After confirming that everything was ready, Lin made some changes to Fen's program to control the airship. What they were about to do next was an unconventional tactical maneuver.
When the airship descended to an altitude of 9,000 meters, it stopped descending. However, it was still going at about 350 kilometers per hour. If they let the Sid land at this speed, it would only result in the destruction of the airship and its passengers.
Therefore, Lin pulled the rudder back and the nose of the airship rose rapidly. Everyone in the airship felt as if they were being flung behind their heads. In the end, the airship rose to an angle of 110 degrees. Although they had never experienced this before, they all felt the same way. Perhaps this was what it felt like to be thrown out of a catapult.
Under the influence of inertia and without any external interference, the Sid stood upright and flew forward on its belly. This was the classic flying maneuver of a fighter jet on Earth, the Pugachev Cobra Maneuver.
In order to reduce the speed of the aircraft, what could be more efficient than using the largest part of the aircraft to increase the wind resistance?
Moreover, some fighter jets on Earth could not do this maneuver because they were afraid that the aircraft would stall and crash. However, this was not a problem for the Sid. This airship's source of buoyancy was different from the airships on Earth. It was not afraid of stalling and crashing at all.
They were actually lying down and moving forward in the direction of their buttocks. This was a strange experience that no one had ever experienced before. In fact, from the moment they had boarded the airship, there had been countless firsts. Therefore, even though it felt strange, everyone had already been trained to not find it strange.
Time passed by slowly. Everyone maintained their strange posture and held their breaths as they waited. During this period, only Kaya reported once every 10 kilometers per hour. This period of time seemed to be as long as a lifetime. However, after she reported 20 kilometers per hour, there was no movement for a long time.
Lin, who was sitting in the pilot's seat, could see the data on the dashboard directly. He had the most direct feeling of the decrease in speed. When the airship stood upright, the wind resistance increased and the speed dropped sharply. However, the lower the speed, the slower the deceleration. This continued until it maintained a speed of 17 kilometers per hour. This was also the wind speed outside.
It seemed that it was impossible to expect the speed to drop to zero. Lin tried to return to a horizontal flight position, but no matter how hard he tried to pull the rudder, there was no reaction from the hull. The angle of elevation even increased, and it looked like it was about to flip over.
It wasn't until someone pushed the throttle forward that the Sid regained some power. It was only then that the Sid was able to turn back to normal and resume horizontal flight. Lin immediately pulled back the throttle valve, keeping the engine at an idle speed and moving forward slowly. At the same time, they adjusted their direction and flew straight towards Abadan City. This action further reduced the airship's speed to a little over ten kilometers per hour.
This situation was actually not difficult to understand. Because the wind was not in Abadan's direction, they could only rely on the propellers driven by the engine in the idle state to obtain forward momentum, so the speed did not increase but decreased instead. At the same time, the two-minute journey was extended to nearly an hour. This was because the speed had dropped too low.
Pulling back the first throttle valve, the Sid's altitude was reduced to that of an ordinary airship, which was between eight hundred and seven thousand meters. Lin chose to sail steadily at an altitude of five thousand meters. Everyone also loosened themselves from their seats and got up to move about casually. Totokani stepped forward and asked, "Should we increase the speed? It's a bit of a waste of time to drift over like this. "
After fixing the rudder, Lin said with a smile, "No, it's too troublesome to slow down. If we speed up now, we'll have to worry about slowing down when we reach Abadan. At our current speed, we'll just have to find a place to land when the time comes. An hour is fine. "
Totokani shrugged noncommittally. To him, a journey that should've taken two to three days had been shortened to two hours. This was already an incredible speed. It wasn't a big deal to wait for another hour. He had only asked out of curiosity after seeing that the airship was no different from drifting.
Since they had made up their mind to drift over, there wouldn't be any trouble. It would just take some time. During this extra time, Lin had everyone check the airship's condition once more. They checked whether the Cobra maneuver had left any damage to the airship. There was a reason why only some fighter jets on Earth could perform such maneuvers.
In addition, they had to summarize the problems found during this flight and consider the deceleration device. Installing a gearbox for the engine to achieve reverse was one possibility. Another idea that Lin thought of was to imitate the deceleration parachutes that some fighter jets on Earth would use with short runways. Another big project was to integrate the thrust and buoyancy devices to achieve more flexible maneuvers.
Now, the Sid could fly at a level and ascend at a higher altitude. The control of the two was separate. This way, there would be many tactical flight maneuvers that couldn't be used. For example, the Ingemann Spin, the Barrel Roll Maneuver, and so on.
Although the Sid was designed for civilian use, it wasn't a military fighter jet that required dogfighting capabilities. But after the experience of being chased by the Thunder Hawk, who knew if they could escape from the magical beast's strange skills by relying on speed alone next time. If they didn't plan to install weapons on the Sid, then the escape method had to be perfected as much as possible.
But for the time being, they could only make plans. The materials needed also had to be purchased separately.
Previously, when they were repairing the Sid in the Jura Mountains, they had almost used up all the magic materials they had with them. There were some parts that didn't even need to be of such high quality, but they didn't have any other materials that could replace them. In order to survive, they didn't care about whether they were wasteful or not. The only things that could be left were a few rare materials.
While the Sid was drifting towards Abadan City, the group also saw a number of airships flying past the Sid. It was an ordinary airship. Seeing the strange-looking Sid, a group of sailors on the deck pointed and whispered among themselves. Even if they couldn't hear the sound, they could still feel the ridicule from their body movements and expressions.
Just like that, they watched the group of people walk away with mocking expressions. Surprisingly, Lin and the others did not show any displeasure. It felt like the loneliness of a master. Why bother arguing with a beginner? Even the Thunder Hawk's tail light couldn't be seen. There was no point in arguing with others about speed.
Just as they were discussing how to fix the flaws of the Sid, the silhouette of a city rose from the horizon. The scale wasn't large, but the sky was quite busy. Airships of all shapes and sizes floated in the air around the city, making it look like an expo. It was far more lively than the town they had set off from, Waikato, on the other side of the Jura Mountains.
If there was anything special about the city, it would be that every airship that came in and out of the city seemed quite lively. Because Lin and the others had arrived in Abadan close to noon, many of the airships had just taken off and were about to leave. The number of airships preparing to leave was also more than the number of airships arriving.
Because there were so many airships coming and going, Abadan's sky was in a state of order amidst the chaos. There were no flight paths, no tower giving orders. Everyone came and went as they pleased. In this chaos, no airships crashed into each other.
For the transmigrators who were used to following the directions of traffic lights, this kind of traffic rules that relied on mood and tacit understanding was difficult for them to adapt. Lin got up from the pilot's seat and gave way to Totokani. As for the traffic, it was better to leave it to the experienced.
The Goblins didn't disappoint. Amidst the chaotic scene and without any guidance, they managed to find a place to anchor themselves. The Sid, which had lowered its landing gear, also landed steadily at this place. Although the Gnome's landing method was a little rough, at least they landed safely. No one was hurt.
After landing safely, the group planned to leave the airship and enter the city. Only the Gnome father and daughter were anxious, but they didn't dare to say anything. A certain transmigrator had taken a plane abroad on Earth before. After he stopped the group, he asked Totokani. "Is there any procedure that we should do next?"
"Sir, we should open the cabin door and stay in the airship, waiting for the management to collect the taxes. After the taxes are collected, we can enter the city, "the Gnome said with a little panic.
Well, it should be said that it was not surprising at all. Following the principle of following the customs, Lin didn't intend to do as he pleased. Instead, he asked everyone to stay in the airship and wait. At the same time, he asked Kaya to take out a few bags of money. There were big bags, small bags, and small change. Depending on the situation, they would take out the money and pay the taxes. This was also to avoid attracting too much attention when they opened the money box. This was a way for a small person to protect himself, a certain man without any self-awareness thought.
At the same time, Totokani asked his daughter, Polly, to find the compass of Abadan City. Although the compass was broken, as long as the handwriting on it could be seen clearly, it could be used as proof.
But the important thing was that it didn't take long for the management in charge of collecting taxes to board the Sid. Marco Lin remembered that when they were descending, he had confirmed the landing location. It was some distance away from the management's cabin that the Gnome had mentioned. For them to appear so quickly, it could only be said that the people in charge of collecting taxes were indeed very proactive.
Only two people appeared. One stood outside the cabin door. The other was a slightly plump human with a big belly walked in. He saw the Gnome at a glance and said, "Oh, it's you, Totokani. Where's your original airship? How did it change to this Sid? "
"Sir Hassan, it's a long story," the Gnome said as he rubbed his hands wretchedly.
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