Chapter 372 Test Flight and Preparation

Testing drones must be reported for approval, no matter where you are, and the military is actually responsible for approving this thing.

Therefore, the Imperial Capital Aviation Institute directly contacted the military region here. There is an air force base in Lanzhou, but it is still a thousand kilometers away from Dunhuang. They agreed to meet here.

They came here in a truck. In addition to the guide and the air commander, there were also many people who came together. It is estimated that they also wanted to inspect this new type of aircraft.

The quadcopter is still a rare object in this era. Although most air forces are not interested in this type of aircraft, the upper level still emphasizes the importance of this thing in the future.

A few years ago, the ugly country fought in the Middle East and showed the world what modern warfare is. This war can be said to have completely awakened the Chinese military. Many concepts began to change and began to embrace new things.

And the quadcopter is something that even the ugly country has never heard of. Suddenly, it said that it would test fly here. Both the aviation institute and the upper level attached great importance to it. You have not seen people coming, and there must be at least ten people.

Wang Xu and his team were going to XJ, where there were very beautiful geological features suitable for aerial photography. There was no road there, so they could only rely on jeeps to travel in the wild. Therefore, there were more than just a few people, and they also brought a lot of vehicles and supplies.

Wang Xu could run out with his wife without hesitation, but the people above would not be so careless, and they had arranged it in advance, but the speed of the convoy was still a little slower than the train, so they arrived a day late.

The leader was Li Guoqing, two cylinders and two stars, green on the top and blue on the bottom, which was the uniform of the officers of the Air Force in this era. This was the new military uniform that was implemented in 1987 and has now been basically distributed to the troops.

It's just that the military has greatly reduced its budget in recent years, so the texture of the clothes is really not very good, far from the crisp texture of later generations, and there is always a wrinkled feeling, which is a problem with the processing level of wool materials.

Wang Xu felt a little itchy, and as a fashion designer, he really couldn't stand it.

But he also knew that this was the daily life of this era. Most of the materials used in Wang Xu's clothes were imported, and even the silk was imported with better quality. Except for a few traditional handmade high-end silks, the ordinary fabrics in China at this time were really hard to describe.

Fortunately, the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Chemical Engineering have recently produced a lot of chemical fiber materials, many of which are suitable for clothing fabrics, but there is still a long time before they are put on the market.

The two teams met. The Imperial Capital Aviation Institute and the military have always been in frequent contact. This time, there are soldiers from the Imperial Capital Military Region Air Force who are traveling together, and the drones are basically operated by them.

Although it is very funny to let a serious pilot fly this, the attention of the superiors still makes this somewhat joking situation become a reality.

In the 1980s and 1990s, China's main military pressure came from the southeast, and new equipment was placed there as much as possible. For example, the Flanker fighter jets that flew here with great difficulty last year are now deployed on the southeast coast.

The northwest is the rear area. After the fall of the red giant, China actually has a lot of benefits. At least the entire northern border is much safer, which allows the Chinese military to finally breathe a sigh of relief.

You know, in the past, any new equipment had to be deployed in the north first to prevent the polar bear's white swan from directly attacking the imperial capital.

Therefore, the northwest direction is not too tense at this moment, but very active. The soldiers began to set up tents next to Wang Xu's camp and dig some windbreaks.

This is unique to the northwest. In winter, some half-person-deep pits need to be dug and tents need to be arranged in the pits to avoid the invasion of strong winds and heavy snow.

Wang Xu's group of people are inexperienced. How could the soldiers who have been stationed here for many years and often march not understand? Although the weather forecast did not say that there would be bad weather, they still strictly followed the highest level to help Wang Xu and his men re-install the tents.

Wang Xu saw that they were busy and he could not help, so he contributed his new equipment, the engineer shovel, to the soldiers to dig trenches. The Northwest Military Region is still using the old-fashioned engineer shovel from the 1960s.

It is a wooden handle, like a small shovel, not the famous multifunctional engineer shovel in later generations.

"Brother Wang, your little shovel is really useful, light and fast, where did you get it?" The person asking the question was a platoon leader of the army. He weighed it and tried to dig a few times, with a very pleasant expression on his face.

It is normal for them to be interested in this little thing. Wang Xu's engineer shovel is an outdoor civilian engineer shovel, which weakens the fighting function and mainly emphasizes a multifunctional function.

The materials are all various new materials recently developed by Shuimuxin, such as high-strength steel, carbon fiber, etc. It is necessary to say that it is light and fast. Who makes this thing first-class in terms of materials and craftsmanship.

Compared with the wooden-handled engineer shovels in the 1960s in their hands, it is simply too trendy.

"Hey, this one, I asked someone to make it myself, it has not been launched yet, this one is multifunctional, mainly for outdoor travel. If you like it, I will make a few military ones for you later." Wang Xu answered casually. People come to help, and giving gifts later is also a friendship.

"Oh, do you have a military version of this thing?" Lieutenant Colonel Li Guoqing's eyes lit up and he immediately asked.

"Of course, the one in your hand is for civilian use, and it emphasizes lightness and multi-function.

The handles are made of light materials, which are strong enough, but not hard enough.

If it is really for military use, steel must be used. Carbon fiber and aluminum are too delicate, and the surface is easily scratched by hard objects. Carbon fiber is also brittle, and is not as durable as steel. It can also be used as a machete in a war. "Wang Xu took the shovel, explained, folded, and demonstrated the function of this engineer shovel.

"Okay, Brother Wang, I'll remember it. Get us a few later. We have to dig pits to avoid snow when we march here, and it will be convenient to have this thing." Lieutenant Colonel Li Guoqing's eyes brightened, just like Li Yunlong. Is the old Li family like this? Oh, by the way, there is no "Bright Sword" at this time.

However, the troops of this era are really short of things. You can see that the 87-style military uniforms have not been fully popularized for so many years, and many officers only have casual uniforms but no formal uniforms.

Therefore, almost all officers of this era have the habit of picking up rags. Just kidding, Wang Xu was instructed by his superiors, and he must be well received by those who speak well.

"Aren't you the Air Force? Still marching? "Wang Xu was a little puzzled. It was normal for the army to conduct a drill, but it was nonsense for the air force to conduct a drill.

"Insufficient funding, insufficient flight training, and we didn't have much work to do, so we could only train more physically." Li Guoqing was a little sad. Wang Xu had talked to him. He was a pilot, but he was injured and didn't want to retire, so he switched to ground crew.

"It's really hard. The country is short of money now. "Wang Xu could only sigh. He really had no way to deal with such a big picture. At present, many troops could not even fully guarantee food, let alone training.

Wang Xu has developed a lot of new technologies, but most of them are just for testing and technical reserves. There is no money to expand research.

Except for a few key models, almost all the rest have been stopped. The areas where Wang Xu can influence are still very limited. Of course, it cannot be said that there is no progress at all. For example, the progress of the radar being developed by a digital research institute is quite fast.

At present, the focus of the country's reform is still people's livelihood and economy. At present, the reform of the state-owned economy involves a lot of energy of the country. Only after these things are sorted out can we really free up our hands to reorganize the complex military scientific research system.

This cannot be rushed. Many things are slow to achieve. Wang Xu is not in the position, and he will never make random suggestions. He just needs to do his own thing.

"Are you going to fly today? "Li Guoqing returned the engineer shovel to the platoon leader and asked him to continue digging the pit. He then pulled Wang Xu to the drone.

Although the size was only that of a large model airplane, it was still an airplane after all, and Li Guoqing was still very interested.

"Well, this time we mainly came to test the four-axis and eight-axis, but we all call them four-axis. The flight control is not very different, just more powerful. Come, I'll take you to visit."

"Your airplane is so light." Li Guoqing said in surprise when he saw Wang Xu lightly pick up a four-axis drone with one hand to show him.

"Well, it's mainly because the battery is heavy. The current motor is not very good, and it consumes a little power. In addition, the main control circuit and sensor are also very power-consuming, so we have to add more batteries.

Even though carbon fiber has been used in the structure and various movable mechanisms have been removed, the overall weight is still a bit heavy.

In a few years, that big guy will not exceed 20 kilograms. "Wang Xu weighed the drone in his hand, and it was much heavier than the drones he imagined in the future.

"It's light enough. Although it's not big, you have to carry a camera to fly, and the camera must weigh more than ten pounds." Li Guoqing took the drone, carefully felt the weight, and studied the general structure.

"It's about the same, but heavier. This is a film, and the film inside is very heavy, plus the lens, battery, etc., are all dead heavy things. The integration is not enough now, so we can only make do with it for now and improve the integration bit by bit. "Wang Xu became interested when he talked about this, and he had a lot of opinions.

There is no way. Under the limitations of various processing capabilities and inheritance capabilities, too many compromise solutions have been used. Can you believe that the real-time image transmission uses an analog circuit TV solution?

There is no way. Digital transmission has too high requirements for chips. It is already amazing to have a roughly image. What else do you need a bicycle? This is not twenty years later.

It can be used. In this era, it is already extraordinarily small. It is much easier than holding a huge camera manually and hanging it on a helicopter to shoot.

Not to mention anything else, just the 360-degree rotation skill is not comparable to all current aerial platforms, let alone the self-stabilizing aerial gimbal.

The gimbal plus camera solution has been favored by the upper level, and it is said that it is intended to be used in the "air handsome man" In terms of the modification, the lens made by Wang Xu is also very good. A certain optical research institute with a certain number specially sent two technicians to be apprentices, together with the ones from the Seagull factory.

Wang Xu would go there from time to time to give some pointers, and of course they would also help Wang Xu make new lenses.

This is a mutually beneficial matter. Many patents have been agreed with the Seagull manufacturer. They are doing well now, so they simply established a joint venture to produce a high-end sub-brand of new SLR and twin-lens reflex cameras.

Wang Xu used the full set of technology to invest 20%, they provided funds and venues, and Wang Xu and his team just entrusted the firm to supervise.

Senior Brother Yuzhuo's factory should also produce some purely handmade products in the future, mainly very high-end lenses, the kind that are hand-polished. It takes a long time to train such a master, but it is not very urgent.

The current products are all made by Wang Xu himself, and they are enough for current filming.

"Are you flying today?" Li Guoqing is still more interested in flying. In his eyes, gimbals and other things are accessories.

"Of course, the team from the Aviation Institute is mainly here to collect data. We started flying yesterday.

This is a quadcopter, not one of your jets. As long as there is electricity, it can fly for a long time without maintenance." Wang Xu put down the quadcopter and walked around. Seeing that everyone was busy, he was a little idle.

They will rest here for a day and cooperate with the team from the Aviation Institute. If everything goes well, they will set off to the next desert tomorrow.

The Gobi Desert looks normal, but it is still very dangerous today when various equipment is not in place. From time to time, someone will go in and lose their direction, and then stay there forever.

Even if there is a truck fleet, serious preparation is required. Although Wang Xu's traveler-style way can be realized in this era, it is much more dangerous. He doesn't care, but the leaders don't want him to be injured for such a nonsensical reason.

This kind of care is invisible in the capital, but it is very grand in the local area. Just look at the several large trucks and the dozens of logistics teams, and you will know how much they value him.

"I heard that you also imported two helicopters?" After Li Guoqing arranged some work, he returned to Wang Xu to inquire about the new information.

"Well, he was idle. There were three shots in total, and he bought two specially. He had money to burn." Wang Fei complained. She knew about this. There were many helicopter shots, but later because they all needed to fly in the virtual city, it was better to use green screen props. As a result, these two helicopters were really useless.

"It's okay, the crew reported it. It's just equipment worth tens of thousands of dollars, which is not a big deal.

But you won't see it. It was donated to the capital city. It will be used by the police in the future. When it was bought, it was stated that it could not be used for military purposes." Wang Xu laughed, and this was all included in his five million investment.

In fact, there was no need for so much. Now is the era when the US dollar is the strongest. One million US dollars can build a small building in the capital, let alone five million.

The base is in the suburbs of Changping. The land belongs to the state, the team is their own, and they have built props and buildings with shiny surfaces. How much money can it cost?

Props, buildings, software and hardware research and development, anyway, all kinds of expenses were collected for a long time before an investment quota of 5 million was compiled.

Ugly Chinese people have seen this kind of operation many times, and they think his offer is quite cheap.

Wang Fei and Wang Xu's salary was not converted into investment, which is mainly because they don't want other actors to do the same. Although there are no big actors in this film, the actors in it are not small roles.

In fact, the film's funding is still a bit tight, but funding is something that can be slowly asked for later. If you continue to add, you can invest 15 million US dollars. How can it be worthy of so many singing queens and singing kings?

Finally, it was promoted that it was a large investment of 40 million US dollars, which was a sure thing.

This was not Wang Xu's idea, but it was agreed by New Line and Golden Harvest. Wang Xu naturally had no objection. The price of special effects was quoted by him. Just quote a little more. It was half cheaper than Hollywood anyway.

It is guaranteed that the film will not be released, and the special effects studio can make money. This is the benefit of the studio's independent accounting.

——

(I am unemployed again, and my mentality is broken)