Chapter 320 - 246: Laval Nozzle and Heavy Powered Attitude Axe (2)

Chapter 320: Chapter 246: Laval Nozzle and Heavy Powered Attitude Axe (2)

Lin Fan smacked his lips, imagining himself flying through the sky carrying this thing. He then pointed to the scale on the drawing.

"But isn’t this thing a bit small? The destructive power would be limited if you launched it..."

"A bit small?"

Ye Qingzhou gave him a long look, then heavily drew a horizontal line between the two ends of the "Power Yue’s" wingspan with her pencil.

"This is just a thumbnail sketch. In reality, this wingspan is four meters."

"How much?!" Lin Fan’s voice shot up an octave.

"Four meters."

Ye Qingzhou calmly repeated herself, then marked a number next to what looked like a very light main structure.

"...A total height of five meters. To withstand the impact of supersonic airflow and the kind of violent G-forces you generate, many parts need to be thickened. That brings its weight to roughly..."

She held up one finger.

"At least one ton."

"You’ve been after this, haven’t you..."

With a thought, Lin Fan took out the light purple interface module and placed it on the drawing.

"I only have one of these. If we waste it, it’s gone for good."

He raised his head and met her eyes, which were a little tired but still sparkling with spirit.

"I’ve studied the formula for kinetic energy. Increasing mass isn’t as cost-effective for boosting kinetic energy as increasing velocity... If we increase the mass this much, the velocity will drop significantly. The trade-off might not be worth it."

Hearing Lin Fan’s objection, a flicker of smug satisfaction appeared in Ye Qingzhou’s eyes. She picked up her pencil and tapped the "cylinder-like" structure on the drawing.

"See this converging-diverging nozzle?"

"The butt of a rocket," Lin Fan answered honestly.

"It’s called a ’Laval nozzle’."

Ye Qingzhou shot him a glance and switched into lecture mode.

"This is one of the core designs of a rocket engine.

As the airflow passes through the converging section, it accelerates to sonic speed. It reaches a critical state at the throat, then expands and accelerates further in the diverging section, breaking the sound barrier to form a supersonic jet.

This is the only way to convert the energy released by those explosions you create into kinetic energy for propulsion with maximum efficiency."

She looked at Lin Fan, her eyes burning with intensity.

"Its efficiency is at least four times that of your ’dog bowl’..."

Just then, a set of light and rhythmic footsteps came from the top of the stairs.

"BURP—"

An undisguised belch shattered the serious, academic atmosphere.

With her hands stuffed in her pants pockets and still chewing a mouthful of meat, Ye Qingniao sauntered up, a contented look on her face.

She had clearly just come from a satisfying hot pot feast, and she was radiating the scent of the soup base.

"Sis, you done with the drawings?"

She squeezed in next to Lin Fan, glancing at the chaotic mess of papers covering the table.

"Whoa! Are you guys building a spaceship?"

Lin Fan said, "To be precise, this is a ’Heavy Attitude-Control Power Yue’ designed based on the principle of ’vectored thrust’."

She blinked, looking from the drawing to Lin Fan. "Are you going to eat? Sister Qing saved a plate of meat for you..."

"...Don’t play dumb." Lin Fan reached out and lightly patted Ye Qingniao on the head before turning back to Ye Qingzhou. "How is this design supposed to be used? It looks awkward to swing..."

His finger traced the exaggerated U-shaped structure in the air, simulating how it would feel to hold.

"Such a large surface area, plus a dead weight of one ton... If I tried to fire it from the ground like a ballista, I’d never get enough initial velocity, no matter how much thrust it has."

Looking at the strange structure, he felt it would be awkward to handle and was simply too large.

Ye Qingzhou glanced at Lin Fan. She picked up her pencil and, beside the drawing, sketched a simple set of axes. Then, she drew a parabolic arc plummeting down from its apex.

"With a heavy weapon of this tonnage, it’s unrealistic to try and kill that pig with a burst of power from a ground start. A horizontal shot might have even less kinetic energy than your sword... so we need to borrow a force."

The tip of her pencil tapped the downward-pointing arrow she had drawn.

"Borrow a force that is free, constant, and inexhaustible."

"Gravity?" Lin Fan’s eyes lit up.

"Correct."

Ye Qingzhou drew a diagram of an upward-spraying jet of air on the sketch of the "spaceship."

"The initial design for this ’Power Yue’ wasn’t for you to get into a brawl with it on the ground."

"It has only one standard tactical maneuver..."

Ye Qingzhou snapped her hand high into the air, then brought it down in a sharp chop.

"To strike from the sky."

"First, you leap to the highest point. At the exact moment you reach the apex, when your velocity is zero, you deploy the weapon. Gravitational potential energy is at its maximum... Then, ignite."

A gleam appeared in her eyes, as if she were already witnessing the scene unfold.

"Gravity pulls you into a dive, while the supersonic jets from two Laval nozzles slam you downward. With both accelerations stacked, plus this one-ton mass..."

"This isn’t an axe blade," Ye Qingzhou said to Lin Fan, enunciating each word clearly. "It’s a meteorite."

The air seemed to freeze in that moment.

Lin Fan stared at the drawing, a breathtaking simulation already running in his mind.

When Lin Fan first got the module, his initial reaction was to see if he could stuff the armored vehicle into his inventory, but the one-ton weight limit made him give up on that idea.

A one-ton chunk of iron sounded heavy, but with his physique, it wasn’t an entirely unbearable weight.

But if he simply dropped a one-ton iron ball from the sky onto the pig’s metallic blubber, it would probably only quantify to a dozen or so points of damage.