Chapter 318: All parties came to
London and Rome for the airship. The scenes in London and Rome were no different from those in Los Angeles in the United States before. A large number of media, curious people, capitalists with ulterior motives, solemn-looking military and other forces and groups formed tens of thousands of people watching the Dawn airship.
Every time the Dawn airship arrives at a place, it immediately becomes the focus and hot spot of the local area and even the country where it is located, and is widely reported by the local media.
It is no exaggeration to say that this round-the-world voyage plan has made many European and American media a lot of money, and has also given many small newspapers on the verge of bankruptcy a new lease of life.
According to estimates, more than 700,000 people around the world went to watch the airship during this round-the-world plan, and more than 5 million people paid attention to the global voyage.
The Australasian airship instantly became the most famous technological product in the world, and people all made it their lifelong goal to board the airship and travel around the world.
On May 21, 1912, one month and ten days later, the Dawn airship returned to the skies over the city of Sydney again, and was welcomed by a large number of Australasians.
This was the first time that Australasia was at the forefront of the world in the history of circumnavigation. It was Australasians and the flying equipment developed by Australasia completed the mission of circumnavigation for the first time.
At this time, the suburbs of Sydney were already crowded with people, and media from all over the world came from all over the world to surround this area.
Everyone knows that if this circumnavigation plan is successful, Sydney will temporarily become the most dazzling pearl in the world.
If you want to get the first news about the airship's circumnavigation and subsequent developments, these foreign media have to go to Sydney.
This is also good news for Arthur. At least in the past month, Sydney's consumption level has increased a lot. These foreign media and tourists from afar have created a considerable GDP contribution to Sydney.
As the Dawn landed in the open space on the outskirts with air currents and dust, the band that had been prepared immediately started playing cheerful music to celebrate this monumental moment.
After a while, the door of the Dawn airship gradually opened, and first the attendant came out, then the passengers of the airship, and finally the pilot of the airship and Director Teodor.
"Ladies and gentlemen, you have completed a great moment together. On behalf of the royal family and government of Australasia, I would like to congratulate and encourage you, and award you with commemorative badges." Arthur smiled on the high platform that had been built. Open your mouth.
The souvenir of this circumnavigation is a gold and silver badge. The front of the badge shows the appearance of the Dawn airship, and a sentence is clearly engraved on the back: This badge is only used to commemorate the Australasian self-developed AU-3 airship, codenamed Dawn, which launched the circumnavigation plan on April 10, 1912. The plan lasted for one month and eleven days and was successfully concluded on May 21, 1912, and is commemorated with this badge.
The total weight of this badge is as high as about 100 grams, of which the gold content exceeds 30%, which is about 30 grams.
According to current estimates of the value of gold and silver, the cost of this badge is as high as over ten pounds, which is several months' wages for an ordinary person in Australasia.
Of course, the commemorative value of such an item far outweighs its actual value. If the commemorative significance of this badge is included, for Australasia and some people, the value may be increased several times or even dozens of times.
For Australasians, such a badge is indeed of great commemoration. In addition to the commemoration of this circumnavigation, this badge was also issued by Arthur himself, which also added a lot of intangible value to the badge.
Although for passengers whose tickets cost thousands of pounds, such a badge with a cost of less than ten pounds is nothing.
But after all, the workmanship is very small and exquisite, and it has special commemorative significance, so the passengers who received the commemorative badge are quite satisfied.
On the Australasian side, all passengers on the airship were naturally invited to the celebration banquet held tonight.
There is nothing wrong with the passengers. After all, it is a grand and free banquet, so there is no reason not to participate.
For some capitalists who already have ideas about airships, the most important task at the moment is to inquire about the situation of the Australasian Airship Company, so this banquet has become a necessity.
After everyone had left temporarily, Arthur looked at Director Teodor and said with a smile: "Thank you, Director Teodor. You have completed a project worthy of being recorded in the history of Australasia." Incident, you are the hero of the entire Australasia!" Although the performance of the airship produced by the aviation laboratory is already very reliable, after all, this is the first time to conduct an ultra-long-distance voyage around the world, so it is impossible to say that there is no danger.
Director Teodor, as the director of the Aeronautical Laboratory, was able to personally take charge of this round-the-world voyage, risking his own death by falling into a boat and completing an operation that made Australasia steal the show. It is said that he takes great credit.
"Being able to make contributions to Your Majesty and the country is what I should do. What's more, the performance of the Dawn Airship is trustworthy, and our trip is more like a publicly funded tour." Director Teodor said very respectfully replied.
"Okay, have a good rest for a few days! After attending today's celebration banquet, I approved to give you and all operators three days of leave. After three days, I'm afraid the aviation laboratory will have to carry out a more difficult task. It is estimated that this time The demand for airships is not small." Arthur patted Director Theodor's shoulder and said.
Arthur could not be unaware of the actions of European and American capitalists, and he naturally knew what they came to Sydney for.
To be honest, this is a good thing for both Arthur and Australasia. The more airships he sells, the more profits Arthur can make, and the more major European and American countries can fall into a deep hole.
Just imagine, a few years later, all kinds of airships developed by various countries are flying in the sky, and when they are about to bomb enemy countries, Australasian aircraft appear in the sky, instantly crushing and crushing these airships in all aspects. Massacre, how wonderful will the faces of European and American countries be at that time?
You know, if you look at the sales price of the most advanced AU-3 airship at present, Arthur's profit will be as high as at least 20,000 pounds for every airship sold.
These profits are enough for Australasia to build an aircraft, or save the profits of dozens of airships, and build a super dreadnought.
The celebration banquet that night was very large, including high-level officials of the Australasian government, the royal family, businessmen and capitalists at home and abroad in Australasia, well-known media and newspapers with good influence around the world, all the passengers on the previous plane, and the controller. and attendants, etc., were all invited to this banquet.
Arthur also briefly attended the banquet, but did not dominate the guests. Instead, after encouraging everyone, the banquet was handed over to Director Teodor and the Aeronautical Laboratory.
After Arthur and the senior government officials left, the originally somewhat serious banquet became more relaxed, and everyone began to talk and laugh, as if there was no level gap anymore.
"Director Teodor, I wonder if your firm can sell airships like the Dawn to promote the development of the world's aviation industry?" When the banquet reached its climax, someone took advantage of Director Teodor's mood. It looked good, so I took the opportunity to ask.
"Well, that's a question." Director Teodor pretended to think for a while, and after seeing everyone's eyes turned to him, waiting for his answer, he continued: "Actually, everyone can also see that we The AU-3 airship really has the ability to travel around the world. Even without setting up a docking point, it can sail for at least more than half a month, which is at least 15,000 people, on the basis that it only carries less than forty people. A distance of a thousand kilometers. It is no exaggeration to say that this airship can reach anywhere in Europe or America, and it only takes about half a month." "This also
means that such an airship has extremely high strategic value. In theory Technically speaking, the relevant technology must be kept strictly confidential."
Although it was determined from the beginning that there was no need to keep such an airship secret, in the face of these capitalists, Director Teodor would naturally not be stupid enough to tell everything.
According to Arthur's instructions, these capitalists should beg Australasia to sell airships, instead of Australasia begging them to buy airships. Only in this way can the interests be maximized and these greedy capitalists can be suppressed.
Seeing that many people looked a little disappointed, Director Teodor said calmly: "However, things are not without improvement." "
Director Teodor, what do you mean?" Someone boldly said asked.
"In addition to its extremely important strategic value in the military, the value this airship represents in the aviation industry is also crucial to human development and human life. As for the consideration of these factors, His Majesty I was specifically told that if we can ensure that the purpose of purchasing the airship is for non-military use, we can currently sell the AU-3 model airship." The appetizing part was over, and Director Teodor also began to answer.
After hearing what Director Teodor said, many people present breathed a sigh of relief. After all, not many of them come here specifically for military purposes. Who would be stupid enough to buy an Australasian airship for military purposes openly, except for some countries that have really good relations with Australasia.
The U.S. military formulated two plans at this time, encouraging some domestic capitalists to go to Australasia to buy airships, and then see if they could get one or two airships from these capitalists for research.
At the same time, the United States is also preparing to vigorously carry out airship research. The U.S. military does not believe that it will take five years for the entire United States of America to catch up with the development of airships in Australasia.
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(End of chapter)