Chapter 730 Hot Air Balloon Takes Off

On a new day, someone from Zhuang Mengdie brought news that the first hot air balloon of their Great Zhou was officially completed and the next step would be testing.

During this period, in addition to discussing the research and development and manufacturing of hot air balloons and his own mantra combination with Zhuang Mengdie, Zhou Xu focused his main energy on teaching theoretical knowledge to the testers.

The operating principle of a hot air balloon is actually very simple.

Simply increase the firepower to make it go up, and reduce the firepower to make it go down. To determine where you want to go, just pay attention to the wind direction and let the hot air balloon fly to the air flow layer with the correct wind direction.

However, this simple process requires considerable experience to operate proficiently, especially in this era when equipment is not up to date, which requires even higher experience from the operator.

But to be honest, this is all Zhou Xu's knowledge of hot air balloons. This is scientific knowledge that everyone who has been to school knows.

As for more practical skills, it depends on the testers to explore them slowly during the testing process.

By the time Zhou Xu arrived at the testing site outside the city, Zhuang Mengdie and her colleagues had basically completed all the preparations. As soon as Zhou Xu showed up, Zhuang Mengdie immediately came forward to greet him.

"My lord, I'm wondering if we should let the hot air balloon fly lower when we test it later. If it flies too high, it will be dangerous if something goes wrong."

At this moment, Zhuang Mengdie's idea was simple, which was to fly lower so that no one would die if they fell.

In response to this, Zhou Xu thought about it for a while and then spoke...

"In the early stage, they just practiced stable takeoff. It doesn't matter if it's a little low, even close to the ground is fine, but what's more important later is that they have to learn to adjust the height of the hot air balloon according to the wind direction to achieve direction change. This operation must be done at a high altitude."

"Under this premise, if they fly too low, and if the hot air balloon has an accident, the parachutes on them won't be able to fully deploy due to the lack of altitude, which is dangerous. If they fly high, it will give the parachutes time to deploy, which is relatively safer."

The sky is a completely unfamiliar area for Zhuang Mengdie and her friends, so her understanding of this area is very limited and far from as comprehensive as Zhou Xuxiang.

What Zhou Xu said at this time sounded like knowledge points to Zhuang Mengdie and the others, and they all memorized it silently.

Everything is ready and the formal test will begin soon.

After the heating device is ignited, along with the filling of fuel, the generation of hot air inside quickly causes the hot air balloon to inflate and drives the entire bamboo basket slowly off the ground.

Up to this point, they had already conducted tests when the hot air balloon was just completed.

If even this step cannot be achieved, then there is no need to conduct this test.

At this moment, the operator on the hot air balloon and Zhou Xu, Zhuang Mengdie and others who were standing on the ground watching this test were all on edge.

There is basically no problem with this step of taking off in mid-air. What is more important is to let the two operators in the bamboo basket get used to the feeling of being suspended in mid-air.

After all, after the hot air balloon takes off, they certainly won't feel as stable as they do on the ground.

During this period, the wind was quite strong in the open space outside Black Stone City. As the wind blew, the hot air balloon that had left the ground immediately floated in the direction of the wind.

Zhou Xu was not in a hurry to let them continue to rise, and he just judged the wind direction and controlled the rise and fall of the hot air balloon.

According to the determined test and training plan, they will now maintain this state and go with the wind, so that the two operators in the hot air balloon can first adapt to the state of flying in a hot air balloon.

Once they are accustomed to this feeling and can act flexibly and think normally in this state, then they can proceed to the next step.

Otherwise, if you fly high in the sky now and something goes wrong, you will be nervous and your mind will go blank, which will be a waste.

The speed of a hot air balloon depends on the strength of the wind. The stronger the wind, the faster it moves.

At this moment, the hot air balloon is only about six or seven meters above the ground. No matter how strong the wind is at this altitude, it can never be stronger than the strong wind at high altitude.

Riding on fast horses, the group led by Zhou Xu followed the hot air balloon and did not feel much pressure throughout the whole process.

At the same time, on the wall of Black Rock City...

"Look over there, what is that?!"

The garrison soldiers guarding the wall noticed the movement in the distance at the first moment.

Hearing the noise, the team leader on duty on the wall took a closer look.

"It's a new gadget developed by the Ordnance Equipment Department. It's called a hot air balloon. Deputy Minister Zhuang told someone this morning that they're going to test the hot air balloon outside the city today."

In addition, when the hot air balloon was sent out of the city, the soldiers in charge of the garrison also saw it.

Just as the team leader said this, looking at the hot air balloon getting closer and closer to their wall, the team leader paused and beads of cold sweat the size of beans began to appear on his forehead.

"Wait, wait a minute! If we get any closer from this height, we'll hit the wall!"

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Having said this, the team leader's expression changed.

"Didn't the people in the hot air balloon notice that?!"

At this moment, without having time to think, the team leader jumped directly onto the top of the wall and waved wildly at the hot air balloon that was flying closer and closer to them.

"Stop! Stop now! If you come any closer you'll hit me!!!"

After the garrison soldiers on the wall realized what was happening, their faces suddenly changed and they started shouting along with their team leader.

There was such a loud commotion on the wall of Black Rock City that it was impossible for the two operators on the hot air balloon not to notice it.

Originally, today's adaptation training should not have been risky, but the two never expected that the wind would cause trouble and blow them to the wall of Black Rock City! For a moment, the two new operators were also confused.

"What should I do? What should I do?! It's going to crash into someone!"

"Add fuel, yes! Add fuel! Increase the altitude of the hot air balloon!!"

The duties of the two operators on the balloon were arranged long before the tests began.

At this moment, one of them quickly opened the furnace and kept throwing coal as fuel into it!

The other person grabbed the lever of the bellows and pulled it.

In order to make the combustion furnace heat up quickly, Zhuang Mengdie specifically referred to the forging furnace of the forging department when manufacturing it and designed a bellows on the side.

Now, under the impetus of the bellows, the temperature in the combustion furnace rose rapidly. With the influx of hot air, the hot air balloon began to fly higher, and finally narrowly avoided the wall of Black Stone City and flew higher into the sky! (End of this chapter)