Chapter 87 Flying Fish Company
Good news that Garfield and others know.
Actually there are three.
The first is that after intensive research and under the technical guidance of Li Qingye, the recently integrated Military Industry Department has begun to produce products.
Make use of the existing civilian industrial chain system in East Asia and Southeast Asia, such as civilian UAV companies, civilian piston engine companies, civilian electronic parts companies, etc.
The first "cruise missile" - the Typhoon 1 cruise missile - was quickly assembled.
Luzon, Visayas.
Near the Nantu Mountains on the west coast of Panay Island, there is a little-known town called Kulasi. The town is backed by mountains and faces the Sulu Sea.
Just over half a month ago.
The Zhiren Company is internally affiliated with the Military Industry Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where the 101 project was established. Externally, it is a pesticide aircraft manufacturing company invested by the company, which is called Flying Fish Aircraft Manufacturing Company.
In fact, the company does plan to introduce three drone production lines and two piston agricultural aircraft production lines from China.
At present, a small airport, a test field and an assembly plant have been preliminarily established here.
Inside the assembly plant of Flying Fish Aircraft Manufacturing Company.
Chief Engineer Fang Bo was recruited from China by Zhiren Company’s Human Resources Department. He was originally a whole-machine integration engineer at DJI Company.
If it weren't for the fact that the Sapiens Company offered a resettlement fee of US$500,000, as well as one-stop immigration services for the whole family, plus a basic salary of US$120,000 per year, he would not have immigrated to Luzon and built airplanes on such a deserted island.
However, after arriving here, he adapted quickly, mainly because there are many Chinese colleagues, including five fresh graduates this year who immigrated from China through skilled immigration.
As the situation was explained during the recruitment process, there are some confidential technologies within Feiyu Company, so employees who are not Luzon nationals are not accepted.
Although Luzon is underdeveloped, the problem is that the internal competition among Chinese college students is very serious.
It is easy to find a job, for example, if you work hard and carry bricks at a construction site, you can earn tens of thousands of yuan a month.
The problem is that if a college student who graduated from a 211 university is asked to carry bricks, even if the college student is willing, his parents and people around him will probably talk behind his back.
Therefore, the human resources department of Zhiren Company went to China specifically to recruit people. After all, there are millions of graduates every year, and there are always people willing to come to Luzon for money.
Many of Fang Bo's subordinates came this way.
Of course, since Feiyu Company involves many confidential information, its employees will be further screened. Employees assigned to Feiyu Company basically have their entire families living in the area controlled by Homo Sapiens Company.
Fang Bo looked at the unmanned aircraft on the assembly line that used a motorcycle piston engine as its core, and there was something strange on his face.
A dozen technicians were busy working on the plane.
He turned his head and whispered, "Manager Paul, isn't this reduction too much? I think there will be problems after two or three times."
Paul didn't care: "It doesn't matter, two or three flights are enough."
"Two or three times?" Fang Bai is not a fool. When he heard this standard, he knew that this kind of drone was most likely a fast-moving consumer product.
The question is, which company or organization would purchase such a disposable drone?
The answer is obvious.
The Typhoon 1 drone is 4.6 meters long and has a wingspan of 3 meters. It is equipped with a turbocharged gasoline piston engine. Its maximum flight speed can reach 531 kilometers per hour and its cruising speed is 360 kilometers per hour.
Its maximum flight radius is 1,200 kilometers (one-way), and when carrying a 100-kilogram payload, the flight radius is about 300 kilometers.
Fang Bo's designs are all in accordance with the company's requirements, which is to be as cheap as possible. If civilian parts can be used, they will be used as much as possible, and the cheaper the better.
According to his experience, if this Typhoon 1 UAV is mass-produced, the estimated production cost of each unit will not exceed US$3,000.
Of course, he didn't know the cost of the intelligent control system of this drone, so the cost in this aspect was difficult to estimate, and the cost of the payload was not taken into account.
But even so, the cost of US$3,000 per unit is extremely cheap, which is only the cost of a dozen motorcycles.
Liu Yu asked, "When will the low-altitude flight test begin?"
"In a week, we will have 10 prototypes ready, and we can then conduct mass testing. But what about the programmers?" Fang Bo reminded.
Paul was confident: "Don't worry! We plan to contract this part of the work to Helix Company."
"Will there be a leak?" Fang Bo knew the level of confidentiality within the company. If a leak occurred, they would be in great trouble.
Paul calmly replied: "Spiral Corporation is also a subsidiary of Sapiens, and its confidentiality level is higher than ours."
"So that's it." Fang Bai immediately understood.
Fang Bo, who once worked at DJI, knows very well that the core of drone technology is actually sensors, chips and control programs.
In his eyes, all other parts of Feiyu Company are purchased from outside, except for sensors, chips and control programs, which are all produced by him.
When he first came into contact with that set of chips and sensors, he almost dropped his jaw.
Because the performance of that chip is so powerful, its floating-point computing power reaches 3 gigaflops per second and it has 500T of built-in storage capacity, it is almost a small supercomputer.
The benefit of such terrifying computing power is that the drone's control accuracy is very high and the response speed is very fast. As long as a suitable control program is installed, many difficult control tasks can be easily accomplished.
This is like Musk's Falcon rocket. The engine technology it uses is actually not advanced, but relying on super-powerful chip technology, it has completed the parallel control of a large number of engines.
The chip technology of Sapiens is an order of magnitude more powerful than the electronic chips currently on the market.
A biochip the size of a fingernail can achieve a floating-point computing power of 3 gigaflops, has a built-in storage capacity of 500T, and features ultra-low energy consumption.
Fang Bo knew that with the support of this kind of computing power, the potential of the Typhoon UAV was absolutely huge.
Ultra-low altitude cruising and low-energy flight, which he previously thought were impossible, can now be achieved through the brute force of computing power, squeezing the potential of drones to the extreme.
Don’t be fooled by the fact that the maximum flight radius of the Typhoon 1 UAV is only 1,200 kilometers.
In fact, there is a huge waste of power here. The drone can achieve a flight effect similar to that of an unpowered glider by constantly adjusting its flight posture and detecting the airflow, temperature and wind speed in the surrounding airspace.
At present, the longest flight distance of gliders controlled by humans can reach more than 2,000 kilometers.
Could it be possible that the Typhoon drone equipped with a small supercomputer could lose to humans?
As long as there are enough flight tests, combined with data from wind tunnel tests and computer simulations, the Typhoon UAV will definitely fly farther than a human-controlled glider.
As for the problem of slow flying speed, ultra-low altitude and stealth coating can solve the problem. As long as you are not discovered by the other party, it doesn't matter how slowly you fly.
What's more, Fang Bo also has a solution to the speed problem. That is, before approaching the target, the Typhoon UAV adopts a low-speed gliding mode. When it approaches the predetermined range of the target, it quickly switches to a rapid sprint mode, squeezing the power of the engine at all costs.
Anyway, he already knew the company's idea. The Typhoon UAV was a disposable item. If they didn't squeeze the power of the engine like crazy, would they keep it for the New Year?
But he was a little worried in his heart. He didn't know the purpose of Sapiens Company in developing this thing. After all, the relationship between Luzon and America was a bit complicated.
