CHAPTER 194: CHAPTER 192: THE IMPOSSIBLE FLOATING BATTLESHIP

Although it has no weapons, the Behemoth Flying Airship remains an unsolvable existence for this era.

Before Perfikot created the Flying Airship, humans did not have any other flying vehicles capable of rising into the sky.

Even though, before this, a pair of brothers from France were inspired by scraps of paper rising continually in the stove and successfully made a hot air balloon, this was purely a toy compared to the Flying Airship.

After all, something that can only fly one or two kilometers with a flight time of less than half an hour compared to the Flying Airship, a sky fortress that can cross oceans, the gap between the two is immeasurable.

It’s worth mentioning that in Perfikot’s original world, the rise of the Zeppelin into the sky occurred during World War II, while the first manned flight of a hot air balloon was in the 18th century, with almost 150 years and two industrial revolutions worth of technological innovation between the two.

If it weren’t for the existence of alchemy in this world, even Perfikot would find it difficult to send such a colossal entity into the sky, since the development of related disciplines is significantly lacking.

And this undoubtedly makes the existence of the Flying Airship even more shocking to people in this world.

In Langton, there were even enthusiastic media outlets that praised it as a castle in the sky, a moving fortress, heaping various exaggerated and laudatory terms upon the Flying Airship.

Correspondingly, Perfikot, who invented the Flying Airship, has already been elevated to the point where discussions are taking place on whether her name should be added to textbooks.

Previously, the elected parliament had received proposals from enthusiastic individuals requesting that Perfikot’s name be included in textbooks, hailing her as the greatest scientist and alchemist in human history.

Perfikot politely declined this title, as she did not believe she was worthy of the evaluation of "the greatest alchemist in human history," so she proactively contacted the elected parliament to have them reject the proposal on her behalf.

However, even so, there is no doubt that she is currently Langton’s most outstanding alchemist, and even the Alchemist Association has no objection to this.

After all, such a large Flying Airship is standing right there; if you’re not convinced, then build one yourself!

This fame has not caused Perfikot any trouble so far, as having the identity of the Lord of the North means that no one dares to cause her any inconvenience in this matter.

Instead, it has led the military to be particularly fond of her, especially the Navy, who are eagerly hoping that Perfikot can help them build ships that can fly, instead of unarmed Flying Airships.

After all, people are insatiable; although the Flying Airship is impressive, fundamentally, it is not an offensive weapon. Though it achieved awe-inspiring performances, that was mostly due to the Thermobaric Bomb, not the Flying Airship itself.

After the last air raid operation, the Navy conducted tests. If only ordinary bombs were dropped, the damage the Flying Airship could cause was not substantial, with effectiveness possibly being less than that of a cruiser’s shelling.

Therefore, the Navy hopes Perfikot can improve the Flying Airship, or find a way to get their warships into the sky, providing the Navy with the ability to launch attacks from the air.

However, the Navy is not very familiar with Perfikot; her grandfather was, after all, an army major general, so they reached out to Major William. After all, Perfikot calls him cousin, so they can connect through family and have a conversation.

In response to this, Perfikot is somewhat speechless. The demands made by the naval generals are somewhat unrealistic.

At this time, warships are mostly old ships from the sailing era and new-type ironclad ships, with a total tonnage of around one thousand to two thousand tons.

Though not very large in tonnage and mass, they cannot be compared to heavy cruisers and battlecruisers of several thousand, or even tens of thousands, of tons from the later WWII period. This is weight that the Flying Airship cannot easily lift.

It’s worth noting that though Perfikot employs a sound design and has alchemy as an aid, the maximum payload of the Behemoth Flying Airship is merely seventy tons, while its empty weight is about forty-five tons.

It’s no problem for carrying people or goods, even adding some weaponry is not an issue, but expecting the Flying Airship to lift a cruiser is nothing short of a pipe dream.

Unless Perfikot can increase the size of the Flying Airship tenfold, or refine Flying Stone like the Laputa in "Castles in the Sky" to make cities fly, or develop anti-gravity devices, all otherwise unlikely to make a warship weighing hundreds or thousands of tons fly.

Therefore, faced with Major William’s insinuation, Perfikot merely shook her head and said, "Given my current technology, it’s impossible for a warship weighing over a thousand tons to fly, hundreds of tons are not feasible either, Behemoth is already the largest size Flying Airship that the Empire’s industrial capacity can build.

As an experienced Navy personnel, you should understand that water displacement makes a ship float on water, while for a Flying Airship, it’s the buoyancy provided by the balloon’s volume.

Currently, the filling gases we can use are hydrogen and helium, and under the current circumstances, these can only create a Flying Airship like the Behemoth.

To make a breakthrough, unless there’s something that can reduce the weight of the ship, making a thousand-ton ship weigh only a hundred tons or even tens of tons, it seems impossible."

"But what thing could make a thousand-ton warship only tens of tons? Magic?" Major William was quite disappointed. Although he was already the captain of the Flying Airship, who wouldn’t wish to command a real warship? Especially one that could fly in the sky.

"Magic? Magic can’t manage that; the Mages can only perform some clumsy tricks." Perfikot shook her head with disdain. Her status change made it easy to approach Mages now, allowing her to have a deeper understanding of the magic in this world.

If judged by the standards of various fantasy novels Perfikot read before, the magic level in this world is rather low, almost non-existent.

Even for court mages, the destruction they can unleash on the battlefield equals an eight-pound cannon, and that’s only if they can fire a few times.

As for using magic to achieve various unbelievable miracles, don’t even think about it; their skill compared to alchemists is notably lacking.

Just as Perfikot once sought out a Mage to enchant her manufactured gun barrels, they couldn’t even achieve basic fire enchantment like in fantasy novels, let alone making a whole city fly like those grand feats seen in high magic worlds.