Novel Full Chapter 773 773 Jigging
Once they arrived at the airbase, the scale of the construction project became clear to Wolfe, and he had greatly underestimated what he was up against. Unlike the smaller planes, which would just be repaired with magic if they were damaged, this one required maintenance, which meant the pieces actually needed to be bolted together and not just melded with magic.
Then there were the hundreds of individual rollers, and all the extra bits that went with a hydraulic rear door and control system. The controls were all redundant, both physical and hydraulic, as they were designed by the original engineers, since the witches knew that the pilots wouldn’t have the magical power to keep a hundred thousand kilos of airplane in the sky with magic if something broke.
On the smaller ones, they just used physical linkages, and even if they broke, it was all nature magic, and it could be easily repaired by the pilot, or the surface itself could be manipulated with magic. But for a plane this size, there was too much force being applied for that to be practical.
But before any of that could get started, the first thing that they needed was a gantry system and a jig to hold the pieces in place as the airplane was constructed. The gantry could be used to place the major components, while the jig held the lower parts of the structure while the plane was built on top of it, then the plane was lowered to sit on its wheels once the process was complete.
“We need a warehouse or something. We can’t be doing this out in the open all the time, and there isn’t enough room underground.” Wolfe remarked once the witches led him to their chosen location.
“You’re right. If we’re going to make a bunch, that is best. I know that the Demons want them as well, since they’re magic-driven and much faster than regular flight. We’ve already brought over the extra staff, though. We’ve got a hundred workers here to do the assembly, so if we can get the parts created and in place fast enough, we should be able to make a couple of them a week.” Janet remarked.
Which meant that it would take days to get everything built and set up for the first one, but that was alright, it would be for the long-term benefit of everyone.
“Alright, let’s see the schematics for that jig so we can get started. Once that’s in place, you can build the hangar around it, to make sure that the plane is going to fit in and out.” Wolfe suggested.
“Alright, that works for us. How long do you think that it will take you to make this? We have the actual airplane here as a reference, and you can make sure that the bolts line up with the mounting bolts in the original so that the scale matches perfectly.” Janet suggested.
That was a brilliant idea, and once he had it scaled to exactly the same, then each one that they made afterwards would also be identical, unlike the smaller aircraft, which were handmade to suit the creator’s needs, which meant they were all different.
“Bring that big beast over here, and let’s get this process started. I think that I know just the right way to do it.” Wolfe insisted.
What he would do was to use Earth Magic to make the jig exactly as the plans showed it, then he would scale it up to match the aircraft in front of him. In theory, it should be like putting the whole aircraft in a cradle to hold it and gently support it. The only part that would have to be done after the jig was removed was the exterior sheeting on the underside, which would be done while the plane was supported on the gantry.
But the engines, wings, fuselage and tail section were all created separately and bolted together before sheeting, so there was still a lot of manoeuvring to be done by the gantry after the pieces were created.
With the help of Janet and the other witches from the design team, Wolfe got to work, creating the jig, and providing mana for their adjustments to it that would make it work better with the way that the magical construction would be done. They only had the basic repair jig design in the manuals they found, not the construction procedures, so there were some parts of the assembly missing to complete the initial phases of the process.
They had already worked out most of them, and with the influx of mana drawn from Wolfe, the creation was going much more smoothly than anyone had imagined it would.
In under an hour, they had the jigs built under the existing plane and moved to the location for the new warehouse, which was a simple pole barn with grass and shrubbery grown on top to camouflage it as part of the clearing when viewed from above.
They might be the ones with air superiority compared to the newest invaders, but the human nations still had a formidable air force, and none of the witches trusted their currently peaceful state to last.
Their own politics were violent enough, but when you added in the rivalries between the Demons and the Fae, something was bound to happen eventually. Even within their own Kingdoms, it wasn’t uncommon for there to be violence and coup attempts.
The barn was quickly completed, and Wolfe got to work on the gantry system, the set of cranes that would move everything in three dimensions and support the various pieces as they were assembled.
The wings were easy, they would just be built and later attached, but the fuselage had a number of pieces that would need to go inside after the lower portion was completed, and then the upper half would be built around them. If they needed to come out in the future, they would come out disassembled through the rear door, but that was not a practical way to get them installed the first time, as the upper fuselage would get in the way of the cranes.