Chapter 489 – Killing Two Birds with One Stone

“Epoch-making, revolutionary!” The test flight of the Comet Jetliner was labeled as such by the major London newspapers.

The buzz of public opinion also showed the expectation of Londoners for Britain to make a fresh start after the war, as the test flight of the Comet Jet Airliner, a jet craze, was spreading from the British mainland to the whole world.

It’s hard to say how different the Comet airliner was compared to the original, and anyway, from Alan Wilson’s point of view, the airliner probably looked like this, a little bit like an Airbus and a little bit like a Boeing, and that’s all normal.

In any case, this first British jet airliner introduced the world of civil aviation to the jet age. Giving Britain a boost, two days later the behemoth that was the Comet I landed at Canberra Airport in Australia.

The big guy, out of step with the times, attracted a lot of passengers at Canberra Airport, pointing at it. The British flag design on the tailfin indicated the nationality of this big guy, and many Australians were very envious.

Pamela Mountbatten eagerly awaited, carrying a parachute Alan Wilson, in the southern hemisphere under the ultraviolet light, experienced a head of state treatment, walked down the Comet I in full view, trying to control the pace, so that they seem to have seen the world look.

Pamela Mountbatten, who had been targeted in a single glance, hugged the man carrying the loose bag ready for chicken in a single bound, “I thought you didn’t like doing airplanes, not having your feet on the ground.”

“So this isn’t carrying a parachute!” Allen Wilson pointed to himself all over the paratrooper equipment, now even if the fire to join the paratroopers, become the air dandelion is not at all out of place.

If it wasn’t for the crowds of onlookers around, Pamela Mountbatten really wanted to just hang on to the man and not come down, but the concentrated gaze eventually made the girl feel the burn and let go of her hand down in embarrassment.

As for the fiancé’s life-saving remarks, Pamela Mountbatten did not nitpick at all, Allen Wilson has always been this way, and now dares to cross half of the world, sitting in the experimental Comet I over, this is a surprise to her, the heart is touched and then there is no other.

Not long after the crew are divided down, and men and women standing side by side to greet, but also to their own boss greetings, many people know Pamela Mountbatten, to Allen Wilson is really just know.

“Miss Pamela, I say what brings Mr. Allen to Australia.” Captain Hunter, as if he had only just discovered the secret, gave the newly met couple an assist.

“How does it feel to be on a long voyage, let’s just find a random place to eat and talk.” Alan Wilson tugged on Pamela Mountbatten’s hand and asked how the long voyage felt.

The Comet airliner had just come out a few days ago and the whole world was all praise for the first ever jet airliner, but being new there were bound to be faults, faults that only the captain could feel.

Just as among the things Alan Wilson and de Havilland talked about, the most important was reliability. Reliability is a big deal. Nowadays, air travel has not been popularized, people still travel long distance mainly by ocean liners, and flying is only enjoyed by the rich and high-ranking officials.

In fact, many of the passengers on British International Airways flights were commissioners, military officers and other local officials sent by the British government to administer colonies overseas.

If one of them fell off, it wasn’t just ordinary people who were wiped out. Alan Wilson didn’t design airplanes and couldn’t have circumvented all the faults of the primaries.

Needless to say, the major British airlines had high hopes for the Comet I, even if it was still in the test flight stage.

“The need for refueling once every four hours is not a big problem, I’m sure the local engine companies will improve this problem, the key is that we eliminate the design problems, the program is conservative points how to look at it, the jet airliner itself is the latest style of things, how conservative the program will not look conservative in the concept of jet airliners.”

But luckily with Pamela Mountbatten on board, the Comet airliner was hydrostatically tested, with a huge pool designed to submerge the plane in water for a variety of pressure tests.

The water pressure inside the fuselage of the airplane was constantly raised and lowered to simulate the pressure conditions faced in actual flight. This was done over a long period of time, equivalent to nine thousand hours of actual flight. After another six weeks, just as the pressure inside the fuselage suddenly dropped, the metal around one of the windows ruptured and the fuselage blew apart.

It was clear that the fuselage was too thin, thus completely exposing two fatal flaws in the airplane’s design. The first was its construction; in order to fly higher and faster while reducing weight, the shell of the airplane was cut down to a certain thickness.

Moreover, the cabin needs to be pressurized when flying at high altitude in order to ensure that passengers can breathe normally. Therefore, the thickness reduction of the shell and the pressurization of the cabin were applied to the fuselage at the same time, and under the combined effect of these two factors, the airplane would eventually burst. At the same time this experiment also improved the Comet I’s windows into rounded windows.

It was this one water pressure experiment that cost de Havilland to Pamela Mountbatten, a top British power II, improving the Comet Primary into the Comet I of today.

Whether there were any other faults was something the crew had to figure out in the middle of the voyage.

From the beginning of Alan Wilson’s arrival in Australia, Pamela Mountbatten’s eyes could not be removed, looking at the big talk in Princess Margaret’s eyes, the intention in her own eyes, the smile on her face has never dissipated.

After a reception, Pamela Mountbatten followed her fiancé’s lead and returned to her place of residence, talking about the rewards of this visit to Australia, “Some of the sons of the nobility had thoughts about me, which I rejected without hesitation.”

“My dear, are you trying to say that you are very much in demand?” In front of Princess Margaret, Alan Wilson listened to Pamela Mountbatten’s frank confession, and turned his words around, “Yes, who could not be moved by such a large fortune, and how many fools like me are there in this world?”

“They are not worthy to be compared with you.” Pamela Mountbatten’s eyes seemed as if they could drip water, enough to melt the steel will of any man.

Princess Margaret didn’t dare to utter a single breath, after being taught a lesson by Pamela Mountbatten once, she didn’t dare to talk about this topic anymore, her eyes dripping between the two.

“Now it seems that such a big iron mine is really this man let out?” Princess Margaret was suspicious in her heart, she originally did not believe in this kind of talk, but now this situation had to be believed.

“Prime Minister Ben Chifley, took the news of the iron mine very seriously, and the reports of optimistically estimated one billion tons of reserves have also excited the whole of Australia.” Pamela Mountbatten said about the iron ore, and then some for the matter, “However, from the mainland to convene workers for exploration, whether the cost is too large, I think it is better to convene Australian workers for exploration, what do you think, do you think, do you convene Chinese workers.”

“Australia is not the place to recruit foreign communities! I’ve always thought the White Australia policy was the right one.” Alan Wilson shook his head slightly, but seemed to think of an idea, “If there’s a shortage of native Australian workers, there are still Japanese Confederate POWs in Malaya, so test the waters and see if it works. It’s not certain they’ll make it back to Japan alive, though.”

In his previous life or in this one, he’d never seen anything wrong with safeguarding the interests of the subject communities. Australia should just implement the White Australia Policy and close its doors to Asian immigrants.

As the top resource country in this world, Australia could profit from selling mines alone.

As early as WWI, Australia was already on par with European countries in terms of development and there was no such thing as being dependent on a particular country. As long as the minerals were there, Australia could cope with any external force.

For the foreseeable future, no country will be able to do anything to Australia, and it will be impossible to take over the country. Australia had already tightened its grip on foreign immigration and would not even give it a chance.

In the Pacific War, the Japanese invaded Singapore in force. Australia, as part of Britain, also sent troops to station in Singapore.

As a result, because the British army completely underestimated the military strength of the Japanese, in just one week, Singapore fell into the hands of the Japanese. One hundred and thirty thousand British troops surrendered to the Japanese, including one point fifty thousand Australian soldiers.

It is for this reason that Australia’s hatred for Japan is absolutely deep in its bones! The Australian people revere the rightful payment of blood debts!

“When the war was just over, there were more than 600,000 prisoners of war from the Japanese Southern Army in Malaya, and I don’t know how many are still left, but this is a group of prisoners of war that we can’t permanently hold.” Alan Wilson understood in his heart that if the Korean War were to break out, Japan’s position would manifest itself.

Japan is the base camp of the United States to control Asia, and the economic shackles will be lifted, then at most next year, the United States will certainly pressure British Malaya to release hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war.

The POWs can’t stay for much longer, the fifties and sixties were the start of Japan’s economic rise and it was around that time that Australia opened up its iron ore export ban.

So now the problem came, no matter how Alan Wilson counted, the planning of British Malaya and Japan are almost at the same time start, he always have to use a little outside the dish, to give this competitor trips and so on.

“Regarding the matter of iron ore development, if the Malayan side hands over 100,000 prisoners of war to Australia for use, they may not survive much, but it’s not a bad thing to stand up for Britain’s interests.” Alan Wilson grinned at his fiancée and made a suggestion, “Abusive death is better, but we’d better leave evidence. I just don’t know if Australia wants the chance to retaliate.”

Princess Margaret’s eyes widened as she looked at Pamela Mountbatten with a look of taught admiration, and her body shook involuntarily.