Chapter 397.1: Lofty Cloud

At the airport north of Dawn City.

Falling Feather, who had just been revived less than half a month ago, was holding a pilot's cap he had just picked up from Teng Teng's Hut.

Mosquito was pushing him in a certain direction.

"What’s with all the secrecy... Where are you taking me?" Falling Feather complained as he tried his hardest to fight back.

Mosquito, pushing from behind, chuckled and urged, "Stop asking, I’m showing you a treasure!"

Normally it wouldn’t have meant much, but hearing Mosquito's cheeky tone, Falling Feather instantly became alert.

What kind of treasure can this stingy guy possibly show him?

He’s definitely thinking of using me as a guinea pig again!

His guess was spot on. The direction Mosquito was leading him to was the New Alliance's hangar.

Seeing the two approaching from a distance, the guard on duty at the airport entrance snapped to attention and saluted, letting them pass.

Both Mosquito and Falling Feather were well-known faces, especially the latter.

Often seen taking off but rarely seen landing, Falling Feather would then reappear a few days later in perfect condition.

Surviving a crash and coming back alive was far more impressive than landing a plane safely!

Ignoring the looked of admiration of those NPCs, Falling Feather followed an enthusiastic Mosquito into the closely shut hangar. The lights turned on the next moment.

When he clearly saw the plane parked inside, his face froze in shock for a moment, then he couldn't help but yell, "Holy shit! Oh my God! What the fuck?"

A streamlined silver-white fuselage!

Twin jet engines!

Its sci-fi exterior design looked like a concept plane from an aviation model exhibition, especially those dreamy swept-forward wings... It was precisely when he noticed the wings that Falling Feather suddenly came to his senses.

"Can it actually fly?!"

...

In reality, swept-forward wings was a cutting-edge design concept, widely speculated upon for sixth-generation fighters.

A swept-forward wing design could generate greater lift, had a higher lift-to-drag ratio, a lower stalling speed, and excellent low-speed maneuverability. Particularly since it doesn’t have the wingtip stalling issues ordinary wings do, which meant it would greatly improve the aircraft's maneuverability!

For instance, the SU-47 with close-coupled canard and swept-forward wings layout, could even perform a Cobra maneuver with an angle of attack reaching 120 degrees at speeds close to Mach 1!

Of course, besides being highly maneuverable and cool, the downsides of swept-forward wings were also apparent.

The most prominent was the high demands on materials.

If the materials weren’t up to standard, performing maneuvers at high speeds could risk the wings breaking off, and in severe cases, could even lead to the disintegration of the aircraft.

There was a reason swept-back wings remained mainstream. After all, for war machines, being advanced wasn’t their top priority.

The most important thing was stability and reliability.

Anyway... Speaking of which, there was no point to talk about swept-forward or swept-back wings! Was the thing in front of him even a jet?!

Falling Feather would never believe that Mosquito could install a flight control system to match it.

... No...

The questionable thing was... That piece of shit probably didn’t even have a flight control system! Most likely, the only electronic component it had was the airspeed probe mounted on the nose!

...

Enjoying the stunned expression on his guinea pig’s face, Mosquito chuckled happily.

"Of course I don’t know if it can fly yet."

Falling Feather’s expression sank. "..."

Looking at the speechless guinea pig, Mosquito cleared his throat and began to introduce his latest cutting edge technology.

"RELAX. I've considered all those issues you're worried about. The fuselage is made of A3-Type Aerospace Aluminum alloy. The stuff is used to build spacecraft, so there’s no need to worry about the material's reliability and strength!"

"Not just that, the plane is also coated with anti-radar paint developed with the help of Camp 101. You'll probably appear no bigger than a sparrow on the enemy’s radar. I won’t even start on the aviation fuel... Suffice to say, this guy is full of super technology. It cost me a lot of money to build!"

That was also the greatest product Goblin Technology had developed to date!

Seeing Falling Feather still not speaking, Mosquito slyly tempted him. "Wanna take it for a spin?"

Falling Feather gulped.

It was impossible to say he wasn’t interested.

However, the cost of flying it was too high.

"8... 800 to test it out for you!”

"Damn! Are you trying to rob me?... Deal!" Mosquito made a pained expression, but he was secretly pleased.

That little money wasn’t even enough to fuel up the plane.

800 silver coins for a fearless awakener to act as a guinea pig...

It was just too damn good of a deal!

...

After agreeing to Mosquito’s terms, Falling Feather followed his instructions and accepted the

[Equipment Testing]

mission issued by Goblin Technology.

[Mission: Jet Plane’s Maiden Flight!]

[Requirement:

Live through the anti-aircraft defenses on the Heart of Steel.

]

Players, after registering a company, could issue missions that met audit standards based on their business scope and nature.

That was one of the advantages of Wasteland Online.

Watching Falling Feather put on his newly bought pilot’s cap and looking like he was going to his death as he sat in the cockpit, Mosquito patted the cockpit cover and reassured him. "Don’t worry, this big guy isn’t just my work. It’s the crystallization of the wisdom of all members of Goblin Technology! It’s 100% sage!"

He glanced at the eager Killing Gods standing nearby and yelled, "Introduce our new product to our fearless warrior!"

Killing Gods chuckled and stepped forward. "Alright!"

Falling Feather took a deep breath, strapped the VM to his thigh as he listened to Killing Gods’s explanation while familiarizing himself with the cockpit's instruments and controls.

Out of habit, he subconsciously looked for the ejection handle, but found that there was no such thing. The seat was completely welded inside the cockpit.

Mother fucker... This isn’t a jet plane!

It's clearly a kamikaze plane...

It was a shame the game didn’t have a military tribunal. Otherwise... The piece of shit Mosquito would have been charged with several death penalties.

Unaware of the strange expression on Falling Feather's face, Killing Gods finished introducing the dials and continued to enthusiastically explain the plane’s weapon systems.

"The main weapons are the twin guns at the front of the nose. They are capable of firing 20mm armor-piercing incendiary rounds or high-explosive shells, good for both ground and air targets. However, only 300 rounds are available. I suggest turning on the safety as you use it, and don’t hold down the fire button."

Falling Feather couldn’t help but comment, "What about missiles? How can you call it a jet plane when it doesn’t even have guided weapons?"

Killing Gods coughed. "

Uh,

there are no guided weapons, but you can attach Switchblades and unguided rockets! However, those are designed for the W-2 Mosquito ground attack plane... Of course, if you want, we can also hang them on the plane..."

Before he could finish, Falling Feather flatly refused. "Thanks, but no thanks!"

The speed of a Switchblade was too slow, mainly relying on a dive to accelerate. It required coordination with ground operators, using it to attack aerial targets was pure fantasy.

After finishing the introduction of the various dials on the plane, Killing Gods pointed to a push-pull handle beside his right leg.

"... That handle next to your right leg is the afterburner, also the soul of this aircraft. Pushing it all the way will boost the engine's output to its limit!"

"How much it actually accelerates to hasn’t been tested yet... Well, all you need to know is that it’s really, really fast! It’s so fast that we had to design this control valve separately! However, we found during testing that pushing the afterburner to the maximum caused the engine blades to show signs of melting... Anyway, that feature isn’t fully calibrated yet, so if you can avoid using it, you better not touch it for now."

No supersonic wind tunnel testing.

No flight control computer...

All it could be considered at the moment was a massive flying brick!

Falling Feather started to complain, "You guys could at least fix the bugs before bringing it out?!"

"There's no time." Killing Gods looked at him seriously and continued.

"We also wanted to design it more perfectly before bringing it out, but the airship has already mounted its guns at our doorstep... We can only ask you to test its performance on the battlefield."

"Please, try to bring it back!"

That earnest look in his eyes was really hard to refuse...

Fuck it, I already decided to test drive it anyway. If I really die... It’s just a matter of waiting three days!

Falling Feather took a deep breath and switched on the power.

"I’ll do my best."

...