all transport for overcast or rainy weather was not a sustainable long-term solution.

If there wasn’t a visible factory here to serve as a front, the heavy traffic of vehicles coming and going would be easily captured by satellites.

Then, their rivals would analyze the data.

’Well, look at this!’ they would think. This place is lush and green, so unless the major powers’ intelligence analysts were complete idiots, they would definitely suspect something was amiss here.

They would conclude it was either an undisclosed research site or a classified factory.

Unless a base was almost entirely self-sufficient, it needed a plausible front to conceal its true nature.

For example, the nuclear base in Black Tiger Canyon used a nature reserve and a lead-zinc mining company as its cover.

Even with the Green Umbrella system and technology for rapid underground excavation, Homo Sapiens Company hadn’t let its guard down.

Even though they could produce their first B43-replica hydrogen bomb around June of this year, Homo Sapiens Company still hadn’t approved any underground nuclear tests.

This was because underground nuclear tests could also be detected by the outside world.

Even if the geological strata blocked the release of radioactive fallout, the shockwaves from the explosion would cause seismic activity. Furthermore, the seismic waves generated by a nuclear explosion are completely different from those of a natural earthquake.

The seismic monitoring stations now scattered across the globe could easily pinpoint the location of the tremor and analyze the anomalies in its waves.

Until they had a stockpile of at least a hundred hydrogen bombs, Homo Sapiens Company had no plans to conduct underground nuclear tests.

As for this year’s strategic plan, Homo Sapiens Company intended to integrate two new fully autonomous regional subsidiary companies and solidify its various foundations. It had no intention of clashing head-on with the major powers.

Developing its aviation industry was part of this plan to solidify its foundations.

...

As soon as they returned, Carl and his team immediately organized engineers and technicians to begin a complete overhaul of the MiG-25 production line.

Inside the final assembly workshop.

The previously upgraded industrial support equipment was undergoing a second round of parameter adjustments.

Wang Haoran was a little surprised. "Chief Engineer Carl, if we adjust the parameters to this, won’t the assembly line be unable to support the weight?"

He asked this because the empty weight of a MiG-25 airframe is 15 tons, but the conveyor belt, after this adjustment, would only have enough power to pull about 10 tons.

"Don’t worry, Wang," Carl explained with a smile. "We’ve improved the airframe’s materials. The weight will be reduced to under 10 tons."

"Improved materials?" Wang Haoran muttered, though he was inwardly unconvinced.

After all, the MiG-25 used stainless steel primarily to break Mach 3 and withstand the friction heat that could reach over 300 degrees Celsius.

Standard aviation-grade aluminum alloys, by contrast, could only resist friction heat of just over 100 degrees Celsius.

As for the latest super-heat-resistant materials, Wang Haoran didn’t believe the company could possibly acquire them. Such materials were the closely guarded secrets of the major world powers, impossible to buy on the open market.

Carl saw the expression on Wang Haoran’s face but didn’t waste his breath explaining. Actions spoke louder than words.

Once the Mandalay Special Refining Company finished setting up its production lines, it would be able to provide a steady stream of new material components for this facility.

Eighty percent of the MiG-25 airframe’s weight, about 12 tons, came from stainless steel, which has a composite material density coefficient of 7.92.

But after switching to the new material, the density coefficient would drop to 3.22.

Other components would also be replaced with new materials.

The new MiG-25’s empty airframe weight would drop to 7.53 tons, roughly half of what it was before.

As for the engine’s power, it hadn’t been tested yet, but Carl knew it would definitely see a significant improvement.

Reduced airframe weight, increased structural strength, and enhanced engine power—when combined, these changes would completely transform the MiG-25.

This was the multiplier effect brought on by superior materials.

Even with a decades-old airframe, Carl was confident he could make it competitive against the active-duty fighters of the major powers.

...

Also working at the base, Mu Ziying was not involved in overhauling the production line. Instead, he was designing an engine.

To be precise, he was improving the MiG-25’s R15B-300 turbojet engine.

After inputting various parameters, the internal supercomputer, built with biochips, had already generated a 3D model of the R15B-300 turbojet engine.

Mu Ziying’s brow was furrowed. Staring at the modified design on the screen, he turned and asked worriedly, "Mr. Mikoyan, this modification will cause massive detonation shockwaves in the combustion chamber. The engine will blow itself apart."

"Mu, pull up the materials list in the computer-aided design system, find the internal materials, and you’ll understand why I made these changes," Alyosha Mikoyan said, continuing to focus on his own work.

Mu Ziying paused for a moment, then pulled up the internal materials list.

His eyes widened. Even with his usually stoic demeanor, he was utterly shocked. "Materials of this caliber actually exist? Unbelievable..."

He applied the new material properties to the various parts of the engine model and had the system automatically calculate the engine’s new maximum performance parameters.

He was stunned when he saw the maximum performance parameters the supercomputer returned.

"Do materials like this really exist?"

Without looking up, Alyosha Mikoyan replied impassively:

"Any material on that list is one the company can supply, so you have no need to worry. Now, let’s focus on improving the engine. Our work is critical. The production line will be ready by June, and we need to send the schematics for the engine components to the parts factory by then."

Mu Ziying took a deep breath. "I understand."

Looking at the engine before him now, he no longer saw it as obsolete. Instead, he felt it was destined to shock the world.

He pulled up the list of available new materials, studied it carefully once more, and then began substituting them into the design.

This was not a task to be taken lightly.

Or rather, one could do it casually, but that would mean wasting some of the new materials’ potential performance.

For instance, with the new material, the inner wall of the engine’s combustion chamber no longer needed to be as thick as before. According to Mu Ziying’s careful calculations, its thickness could be reduced to 63.7% of the original, and it would still be strong enough to withstand prolonged detonation shockwaves.

When it came to an aircraft, every ounce of dead weight was meticulously scrutinized.

Reducing dead weight meant increasing the aircraft’s effective payload and range.

Previously, Mu Ziying hadn’t understood why the company would acquire a production line for an old relic like the MiG-25. Now, he finally got it.

Bolstered by these new materials, the MiG-25 production line was actually the most cost-effective choice.

After all, the advanced fighters currently in service around the world were absurdly expensive, to say nothing of the cost of buying their production lines.

Smaller nations simply couldn’t afford the production lines for the major powers’ active-duty advanced fighters, nor did they have the qualifications to purchase them in the first place.

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