Chapter 372: Chapter 317: All Sides Come for the Airship
Subsequt sces in London and Rome were no differt from what had previously be se in Los Angeles, USA. Scores of media, curious onlookers, investors with ulterior motives, solemn military forces, and countless other forces and groups composed the ts of thousands of spectators observing the Dawn Airship.
Every time the Dawn Airship arrived at a location, it immediately became the focal and hot point of the locale, sometimes ev of the tire country, and was widely reported on by local media.
It's not an exaggeration to say that this global tour plan brought in plty of profits for many European and American media outlets and rejuvated numerous small newspapers on the verge of bankruptcy.
According to estimates, more than sev hundred thousand people worldwide have made the trip to see the airship, and over five million people have followed the global voyage.
The Australasian Airship became the world's most famous technological product in an instant, with everyone striving to board the airship for a world tour as their lifetime goal.
On May , 9, after a month and t days, the Dawn Airship returned over the skies of Sydney City, receiving a warm welcome from a multitude of Australasians.
This was the first time that Australasia led the world in global flight history. It was the people of Australasia, and the flying device developed by Australasia, that took on the mission of global flight for the first time.
At this momt, the outskirts of Sydney had become an ocean of people, and the foreign media who came from all over the world virtually gulfed the area.
Everyone knew that if this global voyage plan succeeds, Sydney would momtarily become the most dazzling pearl in the world.
To gain the first news of the airship's global voyage, as well as subsequt developmts, these foreign media had no choice but to travel to Sydney.
For Arthur, this was good news because the spding level in Sydney had ris significantly in the last month with foreign media and tourists creating a considerable contribution to Sydney's GDP.
As the Dawn Airship landed amidst gusts and dust in the op space on the outskirts, the prepared band immediately played a joyful tune to celebrate this significant momt.
A short while later, the door of the Dawn Airship gradually oped with attdants stepping out first, followed by the passgers, and lastly, the pilot and Director Theodore.
"Ladies and Gtlem, you have collectively accomplished a great momt. On behalf of the Australasian Royal Family and the Governmt, I congratulate you and courage you, and prest you with commemorative badges," Arthur said, smiling on the erected high platform.
The commemorative honor for this global voyage was a gold-plated silver badge. The front of the badge depicted the Dawn Airship, and the back bore a clear statemt: This badge commemorates the AU-3 Airship, codamed Dawn, for its global voyage program that began on April , 9.
This program lasted for one month and elev days, successfully ded on May , 9, and is commemorated with this badge.
The total weight of the badge was a 0 grams, with the gold contt exceeding 30%, amounting to about 30 grams.
According to the currt values of gold and silver, the production cost of this badge was over t pounds, which equates to several months' wages for an ordinary person in Australasia.
Of course, the commemorative significance of such an item far surpasses its actual value. If you take into account its commemorative significance for Australasia and certain personages, perhaps its worth may multiply several times or ev ts of times.
For Australasians, such a badge had an extraordinary commemorative meaning. Besides commemorating this global voyage, the badge was personally awarded by Arthur, adding much intangible value to the badge.
Although for passgers who had paid thousands of pounds for a ticket, a badge worth less than t pounds didn't mean much.
But after all, the badge was exquisitely made and had a special commemorative value, so the passgers who received it were fairly satisfied.
Australasia, of course, also extded invitations to all the passgers on the airship to attd the celebratory banquet held tonight.
The passgers naturally accepted, after all, one had no reason not to attd a grand and free banquet.
For the capitalists who were already eyeing the airship, the most important job at prest was to inquire about the status of the Australasian Airship Company, making this banquet a necessity.
After everyone had temporarily left, Arthur looked at Director Theodore and said with a smile, "You've worked hard, Director Theodore. You've accomplished a feat that will go down in Australasian history, you're a hero of the tire of Australasia!"
Although the performance of the airships produced by the Aerospace Laboratory was already very depdable, this was still the first time for a long-distance global flight to be conducted. It was impossible to claim that it was risk-free.
As the director of the Aerospace Laboratory, Director Theodore who personally took charge of this global voyage, braved the risk of a pottial airship crash. He accomplished an action that allowed Australasia to hog all the limelight, and could be said to be a significant contributor.
"Being able to contribute to Your Majesty and the nation, is what I should be doing. Besides, we can trust the performance of the Dawn Airship, this voyage of ours was more like a fully funded tour." Director Theodore respectfully responded.
"Alright, you should rest for a few days after today's celebration banquet. I'll grant you and all operators three days off. After three days, I fear that the Aerospace Laboratory will have to take on ev tougher tasks. The demand for the airships this time may not be small." Arthur patted Director Theodore's shoulder and told him.
Arthur was definitely aware of the movemts of the capitalists from Europe and America. He naturally knew why they had come to Sydney.
Truth be told, this was a good thing for both Arthur and Australasia. The more airships were sold, the more profits Arthur could make, and the more he would be able to lead the major countries of Europe and America into a deep pit.
Just think, a few years later wh the airships of various designs developed by differt countries are flying in the sky, getting ready to bombard emy countries, Australasian airplanes appear in the skies above, instantly crushing and massacring these airships from all sides. How fascinating would the expressions of the European and American countries be th?
One should know that, for the currtly most advanced AU-3 Airship, if it were to be sold, Arthur would be making a profit of at least twty thousand pounds for each airship sold.
This profit would be just ough for Australasia to manufacture an airplane, or scrape together the profit for several doz airships, and it would still be ough to build a super dreadnought.
The celebration banquet that night was magnifict, including the high echelons of the Australasian governmt, the royal family, domestic and international business capitalists in Australasia, globally influtial and famous media companies, all passgers, operators and attdants from the airplane were invited to the banquet.
Arthur also briefly attded the banquet, but did not steal the limelight, instead, after couraging everyone, he handed the banquet over to Director Theodore and the Aerospace Laboratory.
After Arthur and the high-ranking governmt officials had left, the initially somewhat solemn banquet turned much more relaxed. Everyone started to chat and laugh, as if there was no longer a distinction of rank.
"Director Theodore, would your lab be willing to sell airships like the Dawn to the outside world, to promote the developmt of the world's aviation industry?" Wh the banquet reached its climax, someone took advantage of Director Theodore's good mood to ask a question.
"Hmm, that is an issue," Director Theodore pretded to contemplate for a momt and seeing everyone's eyes focused on him, waiting for his answer, he th said, "Actually, everyone should be able to tell that our AU-3 Airship truly has the ability to travel a the world.
Ev if there are no docking points set up, it can fly for at least half a month, or in other words, at least a distance of fifte thousand kilometers, on the basis of carrying fewer than forty people. Without exaggeration, this airship could reach any place in Europe or America in about half a month."
"This also signifies that such an airship possesses extremely high strategic value and theoretically, the related technology should be kept strictly confidtial."
Although it was decided from the start that there was completely no need to keep this type of airship confidtial, in the face of these capitalists, Director Theodore obviously would not foolishly reveal all his cards.
Under Arthur's guidance, they were to make these capitalists beg Australasia to sell the airships, rather than Australasia pleading them to buy airships. Only th could the maximization of profit be achieved and these greedy capitalists be kept in check.
Seeing the disappointed expression on many faces, Director Theodore casually said, "However, things are not without hope."
"Director Theodore, what do you mean?" Someone boldly asked.
"Aside from the extremely important strategic value that this airship represts in the military field, the value it represts in the aviation industry, and its importance to human developmt and human life, are also extremely significant.
Taking these factors into consideration, His Majesty specifically told me that as long as it can be sured that the purpose of purchasing the airship is for non-military fields, we can currtly sell AU-3 model airships to the outside world." After a teaser, Director Theodore finally started answering.
Upon hearing Director Theodore's response, many people at the sce heaved a sigh of relief. Among them, few had come specifically for military purposes, who would be foolish ough to oply buy Australasian airships for military purposes, except for some countries that have an exceptionally good relationship with Australasia.
At this time, the US military had made up two plans, couraging some domestic capitalists to go to Australasia to buy airships, and th see if they could get one or two airships from these capitalists for research.
At the same time, the US was also preparing to vigorously launch airship research domestically. The US military didn't believe that with the tirety of the United States' effort, they would be unable to catch up with Australasia's developmt in airships in five years' time.