Chapter 1555 Helicopter in the Rainforest
About 130 kilometers west of Samarinda City, there is a dense rainforest through which a tributary of the Mahakam River passes, and occasionally speedboats can be seen on the river.
These speedboats belonged to the East African military and were mainly used to transport experimental equipment for testing in the tropical jungle. Their final destination was the Gers test site deep in the rainforest.
The test site belongs to the East African Military Equipment Research Institute, code-named Institute 3207. Institute 3207 has a branch in Samarinda City and its headquarters is in Beira, East Africa.
At the Gers Proving Ground.
"It's been half a year since we last saw the Gers Proving Ground, and it's really changed a lot now!" Lieutenant Helmut, who was in charge of the escort mission this time, looked at the changes in the Gers Proving Ground in surprise.
At this time, Lieutenant Helmut was standing on the deck of the speedboat. In front of him was the dock of the Gers Test Site. After all, it was just a test site, so the dock of the Gers Test Site was not large, but it was completely different from the dock that Lieutenant Helmut had seen half a year ago.
At that time, the so-called dock at the Gers test site was simply a temporary structure built with wooden boards and mud. It was very crude. At that time, Helmut even suspected that any heavy rain might wash it away. Now it has become a concrete structure, and small lifting equipment has been added.
Of course, if it was just the changes at the dock, it wouldn't have surprised him. Now, earth-shaking changes have also taken place inside the Gers Test Field.
The core area was completely isolated by walls, and barbed wire was also built on the periphery. The area of the test site was expanded five or six times, and three rows of houses were built.
Of course, what interested Lieutenant Helmut most was the area built on an open space on the west side of the test site, where an airplane was parked, but Helmut knew almost nothing about this airplane.
He asked Paul, the test site personnel who came to receive the supplies, "What kind of aircraft is this in your test site? It looks like a helicopter, but I've never seen one before."
Paul turned and glanced in the direction Helmut was pointing, then turned back and said, "Second Lieutenant Helmut, this helicopter arrived at our test site not long ago, about a month ago, and it hasn't been finalized yet, but it should be the latest helicopter developed domestically. We suspect this helicopter is specially designed for use in tropical areas."
The history of helicopters appeared very late. It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that countries began to develop them. The East African helicopter project was launched in the 1890s. It was not until 1923 that the first controllable helicopter in East Africa, the "Falcon", was officially developed.
At the same time, in 1907, the Frenchman Corny built Europe's first manned helicopter, but it was completely impractical. Then the Spaniard de la Cierva perfected the rotor technology, laying the foundation for the subsequent development of European helicopters.
It is obvious that East Africa's progress in helicopter research and development is faster than Europe, but this is easy to understand. East Africa has been a national team from the beginning and has invested a lot of resources.
In the 1990s, no private or non-governmental organization in East Africa had sufficient funds to invest in helicopter research and development. After all, East Africa was still in the planned economy era at that time.
Therefore, under the leadership of Ernst, East Africa officially established the first helicopter design bureau in Mbeya in 1893. After nearly three decades of hard work, the Falcon was officially launched.
This process was quite long. A key point was that helicopters were completely unfamiliar to East Africa at that time. The world was still developing various "aircraft", such as hot air balloons, airships, and even flying saucers, as well as various imaginative flight plans, and helicopters were just an "insignificant" technical route. East Africa had already made "helicopters" one of the key development directions of national military technology.
You should know that in the 1890s, East Africa was still a world-renowned "copycat" country. Although East Africa's military and industrial capabilities were not weak, they basically relied on plagiarism and imitation. For example, the technology of rifles was directly obtained from Germany, and the ships were learned from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, etc.
As for independent research and development, it was very difficult for East Africa at that time. As for something like "helicopter" which was something they had never seen in real life, East Africa could only honestly explore it step by step.
Although higher education in East Africa had already reached a considerable scale in the 1990s, it was only a certain scale. The truly top talents cultivated in the country did not begin to emerge until after the 1920s.
This also led to an explosive growth in East Africa's technology sector in the 1920s, maintaining East Africa's advantages in electricity, machinery manufacturing, automobiles, aerospace, communications and other fields.
Previously, although East Africa had a certain say in these emerging industries, it was basically achieved through "tricky" means.
The most typical examples are East Africa's automobile industry and power industry. The reason why East Africa can squeeze into the first echelon of the world in these two industries is not because of the strength of East Africa's early education and scientific research.
Instead, it relied on the Rhine Royal Family, which was the Hechingen Royal Family at that time, to invest in Europe, especially in Germany, and developed with the help of talents, technology and education from Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
In layman's terms, it is like "borrowing a chicken to lay eggs". The chicken is the German region, and then East Africa or the Hechingen royal family takes the "eggs" to East Africa, so that East Africa has the ability to independently produce automobiles and power equipment.
However, the technology and personnel were not native to East Africa, but originally from the German region, where they were educated and trained.
If East Africa wants to truly master these technologies and continue to develop on this basis, it must establish its own talent training system.
In fact, this problem was exposed just as the beginning of the 20th century. At that time, the high-end talents trained in East Africa did not have the ability to stand on their own, and the talents recruited from Europe would naturally die out. This caused East Africa to have a brief "gap" in talent.
Fortunately, with the subsequent explosive growth of high-end talents in East Africa and the industrial leap at the beginning of this century, the young generation in East Africa grew up rapidly, thus avoiding this problem.
The first generation of domestically trained higher education talents in East Africa had just entered society when they encountered the country's trend of focusing on industrial development. In this rapid industrialization process, their theoretical knowledge came in handy and was constantly adjusted and corrected in practice.
After entering the 1920s, a large number of East African scientific researchers who were knowledgeable, experienced, had worked and were able to stand on their own feet became the basis for the industrial and technological explosion in East Africa in the 1920s.
As for the "Falcon Helicopter" research and development team in East Africa, they were ahead of this process, withstood the tests and hardships, grew up first, and became the epitome of the East African version of the spirit of hard work.
The helicopter at the Kars test site is proof of this. At the same time, other countries had no practical helicopter models, but East Africa was already considering "updates and iterations."
Paul speculated to Lieutenant Helmut, "Although I'm not entirely sure of the specific purpose of this helicopter, I think its appearance at our test site means there's only one possibility: China is developing a helicopter model for use in tropical rainforests."
Lieutenant Helmut asked curiously, "How can you be sure?"
Paul smiled mysteriously and asked, "Lieutenant Helmut, you should have a certain understanding of the role of our test site. What do you think is the purpose of establishing the Kars test site?"
Helmut actually had some understanding of this issue. He said, "Of course, it's to test some weapons and equipment."
Paul nodded and said, "More specifically, it's about testing the combat performance of certain weapons and equipment in tropical rainforests and island areas, including but not limited to firearms, artillery, special operations equipment, vehicles, and so on."
"East Kalimantan's unique climate makes it one of the Empire's best testing grounds. Similarly, this helicopter, shipped from mainland China, was naturally tested at our test site to cope with the local climate, terrain, vegetation, and other issues."
East Kalimantan has a typical tropical rainforest climate. Although most of East Africa is also in the tropics, there are still great differences between it and East Kalimantan. For example, the jungles in East Kalimantan are hot and humid, and the terrain is very complex.
However, many forest areas in East Africa do not have this characteristic. Although many East African jungles have heavy rainfall, it is obviously seasonal and very similar to the tropical monsoon climate of India.
However, East Kalimantan has a typical tropical rainforest climate, with no shortage of rain all year round. In addition, due to the influence of the island terrain, the rainfall here is even more abundant. Only the heart of the Congo rainforest in East Africa can achieve this effect in East Kalimantan.
Although the Congo rainforest also has a tropical rainforest climate, its periphery also exhibits seasonal characteristics, and precipitation fluctuates as the rain belt shifts.
Moreover, due to the influence of terrain and ocean currents, the precipitation in the Congo rainforest is actually relatively low, which is particularly obvious compared with the Amazon rainforest.
The Amazon rainforest is pocket-shaped and completely open to the east, which is very conducive to the penetration of water vapor from the Atlantic Ocean. The Congo rainforest does not have such conditions, which can be seen from the terrain of the "Congo Basin".
In other words, the Congo rainforest is basically surrounded by mountains and plateaus, which is similar to the Sichuan Basin in the Far East.
Then, the combined effects of the Amazon rainforest monsoon and the equator are more conducive to the collection of water vapor, while the Congo rainforest mainly relies on rising air currents in the equatorial region. The problem is that the Congo rainforest is surrounded by land, and most of it is an arid area, so the water vapor brought by rising air currents is also limited.
Although East Kalimantan is also dominated by equatorial rising air currents, the island of Kalimantan is surrounded by oceans and has sufficient water vapor supply. Therefore, the average precipitation in East Kalimantan is higher than that in the Congo rainforest.
In short, East Kalimantan is hotter and humid than most areas in East Africa, and it is more representative. There are many Pacific islands in Southeast Asia whose climate and environment are more similar to here.
Paul said, "East Kalimantan is the Empire's core colony in Southeast Asia, and even in the Pacific. Southeast Asia has always been one of the core areas of the Empire's strategy. Therefore, the establishment of the Kars Proving Ground is to help the Empire explore and adapt its military construction in the Southeast Asia region."
"Ultimately, the Empire's overseas interests rely on military force to safeguard them. As the world's only tropical power, the Empire itself attaches great importance to combat in tropical regions."
"The climate and environment of the Nanyang region are ultimately very different from that of the mainland, so it is necessary for the empire to develop a separate set of military theories and technical systems for this region."
Since we are talking about the military field, Lieutenant Helmut is naturally no stranger to it. He has a deep understanding of this: "The combat environment in the Southeast Asia region is indeed very different from that in the mainland."
"It's hotter and humid here than on the mainland, the vegetation is more complex, the terrain is more diverse, and transportation is very underdeveloped. Therefore, many local weapons and equipment are not suitable for the combat environment in the Nanyang region, and some mainstream combat thinking is also not suitable for this region."
"For example, large-scale military operations wouldn't be a big problem in Europe or mainland China, but it would be difficult to deploy in Southeast Asia."
"Large-scale armored forces like these cannot be fully utilized in East Kalimantan. Their areas of activity are limited to coastal towns or places with relatively convenient transportation."
"Going deeper, they would face vast, dense forests, various vegetation that obstructed their vision, as well as rivers, swamps, mud pits, and other difficult obstacles. This type of area is not suitable for large-scale military operations."
Paul also agreed with Lieutenant Helmut's views. Although he was a technician, his research in this area was no less than that of Lieutenant Helmut, an officer. After all, much of their work at Institute 3207 also revolved around the core issue of "tropical jungle warfare."
Paul pointed to the helicopter in the test field and said, "Although I'm not a member of the helicopter project team, I believe helicopters will be of great significance to future operations in the South Pacific."
"As you said before, Lieutenant Helmut, the South Pacific isn't suitable for the use of large-scale machinery. Armored units would be tying their own hands here. However, we in East Africa can't afford to give up our industrial advantages and engage in hand-to-hand combat or close contact with future enemies."
“So, I guess the helicopter is a tropical combat platform that plays to our strengths in East Africa and even has multiple application scenarios.”
"Just imagine, helicopters operating in the rainforest are not restricted by the terrain. They can move flexibly in the air, scouting and detecting enemy situations, thus reducing the need for our personnel to penetrate deep into the rainforest and come into direct contact with the enemy."
"At the same time, the helicopter itself is also a weapon-carrying platform. It is not difficult for us to install at least one or two machine guns. Moreover, it can hover in the air and strike low from high, thus providing fire support for ground combat."
"Finally, helicopters can also assist the military in transferring personnel and transporting supplies. This will greatly increase the flexibility of our military support and troop movements in the rainforest environment, and also ensure the operation of the logistics system."
"Instead of relying on manpower and taking risks to transport a small amount of supplies to a specific place..."
After Paul's analysis, Lieutenant Helmut's eyes lit up. He said, "Helicopters are the ideal weapon for our troops. I really hope that this high-performance platform can be equipped to the troops as soon as possible, especially for overseas troops like us."
(End of this chapter)
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