Chapter 624: Chapter 529: Let’s set a small goal, to first break through 5 times the speed of sound!
“How is my research? Vice Chancellor Tim!” After being excited for a while, Dennis turned his head to look at the stupefied Tim.
The latter was at a loss for words. Tim had never expected Dennis’s preposterous explosion propulsion theory to actually work, and could only muster a bitter smile as he admitted his mistake, promising that the Institute would devote more personnel and fully support his research from now on.
Seeing Tim finally concede, Dennis felt a rush of vindication.
During the year he spent researching the explosion propulsion device, he had endured no small amount of mockery from the ignorant, especially when his research hit a bottleneck, and even the Magic Research Institute became reluctant to send more Alchemists to assist him.
First, the kingdom was short on people everywhere, and second, many short-sighted Wizards thought his explosion propulsion plan was too crazy, with no chance of success, a mere waste of time and resources!
This was why Dennis had no choice but to seek the help of Lydia and others. Although these halflings couldn’t use magic, they were strong and had a decent talent for engineering which was invaluable when doing sundry work or assembling equipment.
“What a pity, it’s a little late. If it had been completed before this year’s academic conference, it would have been perfect!” Dennis said with regret.
Otherwise, he was sure to win a Morning Star Medal with his research!
“It’s not too late. Once you’ve perfected the jet fighter, you’ll be just in time for next year’s academic conference,” Lynn said with a smile, then turned to the still fiery red propulsion device that was showing signs of melting but continued to emit flames and reminded Dennis.
“Master Dennis, have you considered modifying the internal structure of the propulsion device to further increase the speed of the jet…?”
Now that Dennis had developed a prototype of the jet propulsion device, Lynn was no longer holding back.
A jet fighter, how could a speed of 700 kilometers per hour be enough?
Even three to five times the speed of sound was just a beginning, after all!
They were preparing for a transboundary war, and no level of caution against the enemy could be deemed excessive; they had to give their all and make as many preparations as possible.
A supersonic fighter at speeds comparable to a legend, and if it could be equipped with devices to launch the Undying Flame, or even miniature fusion bombs, it should pose a significant threat to the legends.
“Improve further?” The Wizards present looked at Lynn with peculiar gazes, and Tim was completely dumbfounded. In his view, a speed of 700 kilometers per hour was already terrifying, enough to travel across the empire several times in a single day.
But Dennis was exceedingly excited. He had of course considered using the shape of the gas chamber to increase speed, and in fact, he had already conducted several experiments.
For instance, the third gas chamber in the propulsion device had been modified by him to maximize the ejection of the high-temperature and high-speed gas flow from the hydrogen-oxygen mixture explosion, greatly minimizing the chances of an explosion.
To give Lynn a clearer understanding, Dennis walked up, stopped the propulsion device, disassembled it, and explained the design of its internal structure.
Even though each improvement in the structure was the result of dozens or hundreds of experiments, Dennis did not conceal anything in front of the Star of Magic, detailing everything from the design philosophy to the problems encountered in practical application.
After all, Lynn had been very generous in directly sharing the internal combustion engine blueprints for his own research, so Dennis didn’t suspect him of trying to snatch the fruits of magical study.
After listening to Dennis’s explanation, Lynn pondered for a moment before quickly speaking.
“The design of the triple-chamber structure is good, using the property that highly pure hydrogen and oxygen cannot be ignited on their own to prevent the backflow of high-temperature gases produced by combustion. However, this is not safe enough…”
“I suggest you could add a step to compress the gas in the first half of the third chamber, which could not only increase the thrust provided by the gas combustion once again but also create a pressure differential front and back as a second safeguard…”
Lynn combined the design concept of jet turbine engines and explained how to compress the generated gas multiple times and feed it into the combustion chamber using a series of rotating and fixed blades arranged in a V-shaped structure.
“But, wouldn’t this make the propulsion device even more dangerous?” Tim couldn’t help interrupting. He felt that the Star of Magic was simply providing problematic ideas.
The previous multiple explosions of the propulsion device were due to the excessive force of the high-temperature gas flow from the hydrogen-oxygen combustion, which burst through the chamber. If the density of the gas were to be increased again, the thrust generated during combustion would be stronger, but the chance of an accident would also rise accordingly.
“That’s because the steel used to make it has poor pressure tolerance and thermal endurance. If you replace key parts with stronger alloys or Mithril, this level of pressure wouldn’t be an issue at all,” Lynn shook her head, picked up the blueprint on the desk, started drawing on it, and continued to speak.
“Also, Master Dennis, cooling is a major issue with your propulsion device. I suggest designing the combustion chamber with an embedded structure and open a few vents to directly leverage the high-speed airflow around the fighter in flight for cooling purposes.”